NAME

       knife-download - The man page for the knife download subcommand.

       The  knife  download subcommand is used to download roles, cookbooks, environments, nodes,
       and data bags from the server to the current working directory.. It can be used to back up
       data  on  the server, inspect the state of one or more files, or to extract out-of-process
       changes users may have made to files on the server, such as if a user made a  change  that
       bypassed  version  source control. This subcommand is often used in conjunction with knife
       diff, which can be used to see exactly what changes will be  downloaded,  and  then  knife
       upload, which does the opposite of knife download.

       Common Options

       The following options can be run with all Knife sub-commands and plug-ins:

       -c CONFIG, --config CONFIG
              The configuration file to use.

       --color
              Indicates that colored output will be used.

       -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 FILE_NAME, --file FILE_NAME
              Indicates that the private key will be saved to a specified file name.

       -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 that color will not be used in the output.

       -p PASSWORD, --password PASSWORD
              The user password.

       --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, --version
              The version of the chef-client.

       -V, --verbose
              Set for more verbose outputs. Use -VV for maximum verbosity.

       -y, --yes
              Indicates  that  the  response  to all confirmation prompts will be "Yes" (and that
              Knife will not ask for confirmation).

       Syntax

       This argument has the following syntax:

       $ knife download [PATTERN...] (options)

       Options

       This subcommand has the following options:

       --chef-repo-path PATH
              The path to the chef-repo. This setting will  override  the  default  path  to  the
              chef-repo. Default: same as specified by chef_repo_path in config.rb.

       --concurrency
              The number of allowed concurrent connections. Default: 10.

       --force
              Use  --force to download files even when the file on the hard drive is identical to
              the object on the server (role, cookbook, etc.).  By default, files are compared to
              see  if  they have equivalent content, and local files are only overwritten if they
              are different. Default: --no-force.

       -n, --dry-run
              Indicates that no action is taken and that results are only printed  out.  Default:
              false.

       --[no-]diff
              Indicates  that  only  new  and  modified files will be downloaded. Set to false to
              download all files. Default: --diff.

       --[no-]recurse
              Use  --no-recurse  to  disable  downloading  a  directory   recursively.   Default:
              --recurse.

       --purge
              Use  --purge to delete local files and directories that do not exist on the server.
              By default, if a role, cookbook, etc. does not exist on the server, the local  file
              for said role will be left alone and NOT deleted. Default: --no-purge.

       --repo-mode MODE
              The  layout  of  the  local  chef-repo.  Possible  values:  static,  everything, or
              hosted_everything. Use static for just roles,  environments,  cookbooks,  and  data
              bags.  By  default,  everything  and  hosted_everything  are  dynamically  selected
              depending on the server type. Default: everything / hosted_everything.

       Examples

       To download the entire chef-repo from the server, browse to the top level of the chef-repo
       and enter:

       $ knife download /

       To  download  the  cookbooks/  directory  from  the server, browse to the top level of the
       chef-repo and enter:

       $ knife download cookbooks

       or from anywhere in the chef-repo, enter:

       $ knife download /cookbooks

       To download the environments/ directory from the server, browse to the top  level  of  the
       chef-repo and enter:

       $ knife download environments

       or from anywhere in the chef-repo, enter:

       $ knife download /environments

       To  download an environment named "production" from the server, browse to the top level of
       the chef-repo and enter:

       $ knife download environments/production.json

       or from the environments/ directory, enter:

       $ knife download production.json

       To download the roles/ directory from the server, browse to the top level of the chef-repo
       and enter:

       $ knife download roles

       or from anywhere in the chef-repo, enter:

       $ knife download /roles

       To  download  all  cookbooks  that start with "apache" and belong to the "webserver" role,
       browse to the top level of the chef-repo and enter:

       $  knife download cookbooks/apache\* roles/webserver.json

AUTHOR

       Opscode

                                           Chef 11.8.0                          KNIFE-DOWNLOAD(1)