build_cookbook

A build cookbook for running the parent project through Chef Workflow

This build cookbook should be customized to suit the needs of the parent project. Using this cookbook can be done outside of Chef Workflow, too. If the parent project is a Chef cookbook, we’ve detected that and “wrapped” delivery-truck. That means it is a dependency, and each of its pipeline phase recipes is included in the appropriate phase recipes in this cookbook. If the parent project is not a cookbook, it’s left as an exercise to the reader to customize the recipes as needed for each phase in the pipeline.

.delivery/config.json

In the parent directory to this build_cookbook, the config.json can be modified as necessary. For example, phases can be skipped, publishing information can be added, and so on. Refer to customer support or the Chef Workflow documentation for assistance on what options are available for this configuration.

Test Kitchen - Local Verify Testing

This cookbook also has a kitchen.yml which can be used to create local build nodes with Test Kitchen to perform the verification phases, unit, syntax, and lint. When running kitchen converge, the instances will be set up like Chef Workflow “build nodes” with the delivery_build cookbook. The reason for this is to make sure that the same exact kind of nodes are used by this build cookbook are run on the local workstation as would run Workflow. It will run delivery job verify PHASE for the parent project.

Modify the kitchen.yml if necessary to change the platforms or other configuration to run the verify phases. After making changes in the parent project, cd into this directory (.delivery/build_cookbook), and run:

kitchen test

Recipes

Each of the recipes in this build_cookbook are run in the named phase during the Chef Workflow pipeline. The unit, syntax, and lint recipes are additionally run when using Test Kitchen for local testing as noted in the above section.

Making Changes - Cookbook Example

When making changes in the parent project (that which lives in ../.. from this directory), or in the recipes in this build cookbook, there is a bespoke workflow for Chef Workflow. As an example, we’ll discuss a Chef Cookbook as the parent.

First, create a new branch for the changes.

git checkout -b testing-build-cookbook

Next, increment the version in the metadata.rb. This should be in the parent, not in this, the build_cookbook. If this is not done, the verify phase will fail.

% git diff

-version '0.1.0'
+version '0.1.1'

The change we’ll use for an example is to install the zsh package. Write a failing ChefSpec in the cookbook project’s spec/unit/recipes/default_spec.rb.

require 'spec_helper'

describe 'godzilla::default' do
  context 'When all attributes are default, on Ubuntu 18.04' do
    let(:chef_run) do
      runner = ChefSpec::ServerRunner.new(platform: 'ubuntu', version: '18.04')
      runner.converge(described_recipe)
    end

    it 'installs zsh' do
      expect(chef_run).to install_package('zsh')
    end
  end
end

Commit the local changes as work in progress. The delivery job expects to use a clean git repository.

git add ../..
git commit -m 'WIP: Testing changes'

From this directory (.delivery/build_cookbook, relative to the parent cookbook project), run

cd .delivery/build_cookbook
kitchen converge

This will take some time at first, because the VMs need to be created, Chef Infra Client installed, the Delivery CLI installed, etc. Later runs will be faster until they are destroyed. It will also fail on the first VM, as expected, because we wrote the test first. Now edit the parent cookbook project’s default recipe to install zsh.

cd ../../
$EDITOR/recipes/default.rb

It should look like this:

package 'zsh'

Create another commit.

git add .
git commit -m 'WIP: Install zsh in default recipe'

Now rerun kitchen from the build_cookbook.

cd .delivery/build_cookbook
kitchen converge

This will take a while because it will now pass on the first VM and then create the second VM. We should have warned you this was a good time for a coffee break.

Recipe: test::default

- execute HOME=/home/vagrant delivery job verify unit --server localhost --ent test --org kitchen
  * execute[HOME=/home/vagrant delivery job verify lint --server localhost --ent test --org kitchen] action run
    - execute HOME=/home/vagrant delivery job verify lint --server localhost --ent test --org kitchen

    - execute HOME=/home/vagrant delivery job verify syntax --server localhost --ent test --org kitchen

Running handlers:
Running handlers complete
Chef Infra Client finished, 3/32 resources updated in 54.665445968 seconds
Finished converging  (1m26.83s).

Victory is ours! Our verify phase passed on the build nodes.

We are ready to run this through our Workflow pipeline. Simply run delivery review on the local system from the parent project, and it will open a browser window up to the change we just added.

cd ../..
delivery review

FAQ

Why don’t I just run rspec and cookstyle on my local system?

An objection to the Test Kitchen approach is that it is much faster to run the unit, lint, and syntax commands for the project on the local system. That is totally true, and also totally valid. Do that for the really fast feedback loop. However, the dance we do with Test Kitchen brings a much higher degree of confidence in the changes we’re making, that everything will run on the build nodes in Chef Workflow. We strongly encourage this approach before actually pushing the changes to Workflow.

Why do I have to make a commit every time?

When running delivery job, it expects to merge the commit for the changeset against the clean master branch. If we don’t save our progress by making a commit, our local changes aren’t run through delivery job in the Test Kitchen build instances. We can always perform an interactive rebase, and modify the original changeset message in Workflow with delivery review --edit. The latter won’t modify the git commits, only the changeset in Workflow.

What do I do next?

Make changes in the cookbook project as required for organizational goals and needs. Modify the build_cookbook as necessary for the pipeline phases that the cookbook should go through.

What if I get stuck?

Contact Chef Support, or your Chef Customer Success team and they will help you get unstuck.

Modules

Classes