subversion resource¶

Use the subversion resource to manage source control resources that exist in a Subversion repository.

Warning

The subversion resource has known bugs and may not work as expected. For more information see Chef GitHub issues, particularly #4050 and #4257.

Syntax¶

The subversion resource has the following syntax:

subversion 'name' do
  checkout_branch        String # default value: deploy
  depth                  Integer
  destination            String # default value: 'name' unless specified
  enable_checkout        true, false # default value: true
  enable_submodules      true, false # default value: false
  environment            Hash, nil
  group                  String, Integer
  remote                 String # default value: origin
  repository             String
  revision               String # default value: HEAD
  ssh_wrapper            String
  svn_arguments          String, nil, false # default value: --no-auth-cache
  svn_binary             String
  svn_info_args          String, nil, false # default value: --no-auth-cache
  svn_password           String
  svn_username           String
  timeout                Integer
  user                   String, Integer
  action                 Symbol # defaults to :sync if not specified
end

where:

subversion 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.
checkout_branch, depth, destination, enable_checkout, enable_submodules, environment, group, remote, repository, revision, ssh_wrapper, svn_arguments, svn_binary, svn_info_args, svn_password, svn_username, timeout, and user are the properties available to this resource.

Actions¶

The subversion resource has the following actions:

:checkout: Clone or check out the source. When a checkout is available, this provider does nothing.
:export: Export the source, excluding or removing any version control artifacts.
:force_export: Export the source, excluding or removing any version control artifacts and force an export of the source that is overwriting the existing copy (if it exists).
: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.
:sync: Default. Update the source to the specified version, or get a new clone or checkout. This action causes a hard reset of the index and working tree, discarding any uncommitted changes.

Properties¶

The subversion resource has the following properties:

destination

Ruby Type: String

The location path to which the source is to be cloned, checked out, or exported. Default value: the name of the resource block. See “Syntax” section above for more information.

group

Ruby Type: String, Integer

The system group that is responsible for the checked-out code.

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

repository

Ruby Type: String

The URI for the Subversion repository.

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).

revision

Ruby Type: String | Default Value: HEAD

A branch, tag, or commit to be synchronized with git. This can be symbolic, like HEAD or it can be a source control management-specific revision identifier.

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

svn_arguments

Ruby Type: String

The extra arguments that are passed to the Subversion command.

svn_info_args

Ruby Type: String

Use when the svn info command is used by the chef-client and arguments need to be passed. The svn_arguments command does not work when the svn info command is used.

svn_password

Ruby Type: String

The password for a user that has access to the Subversion repository.

svn_username

Ruby Type: String

The user name for a user that has access to the Subversion repository.

timeout

Ruby Type: Integer

The amount of time (in seconds) to wait for a command to execute before timing out. When this property is specified using the deploy resource, the value of the timeout property is passed from the deploy resource to the subversion resource.

user

Ruby Type: String, Integer

The system user that is responsible for the checked-out code.

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.

Get the latest version of an application

subversion 'CouchDB Edge' do
  repository 'http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/couchdb/trunk'
  revision 'HEAD'
  destination '/opt/mysources/couch'
  action :sync
end