machine_file¶

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Use the machine_file resource to manage a file on a remote machine in much the same way the file resource is used to manage a file on a local machine.

Warning

This functionality is available with Chef provisioning and is packaged in the Chef development kit. Chef provisioning is a framework that allows clusters to be managed by the chef-client and the Chef server in the same way nodes are managed: with recipes. Use Chef provisioning to describe, version, deploy, and manage clusters of any size and complexity using a common set of tools.

Syntax¶

The syntax for using the machine_file resource in a recipe is as follows:

machine_file 'name' do
  attribute 'value' # see properties section below
  ...
  action :action # see actions section below
end

where

machine_file tells the chef-client to use the Chef::Provider::MachineFile provider during the chef-client run
name is the name of the resource block; when the path property is not specified as part of a recipe, name is also the path to a file
attribute is zero (or more) of the properties that are available for this resource
action identifies which steps the chef-client will take to bring the node into the desired state

Actions¶

This resource has the following actions:

:delete: Use to delete a file from a machine.
:download: Use to download a file from a machine.
: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.
:upload: Default. Use to upload a file to a machine.

Properties¶

This resource has the following properties:

chef_server

Ruby Type: Hash

The URL for the Chef server.

content

A string that is written to the file. The contents of this property replace any previous content when this property has something other than the default value. The default behavior will not modify content.

driver

Ruby Type: Chef::Provisioning::Driver

Use to specify the driver to be used for provisioning.

group

Ruby Type: String

A string or ID that identifies the group owner by group name, including fully qualified group names such as domain\group or group@domain. If this value is not specified, existing groups remain unchanged and new group assignments use the default POSIX group (if available).

ignore_failure

Ruby Type: true, false | Default Value: false

Continue running a recipe if a resource fails for any reason.

local_path

Ruby Type: String

The local path to a file.

machine

Ruby Type: String

Use to specify the machine type.

mode

Ruby Type: String

If mode is not specified and if the file already exists, the existing mode on the file is used. If mode is not specified, the file does not exist, and the :create action is specified, the chef-client assumes a mask value of '0777' and then applies the umask for the system on which the file is to be created to the mask value. For example, if the umask on a system is '022', the chef-client uses the default value of '0755'.

The behavior is different depending on the platform.

UNIX- and Linux-based systems: A quoted 3-5 character string that defines the octal mode that is passed to chmod. For example: '755', '0755', or 00755. If the value is specified as a quoted string, it works exactly as if the chmod command was passed. If the value is specified as an integer, prepend a zero (0) to the value to ensure that it is interpreted as an octal number. For example, to assign read, write, and execute rights for all users, use '0777' or '777'; for the same rights, plus the sticky bit, use 01777 or '1777'.

Microsoft Windows: A quoted 3-5 character string that defines the octal mode that is translated into rights for Microsoft Windows security. For example: '755', '0755', or 00755. Values up to '0777' are allowed (no sticky bits) and mean the same in Microsoft Windows as they do in UNIX, where 4 equals GENERIC_READ, 2 equals GENERIC_WRITE, and 1 equals GENERIC_EXECUTE. This property cannot be used to set :full_control. This property has no effect if not specified, but when it and rights are both specified, the effects are cumulative.

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 a notifies 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

owner

Ruby Type: String

A string or ID that identifies the group owner by user name, including fully qualified user names such as domain\user or user@domain. If this value is not specified, existing owners remain unchanged and new owner assignments use the current user (when necessary).

path

Ruby Type: String

The full path to the file, including the file name and its extension. Default value: the name of the resource block. See “Syntax” section above for more information.

Microsoft Windows: A path that begins with a forward slash (/) will point to the root of the current working directory of the chef-client process. This path can vary from system to system. Therefore, using a path that begins with a forward slash (/) is not recommended.

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).

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 the nginx 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 example nginx) 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

Examples¶

Get a remote file onto a new machine

A deployment process requires more than just setting up machines. For example, files may need to be copied to machines from remote locations. The following example shows how to use the remote_file resource to grab a tarball from a URL, create a machine, copy that tarball to the machine, and then get that machine running by using a recipe that installs and configures that tarball on the machine:

remote_file 'mytarball.tgz' do
  url 'https://myserver.com/mytarball.tgz'
end

machine 'x'
  action :allocate
end

machine_file '/tmp/mytarball.tgz' do
  machine 'x'
  local_path 'mytarball.tgz'
  action :upload
end

machine 'x' do
  recipe 'untarthatthing'
  action :converge
end