[chef] re-opening resources at run-time

[Bryan Berry < >]

Working on my new jira cookbook I have encountered the need to re-open a resource during run-time

https://github.com/bryanwb/cookbooks/blob/master/jira/recipes/default.rb

Here is what i want to do

# define a tomcat instance using my lwrp

tomcat "jira" do

  user jira_user

  action :install

  jvm_opts node['jira']['jvm_opts']

end



# define key template files




file "jira properties" do  path "#{t.base}/webapps/jira/WEB-INF/classes/jira-application.properties"  content <<-EOS

  # generated by Chef, don't touch!

  jira.home = /home/jira

  EOS

  owner jira_user
end




template "jdbc configuration" do

  path "/home/jira/dbconfig.xml"

  source "dbconfig.xml.erb"

  owner jira_user
end




# then reopen the tomcat resource at run_time to subscribe to the template files and start it

# here is my wacky idea on how to do it w/ the fictitious run_time resource

run_time "tomcat[jira]" do

   subscribes :restart, resources(templates => ['jdbc configuration', 'jira properties'] ), :immediately

   action :start

end




I believe that I could accomplish most of the above w/ a ruby_block but frankly that's pretty ugly. There must be a better way. I would really love to use something like a run_time resource that allows me to re-open a resource much like on can extend a ruby object, however I want it to happen at run_time and not compile-time. thoughts?