Anatomy of Controls

InSpec expresses expectations about the state of the target system through resources expressed as controls.

• resources with defaults, required, optional parameters, and filters.

• individual tests with properties, conditions, matchers, and expected results.

Resources

InSpec resources map platform concepts to code objects

• default value

• required parameters

• optional parameters

• resources with filters

Example of a resource:

• http("https://docs.chef.io/").status

• user.username

Controls

InSpec controls express expectations about the state of the resources on our system.

• properties

• conditions

• matchers

• expected results

Sample Control

describe package('git) do
    it { should be_installed }
    its('version) { should cmp '1.8' }
end

Components of Controls

Controls has

• Properties like: baseurl, version, status

• Conditions like should, should_not

• Matchers like: exist, eq, be_installed, cmp

• Expected results: the result we expect

Anatomy of Controls

describe resource('name', param: value) do
    it { should exist }
    it { should_not be_nil }
end

describe resources('name').where { ... } do
    its('property') { should cmp expected }
end