knife diff

The knife diff subcommand is used to compare the differences between files and directories on the server and in the chef-repo. For example, to compare files on the server prior to an uploading or downloading files using the knife download and knife upload subcommands, or to ensure that certain files in multiple production environments are the same. This subcommand is similar to the git diff command that can be used to diff what is in the chef-repo with what is synced to a git repository.

Syntax

This argument has the following syntax:

$ knife diff [PATTERN...] (options)

Options

Note

Review the list of common options available to this (and all) Knife subcommands and plugins.

This subcommand has the following options:

--chef-repo-path PATH

The path to the chef-repo. This setting will override the default path to the chef-repo. Default: same as specified by chef_repo_path in config.rb.

--cookbook-version VERSION

The version of a cookbook to be downloaded.

--concurrency

The number of allowed concurrent connections. Default: 10.

--diff-filter=[(A|D|M|T)...[*]]

Indicates that files will be selected that have been added (A), deleted (D), modified (M), and/or have had their type changed (T). Any combination of filter characters may be used, including no filter characters. Use * to select all paths if a file matches other criteria in the comparison. Default value: nil.

--name-only

Indicates that only the names of modified files will be shown.

--name-status

Indicates that only the names of files with a status of Added, Deleted, Modified, or Type Changed will be shown.

--no-recurse

Use --no-recurse to disable listing a directory recursively. Default: --recurse.

--repo-mode MODE

The layout of the local chef-repo. Possible values: static, everything, or hosted_everything. Use static for just roles, environments, cookbooks, and data bags. By default, everything and hosted_everything are dynamically selected depending on the server type. Default: everything / hosted_everything.

Examples

The following examples show how to use this Knife subcommand:

Compare files that contain JSON data

To compare the “base.json” role to a “webserver.json” role, enter:

$ knife diff roles/base.json roles/webserver.json

Compare the chef-repo and the server

To compare the differences between the local chef-repo and the files that are on the server, enter:

$ knife diff

Compare, then return results

To diff a node named node-lb and then only return files that have been added, deleted, modified, or changed, enter:

$ knife diff --name-status node-lb

to return something like:

node-lb/recipes/eip.rb
node-lb/recipes/heartbeat-int.rb
node-lb/templates/default/corpsite.conf.erb
node-lb/files/default/wildcard.node.com.crt
node-lb/files/default/wildcard.node.com.crt-2009
node-lb/files/default/wildcard.node.com.key
node-lb/.gitignore
node-lb/Rakefile