The man page for the knife data bag subcommand. a data bag is a global variable that is stored as json data and is accessible from a server. a data bag is indexed for searching and can be loaded by a recipe or accessed during a search. the contents of a data bag can vary, but they often include sensitive information (such as database passwords). a data bag item may be encrypted using shared secret encryption. this allows each data bag item to store confidential information (such as a database password) or to be managed in a source control system (without plain-text data appearing in revision history). each data bag item may be encrypted individually; if a data bag contains multiple encrypted data bag items, these data bag items are not required to share the same encryption keys. the knife data bag subcommand is used to manage arbitrary stores of globally available json data.
The following options may be used with any of the arguments available to the knife data bag subcommand:
--chef-zero-port PORT
The port on which chef-zero will listen.
-c CONFIG_FILE, --config CONFIG_FILE
The configuration file to use.
-d, --disable-editing
Indicates that $EDITOR will not be opened; data will be accepted as-is.
--defaults
Indicates that Knife will use the default value, instead of asking a user to provide one.
-e EDITOR, --editor EDITOR
The $EDITOR that is used for all interactive commands.
-E ENVIRONMENT, --environment ENVIRONMENT
The name of the environment. When this option is added to a command, the command will run only against the named environment.
-F FORMAT, --format FORMAT
The output format: summary (default), text, json, yaml, and pp.
-h, --help
Shows help for the command.
-k KEY, --key KEY
The private key that Knife will use to sign requests made by the API client to the server.
--[no-]color
Indicates whether colored output will be used.
--print-after
Indicates that data will be shown after a destructive operation.
-s URL, --server-url URL
The URL for the server.
-u USER, --user USER
The user name used by Knife to sign requests made by the API client to the server. Authentication will fail if the user name does not match the private key.
-V, --verbose
Set for more verbose outputs. Use -VV for maximum verbosity.
-v, --version
The version of the chef-client.
-y, --yes
Indicates that the response to all confirmation prompts will be "Yes" (and that Knife will not ask for confirmation).
-z, --local-mode
Indicates that the chef-client will be run in local mode, which allows all commands that work against the server to also work against the local chef-repo.
The create argument is used to add a data bag to the server.
Syntax
This argument has the following syntax:
$ knife data bag create DATA_BAG_NAME [DATA_BAG_ITEM] (options)
Options
This argument has the following options:
DATA_BAG_ITEM
The name of a specific item within a data bag.
--secret SECRET
The encryption key that is used for values contained within a data bag item.
--secret-file FILE
The path to the file that contains the encryption key.
For encrypted data bag items, use either --secret or --secret-file, not both.
Examples
To create a data bag named "admins", enter:
$ knife data bag create admins
to return:
Created data_bag[admins]
The delete argument is used to delete a data bag or a data bag item from a server.
Syntax
This argument has the following syntax:
$ knife data bag delete DATA_BAG_NAME [DATA_BAG_ITEM] (options)
Options
This argument has the following options:
DATA_BAG_ITEM
The name of a specific item within a data bag.
Examples
$ knife data bag delete data_bag_name
To delete an item named "charlie", enter:
$ knife data bag delete admins charlie
Type Y to confirm a deletion.
The edit argument is used to edit the data contained in a data bag. If encryption is being used, the data bag will be decrypted, the data will be made available in the $EDITOR, and then encrypted again before saving it to the server.
Syntax
This argument has the following syntax:
$ knife data bag edit DATA_BAG_NAME [DATA_BAG_ITEM] (options)
Options
This argument has the following options:
DATA_BAG_ITEM
The name of a specific item within a data bag.
--secret SECRET
The encryption key that is used for values contained within a data bag item.
--secret-file FILE
The path to the file that contains the encryption key.
For encrypted data bag items, use either --secret or --secret-file, not both.
Examples
To edit the contents of a data bag, enter:
$ knife data bag edit admins
To edit an item named "charlie" that is contained in a data bag named "admins", enter:
$ knife data bag edit admins charlie
to open the $EDITOR. Once opened, you can update the data before saving it to the server. For example, by changing:
{
"id": "charlie"
}
to:
{
"id": "charlie",
"uid": 1005,
"gid":"ops",
"shell":"/bin/zsh",
"comment":"Crazy Charlie"
}
The from file argument is used to create a data bag on the server from a file. The path to the data bag file must specify one of the following:
the name of a data bag
a relative or absolute path to a file
If the name of a data bag is specified, Knife will search for the data bag in ./data_bags/bag_name/file. Once opened, the JSON file should be a hash that contains at least an ID key which represents the name of the data bag item.
A chef-client must be version 11.6 (or higher) when using the knife data bag from file argument with the Enterprise Chef or Open Source Chef version 11 servers.
Syntax
This argument has the following syntax:
$ knife data bag from file DATA_BAG_NAME_or_PATH
Options
This argument has the following options:
-a, --all
Indicates that all data bags found at the specified path will be uploaded.
--secret SECRET
The encryption key that is used for values contained within a data bag item.
--secret-file FILE
The path to the file that contains the encryption key.
For encrypted data bag items, use either --secret or --secret-file, not both.
Examples
To create a data bag on the server from a file:
$ knife data bag from file "path to JSON file"
To create a data bag named "devops_data" that contains encrypted data, enter:
$ knife data bag from file devops_data --secret-file "path to decryption file"
The list argument is used to view a list of data bags that are currently available on the server.
Syntax
This argument has the following syntax:
$ knife data bag list
Options
This argument has the following options:
-w, --with-uri
Indicates that the corresponding URIs will be shown.
Examples
$ knife data bag list
The show argument is used to view the contents of a data bag.
Syntax
This argument has the following syntax:
$ knife data bag show DATA_BAG_NAME (options)
Options
This argument has the following options:
DATA_BAG_ITEM
The name of a specific item within a data bag.
--secret SECRET
The encryption key that is used for values contained within a data bag item.
--secret-file FILE
The path to the file that contains the encryption key.
For encrypted data bag items, use either --secret or --secret-file, not both.
Examples
$ knife data bag show admins
to return something like:
charlie
To show the contents of a specific item within data bag, enter:
$ knife data bag show admins charlie
to return:
comment: Crazy Charlie gid: ops id: charlie shell: /bin/zsh uid: 1005
To show the contents of a data bag named "passwords" with an item that contains encrypted data named "mysql", enter:
$ knife data bag show passwords mysql
to return:
## sample:
{
"id": "mysql",
"pass": "trywgFA6R70NO28PNhMpGhEvKBZuxouemnbnAUQsUyo=\n",
"user": "e/p+8WJYVHY9fHcEgAAReg==\n"
}
To show the decrypted contents of the same data bag, enter:
$ knife data bag show --secret-file /path/to/decryption/file passwords mysql
to return:
## sample:
{
"id": "mysql",
"pass": "thesecret123",
"user": "fred"
}
To view information in JSON format, use the -F common option as part of the command like this:
$ knife data bag show admins -F json
Other formats available include text, yaml, and pp.
Chef