6 files changed, 102 insertions, 3 deletions
diff --git a/lib/chef/cookbook/cookbook_version_loader.rb b/lib/chef/cookbook/cookbook_version_loader.rb
index d253c956b2..b2305d3870 100644
--- a/lib/chef/cookbook/cookbook_version_loader.rb
+++ b/lib/chef/cookbook/cookbook_version_loader.rb
@@ -108,10 +108,10 @@ class Chef
           @uploaded_cookbook_version_file = File.join(cookbook_path, UPLOADED_COOKBOOK_VERSION_FILE)
         end
 
-        if File.exists?(File.join(cookbook_path, "metadata.rb"))
-          @metadata_filenames << File.join(cookbook_path, "metadata.rb")
-        elsif File.exists?(File.join(cookbook_path, "metadata.json"))
+        if File.exists?(File.join(cookbook_path, "metadata.json"))
           @metadata_filenames << File.join(cookbook_path, "metadata.json")
+        elsif File.exists?(File.join(cookbook_path, "metadata.rb"))
+          @metadata_filenames << File.join(cookbook_path, "metadata.rb")
         elsif @uploaded_cookbook_version_file
           @metadata_filenames << @uploaded_cookbook_version_file
         end
diff --git a/spec/data/prefer_metadata_json/metadata.json b/spec/data/prefer_metadata_json/metadata.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..eff8836a3b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spec/data/prefer_metadata_json/metadata.json
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+{
+  "name": "prefer_metadata_json",
+  "description": "",
+  "long_description": "",
+  "maintainer": null,
+  "maintainer_email": null,
+  "license": "All rights reserved",
+  "platforms": {
+
+  },
+  "dependencies": {
+
+  },
+  "recommendations": {
+
+  },
+  "suggestions": {
+
+  },
+  "conflicting": {
+
+  },
+  "providing": {
+
+  },
+  "replacing": {
+
+  },
+  "attributes": {
+
+  },
+  "groupings": {
+
+  },
+  "recipes": {
+
+  },
+  "version": "1.2.3",
+  "source_url": "",
+  "issues_url": "",
+  "privacy": false,
+  "chef_versions": [
+
+  ],
+  "ohai_versions": [
+
+  ],
+  "gems": [
+
+  ]
+}
diff --git a/spec/data/prefer_metadata_json/metadata.rb b/spec/data/prefer_metadata_json/metadata.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..a46aa29a5c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spec/data/prefer_metadata_json/metadata.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+# these deliberately do not match metadata.json
+name "test"
+version "0.0.1"
+
+# this raises hard if anything even tries to parse it
+raise "TEH SADNESS"
diff --git a/spec/data/prefer_metadata_json/recipes/default.rb b/spec/data/prefer_metadata_json/recipes/default.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e69de29bb2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spec/data/prefer_metadata_json/recipes/default.rb
diff --git a/spec/integration/client/client_spec.rb b/spec/integration/client/client_spec.rb
index da3a2b98e4..7a8059066a 100644
--- a/spec/integration/client/client_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/integration/client/client_spec.rb
@@ -46,6 +46,7 @@ describe "chef-client" do
   # we're running `chef-client` from the source tree and not the external one.
   # cf. CHEF-4914
   let(:chef_client) { "ruby '#{chef_dir}/chef-client' --minimal-ohai" }
+  let(:chef_solo) { "ruby '#{chef_dir}/chef-solo' --minimal-ohai" }
 
   let(:critical_env_vars) { %w{_ORIGINAL_GEM_PATH GEM_PATH GEM_HOME GEM_ROOT BUNDLE_BIN_PATH BUNDLE_GEMFILE RUBYLIB RUBYOPT RUBY_ENGINE RUBY_ROOT RUBY_VERSION PATH}.map { |o| "#{o}=#{ENV[o]}" } .join(" ") }
 
@@ -499,4 +500,36 @@ EOM
       expect(result.exitstatus).not_to eq(0)
     end
   end
+
+  when_the_repository "has a cookbook with broken metadata.rb, but has metadata.json" do
+    before do
+      file "cookbooks/x/recipes/default.rb", ""
+      file "cookbooks/x/metadata.rb", <<EOM
+name 'x'
+version '0.0.1'
+raise "TEH SADNESS"
+EOM
+      file "cookbooks/x/metadata.json", <<EOM
+{
+  "name": "x",
+  "version": "0.0.1"
+}
+EOM
+
+      file "config/client.rb", <<EOM
+local_mode true
+cookbook_path "#{path_to('cookbooks')}"
+EOM
+    end
+
+    it "the chef client run should succeed" do
+      command = shell_out("#{chef_client} -c \"#{path_to('config/client.rb')}\" -o 'x::default' --no-fork", :cwd => chef_dir)
+      command.error!
+    end
+
+    it "a chef-solo run should succeed" do
+      command = shell_out("#{chef_solo} -c \"#{path_to('config/client.rb')}\" -o 'x::default' --no-fork", :cwd => chef_dir)
+      command.error!
+    end
+  end
 end
diff --git a/spec/unit/cookbook/cookbook_version_loader_spec.rb b/spec/unit/cookbook/cookbook_version_loader_spec.rb
index 87d0f1e032..786e17f35b 100644
--- a/spec/unit/cookbook/cookbook_version_loader_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/unit/cookbook/cookbook_version_loader_spec.rb
@@ -104,6 +104,15 @@ describe Chef::Cookbook::CookbookVersionLoader do
 
     end
 
+    context "when a cookbook's metadata.rb does not parse but the compiled metadata.json is present" do
+      let(:cookbook_path) { File.join(CHEF_SPEC_DATA, "prefer_metadata_json") }
+
+      it "reads the cookbook" do
+        expect(loaded_cookbook.metadata.name.to_s).to eq("prefer_metadata_json")
+        expect(loaded_cookbook.metadata.version.to_s).to eq("1.2.3")
+      end
+    end
+
     context "when the given path is not actually a cookbook" do
 
       let(:cookbook_path) { File.join(CHEF_SPEC_DATA, "cookbooks/NOTHING_HERE_FOLKS") }