chef generate generator flow is quite broken

[jaymzh]

Version:

$ chef -v
Redirecting to cinc
Cinc Workstation version: 24.12.1073
Cinc Client version: 18.6.2
Cinc Auditor version: 5.22.65
Cinc CLI version: 5.6.16
Biome version: 1.6.821
Test Kitchen version: 3.6.0
Cookstyle version: 7.32.8

Environment:

Debian Linux sid

Scenario:

When you run chef generate generator, it tells you:

Add the following to your config file to enable it:
  chefcli.generator_cookbook "/tmp/f/code_generator"

But this syntax is actually invalid:

When loading '/home/phil/.cinc-workstation/config.toml',
the following error occurred:
  parse error on value "." (".")

OK, so first problem is that the tool gives you invalid syntax.

So, lets fix it to be as the docs recommend:

[chefcli]
generator_cookbook = "/tmp/f/code_generator"

That passes syntax checking, but it also doesn't seem to do anything. From here if you run:

chef generate cookbook test

it uses the internal cookbook, not the custom one. One must run:

chef generate cookbook test -f /tmp/f/code_generator

in order for it to take effect.

Steps to Reproduce:

See above.

Expected Result:

config is taken into account

Actual Result:

config is not taken into account.

[Stromweld]

when it refers to config file it's referring to the ~/.chef/config.rb which is what knife.rb was renamed to. Chef-cli and knife cli commands use that config file for the user configs for chef-server url etc.... The error could be updated to better clarify that. The ~/.chef-workstation directory is used for caching files and other things that are safe to delete. The config.toml in there is only used to persist the acceptance of the Eula license.

[Stromweld]

That file is also probably poorly named.

[jaymzh]

@Stromweld - the documentation disagrees with you: https://docs.chef.io/workstation/config/:

Chef Workstation looks for the config.toml in a default location.
Windows

    Powershell: $env:USERPROFILE\.chef-workstation\config.toml
    cmd.exe: %USERPROFILE%\.chef-workstation\config.toml

Linux and Mac

/home/$USER/.chef-workstation/config.toml

Regardless, I jammed that in my .chef/config.rb and .cinc/config.rb

chefcli.generator_cookbook = "/tmp/f/code_generator"

And it still does not take effect.

[Stromweld]

you are correct, it's been years since I used that and was mistaken on which config file it should go in. I looked back at on old config file I had from a previous life when I used a custom generator and found the setting in the ~/.chef-workstation/config.toml.