[chef] Re: Significance of attributes in metadata.rb file

[Joshua Timberman < >]

Hello,

The attributes in metadata are documentation and not actually used by the cookbook for purposes of recipes and the like. The metadata gets converted to JSON and is stored and used on the chef server primarily. Because this metadata is JSON and machine parseable, it can be used by user interfaces such as the community site to automatically display information about the cookbook.

Unfortunately as documentation it often gets overlooked or neglected as part of maintaining a cookbook. 

On Tuesday, November 5, 2013, wrote:

I read http://docs.opscode.com/essentials_cookbook_metadata.html, but it's not
clear.

I see mysql cookbook's metadata.rb doesn't include all attributes used by that
cookbook (ex: grants_path is not there).

So my question is - when and where is the attribute list included in
metadata.rb used? Can I rely on that list for any purpose?

Thanks Rags

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Joshua Timberman, Opscode, Inc.