KNIFE(1)knifeKNIFE(1)NAMEknife - The man page for the knife command line tool.
Knife is a command-line tool that provides an interface between a local
chef-repo and the Chef server. Knife helps users to manage:
· Nodes
· Cookbooks and recipes
· Roles
· Stores of JSON data (data bags), including encrypted data
· Environments
· Cloud resources, including provisioning
· The installation of the chef-client on management workstations
· Searching of indexed data on the Chef server
Knife subcommands:
· knife bootstrap
· knife client
· knife configure
· knife cookbook
· knife cookbook site
· knife data bag
· knife delete
· knife deps
· knife diff
· knife download
· knife edit
· knife environment
· knife exec
· knife list
· knife node
· knife raw
· knife recipe list
· knife role
· knife search
· knife show
· knife ssh
· knife status
· knife tag
· knife upload
· knife user
· knife xargs
WORKING WITH KNIFE
Knife runs from a management workstation and sits in-between a Chef
server and an organization's infrastructure. Knife interacts with a
Chef server by using the same REST API that is used by a chef-client.
Role-based authentication controls (RBAC) can be used to authorize
changes when Knife is run with Enterprise Chef. Knife is configured
during workstation setup, but subsequent modifications can be made
using the knife.rb configuration file.
Common Options
The following options can be run with all Knife sub-commands and
plug-ins:
-c CONFIG_FILE, --config CONFIG_FILE
The configuration file to use. For example, when Knife is run
from a node that is configured to be managed by the Chef server,
this option is used to allow Knife to use the same credentials
as the chef-client when communicating with the Chef server.
--chef-zero-port PORT
The port on which chef-zero will listen.
-d, --disable-editing
Use to prevent the $EDITOR from being opened and to accept data
as-is.
--defaults
Use to have Knife use the default value instead of asking a user
to provide one.
-e EDITOR, --editor EDITOR
The $EDITOR that is used for all interactive commands.
-E ENVIRONMENT, --environment ENVIRONMENT
The name of the environment. When this option is added to a com‐
mand, the command will run only against the named environment.
This option is ignored during search queries made using the
knife search subcommand.
-F FORMAT, --format FORMAT
The output format: summary (default), text, json, yaml, and pp.
-h, --help
Shows help for the command.
-k KEY, --key KEY
The private key that Knife will use to sign requests made by the
API client to the Chef server.
--[no-]color
Use to view colored output.
--print-after
Use to show data after a destructive operation.
-s URL, --server-url URL
The URL for the Chef server.
-u USER, --user USER
The user name used by Knife to sign requests made by the API
client to the Chef server. Authentication will fail if the user
name does not match the private key.
-v, --version
The version of the chef-client.
-V, --verbose
Set for more verbose outputs. Use -VV for maximum verbosity.
-y, --yes
Use to respond to all confirmation prompts with "Yes". Knife
will not ask for confirmation.
-z, --local-mode
Use to run the chef-client in local mode. This allows all com‐
mands that work against the Chef server to also work against the
local chef-repo.
JSON Data Format
Most data is entered using a text editor in JSON format, unless the
--disable-editing option is entered as part of a command. (Encrypted
data bags use YAML, which is a superset of JSON.) JSON is a common,
language-independent data format that provides a simple text represen‐
tation of arbitrary data structures. For more information about JSON,
see http://www.json.org/ or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSON.
Set the Text Editor
Some Knife commands, such as knife data bag edit, require that informa‐
tion be edited as JSON data using a text editor. For example, the fol‐
lowing command:
$ knife data bag edit admins admin_name
will open up the text editor with data similar to:
{
"id": "admin_name"
}
Changes to that file can then be made:
{
"id": "Justin C."
"description": "I am passing the time by letting time pass over me ..."
}
The type of text editor that is used by Knife can be configured by
adding an entry to the knife.rb file or by setting an EDITOR environ‐
ment variable. For example, to configure the text editor to always open
with vim, add the following to the knife.rb file:
knife[:editor] = "/usr/bin/vim"
When a Microsoft Windows file path is enclosed in a double-quoted
string (" "), the same backslash character (\) that is used to define
the file path separator is also used in Ruby to define an escape char‐
acter. The knife.rb file is a Ruby file; therefore, file path separa‐
tors must be escaped. In addition, spaces in the file path must be
replaced with ~1 so that the length of each section within the file
path is not more than 8 characters. For example, if EditPad Pro is the
text editor of choice and is located at the following path:
C:\\Program Files (x86)\EditPad Pro\EditPad.exe
the setting in the knife.rb file would be similar to:
knife[:editor] = "C:\\Progra~1\\EditPa~1\\EditPad.exe"
One approach to working around the double- vs. single-quote issue is to
put the single-quotes outside of the double-quotes. For example, for
Notepad++:
knife[:editor] = '"C:\Program Files (x86)\Notepad++\notepad++.exe -nosession -multiInst"'
for Sublime Text:
knife[:editor] = '"C:\Program Files\Sublime Text 2\sublime_text.exe --wait"'
for TextPad:
knife[:editor] = '"C:\Program Files (x86)\TextPad 7\TextPad.exe"'
and for vim:
knife[:editor] = '"C:\Program Files (x86)\vim\vim74\gvim.exe"'
Using Quotes
Values can be entered with double quotes (" ") or single quotes (' '),
but this should be done consistently.
Sub-commands
Knife comes with a collection of built in subcommands that work
together to provide all of the functionality required to take specific
actions against any object in an organization, including cookbooks,
nodes, roles, data bags, environments, and users. A Knife plugin
extends the functionality beyond built-in subcommands.
Knife has the following subcommands: bootstrap, client, configure,
cookbook, cookbook site, data bag, delete, deps, diff, download, edit,
environment, exec, index rebuild, list, node, recipe list, role,
search, show, ssh, status, tag, upload, user, and xargs.
NOTE:
The following subcommands run only against the open source Chef
server: index rebuild and user.
Syntax
All Knife subcommands have the following syntax:
knife subcommand [ARGUMENT] (options)
Each subcommand has its own set of arguments and options.
NOTE:
All syntax examples in this document show variables in ALL_CAPS. For
example -u PORT_LIST (where PORT_LIST is a comma-separated list of
local and public UDP ports) or -F FORMAT (where FORMAT determines
the output format, either summary, text, json, yaml, or pp). These
variables often require specific values that are unique to each
organization.
AUTHOR
Chef
Chef 11.14 KNIFE(1)
