Reintro to Chef InSpec 4.0 and End of Life Announcement for v1.x and v2.x

With all of the excitement during ChefConf 2019, you may have missed that we released Chef InSpec 4.0 in May 2019. We put a focus on optimizing the core Chef InSpec product while making it more extensible and capable in handling the next generation of resources. The highlights of Chef InSpec version 4.0 include: 

• Inputs system overhaul – more consistent, extensible, and predictable
• Updates to AWS resources
  • Launch of inspec-aws – the AWS resources have been spun off into their own resource pack and GitHub project. This makes Chef InSpec modular, allowing users to select what cloud platforms they need resources to scan against, while keeping it lightweight in the process.
  • Upgraded to version 3 of AWS SDK for Ruby. This keeps us in sync with the AWS platform’s resource support in Ruby and makes packaging of InSpec AWS resources and integration with other tools easier
  • Added 15 new resources. With the existing 44 resources we already support, that’s a grand total of 59 resources we support!
• Added support for the more_permissive_than matcher on the File resource. This takes the maximum desired mode – in octal format (‘0644’ or ‘0777’) – of your file as a String and returns a Boolean. It will return true if your file has a mode with greater permissions than specified.
• Moved the `inspec` executable to a separate gem, `inspec-bin`. This allows the use of the `inspec` gem as a library without the licensing restrictions placed on the executable.

As of December 31, 2019, Chef InSpec 1.x and 2.x versions will no longer be supported. No further bug fixes or updates will be made to these versions, and current and future resources and profiles will not be supported as well. Users of Chef InSpec 1.x and 2.x are encouraged to upgrade to version 4.0 before this date. For more details on Chef InSpec 4.0, including installation and upgrade instructions, please visit https://inspec.io/, or reach out to your Chef representative.