[chef] Re: Re: query if the package already installed

[Jonathan Matthews < >]

On 7 July 2010 07:49, Vasiliy G Tolstov 
<
 >
 wrote:
> My use case - i need to autoscale apache, mysql, nginx for current
> system (cpu and memory can be donamicly added or removed). Some recipes
> contains this, but it only applies, when the packages installed, not if
> the package already installed in the system...

Hi Vasiliy -

Whilst I'm sure you'll find a way to do this, I think it's worth
noting that (IMHO) there's a fundamental conflict occurring here:

Config management tools (e.g. Chef) want to be the Single Point Of
Truth in the system.  Their *purpose* is to be the entity that defines
the state of their clients and drives rectification actions
accordingly.

What /you're/ wanting to do is to get Chef to look at the client and
extrapolate the desired behaviour/state *from* the existing system
state.

As I say, I'm sure you'll find a route through to what you want to
achieve. It might just be worth re-examining you basic assumptions
about who's in charge on a system, however, so as to gain best
advantage from using Chef :-)

HTH,
Jonathan
-- 
Jonathan Matthews
London, UK
http://www.jpluscplusm.com/contact.html