How to disable cookbook synchronization with chef-client?

Question

I would like to test/debug cookbooks. However, using chef-client to restart a chef run, this requires me to modify cookbooks, upload them to the chef server & synchronize cookbooks. I would like to be able to modify the cookbooks that were synchronized and stored in the cache, instead of having to upload every single little change I make at each iteration. Is this possible?

Thanks

tl;dr in chef-client, how to use the cached cookbooks instead of synchronizing them every time

This is useful when you want to add temporary logging to cookbooks without annoying the ops guys ;) — Sridhar Sarnobat, May 30 '18 at 23:20

score 17 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 21 '17 at 08:45

chef-client --skip-cookbook-sync

Use cached cookbooks without overwriting local differences from the server. Use with caution. Useful for patching a set of cookbooks on a machine when iterating during development. New in Chef Client 12.8.1.

https://docs.chef.io/ctl_chef_client.html

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 19 '17 at 09:56

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For Chef prior version 12 command is chef-solo -z -o <cookbook_name>

answered Oct 19 '17 at 09:56

a.moiseyenko

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 25 '15 at 05:56

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You can use chef-client in local mode (see here and here).

But beware that this uses everything from the local disk, also environments, roles and data bags.

For development, test-kitchen is the tool of choice, which might ease your pain.

answered Mar 25 '15 at 05:56

StephenKing

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score 0 · Answer 4 · edited Jan 14 '16 at 17:08

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You can try a command something like this:

chef-client --local -o 'recipe[cookbookname::recipie]' --log_level info

or

chef-client -z -o 'recipe[cookbookname::recipie]' --log_level info

edited Jan 14 '16 at 17:08

Chewpers

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answered Jan 14 '16 at 16:00

Saurabh Singh

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How to disable cookbook synchronization with chef-client?

4 Answers4