chef-shell (executable)

chef-shell is a recipe debugging tool that allows the use of breakpoints within recipes. chef-shell runs as an Interactive Ruby (IRb) session. chef-shell supports both recipe and attribute file syntax, as well as interactive debugging features.

The chef-shell executable is run as a command-line tool.

Modes

chef-shell is tool that is run using an Interactive Ruby (IRb) session. chef-shell currently supports recipe and attribute file syntax, as well as interactive debugging features. chef-shell has three run modes:

Mode	Description
Standalone	Default. No cookbooks are loaded, and the run-list is empty.
Solo	chef-shell acts as a chef-solo client. It attempts to load the chef-solo configuration file and JSON attributes. If the JSON attributes set a run-list, it will be honored. Cookbooks will be loaded in the same way that chef-solo loads them. chef-solo mode is activated with the -s or --solo command line option, and JSON attributes are specified in the same way as for chef-solo, with -j /path/to/chef-solo.json.
Client	chef-shell acts as a chef-client. During startup, it reads the chef-client configuration file and contacts the Chef server to get attributes and cookbooks. The run-list will be set in the same way as normal chef-client runs. chef-client mode is activated with the -z or --client options. You can also specify the configuration file with -c CONFIG and the server URL with -S SERVER_URL.

Options

This command has the following syntax:

chef-shell OPTION VALUE OPTION VALUE ...

This command has the following options:

-a, --standalone

Run chef-shell in standalone mode.

-c CONFIG, --config CONFIG

The configuration file to use.

-h, --help

Show help for the command.

-j PATH, --json-attributes PATH

The path to a file that contains JSON data.

Use this option to define a run_list object. For example, a JSON file similar to:

"run_list": [
  "recipe[base]",
  "recipe[foo]",
  "recipe[bar]",
  "role[webserver]"
],

may be used by running chef-client -j path/to/file.json.

In certain situations this option may be used to update normal attributes.

Warning

Any other attribute type that is contained in this JSON file will be treated as a normal attribute. For example, attempting to update override attributes using the -j option:

{
  "name": "dev-99",
  "description": "Install some stuff",
  "override_attributes": {
    "apptastic": {
      "enable_apptastic": "false",
      "apptastic_tier_name": "dev-99.bomb.com"
    }
  }
}

will result in a node object similar to:

{
  "name": "maybe-dev-99",
  "normal": {
  "name": "dev-99",
    "description": "Install some stuff",
    "override_attributes": {
      "apptastic": {
        "enable_apptastic": "false",
        "apptastic_tier_name": "dev-99.bomb.com"
      }
    }
  }
}

-l LEVEL, --log-level LEVEL

The level of logging to be stored in a log file.

-s, --solo

Run chef-shell in chef-solo mode.

-S CHEF_SERVER_URL, --server CHEF_SERVER_URL

The URL for the Chef server.

-v, --version

The version of the chef-client.

-z, --client

Run chef-shell in chef-client mode.