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.
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. |
This command has the following syntax:
chef-shell OPTION VALUE OPTION VALUE ...
This command has the following options:
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"
}
}
}
}