Deprecation: Custom Resource Cleanups (CHEF-5)
We are continuously improving and streamlining the way custom resources work in Chef, to make it easier for cookbook authors and Chef developers to build resources.
This page documents many deprecations over the course of many Chef releases.
Nil Properties
In current versions of Chef, nil was often used to mean that a
property had no good default, and needed to be set by the user. However,
it is often to useful to set a property to nil, meaning that it’s not
set and should be ignored. In Chef Client 13, it is an error to set
default: nil on a property if that property doesn’t allow nil as a
valid value.
Remediation
If it is valid for the property to be set to nil, then update the property to include that.
property :my_nillable_property, [ String, nil ], default: nil
Otherwise, remove the default: nil statement from the property.
Invalid Defaults
Current versions of Chef emit a warning when a property’s default value is not valid. This is often because the type of the default value doesn’t match the specification of the property. For example:
property :my_property, [ String ], default: []
sets the type of the property to be a String, but then sets the default to be an Array. In Chef Client 13, this will be an error.
Remediation
Ensure that the default value of a property is correct.
Property Getters
When writing a resource in Chef Client 12, calling some_property nil
behaves as a getter, returning the value of some_property. In Chef
Client 13, this will change to set some_property to nil.
Remediation
Simply write some_property when retrieving the value of
some_property.
Specifying both “default” and “name_property” on a resource
Current versions of Chef emit a warning if the property declaration has
both default and name_property set. In Chef Client 13, that will
become an error. For example:
property :my_property, [ String ], default: [], name_property: true
Remediation
A property can either have a default, or it can be a “name” property (meaning that it will take the value of the resource’s name if not otherwise specified), but not both.
Overriding provides?
Some providers override the provides? method, used to check whether
they are a valid provider on the current platform. In Chef Client 13,
this will cause an error if the provider does not also register
themselves with the provides call.
Example
def provides?
true
end
Remediation
provides :my_provider
def provides?
true
end
Don’t use the updated method
The updated=(true_or_false) method is deprecated and will be removed
from Chef Client 13. This method never performed its intended job, as
notifications from the resource would not fire, and in general its use
has always been buggy. The Chef Infra Client notification code checks
updated_by_last_action? instead, so setting that is recommended as a
substitute. See the
updated_by_last_action
documentation for more information.
Note
updated_by_last_action is almost always unnecessary, and
correct use of use_inline_resources (which is the default in Chef
Client 13 and above) makes the updated_by_last_action setting
redundant. Simply deleting this code is very likely to be the correct
course of action in nearly all cases.
Example
action :foo do
updated = true
end
Remediation
action :foo do
new_resource.updated_by_last_action true
end
Don’t use the dsl_name method
The dsl_name method is deprecated and will be removed from Chef Client. It has been replaced by resource_name.
Example
my_resource = MyResource.dsl_name
Remediation
my_resource = MyResource.resource_name
Don’t use the provider_base method
The Resource.provider_base allows the developer to specify an
alternative module to load providers from, rather than Chef::Provider.
It is deprecated and will be removed in Chef Client 13. Instead, the
provider should call provides to register itself, or the resource
should call provider to specify the provider to use.
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