The man page for the chef-shell command line tool. chef-shell is a recipe debugging tool that allows the use of breakpoints within recipes. chef-shell runs as an interactive ruby (irb) session. chef-shell supports both recipe and attribute file syntax, as well as interactive debugging features. chef-shell is the new name for shef as of chef 11.x. chef-shell is backwards compatible and aside from the name change, has the same set of functionality as with previous releases. the chef-shell executable can be run as a command-line tool.
chef-shell is tool that allows Knife to be run using an Interactive Ruby (IRb) session. chef-shell currently supports recipe and attribute file syntax, as well as interactive debugging features. chef-shell has three run modes:
| Mode |
|---|
| Description |
| Standalone |
| No cookbooks are loaded, and the run list is empty. This mode is the default. |
| Solo |
| chef-shell acts as a chef-solo client. It attempts to load the chef-solo configuration file and JSON attributes. If the JSON attributes set a run list, it will be honored. Cookbooks will be loaded in the same way that chef-solo loads them. chef-solo mode is activated with the -s or --solo command line option, and JSON attributes are specified in the same way as for chef-solo, with -j /path/to/chef-solo.json. |
| Client |
| chef-shell acts as a chef-client. During startup, it reads the chef-client configuration file and contacts the server to get attributes and cookbooks. The run list will be set in the same way as normal chef-client runs. chef-client mode is activated with the -z or --client options. You can also specify the configuration file with -c CONFIG and the server URL with -S SERVER_URL. |
This command has the following syntax:
chef-shell OPTION VALUE OPTION VALUE ...
This command has the following options:
-a, --standalone
Indicates that chef-shell will be run in standalone mode.
-c CONFIG, --config CONFIG
The configuration file to use.
-h, --help
Shows help for the command.
-j PATH, --json-attributes PATH
The path to a file that contains JSON data.
-l LEVEL, --log-level LEVEL
The level of logging that will be stored in a log file.
-s, --solo
Indicates that chef-shell will be run in chef-solo mode.
-S CHEF_SERVER_URL, --server CHEF_SERVER_URL
The URL for the server.
-v, --version
The version of the chef-client.
-z, --client
Indicates that chef-shell will be run in chef-client mode.
Chef