Code review and automated testing for Puppet code

Code review and automated
testing for Puppet code
Maxim Burgerhout
Solution Architect Linux and Open Source
Inter Access
Puppetcamp Amsterdam 2014

Agenda
● Who? Me?
● Code review for Puppet
● Gerrit, a code review tool
● Jenkins, a continuous integration tool
● Puppet workflow with code review and testing
● The downsides of Gerrit
● A live demo

Who? Me?
● Maxim Burgerhout
● Solution Architect Linux and Open Source
● Linux migrations are a big part of my job
● Puppet plays an important role in that
● Open source fanatic!

Place of work
● Inter Access
● Recently acquired by SLTN
● Together we are a fairly large IT
services provider and software reseller
● We focus on implementations of cloud
platforms, Linux, and Puppet

What is code review?
“Systematic examination of computer
source code, intended to find and fix
mistakes overlooked in the
development phase.”
-- Wikipedia

Why do code review?
● Two people see (and know) more
than one
● Increase skill of both people involved
● Enforce coding standards
● Keep bad commits out of your repo!
● Write better code*

Ok, what is 'better' code?
● In the Puppet domain, most likely:
– Code that's not WET
– Code that follows the style guide
– Code without deprecated syntax
– Code that's portable
– Code without data mixed in

So, how to review code
● Previous points are key in reviewing
● Also, apply site specific knowledge
to code
● And make review teams combining
experienced and less experienced
people

Puppet DSL pitfalls
● For example: the fact that Facter
always returns strings
if $::is_virtual {   =>  if str2bool($::is_virtual) {
     do_something    =>    do_something
}                    =>  }

What more to look for
● Syntactically correct, but not
optimal
● For example: no default in case
statements or selectors

Default case example
case $::timezone {
  'CET': { do_something }
}
case $::timezone {
  'CET': { do_something }
  default: { fail('unknown part of the world') }
}

One more: Overreaching
● Modules should aim to manage one
thing, and not try to do everything
● This is probably not what you want
class loganalyzer {
package { 'mysqlserver': ensure => installed, }
.. goes on to manage entire database setup ..
}

Some background
● Code review and discussion
platform
● Started in 2008 as a fork of Rietveld
● Gerrit is used in many large open
source projects today
● Focused towards git

Gerrit & git
● Gerrit is also hosts your git repositories
● Can set granular ACL's per repository
● Push to Gerrit with Git and Gerrit starts the
review process automatically
● Made a mistake? Gerrit allows you to
update an already submitted patch
● Problem but already merged? Revert!

Gerrit == floodgates
● Submitted patches kept in purgatory upon
review
● Patch needs a code review and a set of
successful tests to be merged
● Code review is voted on between -2 and +2,
tests are voted on between -1 and +1
● A failed test (-1) or negative review (-2) blocks
merging a patch completely

Some background
● Started in 2011 as a fork of Hudson
● Used as a CI tool at lots of sites
● Can test code, time based or event
triggered (i.e. upon commit)
● Can execute just about every test
you can think of

Jenkins: Testing Puppet
● Per repository in Gerrit, we create a 'job'
in Jenkins
● Job defines where the code comes from,
and which tests to run on it
● Jenkins gets triggered to build upon
every submitted patch in Gerrit
● When done, Jenkins votes -1 or +1

Puppet tests in Jenkins
● Can be simple
– Syntax checks for .pp files:
for file in $(find name '*.pp'); do
  puppet parser validate ${file}
  puppetlint logformat “..” ${file}
done
– Syntax checks for .erb files:
for file in $(fine name '*.erb); do
  erb P x T '' ${file} | ruby c
done

Puppet tests in Jenkins
● Or more complex
– Smoke tests
● Execute your module's tests/init.pp with --noop, make
sure it doesn't blow up
– rspec-puppet
● Tests the logic of your module by mocking parameters
and facts
● Very powerful. Highly recommended.
– Fire up Vagrant VM's from Jenkins
● Cool, but admittedly not something I do a lot

Engineer
Gerrit
Submits review request to Gerrit

Engineer
Peer Review
Jenkins Tests
Gerrit
Creates review
and triggers Jenkins

Engineer
Peer Review
Jenkins Tests
Gerrit
Creates review
JudgementResults

Engineer
Peer Review
Jenkins Tests
Gerrit
Creates review
JudgementResults
Change is
merged
Improvement
needed
Ack
Nack

Engineer
Peer Review
Jenkins Tests
Gerrit
Creates review
JudgementResults
Change is
merged
Improvement
needed
Ack
Nack
Cycle restarts, engineers pulls, commits, pushes for review

Nothing is perfect
● Looking for a reviewer can be
annoying
● Reviewing everything slows things
down
● Gerrit implements some functionality
through plugins; not a pleasant
experience

Demo
● Want to show you the interaction
between two users and Gerrit
– An engineer writing code
– An engineer reviewing that code
● Quick walkthrough through the
Gerrit interface

Wrap up
● Gerrit and Jenkins are great to work
with and helped us a lot
● Solid building blocks for CI and CD
● Jenkins and Gerrit can be used to
go full continuous deployment
● How far you take it? It's up to you!

You made it!
● You're still alive. So am I! Yay!
● Questions?

README
● More information here:
– http://code.google.com/p/gerrit/
– http://jenkins-ci.org/
– http://rspec-puppet.com/
– http://git-scm.com/
– http://bit.ly/pc_cr_2014 (link to study on code review)
– Thanks to Walter Heck for the inspiration for the bad
code examples

Code review and automated testing for Puppet code

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