[chef] Chef not updating as I expect.

[Geoff Meakin Acid < >]

Hi all,

I am calling the apt cookbook to set up apt on my node (just apt::default, 
nothing fancy).
Later on, I realise that default debian includes nginx0.7, and I really want 
nginx1.0.6, for which I can add an apt repository.
I naturally think that the apt cookbook is the place for this, so I alter the 
default recipe and add this:

apt_repository "nginx" do
  uri "http://nginx.org/packages/debian/";
  distribution "squeeze"
  components ["nginx"]
  action :add
end

Pretty simple - I recommit, reupload the cookbooks, and expect the next time 
chef-client runs, for me to have a brand new 
/etc/apt/sources.list.d/nginx.list 
Except… nothing happens - 
Am I viewing chef the wrong way? It works if I instantiate a brand new node, 
but chef seems to believe its got no work to do on an existing node..

I have seen similar behaviour with a configuration file - e.g. nginx.conf - 
the first time chef writes it out fine, nicely templated. But if I go and 
change it and rerun chef-client, nothing happens. I would have expected chef 
to say 'hey this file doesnt look the way it's supposed to, i'm going to fix 
it back'

Thanks, Geoff


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