[chef] Re: Re: CHEF-3930: Run apt-get update automagically if apt-get install fails

[Bryan McLellan < >]

On Wed, Feb 27, 2013 at 6:05 PM, Andrea Campi
<
 >
 wrote:
> What about making it opt-in / opt-out with an attribute?
> I don't much care which way the default is, but it would sure be nice to
> have the option.

It would have to be a global attribute and the only established
pattern we have for that is Chef::Config options. These can kind of be
managed by templatizing the client.rb (e.g. chef-client cookbook) but
it's less of a "flag" than would be convenient for this sort of thing.

The reason it can't be a resource attribute is if you want it the
other way around, you're populating "auto_update true/false" in every
package resource in every cookbook if you want it the other way
around. Thus if you default it to false, you're not doing yourself
much of a favor over the existing alternatives of doing it well
(apt-update on mtime at the start of run in base, apt-get update on
apt_repository LWRP, etc).

But yeah, it feels awesome. Of course the apt package provider should
help me with my apt-cache! We also felt it violates a Chef Law, but
none of us could name it.

Bryan