[chef] Re: Re: Using variables to define attributes?

[Noah Kantrowitz < >]

On Jul 6, 2015, at 4:53 PM, Dan-Joe Lopez 
<
 >
 wrote:

> OHAI Chefs!
> 
> I don’t know if this is even possible, but I am starting to feel like it is 
> not ☹ Also, I am pretty green, so my advanced apologies if this is a silly 
> question.
> 
> I would like to call a specific attribute by using a variable, or another 
> attribute.  I cannot find any documentation on the subject, and every 
> method that I have tried has resulted in an error.
> 
> So, I can call node[‘hostname’] and get the hostname; not a problem.
> But then let’s say I want to write something that calls an attribute in 
> which the host name is one of the path components… e.g.
> node[‘ec2’][‘instances’][HOSTNAME][‘ip’]…
> 
> if I manually type in the host name, no problem:
> node[‘ec2’][‘instances’][‘myhappyhost’][‘ip’]
> BOOM: 12.34.56.78
> 
> but when I try any variation of:
> node[‘ec2’][‘instances’][node[‘hostname’]][‘ip’]
> or
> var = node[‘hostname’]
> node[‘ec2’][‘instances’][var][‘ip’]
> node[‘ec2’][‘instances’][“var”][‘ip’]
> node[‘ec2’][‘instances’][‘var’][‘ip’]
> node[‘ec2’][‘instances’].var[‘ip’]
> etc…
> 
> nothing but errors ☹
> 
> Am I missing a permutation of syntax here? Is there documentation that 
> would have given me the answer? Is this even possible?
> 
> Your suggestions and help are appreciated!


node['ec2']['instances'][var] is correct, however chances are you are not 
storing things correctly. How are you populating that 
node['ec2']['instances'] hash? Nodes cannot see the node attributes of other 
nodes by default, you need to use the search API or something else to get 
that data.

--Noah

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