Question

Say I have the following chef role:

name "test"
description "role for test"
run_list %w(recipe[cookbook_name])
default_attributes(
  :cookbook_name => {
    :a => 1
  }
)

And the corresponding environment:

name "test environment"
description "environment for test"
default_attributes(
  :cookbook_name => {
    :b => 2
  }
)

And then in my cookbook’s attributes I have something like:

parent = default[:cookbook_name]
parent[:c] = 3

The attribute documentation would have me believe that these would be available in the recipe context from node[:cookbook_name][:a] or node[:cookbook_name][:b]. However, when I try to access those in my actual cookbook, I get nil. What’s going on? Am I misunderstanding the role of these attributes? I think that it’s worth noting that even if I set defaults for these attributes in the attributes file, I get the same result, leading me to believe I’m accessing the attributes incorrectly.

What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

This is indeed how things should work. Inside the “cookbook_name” recipe you should be able to access the :cookbook_name hash with two elements :a and :b.

Have you set the run list and environment on the node to include the role and environment you have listed? Running knife node show should show this.