knife download
knife download subcommand to download roles, cookbooks,
environments, nodes, and data bags from the Chef Infra Server to the
current working directory. It can be used to back up data on the Chef
Infra 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 Infra
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
Note
This subcommand has the following options:
--chef-repo-path PATHThe path to the chef-repo. This setting will override the default path to the chef-repo. Default: same value as specified by
chef_repo_pathin client.rb.--concurrencyThe number of allowed concurrent connections. Default:
10.--cookbook-version VERSIONThe version of a cookbook to download.
-n,--dry-runTake no action and only print out results. Default:
false.--[no-]diffDownload only new and modified files. Set to
falseto download all files. Default:--diff.--[no-]forceUse
--forceto 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.--[no-]purgeUse
--purgeto delete local files and directories that do not exist on the Chef Infra Server. By default, if a role, cookbook, etc. does not exist on the Chef Infra Server, the local file for said role is left alone and NOT deleted. Default:--no-purge.--[no-]recurseUse
--no-recurseto disable downloading a directory recursively. Default:--recurse.--repo-mode MODEThe layout of the local chef-repo. Possible values:
static,everything, orhosted_everything. Usestaticfor just roles, environments, cookbooks, and data bags. By default,everythingandhosted_everythingare dynamically selected depending on the server type. Default:everything/hosted_everything.
Note
Examples
The following examples show how to use this knife subcommand:
Download the entire chef-repo
To download the entire chef-repo from the Chef Infra Server, browse to the top level of the chef-repo and enter:
knife download /
Download the /cookbooks directory
To download the cookbooks/ directory from the Chef Infra 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
Download the /environments directory
To download the environments/ directory from the Chef Infra 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
Download an environment
To download an environment named “production” from the Chef Infra 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
Download the /roles directory
To download the roles/ directory from the Chef Infra 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
Download cookbooks and 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
Download data bags
To download all data bags from the Chef Infra Server, browse to the top level of the chef-repo and enter:
knife download data_bags
or from anywhere in the chef-repo, enter:
knife download /data_bags