No way to install new cheffish version in single chef-client run once it got activated

[poliva83]

I used chef-client 12.4.1 which has cheffish version 1.2. I hit issue #50 when trying to create organization with members.

I then used chef_gem at compile time to install version 1.5.0 (1.6.0 conflicts with chef-client 12.4.1) however I can not activate 1.5.0 since chef-client seems to have already activated 1.2. Only workaround (which kind of stinks) I have is to stop chef-client after 1.5.0 is installed and then trigger a new chef-client run and it seems to pick up latest version. Same result even if you have a chef_gem resource removing 1.2 (doesn't matter as its already activated) before installing 1.5.0. Is there anyway to get chef-client to deactivate cheffish 1.2 during chef-client run?

[poliva-chef-server-be-1a] Starting Chef Client, version 12.4.1
 resolving cookbooks for run list: ["bb_chef_server_cluster::backend", "bb_chef_server_cluster::manage_rbac"]
 Synchronizing Cookbooks:
   - bb_apt
   - bb_chef_server_cluster
   - bb_lvm
   - bb_nsupdate
   - apt
   - lvm
   - chef-ingredient
   - apt-chef
   - yum-chef
   - yum
 Compiling Cookbooks...
 Recipe: bb_chef_server_cluster::default
   * chef_gem[install cheffish version 1.5.0] action install
     - install version 1.5.0 of package cheffish
 ["1.5.0", "1.2"]

   ================================================================================
   Recipe Compile Error in /var/chef/cache/cookbooks/bb_chef_server_cluster/recipes/manage_rbac.rb
   ================================================================================

   Gem::LoadError
   --------------
   can't activate cheffish-1.5.0, already activated cheffish-1.2

   Cookbook Trace:
   ---------------
     /var/chef/cache/cookbooks/bb_chef_server_cluster/recipes/manage_rbac.rb:19:in `from_file'

   Relevant File Content:
   ----------------------
   /var/chef/cache/cookbooks/bb_chef_server_cluster/recipes/manage_rbac.rb:

    12:  output = `#{File.join(RbConfig::CONFIG['bindir'], 'gem')} list | grep cheffish`.slice(/\(.*\)/)
    13:  versions = output[1..-2].split(',').collect{|x| x.strip} unless output.nil?
    14:  versions ||= []
    15:  p versions
    16:
    17:  require 'English'
    18:  #require 'cheffish'
    19>> gem 'cheffish' , '=1.5.0'
    20:  require 'cheffish'
    21:
    22:  ruby_block "only modify rbac content on master backend" do
    23:    block do
    24:    end
    25:    only_if { `/usr/bin/chef-server-ctl ha-status` && $CHILD_STATUS.to_i.eql?(0) }
    26:    only_if { `/usr/bin/chef-server-ctl ha-status | /bin/grep 'cluster status = master'` && $CHILD_STATUS.to_i.eql?(0) }
    27:  end
    28:

[randomcamel]

I'm not a Ruby VM expert, but in general hot-swapping code is really hard, and I'd be very surprised if Ruby has acquired this capability since the last time I looked.

Is there a place you can put a chef gem install in before chef-client starts?

[poliva83]

@randomcamel I ended up just baking chef-client into my image removing 1.2 and installing 1.5.0 cheffish gem. Then at deploy time the correct version of cheffish will get activated by chef-client and used.

[randomcamel]

@poliva83 Okay to close this? I don't think it's really a Cheffish-specific problem.

[poliva83]

@randomcamel I do have a workaround so I am fine to close. However I did discuss problem with @jkeiser yesterday and he mentioned to keep it open since others could potentially hit same problem.

[jkeiser]

@poliva83 this commit to chef should fix this: chef/chef#4264

Chef 12.6 should have the fix!

[poliva83]

@jkeiser Thanks I will check try this out when 12.6 is released.