Question

What is the best best way to write the currently deployed commit hash to a version.txt file using Chef, similar to how Etsy does it? This is what I came up with.

execute "update_version" do
   command git log -1 --format="%H" > public/version.txt
   creates "#{app_config['deploy_dir']}/current/public/version.txt"
   owner app_user
   group app_group
   action:run
end

Answer 1

   owner app_user
   group app_group

Might not work in an execute resource
http://wiki.opscode.com/display/chef/Resources#Resources-Execute

I might do something like

bash "update_revision" do
   code "git log -1 --format="%H" > public/version.txt"
   creates "#{app_config['deploy_dir']}/current/public/version.txt"
end

file "public/version.txt" do
  owner app_user
  group app_group
  mode  0644
end

alternatively you could create a template with content like like

<%= shell_out!('git log -1 --format="%H"') %>

and use a template resource something like

template( "public/version.txt") do
      owner app_user
      group app_group
      mode  0644
end