CODEWITHSUNDEEP
powershellchef-infra
ZMan007
ZMan007

Reputation: 21

How to pass powershell parameters into Chef

For some reason when I pass parameters through the options section it doesn't like my powershell arguments. I hate to bother you guys, but do you have any ideas what might be the problem? Thanks in advance!

Essentially all I am trying to do with powershell is this -

Start-Process -FilePath "T:\QualysCloudAgent.exe" -argumentlist "CustomerId={etc..etc..etc..} ActivationId={etc..etc..etc..}"

when 'windows'
  windows_package 'QualysCloudAgent' do
    source 'T:\QualysCloudAgent.exe'
    options '-argumentlist "CustomerId={etc...etc...etc..} ActivationId={etc...etc..etc...}"'
    installer_type :custom
    action :install
  end
end

Upvotes: 0

Views: 228

Answers (1)

codewario
codewario

Reputation: 21408

You're not running powershell.exe - unless QualysCloudAgent.exe accepts an -ArgumentList parameter then your executable likely doesn't understand the argument. Just pass your options to the resource like so:

options %Q(CustomerId={etc...etc...etc..} ActivationId={etc...etc..etc...})

You may also want to consider using a guard as well, to make sure idempotency is maintained during convergence (e.g. don't install if it's already installed). For example, in your resource, you might do something like this in your block above, since you have the :custom installer_type set:

not_if %Q(# PowerShell code to check if the program is installed)
guard_interpreter :powershell_script

Setting the guard_interpreter on a resource tells Chef to evaluate a not_if or only_if string under a resource as that language. See the linked page for the different runtimes Chef supports in this context.

Side note: %Q() is a shortcut in Ruby for double-quoted string literals, with an added bonus - you don't have to escape double quotes anymore (although you will have to quote unopened closing parentheses, such as %Q(My name is Bender\(), but %Q(My name is (Bender)) does not need to be), which is usually a huge help in building external command arguments, especially in Chef. This section of the Ruby wikibook explains more about the alternative notations for different literals which you may find useful/graceful in other situations as well.

Upvotes: 1

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