Serverspec is used to check on several servers. Therefore the recommend structure of roles is used:
|-- Rakefile
|-- spec
|-- app
| -- ruby_spec.rb
|-- base
| -- users_and_groups_spec.rb
|-- db
| -- mysql_spec.rb
|-- proxy
| -- nginx_spec.rb
|-- spec_helper.rb
To read the data and structure I use a yaml-file.
On the serverspec website is in the Rakefile inside the Raketask the following:
ENV['TARGET_HOST'] = host
Why should I set the host as an environment variable? Wouldn't a local one be enough?
The default spec helper uses it to target hosts for the net-ssh gem. You can refactor the host targeting code in the spec_helper to not even use it if you want and then just use host_inventory for the hostname.
Note the following:
https://github.com/mizzy/serverspec/blob/master/lib/serverspec/setup.rb#L276 https://github.com/mizzy/serverspec/blob/master/lib/serverspec/setup.rb#L292
Despite the anonymous downvote, this is absolutely the correct answer.