Dynamic Attributes in Chef

Problem

You are trying to set a node attribute in a resource block but it isn't working.

For example you have the following code:

ruby_block 'foo' do
  block do
    # some ruby
    node.override['var'] = 'value'
  end
  action :run
end

if node['var'] == 'value'
  notifies :run, some_resource[name]
else
  notifies :run, other_resource[whatever]
end

Even though you're setting node['var'], other_resource[whatever] is getting notified to :run. What gives?

Solution

To jump ahead, because you're skimming this post for the answer, you're going to want to do something like this:

# go-go-gadget diffs
# Chef Version 13.5.8

  ruby_block 'foo' do
    block do
      # some ruby
      node.override['var'] = 'value'
    end
-   action :run
+   action :nothing
- end
+ end.run_action(:run)

if node['var'] == 'value'
  notifies :run, some_resource[name]
else
  notifies :run, other_resource[whatever]
end

Basically you want to execute the ruby_block that sets your attribute now so the rest of your code can consume the value either later in the compilation phase or during the execution phase of the Chef run.

How/why did that work?

If you've read his far you're actually reading. Welcome to the post! Let's begin.

Let's dig into exactly what my problem was, because sometimes examples aren't good enough. You know... for fun.

I was trying to trigger an application upgrade based on the current installed version. I was not installing a package-manager-managed package [2] so I couldn't just pin the version a yum resource, I had to do this kludge of a solution.

So for me some_resource[name] was downloading the latest version of the app (a .tar.gz2 file from GitHub) and other_resource[whatever] was a no-op. The as part of the package download I unconditionally trigger a :delayed service restart. Chef was 'upgrading' and restarting my app every thirty minutes which broke core functionality. [1]

Shit I tried before stumbling upon the solution

I tried a bunch of things, but they can all kinda be summed up in this:

# yay more diffs
  ruby_block 'foo' do
    block do
      # some ruby
      node.override['var'] = 'value'
    end
    notifies :create, 'tar[my-app]', :immediately # Triggers tar[my-app] to run now
  end

- if node['var'] == 'value'
-   notify :run, some_resource[name]
- else
-   notify :run, other_resource[whatever]
- end

  tar 'my-app' do
    action  :nothing # Unless triggered this does nothing
+   only_if { node['var'] == 'value' } # This should also do nothing if this isn't true
    # The rest of the resource block
  end

Which ultimately didn't work either.

I... I have no idea why this didn't work.

Something something Chef is complicated.

Why the solution works (and the other stuff didn't)

The reason my ultimate solution did work is best summed up by this quote from the Chef Docs:

Use .run_action(:some_action) at the end of a resource block to run the specified action during the compile phase.

My original code (read: broken code) was running the if block during the compilation phase (happens earlier) and running the ruby_block in the execution phase (happens later). By telling it to run my ruby_block during the compilation phase we were ensuring it happened before the if block, and in a way running it like you would 'expect' a script to run.

It ain't idiomatic but it gets the job done.

Errata