Provided by: chef_11.8.2-2_all 
NAME
chef-shell - 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.
Note 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.
MODES
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. │
└────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────┘
OPTIONS
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. Use this option to override attributes that are set
from other locations, such as from within a cookbook or by a role.
-l LEVEL, --log_level LEVEL
The level of logging that will be stored in a log file: debug, info, warn, error, or fatal.
-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.
AUTHOR
Opscode
Chef 11.8.0 CHEF-SHELL(1)