Quick Start

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For the quickest way to get started using Chef Infra:

1. Install Chef Workstation: https://downloads.chef.io/tools/workstation.

2. Generate a cookbook:

   chef generate cookbook first_cookbook
   

   where first_cookbook is an arbitrary cookbook name.

3. Navigate to the first_cookbook directory.

4. Update the first_cookbook/recipes/default.rb recipe in the generated cookbook to contain:

   file "#{ENV['HOME']}/test.txt" do
     content 'This file was created by Chef Infra!'
   end
   

5. Run Chef Infra Client using the default.rb recipe:

   chef-client --local-mode --override-runlist first_cookbook
   

This will create a file named test.txt at the home path on your machine. Open that file and it will say This file was created by Chef Infra!.

• Delete the file, run Chef Infra Client again, and Chef Infra will put the file back.
• Change the string in the file, run Chef Infra Client again, and Chef Infra will make the string in the file the same as the string in the recipe.
• Change the string in the recipe, run Chef Infra Client again, and Chef Infra will update that string to be the same as the one in the recipe.

There’s a lot more that Chef Infra can do, obviously, but that was super easy!

• See https://learn.chef.io/ for more detailed setup scenarios.
• Keep reading for more information about setting up a workstation, configuring Test Kitchen to run virtual environments, setting up a more detailed cookbook, resources, and more.