xenial (1) knife-exec.1.gz

Provided by: chef_12.3.0-3ubuntu1_all bug

NAME

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

       The  knife  exec subcommand uses the knife configuration file to execute Ruby scripts in the context of a
       fully configured chef-client. This subcommand is most often used to run scripts  that  will  only  access
       Chef  server  one  time  (or otherwise very infrequently). Use this subcommand any time that an operation
       does not warrant full usage of the knife subcommand library.

       Authenticated API Requests

       The knife exec subcommand can be used to make authenticated API requests to the  Chef  server  using  the
       following methods:

                                 ┌───────────┬───────────────────────────────────────┐
                                 │Method     │ Description                           │
                                 ├───────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
                                 │api.delete │ Use to delete an object from the Chef │
                                 │           │ server.                               │
                                 ├───────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
                                 │api.get    │ Use to get the details of  an  object │
                                 │           │ on the Chef server.                   │
                                 ├───────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
                                 │api.post   │ Use  to  add  an  object  to the Chef │
                                 │           │ server.                               │
                                 ├───────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
                                 │api.put    │ Use to update an object on  the  Chef │
                                 │           │ server.                               │
                                 └───────────┴───────────────────────────────────────┘

       These  methods  are  used with the -E option, which executes that string locally on the workstation using
       chef-shell. These methods have the following syntax:

          $ knife exec -E 'api.method(/endpoint)'

       where:

       • api.method is the corresponding authentication method --- api.delete, api.get, api.post, or api.put/endpoint is an endpoint in the Chef server API

       For example, to get the data for a node named "Example_Node":

          $ knife exec -E 'puts api.get("/nodes/Example_Node")'

       and to ensure that the output is visible in the console, add the puts in front of the  API  authorization
       request:

          $ knife exec -E 'puts api.get("/nodes/Example_Node")'

       where puts is the shorter version of the $stdout.puts predefined variable in Ruby.

       The  following  example shows how to add a client named "IBM305RAMAC" and the /clients endpoint, and then
       return the private key for that user in the console:

          $ client_desc = {
              "name"  => "IBM305RAMAC",
              "admin" => false
            }

            new_client = api.post("/clients", client_desc)
            puts new_client["private_key"]

       Syntax

       This subcommand has the following syntax:

          $ knife exec SCRIPT (options)

       Options

       This subcommand has the following options:

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

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

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

       -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 CODE, --exec CODE
              A string of code that will be executed.

       -e EDITOR, --editor EDITOR
              The $EDITOR that is used for all interactive commands.

       --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.

       -p PATH:PATH, --script-path PATH:PATH
              A colon-separated path at which Ruby scripts are located.

       --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, --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

       There are three ways to use knife exec to run Ruby script files. For example:

          $ knife exec /path/to/script_file

       or:

          $ knife exec -E 'RUBY CODE'

       or:

          $ knife exec
          RUBY CODE
          ^D

       To check the status of knife using a Ruby script named status.rb (which looks like):

          printf "%-5s %-12s %-8s %s\n", "Check In", "Name", "Ruby", "Recipes"
          nodes.all do |n|
             checkin = Time.at(n['ohai_time']).strftime("%F %R")
             rubyver = n['languages']['ruby']['version']
             recipes = n.run_list.expand(_default).recipes.join(", ")
             printf "%-20s %-12s %-8s %s\n", checkin, n.name, rubyver, recipes
          end

       and is located in a directory named scripts/, enter:

          $ knife exec scripts/status.rb

       To show the available free memory for all nodes, enter:

          $ knife exec -E 'nodes.all {|n| puts "#{n.name} has #{n.memory.total} free memory"}'

       To list all of the available search indexes, enter:

          $ knife exec -E 'puts api.get("search").keys'

       To  query  a  node  for  multiple  attributes using a Ruby script named search_attributes.rb (which looks
       like):

          % cat scripts/search_attributes.rb
          query = ARGV[2]
          attributes = ARGV[3].split(",")
          puts "Your query: #{query}"
          puts "Your attributes: #{attributes.join(" ")}"
          results = {}
          search(:node, query) do |n|
             results[n.name] = {}
             attributes.each {|a| results[n.name][a] = n[a]}
          end

          puts results
          exit 0

       enter:

          % knife exec scripts/search_attributes.rb "hostname:test_system" ipaddress,fqdn

       to return something like:

          Your query: hostname:test_system
          Your attributes: ipaddress fqdn
          {"test_system.example.com"=>{"ipaddress"=>"10.1.1.200", "fqdn"=>"test_system.example.com"}}

AUTHOR

       Chef

                                                    Chef 12.0                                      KNIFE-EXEC(1)