[chef] Re: How to detect user does exist?

[Eric Helgeson < >]

Hey Anthony,

You can use a guard in this case to check and execute the resource 'only_if' the condition is true. You can use ruby or specify a command.

```
$ cat test.rb
group "sensu" do

  action :modify

  members "vagrant"

  append true

  only_if "getent passwd vagrant"
end

$ chef-apply test.rb
Recipe: (chef-apply cookbook)::(chef-apply recipe)
  * group[sensu] action modify (skipped due to only_if)
```

More info on Guards - https://docs.chef.io/resource_common.html#guards

Grabbed the guard form this post - http://stackoverflow.com/questions/24856339/chef-initialize-new-linux-user-if-it-doesnt-already-exist

​

HTH​

-Eric Helgeson

@nulleric

http://usingchef.com

On Sat, Feb 28, 2015 at 4:42 PM, Anthony Kong < " target="_blank"> > wrote:

Hi 

I have this definition on my cookbook

group "sensu" do

  action :modify

  members "vagrant"

  append true

end

it will throw an exception when I run it on ec2 because there is no user vagrant

How can I avoid the exception? Is there any way to detect the user exist? I have checked the doc https://docs.chef.io/resource_group.html but there is nothing obvious

Cheers,