How to stop resource cloning in a loop for a chef recipe?

Question

I have a chef recipe that installs packages in a loop:

pkgs.each do |pkg|
  yum_package "tools" do
    package_name pkg
    action :install
  end
end

This recipe is however throwing the following error:

[2014-05-22T08:26:13-04:00] WARN: Cloning resource attributes for yum_package[tools] from prior resource (CHEF-3694)
[2014-05-22T08:26:13-04:00] WARN: Previous yum_package[tools]: /var/chef/cache/cookbooks/tools/recipes/default.rb:9:in `block in from_file'

Eventually, this feature is going to be removed. So, I need to find a way to properly loop in a chef recipe without throwing this warning; I've had no luck thus far trying to figure this out; I'm wondering if anyone else has a solution?

Mitchelmitchell

Answer 1

I made the resource in the loop unique to fix the issue:

ops_pkgs.each do |pkg|
  yum_package "tools #{pkg}" do
    package_name pkg
    action :install
  end
end

Mitchelmitchell

Yes, that works, but you make things more complicated than you have to. – Medieval

This is exactly the same as my answer. – Quechuan

Answer 2

package_name is the name attribute. Just do this:

ops_pkgs.each do |pkg|
  yum_package pkg
end

You do not even need to block because action :install is the default action.

Quechuan

Answer 3

Old question I know, but I wanted to at least get some experts' opinions on this. Maybe it is a better solution to use the cookbook which acknowledges that you probably do want it to clone and merge and not throw a warning about it:

http://scottwb.com/blog/2014/01/24/defeating-the-infamous-chef-3694-warning/

This only works for the action, but it could be extended to others.

Karmakarmadharaya