[chef] Re: Re: Re: Cookbook Releases, summit edition

[Hedge Hog < >]

On Tue, Dec 6, 2011 at 7:51 AM, Tim Uckun 
<
 >
 wrote:
>> Having said that [yes another qualification], apart from the first
>> point, I'm quite open to suggestions about how to proceed.
>>
>
>
> I don't know anything about chef yet so this may be a bit naive but
> would it be possible to deliver chef cookbooks as gems?   That way you
> can have a bundler gemfile which lists all your cookbooks.
>
> If this is a silly suggestion please excuse my ignorance.

No, its not silly, and indeed I have tried just that.  Bundler, 1.0
and it seems 1.1 too,  is effectively broken (from memory see issue
#67) when it comes to using git repos in they way you'd need to with
Chef cookbooks.
I did try patching Bundler and submitting a pull request which was
either too much or too bad, likely both ;)
Anyway, I'd counsel against anyone trying to make Bundler work - it is
complex and I found its test suite a nightmare and next to no use in
describing behavior.  Hopefully things have/will improve, but be
forewarned.
I think opscode have tackled dep resolution in a nice way on the
server side, but that doesn't address chef-solo use cases.  AFAICT
until Bundler can handle git repo's well, gems are not really a nice
option, but you could maybe shoe-horn them into it.

I think there is a good case that you should not delegate something as
important a production software installation to a dependencu
auto-resolution tool.  Notwithstanding all my effort in trying to do
exactly this :)
I think pulling a commit hash into your local cookbook and deploying
that is not a terrible way to go, esp given that you'd test the
daylights out of an installation before deploying any software change.
The Bundler et.al sweet spot is: a) deliver a conveneint starting
point and b) rapid development iterations, and even Bundler seems to
ack this with the package/deployment options that freeze everything
when you deploy.
That said I'd prefer if Bundler did 'just-work', and I could simply
use Bundler's deploy/package options.... may be in time :)

HTH

-- 
πόλλ' οἶδ ἀλώπηξ, ἀλλ' ἐχῖνος ἓν μέγα
[The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.]
  Archilochus, Greek poet (c. 680 BC – c. 645 BC)
http://hedgehogshiatus.com