[chef] Re: [Chef] Write current date to template, when it changes

[Bryan McLellan < >]

On Tue, Mar 6, 2012 at 9:29 AM,  
<
 >
 wrote:
> I want to write a cookbook for a bind. My problem is, that I don't know how 
> I  can generate the timestamp (serial) without changing the template 
> everytime.

The template provider renders the template to disk and then compares
it with the existing file using a checksum. Thus you can't easily do
this.

One solution could be to set the time field in the template to a
static placeholder like TIME_BASED_SERIAL and set the template path to
a temporary directory near the real file. Then create an execute or
ruby_block resource with its default action set to nothing. Have it
replace that value with a generated time and move the file into the
production location. Notify this resource from the template resource
and then notify the reload of the service with this one.

template "/etc/bind/staging/foo.conf" do
  source "foo.conf.erb"
  owner "root"
  group "root"
  notifies :run, "execute[bind-install-foo]", :immediately
end

execute "bind-install-foo" do
  command "sed -ie
s/TIME_BASED_SERIAL/#{Time.new.strftime("%Y%m%d%H%M")}/
/etc/bind/stanging/foo.conf && mv /etc/bind/staging/foo.conf
/etc/bind/foo.conf"
  action :nothing
  notifies :reload "service[named]", :delayed
end

service "named" do
  action [ :start, :enabled]
end

Bryan