[chef] chef-client (solo) run lock

["Moser, Kevin" < >]

For those that are scheduling the chef-client to run on an interval and take 
advantage of the client locking so only one will run at a time, is the 
behavior where the client sits and waits to acquire a lock what folks depend 
on?

At first we had the assumption that the client would just shut back down if 
it can't acquire the lock.  However we now recognize this is not the case and 
there are instances where we have client runs stacking up on top of each 
other to the point where basically chef is running the whole time.

It's a problem that is manageable but got me thinking, is there need/interest 
in having the behavior configurable.  Maybe a command line or Chef::Config 
parameter that is like:

--run-lock wait or --run-lock terminate

Or in the config

run_lock "wait" or run_lock "terminate"

Default behavior being wait as it is today but if it is terminate then if the 
client can't acquire the lock it just logs a message and shuts down?

Is this useful to people, am I missing a reason why we wouldn't want this 
behavior?

Was hoping to generate some conversation and see what people think…

Kevin