KNIFE-ENVIRONMENT(1) Chef Manual KNIFE-ENVIRONMENT(1)
NAME
knife-environment - Define cookbook policies for the environments in your infrastructure
SYNOPSIS
knife environment sub-command (options)
SUBCOMMANDS
Environment subcommands follow a basic create, read, update, delete (CRUD) pattern. The following subcommands are available:
CREATE
knife environment create environment (options)
-d, --description DESCRIPTION
The value of the description field.
Create a new environment object on the Chef Server. The envrionment will be opened in the text editor for editing prior to creation if the
-n option is not present.
DELETE
knife environment delete environment (options)
Destroy an environment on the Chef Server. A prompt for confirmation will be displayed if the -y options is not given.
EDIT
knife environment edit environment (options)
Fetch environment and display it in the text editor for editing. The environment will be saved to the Chef Server when the editing session
exits.
FROM FILE
knife environment from file file (options)
Create or update an environment from the JSON or Ruby format file. See format for the proper format of this file.
LIST
knife environment list (options) * -w, --with-uri:
Show the resource URI for each environment
SHOW
knife environment show environment (options)
DESCRIPTION
Environments provide a means to apply policies to hosts in your infrastructure based on business function. For example, you may have a sep-
arate copy of your infrastructure called "dev" that runs the latest version of your application and should use the newest versions of your
cookbooks when configuring systems, and a production instance of your infrastructure where you wish to update code and cookbooks in a more
controlled fashion. In Chef, this function is implemented with environments.
Environments contain two major components: a set of cookbook version constraints and environment attributes.
SYNTAX
A cookbook version constraint is comprised of a cookbook name and a version constraint. The cookbook name is the name of a cookbook in your
system, and the version constraint is a String describing the version(s) of that cookbook allowed in the environment. Only one version con-
straint is supported for a given cookbook name.
The exact syntax used to define a cookbook version constraint varies depending on whether you use the JSON format or the Ruby format. In
the JSON format, the cookbook version constraints for an environment are represented as a single JSON object, like this:
{"apache2": ">= 1.5.0"}
In the Ruby format, the cookbook version contraints for an environment are represented as a Ruby Hash, like this:
{"apache2" => ">= 1.5.0"}
A version number is a String comprised of two or three digits separated by a dot (.) character, or in other words, strings of the form
"major.minor" or "major.minor.patch". "1.2" and "1.2.3" are examples of valid version numbers. Version numbers containing more than three
digits or alphabetic characters are not supported.
A version constraint String is composed of an operator and a version number. The following operators are available:
= VERSION
Equality. Only the exact version specified may be used.
> VERSION
Greater than. Only versions greater than VERSION may be used.
>= VERSION
Greater than or equal to. Only versions equal to VERSION or greater may be used.
< VERSION
Less than. Only versions less than VERSION may be used.
<= VERSION
Less than or equal to. Only versions lesser or equal to VERSION may be used.
~> VERSION
Pessimistic greater than. Depending on the number of components in the given VERSION, the constraint will be optimistic about future
minor or patch revisions only. For example, ~> 1.1 will match any version less than 2.0 and greater than or equal to 1.1.0, whereas
~> 2.0.5 will match any version less than 2.1.0 and greater than or equal to 2.0.5.
FORMAT
The JSON format of an envioronment is as follows:
{
"name": "dev",
"description": "The development environment",
"cookbook_versions": {
"couchdb": "= 11.0.0"
},
"json_class": "Chef::Environment",
"chef_type": "environment",
"default_attributes": {
"apache2": { "listen_ports": [ "80", "443" ] }
},
"override_attributes": {
"aws_s3_bucket": "production"
}
}
The Ruby format of an environment is as follows:
name "dev"
description "The development environment"
cookbook_versions "couchdb" => "= 11.0.0"
default_attributes "apache2" => { "listen_ports" => [ "80", "443" ] }
override_attributes "aws_s3_bucket" => "production"
SEE ALSO
knife-node(1) knife-cookbook(1) knife-role(1) http://wiki.opscode.com/display/chef/Environments http://wiki.opscode.com/display/chef/Ver-
sion+Constraints
AUTHOR
Chef was written by Adam Jacob adam@opscode.com with many contributions from the community.
DOCUMENTATION
This manual page was written by Daniel DeLeo dan@opscode.com. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and / or modify this document under
the terms of the Apache 2.0 License.
CHEF
Knife is distributed with Chef. http://wiki.opscode.com/display/chef/Home
Chef 10.12.0 June 2012 KNIFE-ENVIRONMENT(1)