Significance of attributes in metadata.rb file

Chef Infra (archive)
1

I read http://docs.opscode.com/essentials_cookbook_metadata.html, but it’s not
clear.

I see mysql cookbook’s metadata.rb doesn’t include all attributes used by that
cookbook (ex: grants_path is not there).

So my question is - when and where is the attribute list included in
metadata.rb used? Can I rely on that list for any purpose?

Thanks Rags

2

Hello,

The attributes in metadata are documentation and not actually used by the
cookbook for purposes of recipes and the like. The metadata gets converted
to JSON and is stored and used on the chef server primarily. Because this
metadata is JSON and machine parseable, it can be used by user interfaces
such as the community site to automatically display information about the
cookbook.

Unfortunately as documentation it often gets overlooked or neglected as
part of maintaining a cookbook.

On Tuesday, November 5, 2013, wrote:

I read http://docs.opscode.com/essentials_cookbook_metadata.html, but
it's not
clear.

I see mysql cookbook's metadata.rb doesn't include all attributes used by
that
cookbook (ex: grants_path is not there).

So my question is - when and where is the attribute list included in
metadata.rb used? Can I rely on that list for any purpose?

Thanks Rags

--
Joshua Timberman, Opscode, Inc.

3

Joshua Timberman joshua@opscode.com writes:

Hello,

The attributes in metadata are documentation and not actually used by the
cookbook for purposes of recipes and the like. The metadata gets converted
to JSON and is stored and used on the chef server primarily. Because this
metadata is JSON and machine parseable, it can be used by user interfaces
such as the community site to automatically display information about the
cookbook.

Unfortunately as documentation it often gets overlooked or neglected as
part of maintaining a cookbook.

Is there a way to figure out the list of valid attributes of a cookbook,
recipe wise?

Regards,
Noorul

On Tuesday, November 5, 2013, wrote:

I read http://docs.opscode.com/essentials_cookbook_metadata.html, but
it's not
clear.

I see mysql cookbook's metadata.rb doesn't include all attributes used by
that
cookbook (ex: grants_path is not there).

So my question is - when and where is the attribute list included in
metadata.rb used? Can I rely on that list for any purpose?

Thanks Rags