Description

The batch-packages cookbook facilitates the bulk installation of both gem and system packages. It should only be used for installation of dependencies that require little to no configuration. Such as development libraries.

The packages which should be installed can be passed in via attributes or data bag item for every role.

Requirements

The batch-packages cookbook is a standalone cookbook, no dependencies.

Attributes

There are only a few options:

• node['batch-packages']['data_bag'] (batch-packages): Which data bag should be used to receive package list? This data bag must not exists.
• node['batch-packages']['packages'] ({}): List of system packages which should be installed. Information about the package definition format
• node['batch-packages']['gem_packages'] ({}): List of ruby packages which should be installed. Information about the package definition format

Package definition

packages and gem_packages are hashes/dictionariese and defining which packages should be managed.

The key is the package name (e.g. openssl or ruby-shadow).

The value should be ...

• '': to install this package
• true: to upgrade the newest version
• a String: to install is special version
• false: to remove this package
• -1: to purge this packages, normally means uninstall package and remove configuration files
• nil: to not manage this package (used to remove previous defined action)

See the official documentation about package resources for a deeper understanding what this actions mean. All tasks are delegated to the package/gem_package resource.

Usage

With data bages

To use the batch-packages cookbook, create a batch-packages data bag. For each role you'd like to manage packages for, create a data bag item with the exact same id as the role. For example, if you have a roles/base.rb with id 'base' you'd create a data_bags/batch-packages/base.json data bag item with id 'base'.

Populate the data bag with two hashes, 'packages' and 'gem_packages'. Each hash item should have a key that's named for the package to install and a value that define which action should be done (true for normale install). See package definition format for all possible values.

Example:

{
  "id": "base",
  "packages": {
    "python-software-properties": true,
    "openssl": "1.0.1",
    "libreadline6": true,
    "zlib1g": true,
    "sqlite3": true,
    "imagemagick": true,
    "unison": true,
    "zsh": true,
    "vim": true,
    "tree": true,
    "mosh": true
  },
  "gem_packages": {
    "ruby-shadow": true
  }
}

Overwrite previous definition

The cookbooks receives the package information from all roles which have a data bag entry (in run_list order) and at last the package information from the node attributes. So you can overwrite rules.

The base role:

{
  "id": "base",
  "packages": {
    "openssl": "1.0.1",
    "zsh": true,
    "vim": true,
  }
}

and the node special attributes:

{
  "batch-packages": {
    "packages": {
      "openssl": null,
      "zsh": false,
    }
  }
}

This installes openssl version 1.0.1, zsh and vim on all nodes but on the node special openssl is not installed via chef (but also not removed), zsh is removed but all other packages (here vim) is installed like on all other nodes.