batch resource¶
Use the batch resource to execute a batch script using the cmd.exe interpreter on Windows. The batch resource creates and executes a temporary file (similar to how the script resource behaves), rather than running the command inline. Commands that are executed with this resource are (by their nature) not idempotent, as they are typically unique to the environment in which they are run. Use not_if
and only_if
to guard this resource for idempotence.
Changed in 12.19 to support windows alternate user identity in execute resources.
Syntax¶
A batch resource block executes a batch script using the cmd.exe interpreter:
batch 'echo some env vars' do
code <<-EOH
echo %TEMP%
echo %SYSTEMDRIVE%
echo %PATH%
echo %WINDIR%
EOH
end
The full syntax for all of the properties that are available to the batch resource is:
batch 'name' do
architecture Symbol
code String
command String, Array
creates String
cwd String
flags String
group String, Integer
guard_interpreter Symbol
interpreter String
notifies # see description
returns Integer, Array
subscribes # see description
timeout Integer, Float
user String
password String
domain String
action Symbol # defaults to :run if not specified
end
where
batch
is the resourcename
is the name of the resource blockcommand
is the command to be run andcwd
is the location from which the command is runaction
identifies the steps the chef-client will take to bring the node into the desired statearchitecture
,code
,command
,creates
,cwd
,flags
,group
,guard_interpreter
,interpreter
,returns
,timeout
, user`, password` and domain` are properties of this resource, with the Ruby type shown. See “Properties” section below for more information about all of the properties that may be used with this resource.
Actions¶
This resource has the following actions:
:nothing
- Define this resource block to do nothing until notified by another resource to take action. When this resource is notified, this resource block is either run immediately or it is queued up to be run at the end of the Chef Client run.
:run
- Run a batch file.
Properties¶
This resource has the following properties:
architecture
Ruby Type: Symbol
The architecture of the process under which a script is executed. If a value is not provided, the chef-client defaults to the correct value for the architecture, as determined by Ohai. An exception is raised when anything other than
:i386
is specified for a 32-bit process. Possible values::i386
(for 32-bit processes) and:x86_64
(for 64-bit processes).code
Ruby Type: String
A quoted (” “) string of code to be executed.
command
Ruby Type: String, Array
The name of the command to be executed.
creates
Ruby Type: String
Prevent a command from creating a file when that file already exists.
cwd
Ruby Type: String
The current working directory from which a command is run.
flags
Ruby Type: String
One or more command line flags that are passed to the interpreter when a command is invoked.
group
Ruby Type: String, Integer
The group name or group ID that must be changed before running a command.
guard_interpreter
Ruby Type: Symbol | Default Value:
:batch
When this property is set to
:batch
, the 64-bit version of the cmd.exe shell will be used to evaluate strings values for thenot_if
andonly_if
properties. Set this value to:default
to use the 32-bit version of the cmd.exe shell.ignore_failure
Ruby Type: true, false | Default Value:
false
Continue running a recipe if a resource fails for any reason.
interpreter
Ruby Type: String
The script interpreter to use during code execution. Changing the default value of this property is not supported.
notifies
Ruby Type: Symbol, ‘Chef::Resource[String]’
A resource may notify another resource to take action when its state changes. Specify a
'resource[name]'
, the:action
that resource should take, and then the:timer
for that action. A resource may notify more than one resource; use anotifies
statement for each resource to be notified.A timer specifies the point during the Chef Client run at which a notification is run. The following timers are available:
:before
- Specifies that the action on a notified resource should be run before processing the resource block in which the notification is located.
:delayed
- Default. Specifies that a notification should be queued up, and then executed at the end of the Chef Client run.
:immediate
,:immediately
- Specifies that a notification should be run immediately, per resource notified.
The syntax for
notifies
is:notifies :action, 'resource[name]', :timer
retries
Ruby Type: Integer | Default Value:
0
The number of times to catch exceptions and retry the resource.
retry_delay
Ruby Type: Integer | Default Value:
2
The retry delay (in seconds).
returns
Ruby Type: Integer, Array | Default Value:
0
The return value for a command. This may be an array of accepted values. An exception is raised when the return value(s) do not match.
subscribes
Ruby Type: Symbol, ‘Chef::Resource[String]’
A resource may listen to another resource, and then take action if the state of the resource being listened to changes. Specify a
'resource[name]'
, the:action
to be taken, and then the:timer
for that action.Note that
subscribes
does not apply the specified action to the resource that it listens to - for example:file '/etc/nginx/ssl/example.crt' do mode '0600' owner 'root' end service 'nginx' do subscribes :reload, 'file[/etc/nginx/ssl/example.crt]', :immediately end
In this case the
subscribes
property reloads thenginx
service whenever its certificate file, located under/etc/nginx/ssl/example.crt
, is updated.subscribes
does not make any changes to the certificate file itself, it merely listens for a change to the file, and executes the:reload
action for its resource (in this examplenginx
) when a change is detected.A timer specifies the point during the Chef Client run at which a notification is run. The following timers are available:
:before
- Specifies that the action on a notified resource should be run before processing the resource block in which the notification is located.
:delayed
- Default. Specifies that a notification should be queued up, and then executed at the end of the Chef Client run.
:immediate
,:immediately
- Specifies that a notification should be run immediately, per resource notified.
The syntax for
subscribes
is:subscribes :action, 'resource[name]', :timer
timeout
Ruby Type: Integer, Float | Default Value:
3600
The amount of time (in seconds) a command is to wait before timing out.
user
Ruby Type: String
The user name of the user identity with which to launch the new process. The user name may optionally be specifed with a domain, i.e. domainuser or user@my.dns.domain.com via Universal Principal Name (UPN)format. It can also be specified without a domain simply as user if the domain is instead specified using the domain attribute. On Windows only, if this property is specified, the password property must be specified.
password
Ruby Type: String
Windows only: The password of the user specified by the user property. This property is mandatory if user is specified on Windows and may only be specified if user is specified. The sensitive property for this resource will automatically be set to true if password is specified.
domain
Ruby Type: String
Windows only: The domain of the user user specified by the user property. If not specified, the user name and password specified by the user and password properties will be used to resolve that user against the domain in which the system running Chef client is joined, or if that system is not joined to a domain it will resolve the user as a local account on that system. An alternative way to specify the domain is to leave this property unspecified and specify the domain as part of the user property.
Note
See https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/cmd for more information about the cmd.exe interpreter.
Guards¶
A guard property can be used to evaluate the state of a node during the execution phase of the chef-client run. Based on the results of this evaluation, a guard property is then used to tell the chef-client if it should continue executing a resource. A guard property accepts either a string value or a Ruby block value:
- A string is executed as a shell command. If the command returns
0
, the guard is applied. If the command returns any other value, then the guard property is not applied. String guards in a powershell_script run Windows PowerShell commands and may returntrue
in addition to0
. - A block is executed as Ruby code that must return either
true
orfalse
. If the block returnstrue
, the guard property is applied. If the block returnsfalse
, the guard property is not applied.
A guard property is useful for ensuring that a resource is idempotent by allowing that resource to test for the desired state as it is being executed, and then if the desired state is present, for the chef-client to do nothing.
Attributes
The following properties can be used to define a guard that is evaluated during the execution phase of the chef-client run:
not_if
- Prevent a resource from executing when the condition returns
true
. only_if
- Allow a resource to execute only if the condition returns
true
.
Arguments
The following arguments can be used with the not_if
or only_if
guard properties:
:user
Specify the user that a command will run as. For example:
not_if 'grep adam /etc/passwd', :user => 'adam'
:group
Specify the group that a command will run as. For example:
not_if 'grep adam /etc/passwd', :group => 'adam'
:environment
Specify a Hash of environment variables to be set. For example:
not_if 'grep adam /etc/passwd', :environment => { 'HOME' => '/home/adam' }
:cwd
Set the current working directory before running a command. For example:
not_if 'grep adam passwd', :cwd => '/etc'
:timeout
Set a timeout for a command. For example:
not_if 'sleep 10000', :timeout => 10
Examples¶
The following examples demonstrate various approaches for using resources in recipes. If you want to see examples of how Chef uses resources in recipes, take a closer look at the cookbooks that Chef authors and maintains: https://github.com/chef-cookbooks.
Unzip a file, and then move it
To run a batch file that unzips and then moves Ruby, do something like:
batch 'unzip_and_move_ruby' do
code <<-EOH
7z.exe x #{Chef::Config[:file_cache_path]}/ruby-1.8.7-p352-i386-mingw32.7z
-oC:\\source -r -y
xcopy C:\\source\\ruby-1.8.7-p352-i386-mingw32 C:\\ruby /e /y
EOH
end
batch 'echo some env vars' do
code <<-EOH
echo %TEMP%
echo %SYSTEMDRIVE%
echo %PATH%
echo %WINDIR%
EOH
end
or:
batch 'unzip_and_move_ruby' do
code <<-EOH
7z.exe x #{Chef::Config[:file_cache_path]}/ruby-1.8.7-p352-i386-mingw32.7z
-oC:\\source -r -y
xcopy C:\\source\\ruby-1.8.7-p352-i386-mingw32 C:\\ruby /e /y
EOH
end
batch 'echo some env vars' do
code 'echo %TEMP%\\necho %SYSTEMDRIVE%\\necho %PATH%\\necho %WINDIR%'
end
Run a command as an alternate user
Note: When Chef is running as a service, this feature requires that the user that Chef runs as has ‘SeAssignPrimaryTokenPrivilege’ (aka ‘SE_ASSIGNPRIMARYTOKEN_NAME’) user right. By default only LocalSystem and NetworkService have this right when running as a service. This is necessary even if the user is an Administrator.
This right can be added and checked in a recipe using this example:
# Add 'SeAssignPrimaryTokenPrivilege' for the user
Chef::ReservedNames::Win32::Security.add_account_right('<user>', 'SeAssignPrimaryTokenPrivilege')
# Check if the user has 'SeAssignPrimaryTokenPrivilege' rights
Chef::ReservedNames::Win32::Security.get_account_right('<user>').include?('SeAssignPrimaryTokenPrivilege')
The following example shows how to run mkdir test_dir
from a chef-client run as an alternate user.
# Passing only username and password
batch 'mkdir test_dir' do
code "mkdir test_dir"
cwd Chef::Config[:file_cache_path]
user "username"
password "password"
end
# Passing username and domain
batch 'mkdir test_dir' do
code "mkdir test_dir"
cwd Chef::Config[:file_cache_path]
domain "domain"
user "username"
password "password"
end
# Passing username = 'domain-name\\username'. No domain is passed
batch 'mkdir test_dir' do
code "mkdir test_dir"
cwd Chef::Config[:file_cache_path]
user "domain-name\\username"
password "password"
end
# Passing username = 'username@domain-name'. No domain is passed
batch 'mkdir test_dir' do
code "mkdir test_dir"
cwd Chef::Config[:file_cache_path]
user "username@domain-name"
password "password"
end