Goss - Quick and Easy server validation

Goss in 45 seconds

Note: For an even faster way of doing this, see: autoadd

Introduction

What is goss?

Goss is a serverspec-like tool for validating a server's configuration. It eases the process of generating tests by assuming the user already has a properly configured machine from which they can derive system state. Once the test suite is generated they can be executed on any other host for the full TDD experience.

Why use goss?

Goss is EASY! - Goss in 45 seconds
Goss is FAST! - small-medium test suits are near instantaneous, see benchmarks
Goss is SMALL! - single self-contained ~2MB binary
Goss is UNIXY! - does one thing and does it well, chainable through pipes

Installation

curl -L https://github.com/aelsabbahy/goss/releases/download/v0.1.3/goss-linux-amd64 > /usr/local/bin/goss && chmod +rx /usr/local/bin/goss

Full Documentation

Documentation is available here: https://github.com/aelsabbahy/goss/blob/master/docs/manual.md

Quick start

Writing a simple sshd test

An initial set of tests can be derived from the system state by using the add or autoadd commands.

Let's write a simple sshd test using autoadd.

$ goss autoadd sshd
Adding Group to 'goss.yaml':

sshd:
  exists: true
  gid: 74


Adding Process to 'goss.yaml':

sshd:
  running: true


Adding Service to 'goss.yaml':

sshd:
  enabled: true
  running: true


Adding User to 'goss.yaml':

sshd:
  exists: true
  uid: 74
  gid: 74
  groups:
  - sshd
  home: /var/empty/sshd

We can now run our test by using goss validate:

$ goss validate
..........

Total Duration: 0.016s
Count: 10, Failed: 0

As you can see goss tests are extremely fast, we were able to validate our system state in 16ms!

Patterns, matchers and descriptions

Goss files can be manually edited to match:

Patterns
Advanced Matchers.
desc is a comment that is persisted when adding other resources with goss add

Some examples:

user:
  sshd:
    desc: UID must be between 50-100, GID doesn't matter. home is flexible
    exists: true
    uid:
      # Validate that UID is between 50 and 100
      and:
        gt: 50
        lt: 100
    home:
      # Home can be any of the following
      or:
      - /var/empty/sshd
      - /var/run/sshd

package:
  kernel:
    installed: true
    versions:
      # Must have 3 kernels and none of them can be 4.4.0
      and:
      - have-len: 3
      - not:
          contain-element: 4.4.0

Supported resources

addr - addr is reachable
command - command, exit status and outputs
dns - dns is resolvable
file - file exists, owner/perm, content
group - group, uid
package - package is installed, versions
port - port is listening, listening ip
process - process is running
user - uid, home, etc..

Supported output formats

rspecish (default) - Similar to rspec output
documentation - Verbose test results
JSON - Detailed test result
TAP
JUnit
nagios - Nagios/Sensu compatible output /w exit code 2 for failures.

Limitations

Currently goss only runs on Linux.

The following tests have limitations.

Package:

rpm
deb
Alpine apk

Service:

systemd
sysV init
OpenRC init
Upstart

asachs / goss