# Directory resource (recursive) not changing ownership below top level

**URL:** <https://discourse.chef.io/t/directory-resource-recursive-not-changing-ownership-below-top-level/2403>\
**Category:** Chef Infra (archive)\
**Created:** [January 27, 2012, 4:56pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/directory-resource-recursive-not-changing-ownership-below-top-level/2403 "2012-01-27T16:56:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Van\_Fossan\_Randy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8797f3/32.png) [@Van\_Fossan\_Randy](https://discourse.chef.io/u/Van_Fossan_Randy)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2012, 4:56pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/directory-resource-recursive-not-changing-ownership-below-top-level/2403/1 "2012-01-27T16:56:42Z")

</div>

I have a recipe and in it I am trying to change the ownership  
recursively of an existing directory, subdirectory and files. I  
thought the Directory resource would be what I should use. However, it  
only changes the top level directory… How could I do this  
idempotently if the directory resource doesn’t work?

directory “/var/spool/postfix” do

owner “postfix”

group “root”

mode “0755”

recursive true

action :create

end

Randy

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Edward\_Sargisson](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.chef.io/edward_sargisson/32/570_2.png) [@Edward\_Sargisson](https://discourse.chef.io/u/Edward_Sargisson)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2012, 5:04pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/directory-resource-recursive-not-changing-ownership-below-top-level/2403/2 "2012-01-27T17:04:06Z")

</div>

execute chmod?

On Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 8:56 AM, Van Fossan,Randy [vanfossr@oclc.org](mailto:vanfossr@oclc.org) wrote:

> I have a recipe and in it I am trying to change the ownership recursively  
> of an existing directory, subdirectory and files. I thought the Directory  
> resource would be what I should use. However, it only changes the top  
> level directory… How could I do this idempotently if the directory  
> resource doesn’t work?\*\*\*\*
> 
> * * *
> 
> * * *
> 
> directory "/var/spool/postfix" do\*\*\*\*
> 
> owner "postfix"\*\*\*\*
> 
> group "root"\*\*\*\*
> 
> mode "0755"\*\*\*\*
> 
> recursive true\*\*\*\*
> 
> action :create\*\*\*\*
> 
> end\*\*\*\*
> 
> * * *
> 
> Randy\*\*\*\*

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Van\_Fossan\_Randy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8797f3/32.png) [@Van\_Fossan\_Randy](https://discourse.chef.io/u/Van_Fossan_Randy)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2012, 6:10pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/directory-resource-recursive-not-changing-ownership-below-top-level/2403/3 "2012-01-27T18:10:50Z")

</div>

Thanks Edward…

That is what I am doing now. Although, I do not believe that is  
idempotent (forces changes even if it already correct) and is more  
resource intensive (I think) than using the directory resource…??

From: [ejsarge@gmail.com](mailto:ejsarge@gmail.com) [[mailto:ejsarge@gmail.com](mailto:ejsarge@gmail.com)] On Behalf Of Edward  
Sargisson  
Sent: Friday, January 27, 2012 12:04 PM  
To: [chef@lists.opscode.com](mailto:chef@lists.opscode.com)  
Subject: [chef] Re: directory resource (recursive) not changing  
ownership below top level

execute chmod?

On Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 8:56 AM, Van Fossan,Randy [vanfossr@oclc.org](mailto:vanfossr@oclc.org)  
wrote:

I have a recipe and in it I am trying to change the ownership  
recursively of an existing directory, subdirectory and files. I  
thought the Directory resource would be what I should use. However, it  
only changes the top level directory… How could I do this  
idempotently if the directory resource doesn’t work?

directory “/var/spool/postfix” do

owner “postfix”

group “root”

mode “0755”

recursive true

action :create

end

Randy

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Edward\_Sargisson](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.chef.io/edward_sargisson/32/570_2.png) [@Edward\_Sargisson](https://discourse.chef.io/u/Edward_Sargisson)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2012, 6:15pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/directory-resource-recursive-not-changing-ownership-below-top-level/2403/4 "2012-01-27T18:15:34Z")

</div>

It's still idempotent. Once chmod is run then your desired files have the  
desired permissions.  
Sure, it will run again and again on each chef-client run but that's just  
not being efficient - not actually breach of idempotency.

My guess is that the recursive part of the directory resource is about  
creating the directories to get to that point - not to set permissions  
below it.

On Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 10:10 AM, Van Fossan,Randy [vanfossr@oclc.org](mailto:vanfossr@oclc.org)wrote:

> Thanks Edward..\*\*\*\*
> 
> * * *
> 
> That is what I am doing now. Although, I do not believe that is  
> idempotent (forces changes even if it already correct) and is more  
> resource intensive (I think) than using the directory resource…??\*\*\*\*
> 
> * * *
> 
> _From:_ [ejsarge@gmail.com](mailto:ejsarge@gmail.com) [[mailto:ejsarge@gmail.com](mailto:ejsarge@gmail.com)] _On Behalf Of Edward  
> Sargisson  
> Sent: Friday, January 27, 2012 12:04 PM  
> To: [chef@lists.opscode.com](mailto:chef@lists.opscode.com)  
> Subject: [chef] Re: directory resource (recursive) not changing  
> ownership below top level_\*\*
> 
> * * *
> 
> execute chmod?\*\*\*\*
> 
> On Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 8:56 AM, Van Fossan,Randy [vanfossr@oclc.org](mailto:vanfossr@oclc.org)  
> wrote:\*\*\*\*
> 
> I have a recipe and in it I am trying to change the ownership recursively  
> of an existing directory, subdirectory and files. I thought the Directory  
> resource would be what I should use. However, it only changes the top  
> level directory… How could I do this idempotently if the directory  
> resource doesn’t work?\*\*\*\*
> 
> * * *
> 
> * * *
> 
> directory "/var/spool/postfix" do\*\*\*\*
> 
> owner "postfix"\*\*\*\*
> 
> group "root"\*\*\*\*
> 
> mode "0755"\*\*\*\*
> 
> recursive true\*\*\*\*
> 
> action :create\*\*\*\*
> 
> end\*\*\*\*
> 
> * * *
> 
> Randy\*\*\*\*
> 
> * * *

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![KC\_Braunschweig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ea5d25/32.png) [@KC\_Braunschweig](https://discourse.chef.io/u/KC_Braunschweig)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2012, 10:08pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/directory-resource-recursive-not-changing-ownership-below-top-level/2403/5 "2012-01-27T22:08:08Z")

</div>

If you're worried, you could implement a not\_if clause to check if the  
chmod needs to happen. However, Edward is right, my understanding is  
that recursive just creates directories. It intentionally doesn't try  
to set ownership on things above the specified target even if it  
creates them. One reason is, you could recursively create directories  
an unknown number of levels deep; how do you know what to set the  
perms to at each level? What level do you stop at? The top is going to  
be / and you surely don't wanna change that, but hard to say where  
you'd wanna start below it. If you need to set permissions at multiple  
levels, I would include them all explicitly like:

["/var",  
"/var/spool",  
"/var/spool/postfix"].each do |dir|  
directory dir do  
owner "postfix"  
group "root"  
mode "0755"  
action :create  
end  
end

KC

On Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 10:15 AM, Edward Sargisson [esarge@pobox.com](mailto:esarge@pobox.com) wrote:

> It's still idempotent. Once chmod is run then your desired files have the  
> desired permissions.  
> Sure, it will run again and again on each chef-client run but that's just  
> not being efficient - not actually breach of idempotency.
> 
> My guess is that the recursive part of the directory resource is about  
> creating the directories to get to that point - not to set permissions below  
> it.
> 
> On Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 10:10 AM, Van Fossan,Randy [vanfossr@oclc.org](mailto:vanfossr@oclc.org)  
> wrote:
> 
> > Thanks Edward..
> > 
> > That is what I am doing now. Although, I do not believe that is  
> > idempotent (forces changes even if it already correct) and is more resource  
> > intensive (I think) than using the directory resource…??
> > 
> > From: [ejsarge@gmail.com](mailto:ejsarge@gmail.com) [[mailto:ejsarge@gmail.com](mailto:ejsarge@gmail.com)] On Behalf Of Edward  
> > Sargisson  
> > Sent: Friday, January 27, 2012 12:04 PM  
> > To: [chef@lists.opscode.com](mailto:chef@lists.opscode.com)  
> > Subject: [chef] Re: directory resource (recursive) not changing ownership  
> > below top level
> > 
> > execute chmod?
> > 
> > On Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 8:56 AM, Van Fossan,Randy [vanfossr@oclc.org](mailto:vanfossr@oclc.org)  
> > wrote:
> > 
> > I have a recipe and in it I am trying to change the ownership recursively  
> > of an existing directory, subdirectory and files. I thought the Directory  
> > resource would be what I should use. However, it only changes the top  
> > level directory… How could I do this idempotently if the directory  
> > resource doesn’t work?
> > 
> > directory "/var/spool/postfix" do
> > 
> > owner "postfix"
> > 
> > group "root"
> > 
> > mode "0755"
> > 
> > recursive true
> > 
> > action :create
> > 
> > end
> > 
> > Randy