chef-simple-overrides

Simple step by step of how chef overrides work. This shows 3 recipes where one overrides an attribute of the other. Can be used where you have a need for a common set of attributes, then a child set of overrides. E.g. a Car is common, BMW is the child, 2014 BMW's is the child of BMW.

Overrides in Chef

1. Create the 3 recipes

---

knife cookbook create test_common
knife cookbook create test_client_x
knife cookbook create test_environment_x

2. Add the common attributes

---

vi cookbooks/test_common/attributes/default.rb

default['test_common']['version'] = 'version_1_common'
default['test_common']['client'] = 'client_common'
default['test_common']['os'] = 'os_windows_common'

3)Add the common recipe

vi cookbooks/test_common/recipes/default.rb

execute 'echo the path attribute' do
command "echo #{node['test_common']['version']}"
end

4)Add the client recipe

Note here we use node.override to override a default attribute

vi cookbooks/test_client_x/recipes/default.rb

include_recipe "test_common"

node.override['test_common']['client'] = 'client_x'
execute 'echo the path attribute' do
command "echo #{node['test_common']['version']} #{node['test_common']['client']}"
end

5. Add the environment recipe

---

Note here we use node.override to override a default attribute

vi cookbooks/test_environment_x/recipes/default.rb

include_recipe "test_common"
include_recipe "test_client_x"

node.override['test_common']['os'] = 'os_linux_common'
execute 'echo the path attribute' do
command "echo #{node['test_common']['version']}  #{node['test_common']['client']}  #{node['test_common']['os']}"
end

6. Upload the recipes

---

knife cookbook upload test_common
knife cookbook upload test_client_x
knife cookbook upload test_environment_x

7. Add the recipes to the run list

---

knife node run_list add module2 recipe[test_common]
knife node run_list add module2 recipe[test_client_x]
knife node run_list add module2 recipe[test_environment_x]

8. Run the cookbook on the node

---

chef-client 

Recipe: test_common::default
  * execute[echo the path attribute] action run
    - execute echo version_1_common

Recipe: test_client_x::default
  * execute[echo the path attribute] action run
    - execute echo version_1_common client_x

Recipe: test_environment_x::default
  * execute[echo the path attribute] action run
    - execute echo version_1_common  client_x  os_linux_common