[chef] application + library pattern question

[Thorsten Sideboard < >]

hello there,

first time poster here.

I've been following the application + library pattern, using my own application cookbooks to override settings in library cookbooks. I have an application cookbook for installing Tomcat and overriding a number of settings in template for /etc/default/tomcat

My problem is that one every chef run, it updates that file on each run, and then subsequently restarts Tomcat, even though in fact, the file contents haven't changed, they just differ from the contents of the original tomcat library cookbook file.

Any advice on how best to stop this or override in my own application cookbook?

thanks!

thor