Chef Attributes: does file name matter?

Question

When I create attributes in my cookbook's attributes /attributes/default.rb things work fine.

If I add a recipe to my cookbook, say /recipes/dofubar.rb, I expect that attributes defined in /attributes/dofubar.rb to be loaded. They do not appear to be.

Is there a way to define one set of default attributes for one recipe and other sets for other recipes?

Southdown

Answer 1

There is no correlation between attribute file names and recipes. All files in the attributes/ folder are loaded in order during the start of the Chef Client run. Even if you name an attribute.rb file the same as a recipe, Chef makes no correlation. All attribute files will be loaded each time.

Ratiocinate

Why so? It seems logical to correlate attribute and recipe file name. And if one wants to load some other attribute file, then include_attribute is the way. – Endocarditis

As a little note here: when loading the attribute files, the default.rb will always be loaded first. After that, all the other attribute files in the cookbook will be loaded in alphabetical order. – Brezhnev

@Ratiocinate You are one of the authors of Chef. At least you work there :) Whom else should we ask? – Endocarditis

What is the point of allowing multiple attribute files in a cookbook, if they are all loaded automatically? – Sup

@JanHettich For organisational purposes... say I have a bunch of attributes specific to a single template. If I ever need to add, edit or delete them it becomes a lot easier if they grouped. – Lien