[chef] Re: How to enhance an existing provider?

[Sean OMeara < >]

Look in libraries/monkey.rb

That particular code assumes that when you write a file, you want to
give it the same selinux context as it's containing directory by
default. Opinions on that?

It needs some heavy work and uses a raw string as the context
representation instead of breaking it into its individual parts.

It's a start.

On Tue, Jan 1, 2013 at 5:46 PM, Sean OMeara 
<
 >
 wrote:
> Hi!
>
> Excellent question. The best way to do this is to use a cookbook to
> monkey patch the Chef::Provider::File class, so you can experiment
> with it without having to modify core Chef.
>
> As it turns out, I started making a pass at this very issue a few
> years ago, but never got around to finishing it.
>
> Here's a good place to start!
>
> https://github.com/someara/cookbook-selinux/tree/monkeys
>
> Let me know if you have any questions or need any assistance.
>
> -s
>
> On Tue, Jan 1, 2013 at 5:26 PM,  
> <
 >
>  wrote:
>> I’m still on the up-slope of my Chef learning curve…
>>
>>
>>
>> What I’d like to do is enhance the Chef::Provider::File. It seems to me 
>> that
>> the documentation section “Extending an existing provider” would apply 
>> here,
>> but I don’t fully understand how it would work. I would create a mixin and
>> put it into the library directory – and then what?  How would all my
>> cookbooks – and the community ones I’m using - know to use this mixin?
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Specifically, what I’m trying to accomplish is fix one of the major
>> annoyances in Chef; it not only doesn’t support SELinux, but actively
>> clobbers the SELinux context for all he files, templates etc. that it
>> creates. So my recipes are littered with execute resources for the
>> “restorecon” utility to reset this everwhere I use a file-related resource
>> (templates, remote_file, cookbook file etc.). It is becoming unmanageable,
>> especially with community cookbooks that of course don’t have my hack 
>> added.
>>
>>
>>
>> Conceptually the fix is simple: in the file provider, in addition to 
>> setting
>> the file permissions, I would also need to call restorecon.
>>
>>
>>
>> Rather than hacking the File resource itself, I would like to put this
>> feature into my SELinux cookbook, and have that somehow add a Mixin to the
>> File resource.
>>
>>
>>
>> I just can’t figure out how to do that.
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>>