Chef-client start crashes with NoMethodError: undefined method `+' for nil:NilClass

Chef Infra (archive)
1

cat /var/chef/cache/chef-stacktrace.out
Generated at 2019-05-22 14:17:08 -0700
NoMethodError: undefined method `+' for nil:NilClass

2

Typically the line that immediately follows that output points to a recipe and gives an exact line number where that error is occurring. Something like:

     NoMethodError:
       undefined method `+' for nil:NilClass
     # /tmp/d20190523-22755-lq35jk/cookbooks/mycookbook/recipes/default.rb:20:in `from_file'
     # ./test/unit/default_spec.rb:47:in `block (3 levels) in <top (required)>'
     # ./test/unit/default_spec.rb:51:in `block (3 levels) in <top (required)>'

From this example output I would know to look at my default recipe, line 20. You would need to post this info for further assistance, but generally what happens with a NoMethodError for nil:NilClass is that you have an attribute that you are adding something to and that attribute is not set:

value = node['mycookbook']['attribute'] + 4

^ but you have forgotten to set node['mycookbook']['attribute'] anywhere.