# Trying to adopt the Poise/Halite pattern, having testing issues

**URL:** <https://discourse.chef.io/t/trying-to-adopt-the-poise-halite-pattern-having-testing-issues/7304>\
**Category:** Chef Infra (archive)\
**Created:** [November 12, 2015, 4:01am UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/trying-to-adopt-the-poise-halite-pattern-having-testing-issues/7304 "2015-11-12T04:01:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![vancluever](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.chef.io/vancluever/32/1148_2.png) [@vancluever](https://discourse.chef.io/u/vancluever)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 4:01am UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/trying-to-adopt-the-poise-halite-pattern-having-testing-issues/7304/1 "2015-11-12T04:01:16Z")

</div>

I’ve been banging my head against the proverbial brick wall here for a bit  
and I think it’s time to ask for some help.

## The Code

I present: [https://github.com/vancluever/ssh\_keygen\_halite](https://github.com/vancluever/ssh_keygen_halite)

Basically a library-based “HWRP” designed to make it easy to generate SSH keys.

A couple of things I am aware of:

- I might remove the dependency on `sshkey` as this stuff should be easy  
enough to do with `openssl` and `net/ssh` (are these both standard library?  
I can see `openssl` but didn’t see `net/ssh` on ruby-doc). I am aware of  
some issues with using `chef_gem` in library resources as well which gives  
me another reason to de-couple it.
- The code needs some cleanup (I have butchered it a bit trying to fix this)
- I might not be doing ChefSpec right in a way that’s unrelated to  
Poise/Halite.
- My greater knowledge of Ruby project management is quite novice. In fact,  
this cookbook is an effort to try and teach myself how to use these tools.

My intentions here:

- Write a resource using the Poise pattern.
- Build it with the Halite pattern.
- Use the Halite helpers to simply my tests (ie: inline recipes)
- Do all of this using as few dependencies as possible (I’m deliberately  
not using `poise-boiler` right now as it seems unrelated to the pattern itself  
and more related to the `poise-*` cookbooks).

Ultimately, I’d like to get this to a point where I can re-use the skeleton of  
the code for other Poise-based resources, and maybe tool its generation (ie:  
a la `berks cookbook`).

## The Problem

The generated resources seem to be empty or completely missing!

```auto
$bundle exec rspec test/spec/
...
1) SSHKeygen::Resource
   Failure/Error: it { is_expected.to create_file('/root/.ssh/id_rsa') }
   NoMethodError:
     ssh_keygen[/root/.ssh/id_rsa] (/.../ssh_keygen_halite/test/spec/resources/ssh_keygen_spec.rb line 7) had an error: NoMethodError: undefined method `owner' for nil:NilClass
     # ./lib/ssh_keygen/provider.rb:45:in `block (2 levels) in save_private_key'
     # ./vendor/ruby/2.2.0/gems/chef-12.5.1/lib/chef/resource_builder.rb:77:in `instance_eval'
     # ./vendor/ruby/2.2.0/gems/chef-12.5.1/lib/chef/resource_builder.rb:77:in `build'
     # ./vendor/ruby/2.2.0/gems/chef-12.5.1/lib/chef/dsl/recipe.rb:108:in `build_resource'
     # ./vendor/ruby/2.2.0/gems/chef-12.5.1/lib/chef/dsl/recipe.rb:69:in `declare_resource'
     # ./vendor/ruby/2.2.0/gems/chef-12.5.1/lib/chef/dsl/resources.rb:15:in `file'
     # ./lib/ssh_keygen/provider.rb:43:in `block in save_private_key'
     # ./vendor/ruby/2.2.0/gems/chef-12.5.1/lib/chef/mixin/why_run.rb:52:in `call'
     # ./vendor/ruby/2.2.0/gems/chef-12.5.1/lib/chef/mixin/why_run.rb:52:in `add_action'
     # ./vendor/ruby/2.2.0/gems/chef-12.5.1/lib/chef/provider.rb:175:in `converge_by'
     # ./lib/ssh_keygen/provider.rb:42:in `save_private_key'
     # ./lib/ssh_keygen.rb:50:in `block in action_create'
     [truncated]

```

I’ve pored over examples (namely some in `poise-service`) but still can’t seem  
to figure out what I’m missing, without just copy-pasting. If I had to gander a  
guess I’d say I’m doing ChefSpec wrong more than anything.

Any help would be appreciated!

PS: Noah, thanks for all you work on this. I’ve used a couple of the Poise  
cookbooks now with success (especially `poise-service` to sensibly manage)  
Upstart jobs.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![vancluever](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.chef.io/vancluever/32/1148_2.png) [@vancluever](https://discourse.chef.io/u/vancluever)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 7:49am UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/trying-to-adopt-the-poise-halite-pattern-having-testing-issues/7304/2 "2015-11-12T07:49:39Z")

</div>

> Do all of this using as few dependencies as possible (I'm deliberately  
> not using poise-boiler right now as it seems unrelated to the pattern itself  
> and more related to the poise-\* cookbooks).

After just going over the docs for poise-boiler a bit more, I think I might be mistaken in this assessment. Looks like assisting in the building and testing process is _exactly_ what it is designed for. And of course, I had it in as a dev dependency anyway. Hah.

Updated `Rakefile` and `spec_helper.rb` to reflect this and am using `bundle exec rake spec` now and am getting the same errors pretty much, but now with color. 😉

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![vancluever](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.chef.io/vancluever/32/1148_2.png) [@vancluever](https://discourse.chef.io/u/vancluever)\
**Post date:** [November 13, 2015, 7:15am UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/trying-to-adopt-the-poise-halite-pattern-having-testing-issues/7304/3 "2015-11-13T07:15:35Z")

</div>

I found my problem. I was incorrectly referring to `new_resource` as an instance variable.

Removed that, and on to resolving other kinks. 🙂

Shout out to `pry-byebug`, which allowed me to figure out that it was _my_ `owner` attribute I needed to look at versus the file resource’s.