---
description: |
  The chef-solo Packer provisioner installs and configures software on machines
  built by Packer using chef-solo. Cookbooks can be uploaded from your local
  machine to the remote machine or remote paths can be used.
page_title: Chef Solo - Provisioners
sidebar_title: Chef Solo
---

# Chef Solo Provisioner

@include 'provisioners/unmaintained-plugin.mdx'

Type: `chef-solo`

The Chef solo Packer provisioner installs and configures software on machines
built by Packer using [chef-solo](https://docs.chef.io/chef_solo.html).
Cookbooks can be uploaded from your local machine to the remote machine or
remote paths can be used.

The provisioner will even install Chef onto your machine if it isn't already
installed, using the official Chef installers provided by Chef Inc.

## Basic Example

The example below is fully functional and expects cookbooks in the "cookbooks"
directory relative to your working directory.

<Tabs>
<Tab heading="HCL2">

```hcl
provisioner "chef-solo" {
  cookbook_paths = ["cookbooks"]
}
```

</Tab>

<Tab heading="JSON">

```json
"provisioners":[{
  "type": "chef-solo",
  "cookbook_paths": ["cookbooks"]
}]
```

</Tab>
</Tabs>

## Configuration Reference

The reference of available configuration options is listed below. No
configuration is actually required, but at least `run_list` is recommended.

- `chef_environment` (string) - The name of the `chef_environment` sent to
  the Chef server. By default this is empty and will not use an environment

- `chef_license` (string) - As of Chef v15, Chef requires users to accept a
  license. Defaults to `accept-silent` when `skip_install` is false and
  `install_command` is unset. Possible values are `accept`,
  `accept-silent` and `accept-no-persist`. For details see [Accepting the
  Chef License](https://docs.chef.io/chef_license_accept.html).

- `config_template` (string) - Path to a template that will be used for the
  Chef configuration file. By default Packer only sets configuration it needs
  to match the settings set in the provisioner configuration. If you need to
  set configurations that the Packer provisioner doesn't support, then you
  should use a custom configuration template. See the dedicated "Chef
  Configuration" section below for more details.

- `cookbook_paths` (array of strings) - This is an array of paths to
  "cookbooks" directories on your local filesystem. These will be uploaded to
  the remote machine in the directory specified by the `staging_directory`.
  By default, this is empty.

- `data_bags_path` (string) - The path to the "data_bags" directory on your
  local filesystem. These will be uploaded to the remote machine in the
  directory specified by the `staging_directory`. By default, this is empty.

- `encrypted_data_bag_secret_path` (string) - The path to the file containing
  the secret for encrypted data bags. By default, this is empty, so no secret
  will be available.

- `environments_path` (string) - The path to the "environments" directory on
  your local filesystem. These will be uploaded to the remote machine in the
  directory specified by the `staging_directory`. By default, this is empty.

- `execute_command` (string) - The command used to execute Chef. This has
  various [configuration template variables](/docs/templates/legacy_json_templates/engine)
  available. See below for more information.

- `guest_os_type` (string) - The target guest OS type, either "unix" or
  "windows". Setting this to "windows" will cause the provisioner to use
  Windows friendly paths and commands. By default, this is "unix".

- `install_command` (string) - The command used to install Chef. This has
  various [configuration template variables](/docs/templates/legacy_json_templates/engine)
  available. See below for more information.

- `prevent_sudo` (boolean) - By default, the configured commands that are
  executed to install and run Chef are executed with `sudo`. If this is true,
  then the sudo will be omitted. This has no effect when guest_os_type is
  windows.

- `remote_cookbook_paths` (array of strings) - A list of paths on the remote
  machine where cookbooks will already exist. These may exist from a previous
  provisioner or step. If specified, Chef will be configured to look for
  cookbooks here. By default, this is empty.

- `roles_path` (string) - The path to the "roles" directory on your local
  filesystem. These will be uploaded to the remote machine in the directory
  specified by the `staging_directory`. By default, this is empty.

- `run_list` (array of strings) - The [run
  list](https://docs.chef.io/run_lists.html) for Chef. By default this is
  empty.

- `skip_install` (boolean) - If true, Chef will not automatically be
  installed on the machine using the Chef omnibus installers.

- `staging_directory` (string) - This is the directory where all the
  configuration of Chef by Packer will be placed. By default this is
  `/tmp/packer-chef-solo` when guest_os_type unix and
  `$env:TEMP/packer-chef-solo` when windows. This directory doesn't need to
  exist but must have proper permissions so that the user that Packer uses is
  able to create directories and write into this folder. If the permissions
  are not correct, use a shell provisioner prior to this to configure it
  properly.

- `version` (string) - The version of Chef to be installed. By default this
  is empty which will install the latest version of Chef.

@include 'provisioners/common-config.mdx'

#####  Node Attribute Mapping

An arbitrary mapping of JSON that will be available as node attributes while running Chef.

<Tabs>
<Tab heading="HCL2">

- `json_string` (string) - The JSON string can be encoded using the [jsonencode](/docs/templates/hcl_templates/functions/encoding/jsonencode)
template function.

```hcl
provisioner "chef-solo" {
  json_string = jsonencode({
    "a" = "b"
    "foo" = {
      "bar" = "val"
      "number" = 1
    }
  })
}
```

</Tab>

<Tab heading="JSON">

- `json` (object) - This option is only available to old-style JSON templates.

```json
"provisioners":[{
  "type": "chef-solo",
  "json": {
    "a": "b",
    "foo": {
      "bar": "val",
      "number": 1
    }
  }
}]
```

</Tab>
</Tabs>

## Chef Configuration

By default, Packer uses a simple Chef configuration file in order to set the
options specified for the provisioner. But Chef is a complex tool that supports
many configuration options. Packer allows you to specify a custom configuration
template if you'd like to set custom configurations.

The default value for the configuration template is:

```liquid
cookbook_path [{{.CookbookPaths}}]
```

This template is a [configuration template](/docs/templates/legacy_json_templates/engine) and
has a set of variables available to use:

- `ChefEnvironment` - The current enabled environment. Only non-empty if the
  environment path is set.
- `ChefLicense` - The Chef license acceptance value.
- `CookbookPaths` is the set of cookbook paths ready to embedded directly
  into a Ruby array to configure Chef.
- `DataBagsPath` is the path to the data bags folder.
- `EncryptedDataBagSecretPath` - The path to the encrypted data bag secret
- `EnvironmentsPath` - The path to the environments folder.
- `RolesPath` - The path to the roles folder.

## Execute Command

By default, Packer uses the following command (broken across multiple lines for
readability) to execute Chef:

```liquid
{{if .Sudo}}sudo {{end}}chef-solo \
  --no-color \
  -c {{.ConfigPath}} \
  -j {{.JsonPath}}
```

When guest_os_type is set to "windows", Packer uses the following command to
execute Chef. The full path to Chef is required because the PATH environment
variable changes don't immediately propagate to running processes.

```liquid
c:/opscode/chef/bin/chef-solo.bat \
  --no-color \
  -c {{.ConfigPath}} \
  -j {{.JsonPath}}
```

This command can be customized using the `execute_command` configuration. As
you can see from the default value above, the value of this configuration can
contain various template variables, defined below:

- `ConfigPath` - The path to the Chef configuration file.
- `JsonPath` - The path to the JSON attributes file for the node.
- `Sudo` - A boolean of whether to `sudo` the command or not, depending on
  the value of the `prevent_sudo` configuration.

## Install Command

By default, Packer uses the following command (broken across multiple lines for
readability) to install Chef. This command can be customized if you want to
install Chef in another way.

```text
curl -L https://omnitruck.chef.io/install.sh | \
  {{if .Sudo}}sudo{{end}} bash -s --{{if .Version}} -v {{.Version}}{{end}}
```

When guest_os_type is set to "windows", Packer uses the following command to
install the latest version of Chef:

```powershell
powershell.exe -Command \". { iwr -useb https://omnitruck.chef.io/install.ps1 } | iex; install\"
```

This command can be customized using the `install_command` configuration.