ohai resource¶

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Use the ohai resource to reload the Ohai configuration on a node. This allows recipes that change system attributes (like a recipe that adds a user) to refer to those attributes later on during the chef-client run.

Syntax¶

The ohai resource has the following syntax:

ohai 'name' do
  ohai_name       # default value: 'name' unless specified
  plugin         String
  action         Symbol # defaults to :reload if not specified
end

where:

ohai is the resource.
name is the name given to the resource block.
action identifies which steps the chef-client will take to bring the node into the desired state.
ohai_name and plugin are the properties available to this resource.

Actions¶

The ohai 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.
:reload: Default. Reload the Ohai configuration on a node.

Properties¶

The ohai resource has the following properties:

ignore_failure

Ruby Type: true, false | Default Value: false

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

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

plugin

Ruby Type: String

The name of an Ohai plugin to be reloaded. If this property is not specified, the chef-client will reload all plugins.

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¶

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.

Reload Ohai

ohai 'reload' do
  action :reload
end

Reload Ohai after a new user is created

ohai 'reload_passwd' do
  action :nothing
  plugin 'etc'
end

user 'daemonuser' do
  home '/dev/null'
  shell '/sbin/nologin'
  system true
  notifies :reload, 'ohai[reload_passwd]', :immediately
end

ruby_block 'just an example' do
  block do
    # These variables will now have the new values
    puts node['etc']['passwd']['daemonuser']['uid']
    puts node['etc']['passwd']['daemonuser']['gid']
  end
end