Error while launching knife configure command

Question

I tried to getting started with chef so I installed the chef gem on my laptop ( OS : OSX 10.8) with ruby 2.0.0-p0 but when I try to "knife configure " I juste get this message :

/Users/maximeheckel/.rbenv/versions/2.0.0-p0/lib/ruby/2.0.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:106:in `require': cannot load such file -- rubygems/format (LoadError)
from /Users/maximeheckel/.rbenv/versions/2.0.0-p0/lib/ruby/2.0.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:106:in `require'
from /Users/maximeheckel/.rbenv/versions/2.0.0-p0/lib/ruby/gems/2.0.0/gems/chef-11.4.0/lib/chef/provider/package/rubygems.rb:34:in `<top (required)>'
from /Users/maximeheckel/.rbenv/versions/2.0.0-p0/lib/ruby/2.0.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:58:in `require'
from /Users/maximeheckel/.rbenv/versions/2.0.0-p0/lib/ruby/2.0.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:58:in `require'
from /Users/maximeheckel/.rbenv/versions/2.0.0-p0/lib/ruby/gems/2.0.0/gems/chef-11.4.0/lib/chef/providers.rb:60:in `<top (required)>'
from /Users/maximeheckel/.rbenv/versions/2.0.0-p0/lib/ruby/2.0.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:58:in `require'
from /Users/maximeheckel/.rbenv/versions/2.0.0-p0/lib/ruby/2.0.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:58:in `require'
from /Users/maximeheckel/.rbenv/versions/2.0.0-p0/lib/ruby/gems/2.0.0/gems/chef-11.4.0/lib/chef.rb:25:in `<top (required)>'
from /Users/maximeheckel/.rbenv/versions/2.0.0-p0/lib/ruby/2.0.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:58:in `require'
from /Users/maximeheckel/.rbenv/versions/2.0.0-p0/lib/ruby/2.0.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:58:in `require'
from /Users/maximeheckel/.rbenv/versions/2.0.0-p0/lib/ruby/gems/2.0.0/gems/chefspec-0.9.0/lib/chefspec.rb:1:in `<top (required)>'
from /Users/maximeheckel/.rbenv/versions/2.0.0-p0/lib/ruby/2.0.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:110:in `require'
from /Users/maximeheckel/.rbenv/versions/2.0.0-p0/lib/ruby/2.0.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:110:in `rescue in require'
from /Users/maximeheckel/.rbenv/versions/2.0.0-p0/lib/ruby/2.0.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:35:in `require'
from /Users/maximeheckel/.rbenv/versions/2.0.0-p0/lib/ruby/gems/2.0.0/gems/chefspec-0.9.0/lib/chef/knife/cookbook_create_specs.rb:1:in `<top (required)>'
from /Users/maximeheckel/.rbenv/versions/2.0.0-p0/lib/ruby/gems/2.0.0/gems/chef-11.4.0/lib/chef/knife/core/subcommand_loader.rb:37:in `load'
from /Users/maximeheckel/.rbenv/versions/2.0.0-p0/lib/ruby/gems/2.0.0/gems/chef-11.4.0/lib/chef/knife/core/subcommand_loader.rb:37:in `block in load_commands'
from /Users/maximeheckel/.rbenv/versions/2.0.0-p0/lib/ruby/gems/2.0.0/gems/chef-11.4.0/lib/chef/knife/core/subcommand_loader.rb:37:in `each'
from /Users/maximeheckel/.rbenv/versions/2.0.0-p0/lib/ruby/gems/2.0.0/gems/chef-11.4.0/lib/chef/knife/core/subcommand_loader.rb:37:in `load_commands'
from /Users/maximeheckel/.rbenv/versions/2.0.0-p0/lib/ruby/gems/2.0.0/gems/chef-11.4.0/lib/chef/knife.rb:119:in `load_commands'
from /Users/maximeheckel/.rbenv/versions/2.0.0-p0/lib/ruby/gems/2.0.0/gems/chef-11.4.0/lib/chef/knife.rb:167:in `run'
from /Users/maximeheckel/.rbenv/versions/2.0.0-p0/lib/ruby/gems/2.0.0/gems/chef-11.4.0/lib/chef/application/knife.rb:123:in `run'
from /Users/maximeheckel/.rbenv/versions/2.0.0-p0/lib/ruby/gems/2.0.0/gems/chef-11.4.0/bin/knife:25:in `<top (required)>'
from /Users/maximeheckel/.rbenv/versions/2.0.0-p0/bin/knife:23:in `load'
from /Users/maximeheckel/.rbenv/versions/2.0.0-p0/bin/knife:23:in `<main>'

Answer 1

The accepted answer is great if you're using the system ruby (/usr/bin/ruby, for example), but it didn't work for me because I'm using RVM. I found an equivalent solution in case you're using RVM:

rvm rubygems 1.8.25 will install rubygems version 1.8.25 for your RVM ruby.

Answer 2

According to this issue at opscode it was a bug. It has been fixed in chef 11.6.0.

The problem is that only chef 11.4.4 is on rubygems as of today (2013-06-23)

So, either use 1.9.x or rubygems 1.8.25 will work for now, until the next version of chef comes out. It may be possible to build it from https://github.com/opscode/chef.git

I ended up patching my chef 11.4.4 lib/chef/provider/package/rubygems.rb with this file: https://github.com/opscode/chef/blob/d6748efde62502ab6f5d97052f46ca00352497ef/lib/chef/provider/package/rubygems.rb

Answer 3

The accepted answer isn't entirely correct. The problem isn't ruby 2.0, it's rubygems 2.x. If you run gem update --system 1.8.25 to downgrade to a pre 2.x rubygems, everything works like a champ.

NOTE: I haven't had to do this locally, but this is how I've gotten knife bootstrap to work against my remote servers. I'm running ruby 2.0 on my local machine with latest rubygems and chef 11.4.4 and everything else seems to work properly.

Answer 4

I had similar errors trying to use Chef (10.24 and 11.4) with Ruby 2.0 - so I assume Chef is not yet Ruby 2.0 compatible :(