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CHEF-SHELL(1) chef-shell CHEF-SHELL(1)

NAME

chef-shell - The man page for the chef-shell command line tool.

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.

NOTE:

chef-shell is the new name for Shef as of Chef 11.x. chef-shell is backwards compatible and aside from the name change, has the same set of functionality as with previous releases.


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

MODES

chef-shell is tool that allows knife to be 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 No cookbooks are loaded, and the run list is empty. This mode is the default.
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:

Use to run chef-shell in standalone mode.
The configuration file to use.
Shows help for the command.
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"


      }


    }


  }
}




The level of logging that will be stored in a log file.
Use to run chef-shell in chef-solo mode.
The URL for the Chef server.
The version of the chef-client.
Use to run chef-shell in chef-client mode.

AUTHOR

Chef

Chef 12.0