Provided by: chef_12.3.0-3ubuntu1_all 
NAME
knife-data-bag - The man page for the knife data bag subcommand.
A data bag is a global variable that is stored as JSON data and is accessible from a Chef
server. A data bag is indexed for searching and can be loaded by a recipe or accessed
during a search.
A data bag item may be encrypted using shared secret encryption. This allows each data bag
item to store confidential information (such as a database password) or to be managed in a
source control system (without plain-text data appearing in revision history). Each data
bag item may be encrypted individually; if a data bag contains multiple encrypted data bag
items, these data bag items are not required to share the same encryption keys.
The knife data bag subcommand is used to manage arbitrary stores of globally available
JSON data.
COMMON OPTIONS
The following options may be used with any of the arguments available to the knife data
bag subcommand:
--chef-zero-port PORT
The port on which chef-zero will listen.
-c CONFIG_FILE, --config CONFIG_FILE
The configuration file to use.
-d, --disable-editing
Use to prevent the $EDITOR from being opened and to accept data as-is.
--defaults
Use to have knife 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 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
Chef server.
--[no-]color
Use to view colored output.
--print-after
Use to show data after a destructive operation.
-s URL, --server-url URL
The URL for the Chef server.
-u USER, --user USER
The user name used by knife to sign requests made by the API client to the Chef
server. Authentication will fail if the user name does not match the private key.
-V, --verbose
Set for more verbose outputs. Use -VV for maximum verbosity.
-v, --version
The version of the chef-client.
-y, --yes
Use to respond to all confirmation prompts with "Yes". knife will not ask for
confirmation.
-z, --local-mode
Use to run the chef-client in local mode. This allows all commands that work
against the Chef server to also work against the local chef-repo.
CREATE
The create argument is used to add a data bag to the Chef server.
Syntax
This argument has the following syntax:
$ knife data bag create DATA_BAG_NAME [DATA_BAG_ITEM] (options)
Options
This argument has the following options:
DATA_BAG_ITEM
The name of a specific item within a data bag.
--secret SECRET
The encryption key that is used for values contained within a data bag item. If
secret is not specified, the chef-client will look for a secret at the path
specified by the encrypted_data_bag_secret setting in the client.rb file.
--secret-file FILE
The path to the file that contains the encryption key.
NOTE:
For encrypted data bag items, use either --secret or --secret-file, not both.
Examples
To create a data bag named "admins", enter:
$ knife data bag create admins
to return:
Created data_bag[admins]
DELETE
The delete argument is used to delete a data bag or a data bag item from a Chef server.
Syntax
This argument has the following syntax:
$ knife data bag delete DATA_BAG_NAME [DATA_BAG_ITEM] (options)
Options
This argument has the following options:
DATA_BAG_ITEM
The name of a specific item within a data bag.
Examples
$ knife data bag delete data_bag_name
To delete an item named "charlie", enter:
$ knife data bag delete admins charlie
Type Y to confirm a deletion.
EDIT
The edit argument is used to edit the data contained in a data bag. If encryption is being
used, the data bag will be decrypted, the data will be made available in the $EDITOR, and
then encrypted again before saving it to the Chef server.
Syntax
This argument has the following syntax:
$ knife data bag edit DATA_BAG_NAME [DATA_BAG_ITEM] (options)
Options
This argument has the following options:
DATA_BAG_ITEM
The name of a specific item within a data bag.
--secret SECRET
The encryption key that is used for values contained within a data bag item. If
secret is not specified, the chef-client will look for a secret at the path
specified by the encrypted_data_bag_secret setting in the client.rb file.
--secret-file FILE
The path to the file that contains the encryption key.
NOTE:
For encrypted data bag items, use either --secret or --secret-file, not both.
Examples
To edit the contents of a data bag, enter:
$ knife data bag edit dogs tibetanspaniel
where dogs is the name of the data bag and tibetanspaniel is the name of the data bag
item. This will return something similar to the following in the knife editor:
{
"name":"data_bag_item_dogs_tibetanspaniel",
"json_class":"Chef::DataBagItem",
"chef_type":"data_bag_item",
"data_bag":"dogs",
"raw_data":
{
"description":"small dog that likes to sit in windows",
"id":"tibetanspaniel"
}
}
Make the necessary changes to the key-value pairs under raw_data and save them.
To edit an item named "charlie" that is contained in a data bag named "admins", enter:
$ knife data bag edit admins charlie
to open the $EDITOR. Once opened, you can update the data before saving it to the Chef
server. For example, by changing:
{
"id": "charlie"
}
to:
{
"id": "charlie",
"uid": 1005,
"gid": "ops",
"shell": "/bin/zsh",
"comment": "Crazy Charlie"
}
FROM FILE
The from file argument is used to:
• Add a data bag item to a data bag
• Update the contents of an existing data bag item
The data bag itself must already exist on the Chef server and must be specified as part of
the command. The contents of the data bag item are specified using a JSON file. This JSON
file may be located at a relative or absolute path; its location must be specified as part
of the command. The JSON file that defines the contents of the data bag item must at least
contain the name of the data bag item---"id": "name".
WARNING:
A chef-client must be version 11.6 (or higher) when using the knife data bag from file
argument with the Enterprise Chef or Open Source Chef version 11 servers.
Syntax
This argument has the following syntax:
$ knife data bag from file DATA_BAG_NAME_or_PATH
Options
This argument has the following options:
-a, --all
Use to upload all data bags found at the specified path.
--secret SECRET
The encryption key that is used for values contained within a data bag item. If
secret is not specified, the chef-client will look for a secret at the path
specified by the encrypted_data_bag_secret setting in the client.rb file.
--secret-file FILE
The path to the file that contains the encryption key.
NOTE:
For encrypted data bag items, use either --secret or --secret-file, not both.
Examples
To create a data bag on the Chef server from a file:
$ knife data bag from file "path to JSON file"
To create a data bag named "devops_data" that contains encrypted data, enter:
$ knife data bag from file devops_data --secret-file "path to decryption file"
LIST
The list argument is used to view a list of data bags that are currently available on the
Chef server.
Syntax
This argument has the following syntax:
$ knife data bag list
Options
This argument has the following options:
-w, --with-uri
Use to show the corresponding URIs.
Examples
$ knife data bag list
SHOW
The show argument is used to view the contents of a data bag.
Syntax
This argument has the following syntax:
$ knife data bag show DATA_BAG_NAME (options)
Options
This argument has the following options:
DATA_BAG_ITEM
The name of a specific item within a data bag.
--secret SECRET
The encryption key that is used for values contained within a data bag item. If
secret is not specified, the chef-client will look for a secret at the path
specified by the encrypted_data_bag_secret setting in the client.rb file.
--secret-file FILE
The path to the file that contains the encryption key.
NOTE:
For encrypted data bag items, use either --secret or --secret-file, not both.
Examples
$ knife data bag show admins
to return something like:
charlie
To show the contents of a specific item within data bag, enter:
$ knife data bag show admins charlie
to return:
comment: Crazy Charlie
gid: ops
id: charlie
shell: /bin/zsh
uid: 1005
To show the contents of a data bag named passwords with an item that contains encrypted
data named mysql, enter:
$ knife data bag show passwords mysql
to return:
## sample:
{
"id": "mysql",
"pass": "trywgFA6R70NO28PNhMpGhEvKBZuxouemnbnAUQsUyo=\n",
"user": "e/p+8WJYVHY9fHcEgAAReg==\n"
}
To show the decrypted contents of the same data bag, enter:
$ knife data bag show --secret-file /path/to/decryption/file passwords mysql
to return:
## sample:
{
"id": "mysql",
"pass": "thesecret123",
"user": "fred"
}
To view information in JSON format, use the -F common option as part of the command like
this:
$ knife data bag show admins -F json
Other formats available include text, yaml, and pp.
AUTHOR
Chef
Chef 12.0 KNIFE-DATA-BAG(1)