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 can be run as a command-line tool.
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 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. |
This command has the following syntax:
chef-shell OPTION VALUE OPTION VALUE ...
This command has the following options: