Reference

knife-download(1)

The man page for the knife download subcommand. The knife download subcommand is used to download roles, cookbooks, environments, nodes, and data bags from the Chef server to the current working directory. It can be used to back up data on the Chef server, inspect the state of one or more files, or to extract out-of-process changes users may have made to files on the Chef server, such as if a user made a change that bypassed version source control. This subcommand is often used in conjunction with knife diff, which can be used to see exactly what changes will be downloaded, and then knife upload, which does the opposite of knife download. Syntax This subcommand has the following syntax: Options This subcommand has the following options: Examples To download the entire chef-repo from the Chef server, browse to the top level of the chef-repo and enter: To download the cookbooks/ directory from the Chef server, browse to the top level of the chef-repo and enter: or from anywhere in the chef-repo, enter: To download the environments/ directory from the Chef server, browse to the top level of the chef-repo and enter: or from anywhere in the chef-repo, enter: To download an environment named "production" from the Chef server, browse to the top level of the chef-repo and enter: or from the environments/ directory, enter: To download the roles/ directory from the Chef server, browse to the top level of the chef-repo and enter: or from anywhere in the chef-repo, enter: To download all cookbooks that start with "apache" and belong to the "webserver" role, browse to the top level of the chef-repo and enter:

NAME

knife-download - The man page for the knife download subcommand.

The knife download subcommand is used to download roles, cookbooks, environments, nodes, and data bags from the Chef server to the current working directory. It can be used to back up data on the Chef server, inspect the state of one or more files, or to extract out-of-process changes users may have made to files on the Chef server, such as if a user made a change that bypassed version source control. This subcommand is often used in conjunction with knife diff, which can be used to see exactly what changes will be downloaded, and then knife upload, which does the opposite of knife download.

Syntax

This subcommand has the following syntax:

$ knife download [PATTERN...] (options)

Options

This subcommand has the following options:

-c CONFIG_FILE, --config CONFIG_FILE

The configuration file to use.

--chef-repo-path PATH

The path to the chef-repo. This setting will override the default path to the chef-repo. Default: same as specified by chef_repo_path in config.rb.

--chef-zero-port PORT

The port on which chef-zero will listen.

--[no-]color

Use to view colored output.

--concurrency

The number of allowed concurrent connections. Default: 10.

--cookbook-version VERSION

The version of a cookbook to be downloaded.

-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.

--[no-]diff

Use to download only new and modified files. Set to false to download all files. Default: --diff.

-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 command, the command will run only against the named environment.

-F FORMAT, --format FORMAT

The output format: summary (default), text, json, yaml, and pp.

--[no-]force

Use --force to download files even when the file on the hard drive is identical to the object on the server (role, cookbook, etc.). By default, files are compared to see if they have equivalent content, and local files are only overwritten if they are different. Default: --no-force.

-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.

-n, --dry-run

Use to take no action and only print out results. Default: false.

--print-after

Use to show data after a destructive operation.

--[no-]purge

Use --purge to delete local files and directories that do not exist on the Chef server. By default, if a role, cookbook, etc. does not exist on the Chef server, the local file for said role will be left alone and NOT deleted. Default: --no-purge.

--[no-]recurse

Use --no-recurse to disable downloading a directory recursively. Default: --recurse.

--repo-mode MODE

The layout of the local chef-repo. Possible values: static, everything, or hosted_everything. Use static for just roles, environments, cookbooks, and data bags. By default, everything and hosted_everything are dynamically selected depending on the server type. Default: everything / hosted_everything.

-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 commands that work against the Chef server to also work against the local chef-repo.

Examples

To download the entire chef-repo from the Chef server, browse to the top level of the chef-repo and enter:

$ knife download /

To download the cookbooks/ directory from the Chef server, browse to the top level of the chef-repo and enter:

$ knife download cookbooks

or from anywhere in the chef-repo, enter:

$ knife download /cookbooks

To download the environments/ directory from the Chef server, browse to the top level of the chef-repo and enter:

$ knife download environments

or from anywhere in the chef-repo, enter:

$ knife download /environments

To download an environment named "production" from the Chef server, browse to the top level of the chef-repo and enter:

$ knife download environments/production.json

or from the environments/ directory, enter:

$ knife download production.json

To download the roles/ directory from the Chef server, browse to the top level of the chef-repo and enter:

$ knife download roles

or from anywhere in the chef-repo, enter:

$ knife download /roles

To download all cookbooks that start with "apache" and belong to the "webserver" role, browse to the top level of the chef-repo and enter:

$  knife download cookbooks/apache\* roles/webserver.json

AUTHOR

Chef

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