[chef] Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Installing large numbers of packages

[Matt Palmer < >]

On Thu, Sep 1, 2011 at 5:51 PM, KC Braunschweig
<
 >
 wrote:
> One thing I noticed when starting with Chef is this tendency to
> install a bunch of packages together. I suspect its because it is a
> simple/common resource so you start there and figure "let Chef handle
> the package and I'll add more logic for fancy config stuff later".
> This is probably a reasonable sentiment, but you end up with a big
> list of packages to install which I suspect will not be what you want
> at the end of the day. Once you really get into it, a package isn't
> very interesting. It probably needs some config files tweaked and
> maybe a service started up after you install it before it can do
> something useful.

Of the 47 packages I've got in my "install these onto new
workstations" list, none of them require any sort of post-installation
configuration or service initialisation.  They are all packages that
provide additional functionality (like a full version of vim, strace,
etc) that just need to be "on the system".

Yes, sometimes you really *do* just need a big list of packages.

- Matt