Provided by: chef_12.3.0-3ubuntu1_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 is 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 Chef 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 Use to run chef-shell 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 define a run_list object. For example, a JSON file similar to: "run_list": [ "recipe[base]", "recipe[foo]", "recipe[bar]", "role[webserver]" ], may be used by running chef-client -j path/to/file.json. In certain situations this option may be used to update normal attributes. WARNING: Any other attribute type that is contained in this JSON file will be treated as a normal attribute. For example, attempting to update override attributes using the -j option: { "name": "dev-99", "description": "Install some stuff", "override_attributes": { "apptastic": { "enable_apptastic": "false", "apptastic_tier_name": "dev-99.bomb.com" } } } will result in a node object similar to: { "name": "maybe-dev-99", "normal": { "name": "dev-99", "description": "Install some stuff", "override_attributes": { "apptastic": { "enable_apptastic": "false", "apptastic_tier_name": "dev-99.bomb.com" } } } } -l LEVEL, --log-level LEVEL The level of logging that will be stored in a log file. -s, --solo Use to run chef-shell in chef-solo mode. -S CHEF_SERVER_URL, --server CHEF_SERVER_URL The URL for the Chef server. -v, --version The version of the chef-client. -z, --client Use to run chef-shell in chef-client mode.
AUTHOR
Chef Chef 12.0 CHEF-SHELL(1)