knife cookbook

A cookbook is the fundamental unit of configuration and policy distribution. A cookbook defines a scenario and contains everything that is required to support that scenario:

Recipes that specify the resources to use and the order in which they are to be applied
Attribute values
File distributions
Templates
Extensions to Chef, such as libraries, definitions, and custom resources

The knife cookbook subcommand is used to interact with cookbooks that are located on the Chef server or the local chef-repo.

Note

Review the list of common options available to this (and all) knife subcommands and plugins.

bulk delete

Use the bulk delete argument to delete cookbook files that match a pattern defined by a regular expression. The regular expression must be within quotes and not be surrounded by forward slashes (/).

Syntax

This argument has the following syntax:

$ knife cookbook bulk delete REGEX (options)

Options

This argument has the following options:

-p, --purge: Entirely remove a cookbook (or cookbook version) from the Chef server. Use this action carefully because only one copy of any single file is stored on the Chef server. Consequently, purging a cookbook disables any other cookbook that references one or more files from the cookbook that has been purged.

Note

See knife.rb for more information about how to add certain knife options as settings in the knife.rb file.

Examples

The following examples show how to use this knife subcommand:

Bulk delete many cookbooks

Use a regular expression to define the pattern used to bulk delete cookbooks:

$ knife cookbook bulk delete "^[0-9]{3}$" -p

create

Note

This command was deprecated in Chef client 12.12 and will be removed in a future release. Use the chef generate cookbook command instead.

Note

Cookbook and custom resource names should contain only alphanumeric characters. A hyphen (-) is a valid character and may be used in cookbook and custom resource names, but it is discouraged. The chef-client will return an error if a hyphen is not converted to an underscore (_) when referencing from a recipe the name of a custom resource in which a hyphen is located.

Syntax

This argument has the following syntax:

$ knife cookbook create COOKBOOK_NAME (options)

Options

This argument has the following options:

-C COPYRIGHT_HOLDER, --copyright COPYRIGHT_HOLDER: The name of the copyright holder. This option places a copyright notice that contains the name of the copyright holder in each of the pre-created files. If this option is not specified, a copyright name of “COMPANY_NAME” is used instead; it can easily be modified later.
-I LICENSE, --license LICENSE: The type of license under which a cookbook is distributed: apachev2, gplv2, gplv3, mit, or none (default). This option places the appropriate license notice in the pre-created files: Apache v2.0 (for apachev2), GPL v2 (for gplv2), GPL v3 (for gplv3), MIT (for mit), or license 'Proprietary - All Rights Reserved (for none). Be aware of the licenses for files inside of a cookbook and be sure to follow any restrictions they describe.
-m EMAIL, --email EMAIL: The email address for the individual who maintains the cookbook. This option places an email address in each of the pre-created files. If not specified, an email name of “YOUR_EMAIL” is used instead; this can easily be modified later.
-o PATH, --cookbook-path PATH: The directory in which cookbooks are created. This can be a colon-separated path.
-r FORMAT, --readme-format FORMAT: The document format of the readme file: md (markdown) and rdoc (Ruby docs).

Note

See knife.rb for more information about how to add certain knife options as settings in the knife.rb file.

Examples

The following examples show how to use this knife subcommand:

Create a cookbook

To create a cookbook named “my_cookbook” with copyright, email, license, and readme format options specified, enter:

$ knife cookbook create my_cookbook -C "My Name" -m "[email protected]" -I apachev2 -r md

to return something like:

** Creating cookbook my_cookbook
** Creating README for cookbook: my_cookbook
** Creating metadata for cookbook: my_cookbook

delete

Use the delete argument to delete a specified cookbook or cookbook version on the Chef server (and not locally).

Syntax

This argument has the following syntax:

$ knife cookbook delete COOKBOOK_NAME [COOKBOOK_VERSION] (options)

Options

This argument has the following options:

-a, --all: Delete all cookbooks (and cookbook versions).
COOKBOOK_VERSION: The version of a cookbook to be deleted. If a cookbook has only one version, this option does not need to be specified. If a cookbook has more than one version and this option is not specified, knife prompts for a version.
-p, --purge: Entirely remove a cookbook (or cookbook version) from the Chef server. Use this action carefully because only one copy of any single file is stored on the Chef server. Consequently, purging a cookbook disables any other cookbook that references one or more files from the cookbook that has been purged.

Note

See knife.rb for more information about how to add certain knife options as settings in the knife.rb file.

Examples

The following examples show how to use this knife subcommand:

Delete a cookbook

$ knife cookbook delete cookbook_name version

For example:

$ knife cookbook delete smartmon 0.8

Type Y to confirm a deletion.

download

Use the download argument to download a cookbook from the Chef server to the current working directory.

Syntax

This argument has the following syntax:

$ knife cookbook download COOKBOOK_NAME [COOKBOOK_VERSION] (options)

Options

This argument has the following options:

-d DOWNLOAD_DIRECTORY, --dir DOWNLOAD_DIRECTORY: The directory in which cookbooks are located.
-f, --force: Overwrite an existing directory.
-N, --latest: Download the most recent version of a cookbook.

Note

See knife.rb for more information about how to add certain knife options as settings in the knife.rb file.

Examples

The following examples show how to use this knife subcommand:

Download a cookbook

To download a cookbook named smartmon, enter:

$ knife cookbook download smartmon

list

Use the list argument to view a list of cookbooks that are currently available on the Chef server. The list will contain only the most recent version for each cookbook by default.

Syntax

This argument has the following syntax:

$ knife cookbook list (options)

Options

This argument has the following options:

-a, --all: Return all available versions for every cookbook.
-w, --with-uri: Show the corresponding URIs.

Note

See knife.rb for more information about how to add certain knife options as settings in the knife.rb file.

Examples

The following examples show how to use this knife subcommand:

View a list of cookbooks

To view a list of cookbooks:

$ knife cookbook list

metadata

Use the metadata argument to generate the metadata for one or more cookbooks.

Syntax

This argument has the following syntax:

$ knife cookbook metadata (options)

Options

This argument has the following options:

-a, --all: Generate metadata for all cookbooks.
-o PATH:PATH, --cookbook-path PATH:PATH: The directory in which cookbooks are created. This can be a colon-separated path.

Note

See knife.rb for more information about how to add certain knife options as settings in the knife.rb file.

Examples

The following examples show how to use this knife subcommand:

Generate metadata

$ knife cookbook metadata -a

metadata from file

Use the metadata from file argument to load the metadata for a cookbook from a file.

Syntax

This argument has the following syntax:

$ knife cookbook metadata from file FILE

Options

This command does not have any specific options.

Examples

The following examples show how to use this knife subcommand:

View metadata

$ knife cookbook metadata from file /path/to/file

show

Use the show argument to view information about a cookbook, parts of a cookbook (attributes, definitions, files, libraries, providers, recipes, resources, and templates), or a file that is associated with a cookbook (including attributes such as checksum or specificity).

Syntax

This argument has the following syntax:

$ knife cookbook show COOKBOOK_NAME [COOKBOOK_VERSION] [PART...] [FILE_NAME] (options)

Options

This argument has the following options:

COOKBOOK_VERSION: The version of a cookbook to be shown. If a cookbook has only one version, this option does not need to be specified. If a cookbook has more than one version and this option is not specified, a list of cookbook versions is returned.
-f FQDN, --fqdn FQDN: The FQDN of the host.
FILE_NAME: The name of a file that is associated with a cookbook.
-p PLATFORM, --platform PLATFORM: The platform for which a cookbook is designed.
PART: The part of the cookbook to show: attributes, definitions, files, libraries, providers, recipes, resources, or templates. More than one part can be specified.
-V PLATFORM_VERSION, --platform-version PLATFORM_VERSION: The version of the platform.
-w, --with-uri: Show the corresponding URIs.

Note

See knife.rb for more information about how to add certain knife options as settings in the knife.rb file.

Examples

The following examples show how to use this knife subcommand:

Show cookbook data

To get the list of available versions of a cookbook named getting-started, enter:

$ knife cookbook show getting-started

to return something like:

getting-started   0.3.0  0.2.0

Show cookbook versions

To show a list of data about a cookbook using the name of the cookbook and the version, enter:

$ knife cookbook show getting-started 0.3.0

to return something like:

attributes:
  checksum:     fa0fc4abf3f6787aeb5c3c5c35de667c
  name:         default.rb
  path:         attributes/default.rb
  specificity:  default
  url:          https://somelongurlhere.com
chef_type:      cookbook_version
cookbook_name:  getting-started
definitions:    []
files:          []
frozen?:        false
json_class:     Chef::CookbookVersion
libraries:      []

Show a cookbook version

To only view data about templates, enter:

$ knife cookbook show getting-started 0.3.0 templates

to return something like:

checksum:     a29d6f254577b830091f140c3a78b1fe
name:         chef-getting-started.txt.erb
path:         templates/default/chef-getting-started.txt.erb
specificity:  default
url:          https://someurlhere.com

Show cookbook data as JSON

To view information in JSON format, use the -F common option as part of the command like this:

$ knife cookbook show devops -F json

Other formats available include text, yaml, and pp.

test

Use the test argument to test a cookbook for syntax errors. This argument uses Ruby syntax checking to verify every file in a cookbook that ends in .rb and Embedded Ruby (ERB). This argument will respect chefignore files when determining which cookbooks to test for syntax errors.

Syntax

This argument has the following syntax:

$ knife cookbook test COOKBOOK_NAME (options)

Options

This argument has the following options:

-a, --all: Test all cookbooks.
-o PATH:PATH, --cookbook-path PATH:PATH: The directory in which cookbooks are created. This can be a colon-separated path.

Note

See knife.rb for more information about how to add certain knife options as settings in the knife.rb file.

Examples

The following examples show how to use this knife subcommand:

Test a cookbook

$ knife cookbook test cookbook_name

upload

Use the upload argument to upload one or more cookbooks (and any files that are associated with those cookbooks) from a local repository to the Chef server. Only files that do not already exist on the Chef server will be uploaded.

Note

Use a chefignore file to prevent the upload of specific files and file types, such as temporary files or files placed in folders by version control systems. The chefignore file must be located in the root of the cookbook repository and must use rules similar to filename globbing (as defined by the Ruby File.fnmatch syntax).

Note

Empty directories are not uploaded to the Chef server. To upload an empty directory, create a “dot” file—e.g. .keep—in that directory to ensure that the directory itself is not empty.

Syntax

This argument has the following syntax:

$ knife cookbook upload [COOKBOOK_NAME...] (options)

Options

This argument has the following options:

-a, --all: Upload all cookbooks.
--concurrency: The number of allowed concurrent connections. Default: 10.
-d, --include-dependencies: Ensure that when a cookbook has a dependency on one (or more) cookbooks, those cookbooks are also uploaded.
-E ENVIRONMENT, --environment ENVIRONMENT: Use to set the environment version dependency to the cookbook version being uploaded.
--force: Update a cookbook even if the --freeze flag has been set.
--freeze: Require changes to a cookbook be included as a new version. Only the --force option can override this setting.
-o PATH:PATH, --cookbook-path PATH:PATH: The directory in which cookbooks are created. This can be a colon-separated path.

Note

See knife.rb for more information about how to add certain knife options as settings in the knife.rb file.

Examples

The following examples show how to use this knife subcommand:

Upload a cookbook

$ knife cookbook upload cookbook_name

Freeze a cookbook

To upload a cookbook, and then prevent other users from being able to make changes to it, enter:

$ knife cookbook upload redis --freeze

to return something like:

Uploading redis...
Upload completed

If a cookbook is frozen and the --force option is not specified, knife will return an error message similar to the following:

Uploading redis...
ERROR: Version 0.1.6 of cookbook redis is frozen. Use --force to override.

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https://docs-archive.chef.io/release/12-13/knife_cookbook.html