Validating and testing modules

Ensure that your module contains correct syntax and style by validating your module. PDK includes validations for module metadata, Puppet code syntax and style, and Ruby code syntax and style. 

When you run validations, PDK output tells you which validations it is running and notifies you of any errors or warnings it finds for each type of validation:

• Syntax validations verify that your module code syntax works with specific versions of Puppet. If your module has syntax errors, correct them to ensure that your module works correctly.

• Code style validations verify that your code follows style guidelines and best practices. Such errors do not prevent your module from functioning; however, fixing them makes your code readable and maintainable.

• Metadata validations verify that module metadata is present and properly formatted. PDK unit testing relies on metadata for important information, such as operating system compatibility. Some of this information is also required if you publish your module to the Forge. Correct metadata errors to provide this information.

By default, PDK runs all available validations. You can customize PDK validation with command line options. For example, you can pass options to have PDK automatically correct some common code style problems, to validate only specific directories or files, or to run only certain types of validation, such as metadata or Puppet code.

You can output module validation results to a file in either JUnit or text format. You can specify multiple output formats and targets in the same command, as long as each target is unique.

For detailed information about module validations, see:

• Puppet Lint style validation.

• The Puppet language style guide.

• Rubocop Ruby style validation.

• metadata-json-lint metadata validation.

• Module metadata.

By default, the validate command runs metadata validation first, then Puppet validation, then Ruby validation. Optionally, you can validate only certain files or directories, run a specific type of validations, such as metadata or Puppet validation, or run all validations simultaneously. Additionally, you can send your validation output to a file in either JUnit or text format.

1. From the command line, change into the module's directory with cd <MODULE_NAME>

2. Run all validations by running pdk validate .

   To change validation behavior, add option flags to the command. For example, to run all validations simultaneously on multiple threads, run:

   pdk validate --parallel

   To validate against a specific version of Puppet or PE, add the --puppet-version option flag.

   For example. To validate against Puppet 5.5.12, run:

   pdk validate --puppet-version 5.5.12

   For a complete list of command options and usage information, see the PDK command reference.

Create and run unit tests to verify that your Puppet code compiles on supported operating systems and includes all declared resources in the catalog.

PDK runs your unit tests to ensure that your code compiles correctly and works as you expect it to, but it cannot test changes to the managed system or services.

PDK can create a basic unit test file that tests whether a manifest compiles to the catalog on the operating systems specified in the module's metadata.json file. PDK creates these unit test files when you:

• Create a new class or defined type with the pdk new class or pdk new defined_type command.

• Convert a module with the --add-tests option, such as pdk convert --add-tests.

• Create new unit tests for an existing class or defined type with the pdk new test --unit command.

The unit test file is located in your module's /spec/classes (for classes) or /spec/defines (for defined types) folder. In addition to testing whether your code compiles, this file also serves as a template for writing further unit tests to ensure that your code does what you expect it to do.

The pdk test unit command runs all of the tests in your module's /spec/ directory.

Test and validate your module before modifying or adding code, to verify that you are starting out with clean code. As you develop your module, continue to validate and unit test your code.

For more information about RSpec and writing unit tests, see:

• Writing rspec-puppet tests

• RSpec

• rspec-puppet

• Puppet spec helper

The pdk test unit command runs all the unit tests in your module.

Before you begin Ensure that the /spec/ directory contains the unit tests you want to run. Unit tests generated by PDK test only whether the manifest compiles on the module's supported operating systems, and you can write tests that test whether your code correctly performs the functions you expect it to.

1. From the command line, change into the module's directory with cd <MODULE_NAME>

2. Run pdk test unit

   To change unit test behavior, add option flags to the command. For example, to run only certain unit tests, run:

   pdk test unit --tests=<TEST1>,<TEST2>

   To unit test against a specific version of Puppet, add a version option flag.

   For example. To test against Puppet 5.5.12, run:

   pdk test unit --puppet-version 5.5.12

Result:

PDK reports what Ruby and Puppet versions it is testing against, and after tests are completed, test results. For a complete list of command options and usage information, see the PDK command reference.