Chef Deprecation Warnings

When we wish to remove a feature or an API in Chef, we try to first mark it with a deprecation warning that contains a link to a description of the change and how to fix it. For example:

Deprecated features used!
  JSON auto inflation is not supported (CHEF-1) at (irb):7:in `irb_binding`.
  Please see /chef-client/deprecations/json_auto_inflate.html for further details and information on how to correct this problem.

Testing for Deprecations

To test your code for deprecations, you can put Test Kitchen in a mode where any deprecations cause the chef run to fail. Ensure your kitchen.yml includes:

provisioner:
  deprecations_as_errors: true

and then run Test Kitchen as usual. Test Kitchen will fail if any deprecation errors are issued.

Silencing deprecation warnings

Deprecation warnings are great for ensuring cookbooks are kept up-to-date and to prepare for major version upgrades, sometimes you just cannot fix a deprecation right away. Enabling treat_deprecation_warnings_as_errors mode in Test Kitchen integration tests often compounds the problem because it does not distinguish between deprecations from community cookbooks and those in your own code.

Two new options are provided for silencing deprecation warnings: silence_deprecation_warnings and inline chef:silence_deprecation comments.

The silence_deprecation_warnings configuration value can be set in your client.rb or solo.rb config file, either to true to silence all deprecation warnings or to an array of deprecations to silence. You can specify which to silence either by the deprecation key name (for example, "internal_api"), the numeric deprecation ID (for example, 25 or “CHEF-25”), or by specifying the filename and line number where the deprecation is being raised from (for example, "default.rb:67").

An example of setting the silence_deprecation_warnings option in your client.rb or solo.rb:

silence_deprecation_warnings %w{deploy_resource chef-23 recipes/install.rb:22}

or in your `kitchen.yml`:

provisioner:
  name: chef_solo
    solo_rb:
      treat_deprecation_warnings_as_errors: true
      silence_deprecation_warnings:
        - deploy_resource
        - chef-23
        - recipes/install.rb:22

You can also silence deprecations using a comment on the line that is raising the warning:

erl_call 'something' do # chef:silence_deprecation

We advise caution in the use of this feature, as excessive or prolonged silencing can lead to difficulty upgrading when the next major release of Chef comes out.

All Deprecations