What are the commands for restarting a service after a file is changed in Chef?

runningraptor

10/27/23, 5:32 PM

I am unable to figure out the correct solution in that if only when a file is updated, i.e. a conf file of a service, then the service is restarted (stopped and then started).

This is what I have in my foo.rb file.

cookbook_file '/etc/foo/foo.conf' do
  source 'foo.conf'
  action :touch
end

service 'foo' do
  subscribes :restart, 'file[/etc/foo/foo.conf]', :immediately
end

And what I got after running sudo chef-client on the server

cookbook_file[/etc/foo/foo.conf] action touch
    - update content in file /etc/foo/foo.conf from 695507 to 06105e

* service[foo] action nothing (skipped due to action :nothing)

From what I understand, it recognized the file changed, but the service wasn't restarted.

224

1 + 0

chef

Score:2

Server

Robert Longson

10/28/23, 6:26 AM

subscribes must match the resource being subscribed to. It won't give you any errors if it doesn't though so you want

cookbook_file '/etc/foo/foo.conf' do
  source 'foo.conf'
  action :create
end

service 'foo' do
  subscribes :restart, 'cookbook_file[/etc/foo/foo.conf]', :immediately
end

Alternatively, you can do it the other way round i.e. have the cookbook_file notify the service that it needs to restart.

cookbook_file '/etc/foo/foo.conf' do
  source 'foo.conf'
  action :create
  notifies :restart, 'service[foo]', :immediately
end

+ 1

runningraptor

10/28/23, 4:29 PM

Thank you for the response. This helped! What is odd is that option one works for one service, but doesn't for another. And vice versa for option two. For example, my rsyslog service option two works, but doesn't if I use option one. While my 'foo' service only works with option one. Also, I needed to change the action from `touch` to `create` for either option to work.

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EN: What are the commands for restarting a service after a file is changed in Chef?

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