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 Chef server to the current working directory. It  can  be  used  to
       back  up  data  on  the Chef server, inspect the state of one or more files, or to extract
       out-of-process changes users may have made to files on the Chef 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.

       Syntax

       This subcommand has the following syntax:

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

       Options

       This subcommand has the following options:

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

       --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.

       --chef-zero-port PORT
              The port on which chef-zero will listen.

       --[no-]color
              Use to view colored output.

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

       --cookbook-version VERSION
              The version of a cookbook to be downloaded.

       -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.

       --[no-]diff
              Use to download only new and modified files. Set to false to  download  all  files.
              Default: --diff.

       -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.

       --[no-]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.

       -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.

       -n, --dry-run
              Use to take no action and only print out results. Default: false.

       --print-after
              Use to show data after a destructive operation.

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

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

       --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.

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

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

       -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.

       Examples

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

          $ knife download /

       To  download the cookbooks/ directory from the Chef 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 Chef 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 Chef 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 Chef 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

       Chef

                                            Chef 12.0                           KNIFE-DOWNLOAD(1)