Can't install cookbook, IOError with metadata.rb

[amaltson]

Hello, I'm trying to install this cookbook using knife cookbook site install cube but I'm getting this:

Installing cube to /home/arthur/chef-repo/cookbooks
Checking out the master branch.
Pristine copy branch (chef-vendor-cube) exists, switching to it.
Downloading cube from the cookbooks site at version 0.4.0 to /home/arthur/chef-repo/cookbooks/cube.tar.gz
Cookbook saved: /home/arthur/chef-repo/cookbooks/cube.tar.gz
Removing pre-existing version.
Uncompressing cube version /home/arthur/chef-repo/cookbooks.
removing downloaded tarball
No changes made to cube
Checking out the master branch.
ERROR: IOError: Cannot open or read /home/arthur/chef-repo/cookbooks/cube/metadata.rb!

Which is strange because there is a metadata.rb file and it looks valid. This is a pretty vanilla install of Chef.

[dje]

I did a local install and wasn't able to reproduce the problem. My best guess is that the local repository is in an inconsistent state somehow.

[amaltson]

Hmm, I tried again and it still doesn't work. I'm able to install mongodb, nodejs, ufw, etc using site install. Is there any way that I can debug this? I'm not able to get any more info on it.

I was able to get the cookbook to install by knife cookbook site download cube and install it locally.

[dje]

Sorry. I'm not able to imagine what's happened otherwise.

[amaltson]

So you're definitely able to install it using knife cookbook site install cube?

[dje]

correct

[sporkd]

I ran into this as well but with another cookbook. Not sure why it happens, but you can fix with:

$ git branch -D chef-vendor-cube

[andruby]

thank you sporkd, i had the same issue and git branch -D fixed it (for cookbooks openssl and build-essential)

[drewww]

Had this same issue on another cookbook (cassandra) and your branch deletion trick fixed that too. Thanks @sporkd!

[ianha]

Note of caution here. We had the same issue and you have to remove all dependent branches, not just the vendor branch for the cookbook in question.

When you site install a cookbook, it creates branches for that cookbook and any other cookbook it depends on. So you have to remove those branches as well. This is what fixed it for us.

But probably best to nuke all branches to be safe. As a consequence, that probably screws up the chef workflow because it sounds like chef keeps those branches around to pull down diffs to merge back into master when you upgrade a cookbook.

[jeremykoerber]

Had the same issue with the windows cookbook. git branch -D chef-vendor-windows fixed it. Nice find! I'm not too git savvy so this was a relief to find..