KnifeSpork

KnifeSpork is a workflow plugin for Chef::Knife which helps multiple developers work on the same Chef Server and repository without treading on eachother's toes. This plugin was designed around the workflow we have here at Etsy, where several people are working on the Chef repository and Chef Server simultaneously. It contains several functions, documented below:

Installation

Gem Install (recommended)

knife-spork is available on rubygems. Add the following to your Gemfile:

gem 'knife-spork'

or install the gem manually:

gem install knife-spork

Plugin Install

Copy spork-* script from lib/chef/knife/spork-*.rb to your ~/.chef/plugins/knife directory.

Spork Configuration

Out of the box, knife spork will work with no configuration. However, you can optionally enable several features to enhance its functionality.

KnifeSpork will look for a configuration file in the following locations, in ascending order of precedence:

• config/spork-config.yml
• /etc/spork-config.yml
• ~/.chef/spork-config.yml

Anything set in the configuration file in your home directory for example, will override options set in your Chef repository or /etc.

Below is a sample config file with all supported options enabled below, followed by an explanation of each section.

default_environments:
  - development
  - production
plugins:
  campfire:
    account: myaccount
    token: a1b2c3d4...

Default Environments

The default_environments directive allows you to specify a default list of environments you want to promote changes to. If this option is configured and you ommit the environment parameter when promoting KnifeSpork will promote to all environments in this list.

Spork Check

This function is designed to help you avoid trampling on other people's cookbook versions, and to make sure that when you come to version your own work it's easy to see what version numbers have already been used and if the one you're using will overwrite anything.

Usage

knife spork check COOKBOOK [--all]

By default, spork check only shows the 5 most recent remote cookbook versions. Add the --all option if you want to see everything.

Example (Checking an Unfrozen Cookbook with version clash)

$ knife spork check apache2
Checking versions for cookbook apache2...

Local Version:
  1.1.49

Remote Versions: (* indicates frozen)
 *2.0.2
 *2.0.1
  1.1.49
 *1.1.14
 *1.1.13

ERROR: The version 1.1.49 exists on the server and is not frozen. Uploading will overwrite!

Example (Checking a Frozen Cookbook with version clash)

$ knife spork check apache2
Checking versions for cookbook apache2...

Local Version:
  2.0.2

Remote Versions: (* indicates frozen)
 *2.0.2
 *2.0.1
  1.1.49
 *1.1.14
 *1.1.13

WARNING: Your local version (2.0.2) is frozen on the remote server. You'll need to bump before you can upload.

Example (No version clashes)

$ knife spork check apache2
Checking versions for cookbook apache2...

Local Version:
  2.0.3

Remote Versions: (* indicates frozen)
 *2.0.2
 *2.0.1
  1.1.49
 *1.1.14
 *1.1.13

Everything looks good!

Spork Bump

This function lets you easily version your cookbooks without having to manually edit the cookbook's metadata.rb file. You can either specify the version level you'd like to bump (major, minor, or patch), or you can manually specify a version number. This might be used if, for example, you want to jump several version numbers in one go and don't want to have to run knife bump once for each number.

Usage

knife spork bump COOKBOOK [MAJOR | MINOR | PATCH | MANUAL x.x.x]

Example (Bumping patch level)

$ knife spork bump apache2 patch
Successfully bumped apache2 to v2.0.4!

Example (Manually setting version)

$ knife spork bump apache2 manual 1.0.13
Successfully bumped apache2 to v1.0.13!

Spork Upload

This function works mostly the same as normal knife cookbook upload COOKBOOK except that this automatically freezes cookbooks when you upload them.

Usage

knife spork upload COOKBOOK

Example

$ knife spork upload apache2
Freezing apache2 at 1.0.13...
Successfully uploaded apache2@1.0.13!

Spork Promote

This function lets you easily set a version constraint in an environment for a particular cookbook. By default it will set the version constraint to whatever the local version of the specified cookbook is. Optionally, you can include a --version option which will set the version constraint for the specified cookbook to whatever version number you provide. You might want to use this if, for example, you pushed a version constraint for a cookbook version you don't want your nodes to use anymore, so you want to "roll back" the environment to a previous version. You can also specify the --remote option if you'd like to automatically upload your changed local environment file to the server.

Usage

knife spork promote [ENVIRONMENT] COOKBOOK [--version, --remote]

Example (Using local cookbook version number)

$ knife spork promote my_environment apache2 --remote
Adding version constraint apache2 = 1.0.13
Saving changes to my_environment.json
Uploading my_environment to Chef Server
Promotion complete!

Example (Using manual version)

$ knife spork promote my_environment apache2 -v 2.0.2
Adding version constraint apache2 = 2.0.2
Saving changes to my_environment.json
Promotion complete. Don't forget to upload your changed my_environment to Chef Server