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I'm iterating over an array, and would like to use the key as part of the logic to lookup an Ohai value. In my particular case, I'm attempting to source each defined user's .bashrc if triggered from a previous resource.

Ohai structure:

"etc": { "passwd": { "root": { "dir": "/root", "gid": 0, "uid": 0, "shell": "/bin/bash", "gecos": "root" }, ... "foo": { "dir": "/home/foo", "gid": 501, "uid": 501, "shell": "/bin/bash", "gecos": "" }, ...

So as I loop through, I am trying to do something like:

node['my_cookbook']['managed_users'].each do |usr| bash 'reload_shell' do code "source #{node['etc']['passwd'][usr]['dir']}/.bashrc" action :nothing end end

I've tried also using ['usr'], [#{usr}], and ["usr"] notations, as well as escaping quotes.

Dan Stark
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1 Answers1

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To iterate over a hash in ruby and access the key you can do:

node['my_cookbook']['managed_users'].each do |usr,props|
  bash 'reload_shell' do
    code "source #{node['etc']['passwd'][usr]['dir']}/.bashrc"
    action :nothing
  end
end

If you don't care about the key or the values under it, replace the corresponding variable by _ i.e. in your case: 

node['my_cookbook']['managed_users'].each do |usr,_|
  bash 'reload_shell' do
    code "source #{node['etc']['passwd'][usr]['dir']}/.bashrc"
    action :nothing
  end
end

Without doing this, you get the full underlying hash, so your usr var is

{
  "root": {
    "dir": "/root",
    "gid": 0,
    "uid": 0,
    "shell": "/bin/bash",
    "gecos": "root"
}

instead of being just "root".

Side note: sourcing works for the current shell, within a bash resource the shell is spawned, command executed and the shell is closed. Sourcing a file will have no effect (unless there's a complex processus inside the .bash_rc doing something, this won't affect the system nor the chef run)

Tensibai
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  • I've upvoted you for your explanation of sourcing, thanks! However, I'm still seeing a problem `undefined method [] for nil:NilClass` using the |usr,_| notation. – Dan Stark Jul 04 '15 at 15:02
  • It was not part of your original question, this mean there's something missing or a typo in the attributes names or that the user your're targeting does not exist – Tensibai Jul 04 '15 at 16:01
  • Just to close the loop on my undefined method issue, I needed to include an ohai "reload" resource and set my paths using lazy attribution. https://docs.chef.io/resource_ohai.html https://docs.chef.io/resource_common.html#lazy-attribute-evaluation – Dan Stark Jul 06 '15 at 01:54
  • If the users are created in the same, indeed you need to reload ohai for the expected users to be present in the node attributes. – Tensibai Jul 06 '15 at 07:53