How to run tests from the ChefDK in Docker (6 mins read).
How to get up and running with the ChefDK to perform common tests, such as unit tests and linting.
Tag blogumentation
Using Fake Cookbooks for Writing ChefSpec Tests for your Custom Chef Resources (3 mins read).
A directory structure I've found quite useful for writing ChefSpec tests for custom resources, by creating a fake cookbook within the cookbook you're testing.
by 
Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#chef
#custom-resource
#chefspec.
Creating a versionable, self-contained (fat-/uber-) JAR for Gatling tests (17 mins read).
Why you'd want a fat JAR for your Gatling tests and how you'd achieve it.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#java
#gatling
#testing
#jar
#artifact
#artefact
#maven
#uber-jar.
Tweaking Gatling HighCharts Response Time Bounds (3 mins read).
How to configure the bounds that Gatling marks your response times within for console output and graphing purposes.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#gatling
#gatling-highcharts.
Setting your default AWS profile for the AWS CLI and SDKs (2 mins read).
Setting the default AWS profile when working with multiple profiles and the AWS CLI / SDKs.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#aws
#aws-cli
#aws-sdk
#command-line.
Chef 14 Upgrade: Custom Resource Properties are Silently Coerced to Hash if they are a nil (2 mins read).
Finding out that a nil gets silently coerced to an empty Hash if given to a custom resource's property of type Hash.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#chef-14
#chef-14-upgrade
#chefspec
#test-coverage.
Chef 14: ChefSpec Coverage Reporting Deprecation (1 mins read).
Noting the deprecation of using ChefSpec::Coverage.start! when using Chef 14 and above.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#chef-14
#chef-14-upgrade
#chefspec
#test-coverage.
Chef 14 Upgrade: Change in ValidationFailed error messages when setting required properties (2 mins read).
The updated error message returned by a Chef ValidationFailed error, when you're specifying which properties are required on a custom resource.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#chef-14-upgrade
#chef
#chefspec
#chef-14.
Viewing X.509 DER Certificate Details with OpenSSL (2 mins read).
How to convert an X.509 DER file to a human-readable format using openssl commands.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#certificates
#command-line
#der
#openssl.
Viewing X.509 PEM Certificate Details with OpenSSL (2 mins read).
How to convert an X.509 PEM file to a human-readable format using openssl commands.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#certificates
#command-line
#pem
#openssl.
Backporting/Replaying Changes Using git cherry-pick (6 mins read).
Using git cherry-pick to make it easier to backport or replay Git commits across different versions of your codebase.
Showing response headers with curl -i (3 mins read).
Showing just response headers when curling a resource, using curl -i.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#curl.
Safely Force Pushing with Git using --force-with-lease=ref (6 mins read).
How git push --force-with-lease=ref can save you from overriding others' changes on shared Git branches.
Viewing Git history of a file in git log while ignoring file renames (5 mins read).
How to track changes to files in Git without pesky file renames getting in the way, using git log --follow.
Test-Driven Chef Cookbook Development Using ChefSpec (and a sprinkling of InSpec) (39 mins read).
Using the example of deploying and running a Java JAR file as a way to show the lifecycle of a fully test-driven Chef cookbook.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#howto
#blogumentation
#chef
#test-kitchen
#chefspec
#tdd
#testing
#guide.
Pretty Printing JSON Web Tokens (JWTs) on the Command Line using Ruby (3 mins read).
How to easily introspect and pretty print a signed JWT (JWS) or an encrypted JWT (JWE) on the command line using Ruby's standard library, or using the ruby-jwt external library.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#ruby
#command-line
#jwt
#json
#pretty-print.
Using chef-shell to interactively debug attributes and recipes (5 mins read).
How to use chef-shell to see attribute config and recipes, with and without a Chef Server.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#chef
#chef-shell
#blogumentation
#test-kitchen
#chef-server
#chefdk.
Creating a versionable, self-contained (fat-/uber-) JAR for Cucumber tests (11 mins read).
Why you'd want a fat JAR and how you'd achieve it.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#java
#cucumber
#testing
#jar
#artifact
#artefact
#maven
#uber-jar.
My Path from School to University to Work (25 mins read).
A look back at my journey up to now, the choices I've made, and what advice I have for others who are embarking on their own journeys into tech.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#musings
#blogumentation
#capital-one
#career
#university
#nottingham
#school
#a-level
#gcse.
Pretty Printing JSON on the Command Line with Ruby (1 mins read).
Using Ruby's JSON module to pretty print JSON objects from the command line.
Merging multiple repositories into a monorepo, while preserving history, using git subtree (3 mins read).
How to merge multiple repositories, with their history, into a single repository, using the git subtree add command.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#git
#monorepo
#git-subtree
#command-line.
Sharing Multiple SSH Sessions over the Same Network Socket (3 mins read).
Reusing network sockets for speed and reduction of authentication handshakes with OpenSSH.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#ssh
#openssh
#command-line.
Better Git Diff Outputs with Git Submodules (2 mins read).
How to get nicer diffs when working with submodules.
Beware: deleteing a file in Chef doesn't actually delete it (3 mins read).
Why you should explicitly add backup false when deleteing a file through Chef, to avoid leaving potentially sensitive files still on the box.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#chef.
Executing an Interactive Python Shell (REPL) for a Script (1 mins read).
Using python -i to get an interactive REPL after running a Python source file.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#command-line
#python
#blogumentation
#tools
#howto.
Bundling Common Rake Tasks into a Gem (8 mins read).
An example of how to create a helper gem for common Rake task, using the real-world example of Chef cookbooks.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#chef
#chefdk
#gem
#ruby
#rake
#foodcritic
#rubocop
#rspec
#knife-cookbook-doc
#gitlab-ci.
Running docker login as another user in Chef (2 mins read).
Hitting the error permission denied while trying to connect to the Docker daemon socket when trying to run docker login as a non-root user in Chef.
Chef 13 Upgrade: knife-cookbook-doc Rubocop Updates (1 mins read).
Disabling the Missing space after # and Do not use block comments errors for your knife-cookbook-doc formatted comments.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#chef-13-upgrade
#chef
#knife-cookbook-doc
#chef-13
#documentation
#chef-13-upgrade-rubocop.
Chef 13 Upgrade: knife-cookbook-doc gem upgrade (1 mins read).
Fixing odd Logger entries in autogenerated knife-cookbook-doc README.mds for Chef 13.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#chef-13-upgrade
#chef
#knife-cookbook-doc
#chef-13
#documentation.
Chef 13 Upgrade: Deprecation of Namespace Collisions in Custom Resources (1 mins read).
Preparing for breaking changes in Chef 14 by renaming property_name to new_resource.property_name in Custom Resources.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#chef-13-upgrade
#chef-13-upgrade-deprecation
#chef
#chef-13
#chef-14.
Verify a Ruby Class Method is Called with Arguments in Rspec, Without Doubles or Mocks (1 mins read).
Rspec code to verify that a Ruby Class Method is called from another method, without needing to mock anything.
Testing Chef's ruby_blocks with ChefSpec (3 mins read).
Testing implementation of a ruby_block in ChefSpec, to ensure that the code executes as expected.
Chef 13 Upgrade: Lessons Learnt and Documented for Posterity (1 mins read).
Notes on the main problems encountered when upgrading from Chef 12 to Chef 13, both with ChefSpec and Rubocop.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#chef-13-upgrade
#chef-13-upgrade-rubocop
#chef-13-upgrade-chefspec
#chef
#rubocop
#chefspec
#chef-13
#chefspec-7
#rubocop-0-49.
Chef 13 Upgrade: Rubocop Changes for lazy Parameters (1 mins read).
How to resolve the Parenthesize the param lazy Rubocop error when upgrading your cookbook to Chef 13.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#chef-13-upgrade
#chef-13-upgrade-rubocop
#chef
#rubocop
#chef-13
#rubocop-0-49.
Chef 13 Upgrade: Rubocop Changes for Testing render_file with ChefSpec and a with_content Block (1 mins read).
How to resolve the Parenthesize the param render_file Rubocop error when upgrading your cookbook to Chef 13.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#chef-13-upgrade
#chef-13-upgrade-chefspec
#chef
#chefspec.
Chef 13 Upgrade: Rubocop Changes for Word Array Literals (%w) (1 mins read).
A one-liner shell command to fix Rubocop errors %w-literals should be delimited by [ and ].
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#chef-13-upgrade
#chef-13-upgrade-rubocop
#chef
#rubocop
#chef-13
#rubocop-0-49.
Chef 13 Upgrade: Testing ruby_blocks with ChefSpec (1 mins read).
Replace your block.old_run_action with block.block.call to trigger ruby_blocks within ChefSpec 7 and Chef 13.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#chef-13-upgrade
#chef-13-upgrade-chefspec
#chef
#chefspec
#chef-13
#chefspec-7.
Emoji Support in Dunst (2 mins read).
How to see Emoji when using the Dunst notification system.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#arch-linux
#dunst
#dotfiles
#blogumentation
#emoji.
SSLError When Running Berkshelf Behind a Proxy (2 mins read).
Getting around the pesky OpenSSL::SSL::SSLError SSLv2/v3 read server hello A error when running Berkshelf behind a proxy.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#chef
#blogumentation
#proxy
#command-line
#shell
#chefdk
#berkshelf.
Running service resources in Kitchen-Docker (3 mins read).
How to get up and running with service resources when running Test Kitchen with the Docker driver, in this example for use with GitLab CI.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#chef
#kitchen
#docker
#howto.
Trusting Self-Signed Certificates from the Chef Development Kit (2 mins read).
How to get the ChefDK (and associated tools) to trust internal / self-signed certificates, in an easy oneliner.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#chef
#chefdk
#certificates
#berkshelf.
Getting around Permission Denied when running ChefSpec (3 mins read).
How to handle getting an EACCES when trying to run ChefSpec on a recipe.
GitLab Review Apps with Capistrano and Nginx (4 mins read).
Spinning up a version of your application on every push, so others don't have to manually get the code up and running locally.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#guide
#gitlab
#review-apps
#capistrano
#blogumentation.
Testing include_recipes with Chef and ChefSpec (2 mins read).
How to best test include_recipes within your Chef recipes, as well as how to ensure that you aren't running any dependent recipes in your tests.
Blogumentation - Writing Blog Posts as a Method of Documentation (4 mins read).
Why I'm starting to use blog posts as a form of documentation, and why I think they're so well suited.
Converting YAML to JSON and vice versa (Part 1 - Ruby) (2 mins read).
Coerce YAML to JSON and vice versa, from the comfort of your Gem-studded command line.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#ruby
#command-line
#yaml
#json.
Clean up your Git branches (3 mins read).
Remove any merged local or branches from your local Git repository.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#git.
Pretty Printing JSON on the Command Line with Python (2 mins read).
Using Python's JSON module to pretty print JSON objects from the command line.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#python
#json
#pretty-print.
Viewing your diff while writing your commits with git commit --verbose (3 mins read).
Making it easier to write commit messages by having the diff in your editor.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#git
#commit
#shell
#workflow.
Building Chef Cookbooks with GitLab (Part 1) (12 mins read).
An introduction to how to build a cookbook using GitLab's Continuous Integration platform in conjunction with kitchen-docker.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#guide
#howto
#blogumentation
#gitlab
#chef
#test-kitchen
#docker
#gitlab-ci.