Problem with nginx recipe

problem.md

I'm having trouble with the nginx recipe from opscode. It seems like it never picks up on a variable I set in my attributes.

I have a "base" recipe, with an attributes/default.rb file that looks like this:

default.nginx.install_method = 'source'
default.nginx.source.version = '1.5.3'

That base recipe eventualy calls include_recipe "nginx::source"

But it fails, as shown here:

Resource Declaration:
---------------------
# In /tmp/vagrant-chef-1/chef-solo-1/cookbooks/nginx/recipes/source.rb

 84: bash "compile_nginx_source" do
 85:   cwd ::File.dirname(src_filepath)
 86:   code <<-EOH
 87:     tar zxf #{::File.basename(src_filepath)} -C #{::File.dirname(src_filepath)} &&
 88:     cd nginx-#{node['nginx']['source']['version']} &&
 89:     ./configure #{node.run_state['nginx_configure_flags'].join(" ")} &&
 90:     make && make install
 91:   EOH
 92:
 93:   not_if do
 94:     nginx_force_recompile == false &&
 95:       node.automatic_attrs['nginx'] &&
 96:       node.automatic_attrs['nginx']['version'] == node['nginx']['source']['version'] &&
 97:       node.automatic_attrs['nginx']['configure_arguments'].sort == configure_flags.sort
 98:   end
 99:
100:   notifies :restart, "service[nginx]"
101: end
102:



Compiled Resource:
------------------
# Declared in /tmp/vagrant-chef-1/chef-solo-1/cookbooks/nginx/recipes/source.rb:84:in `from_file'

bash("compile_nginx_source") do
  action "run"
  retries 0
  retry_delay 2
  command "\"bash\"  \"/tmp/chef-script20130731-14469-f1tw0d\""
  backup 5
  cwd "/var/chef/cache"
  returns 0
  code "    tar zxf nginx-1.5.3.tar.gz -C /var/chef/cache &&\n    cd nginx-1.5.3 &&\n    ./configure --prefix=/opt/nginx-1.2.6 --conf-path=/etc/nginx/nginx.conf --sbin-path=/opt/ngi
nx-1.2.6/sbin/nginx --with-http_ssl_module --with-http_gzip_static_module &&\n    make && make install\n"
  interpreter "bash"
  cookbook_name :nginx
  recipe_name "source"
  not_if { #code block }
end

which fails with cd: nginx-1.5.3: No such file or directory

Some weirdness:

• the --prefix is nginx-1.2.6, which does not make any sense, since the prefix is built from the version here
• the nginx download url seems to fail too. It's built here

So, basically it seems I'm maybe setting my attributes incorrectly?

It uses attributes/default.rb where it overrides the attributes default.nginx.source.version by the attribute default.nginx.version, so you got the version 1.2.6 in --prefix compiling flag. So the solution is, provide another attribute default.nginx.version = '1.5.3'

Even with that overridden, I still end up with the funky prefix.

my attributes:

default.nginx.install_method = 'source'
default.nginx.source.version = '1.5.3'
default.nginx.version = '1.5.3'

The line with the bad output:

Compiled Resource:
------------------
# Declared in /tmp/vagrant-chef-1/chef-solo-1/cookbooks/nginx/recipes/source.rb:84:in `from_file'

bash("compile_nginx_source") do
  action "run"
...snip
  code "    tar zxf nginx-1.5.3.tar.gz -C /var/chef/cache &&\n    cd nginx-1.5.3 &&\n    ./configure --prefix=/opt/nginx-1.2.6 --conf-pnx-1.2.6/sbin/nginx --with-http_ssl_module --with-http_gzip_static_module &&\n    make && make install\n"
...snip
end

You need to override additional variables: prefix, url, sbin_path, and default_configure_flags:

set['nginx']['version'] = "1.5.3"
set['nginx']['source']['version'] = "1.5.3"
set['nginx']['source']['checksum'] = "edcdf2030750b4eb1ba8cd79365c16a3e33e6136b7fdd8a1a7b4082397f4e92b"
set['nginx']['source']['prefix'] = "/opt/nginx-#{node['nginx']['source']['version']}"
set['nginx']['source']['url'] = "http://nginx.org/download/nginx-#{node['nginx']['source']['version']}.tar.gz"
set['nginx']['source']['sbin_path'] = "#{node['nginx']['source']['prefix']}/sbin/nginx"
set['nginx']['source']['default_configure_flags'] = [
  "--prefix=#{node['nginx']['source']['prefix']}",
  "--conf-path=#{node['nginx']['dir']}/nginx.conf",
  "--sbin-path=#{node['nginx']['source']['sbin_path']}"
]

This is because these variables embed other variables, and they are set using values that have not yet been overriden by your values.

By specifying these additional variables in your wrapper cookbook, you ensure they are using all the updated values you expect.

Also, because the default values are already set in the nginx cookbook, it's better to use something like set (an alias for normal) as that more accurately describes what you are doing and has a higher attribute precedence.