Plugin System for Knife

Details

  • Type: New Feature New Feature
  • Status: Closed Closed
  • Priority: Major Major
  • Resolution: Fixed
  • Affects Version/s: 0.8.16
  • Fix Version/s: 0.9.14, 0.10.0
  • Component/s: None
  • Labels:
    None

Description

Knife should have the ability to load commands from arbitrary directories.

Chatting with the folks on IRC, people want the following behaviors/features:

  • There should be a "site-plugins" plugin directory, ~/.chef/knife-plugins/ for example, so users can hack something up and have it work right away without additional packaging/hassle
  • for knife plugins that are distributed as gems or installed to the ruby load path, plugins should be opt-in

Opt-in can be accomplished with a set of knife plugin commands, like {{knife plugin [list,enable,disable]}} or some autodetect feature that asks for user confirmation either on first time knife is run after plugin install, or via a "command_missing" type system where the user runs knife $new_plugin_command and knife would find it if missing and prompt for install.

I'm kinda partial to the {{knife plugin [list,enable,disable]}} approach, as I think it's more discoverable--you can find what plugins you have available without knowing their exact names in advance.

Activity

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Adam Jacob added a comment -

Awesome.

I just added per-directory knife configurations, some of which might become useful in this as well.

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Adam Jacob added a comment - Awesome. I just added per-directory knife configurations, some of which might become useful in this as well.
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Daniel DeLeo added a comment -

didn't make the cut for 0.9.0, hopefully I can finish it for 0.9.2

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Daniel DeLeo added a comment - didn't make the cut for 0.9.0, hopefully I can finish it for 0.9.2
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Daniel DeLeo added a comment -

bulk reassigning to 0.9.4

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Daniel DeLeo added a comment - bulk reassigning to 0.9.4
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Daniel DeLeo added a comment -

I'm attacking this one in three parts now:

  1. rewrite the subcommand loader to accept subcommands that are not in the Chef::Knife namespace and not in the chef/lib/chef/knife/ directory
  2. refactor the user interaction code to have cleaner, more consistent interfaces and output
  3. create a plugin manager so users can opt-in to plugins from gems

The first task is done, which means that 3rd party subcommands can actually be used with the current knife in master, though the programming interfaces are subject to change so it may be a rough ride.

Show
Daniel DeLeo added a comment - I'm attacking this one in three parts now: rewrite the subcommand loader to accept subcommands that are not in the Chef::Knife namespace and not in the chef/lib/chef/knife/ directory refactor the user interaction code to have cleaner, more consistent interfaces and output create a plugin manager so users can opt-in to plugins from gems The first task is done, which means that 3rd party subcommands can actually be used with the current knife in master, though the programming interfaces are subject to change so it may be a rough ride.
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Akzhan Abdulin added a comment -

We need this feature.

Of course all cloud extensions should be rewritten as plugins as live examples to extend Knife.

I suppose that all gems named chef-knifeplugin-XXX should be automatically discovered and loaded at knife startup.

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Akzhan Abdulin added a comment - We need this feature. Of course all cloud extensions should be rewritten as plugins as live examples to extend Knife. I suppose that all gems named chef-knifeplugin-XXX should be automatically discovered and loaded at knife startup.
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Daniel DeLeo added a comment -

bulk updating fix versions to next release

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Daniel DeLeo added a comment - bulk updating fix versions to next release
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Eric Hodel added a comment -

I have fulfilled part of the requirements for this ticket:

https://github.com/opscode/chef/pull/49

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Eric Hodel added a comment - I have fulfilled part of the requirements for this ticket: https://github.com/opscode/chef/pull/49
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Eric Hodel added a comment -

Per kallistec on IRC: just close [this ticket] and we'll track the refactor effort in a separate ticket as necessary

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Eric Hodel added a comment - Per kallistec on IRC: just close [this ticket] and we'll track the refactor effort in a separate ticket as necessary
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Seth Chisamore added a comment - - edited

I expanded on Eric's enhancement and search for knife subcommand files upward in .chef/plugins/knife/*.rb and in ~/.chef/plugins/knife/*.rb

My patch on his patch can be pulled from here:
https://github.com/schisamo/chef/tree/CHEF-1248

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Seth Chisamore added a comment - - edited I expanded on Eric's enhancement and search for knife subcommand files upward in .chef/plugins/knife/*.rb and in ~/.chef/plugins/knife/*.rb My patch on his patch can be pulled from here: https://github.com/schisamo/chef/tree/CHEF-1248
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Seth Chisamore added a comment -

If you would like to use this patch in the current version of chef use this patched knife bin file:
https://gist.github.com/f33e15bac2820dd572d4

This can just be placed in the root of your chef-repo (and given the proper execute permissions).

Show
Seth Chisamore added a comment - If you would like to use this patch in the current version of chef use this patched knife bin file: https://gist.github.com/f33e15bac2820dd572d4 This can just be placed in the root of your chef-repo (and given the proper execute permissions).
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Daniel DeLeo added a comment -

Merged. Thanks to everyone who contributed to this!

https://github.com/opscode/chef/commit/77b5614c7d0178e5e481c538117645e597f1cd37

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Daniel DeLeo added a comment - Merged. Thanks to everyone who contributed to this! https://github.com/opscode/chef/commit/77b5614c7d0178e5e481c538117645e597f1cd37
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Seth Chisamore added a comment -

For those that are interested, the first plugin using this functionality has been released, "knife-windows":
https://rubygems.org/gems/knife-windows
https://github.com/opscode/knife-windows

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Seth Chisamore added a comment - For those that are interested, the first plugin using this functionality has been released, "knife-windows": https://rubygems.org/gems/knife-windows https://github.com/opscode/knife-windows

People

  • Assignee:
    Daniel DeLeo
    Reporter:
    Daniel DeLeo
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Dates

  • Created:
    Updated:
    Resolved: