DOKK / manpages / debian 10 / chef / knife-exec.1.en
KNIFE-EXEC(1) knife exec KNIFE-EXEC(1)

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:

The configuration file to use.
The port on which chef-zero will listen.
--[no-]color
Use to view colored output.
Use to prevent the $EDITOR from being opened and to accept data as-is.
Use to have knife use the default value instead of asking a user to provide one.
A string of code that will be executed.
The $EDITOR that is used for all interactive commands.
The name of the environment. When this option is added to a command, the command will run only against the named environment.
The output format: summary (default), text, json, yaml, and pp.
Shows help for the command.
The private key that knife will use to sign requests made by the API client to the Chef server.
A colon-separated path at which Ruby scripts are located.
Use to show data after a destructive operation.
The URL for the Chef server.
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.
The version of the chef-client.
Set for more verbose outputs. Use -VV for maximum verbosity.
Use to respond to all confirmation prompts with "Yes". knife will not ask for confirmation.
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"}}


Chef

Chef 12.0