[chef] Populating attributes from the system.

[Doug Garstang < >]

This problem keeps popping up, and it never feels quite right.

I need to extract some data from the system and populate node attributes from that, so that my cookbook will function.

If I use a library to get the system info, then I have move the setting of the attributes out of attributes/ files into a recipe, and make sure that recipe runs first. Any attributes that are derived from these attributes also have to be put into the same recipe. I then have some attributes being defined in attributes files and some recipes which doesn't feel right.

Writing an ohai plugin that pulls the system info means that the attributes are immediately available as ohai data when chef runs. This also feels like the wrong approach though.

What is the right way to do this?

Doug.