mirror of
https://github.com/inspec/inspec
synced 2024-12-04 18:39:43 +00:00
58 lines
2.5 KiB
Markdown
58 lines
2.5 KiB
Markdown
---
|
|
title: About Chef InSpec and Train Plugins
|
|
---
|
|
|
|
# Chef InSpec and Train Plugins
|
|
|
|
## What are Chef InSpec Plugins?
|
|
|
|
Chef InSpec Plugins are optional software components that extend the capabilities of InSpec. For example, [`inspec-iggy`](https://github.com/inspec/inspec-iggy) is a Plugin project that aims to generate Chef InSpec controls from infrastructure-as-code files. Plugins are distributed as RubyGems, and Chef InSpec manages their installation. Chef InSpec Plugins always begin with the prefix 'inspec-'.
|
|
|
|
## What are Train Plugins?
|
|
|
|
Train Plugins allow Chef InSpec to speak to new kinds of targets (typically new remote targets or APIs, but you could treat the local system in a new way if you wished to). For example, if you wanted to audit a Kubernetes cluster, you might want a transport that can talk to the supervisor API. You would develop a Train Plugin for that, and install it using the Chef InSpec command line. Train Plugins always begin with the prefix 'train-'.
|
|
|
|
## What can plugins do?
|
|
|
|
Currently, each plugin can offer one or more of these capabilities:
|
|
|
|
* define a new command-line-interface (CLI) command suite (`inspec` plugins)
|
|
* connectivity to new types of hosts or cloud providers (`train` plugins)
|
|
* DSL extensions at the file, control, describe block, or test level
|
|
* DSL extensions for custom resources
|
|
|
|
Future work might include new capability types, such as:
|
|
|
|
* reporters (output generators)
|
|
* attribute fetchers to allow reading Chef InSpec attributes from new sources (for example, a remote encrypted key-value store)
|
|
|
|
## How do I find out which plugins are available?
|
|
|
|
The Chef InSpec CLI can tell you which plugins are available:
|
|
|
|
```bash
|
|
$ inspec plugin search inspec-
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
## How do I install and manage plugins?
|
|
|
|
The Chef InSpec command line now offers a new subcommand just for managing plugins.
|
|
|
|
You can install a plugin by running:
|
|
|
|
```bash
|
|
$ inspec plugin install inspec-some-plugin
|
|
$ inspec plugin install train-some-plugin
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
For more details on what the `plugin` command can do, see the [online help](https://www.inspec.io/docs/reference/cli/#plugin), or run `inspec plugin help`.
|
|
|
|
## How do I write a plugin?
|
|
|
|
### Chef InSpec Plugins
|
|
|
|
For details on how to author an Chef InSpec Plugin, see the [developer documentation](https://github.com/inspec/inspec/blob/master/docs/dev/plugins.md)
|
|
|
|
### Train Plugins
|
|
|
|
For details on how to author a Train Plugin, see the [developer documentation](https://github.com/inspec/train/blob/master/docs/plugins.md)
|