Chef-Solo "undefined method `[]' for nil:NilClass"

Question

I just installed a fresh CentOS 6.3 VM and disabled SELinux. Below is the exact script that I ran to install Ruby, Chef Solo, and attempted to provision the VM:

#!/bin/bash
#
# Install Chef-Solo if it doesn't exist, then provision the server.
#
CHEF_FILE="https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4204671/LiquidCompass/lc-chef.tar.gz"

if [ "$#" -eq 0 ]; then
    echo "You must provide the type of server this is. (Eg: production-api, qa-api, development)"
    exit 1
fi

if [ ! -x "/usr/bin/chef-solo" ]; then
    rpm -Uvh http://rbel.frameos.org/rbel6
    yum install -y ruby ruby-devel ruby-ri ruby-rdoc ruby-shadow gcc gcc-c++ automake autoconf make curl dmidecode

    cd /tmp
    curl -O http://production.cf.rubygems.org/rubygems/rubygems-1.8.10.tgz
    tar zxf rubygems-1.8.10.tgz
    cd rubygems-1.8.10
    ruby setup.rb --no-format-executable

    gem install chef --no-ri --no-rdoc
fi

if [ -d "/etc/chef" ]; then
    rm -rf /etc/chef
fi

if [ -d "/tmp/lc-chef" ]; then
    rm -rf /tmp/lc-chef*
fi

mkdir /etc/chef 

echo "file_cache_path \"/tmp/lc-chef/chef-solo\"
cookbook_path \"/tmp/lc-chef/cookbooks\"
role_path \"/tmp/lc-chef/roles\"
json_attribs \"/etc/chef/node.json\"" > /etc/chef/solo.rb

echo "{
    \"name\": \"$1\",
    \"normal\": {
        \"company\": \"Liquid Compass LLC\",
        \"tags\": []
    },
    \"chef_environment\": \"_default\",
    \"run_list\": [
        \"role[$1]\"
    ]
}" > /etc/chef/node.json

cd /tmp
curl -O $CHEF_FILE
tar zxf lc-chef.tar.gz

chef-solo -c /etc/chef/solo.rb

Unfortunately, right as the script runs I receive:

[2012-12-05T17:39:27-07:00] INFO: Start handlers complete.

================================================================================
Recipe Compile Error in /tmp/lc-chef/cookbooks/liquidcompass/recipes/php.rb
================================================================================

NoMethodError
-------------
undefined method `[]' for nil:NilClass

Cookbook Trace:
---------------
  /tmp/lc-chef/cookbooks/liquidcompass/recipes/php.rb:20:in `from_file'

Relevant File Content:
----------------------
/tmp/lc-chef/cookbooks/liquidcompass/recipes/php.rb:

 13:  # Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 14:  # distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 15:  # WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 16:  # See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 17:  # limitations under the License.
 18:  #
 19:  
 20>> php_url                      = "http://us.php.net/distributions/php-#{node['php']['version']}.tar.gz"
 21:  node.set['php']['prefix']    = "/opt/php-#{node['php']['version']}"
 22:  node.set['php']['conf_path'] = "#{node['php']['dir']}/php.ini"
 23:  node.set['php']['configure_flags'] = [
 24:      "--prefix=#{node['php']['prefix']}",
 25:      "--with-config-file-path=#{node['php']['dir']}",
 26:      "--with-config-file-scan-dir=#{node['php']['dir']}/conf.d",
 27:      "--with-curl",
 28:      "--with-pear",
 29:      "--with-gd",

So it looks like it's choking on trying to load node['php']['version']. This is defined in my /tmp/lc-chef/cookbooks/liquidcompass/attributes/default.rb with:

default['php']['version']             = "5.4.9"

So it appears that Chef is either not loading the attributes file, or something else is wrong. Not exactly sure how to find this out or not.

Running:

• RubyGems 1.8.10
• Chef 10.16.2

Best regards,
Andrew

By the way, this is the stack trace:

Generated at Wed Dec 05 17:39:27 -0700 2012
NoMethodError: undefined method `[]' for nil:NilClass
/tmp/lc-chef/cookbooks/liquidcompass/recipes/php.rb:20:in `from_file'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-10.16.2/bin/../lib/chef/cookbook_version.rb:558:in `load_recipe'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-10.16.2/bin/../lib/chef/mixin/language_include_recipe.rb:46:in `load_recipe'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-10.16.2/bin/../lib/chef/mixin/language_include_recipe.rb:33:in `include_recipe'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-10.16.2/bin/../lib/chef/mixin/language_include_recipe.rb:27:in `each'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-10.16.2/bin/../lib/chef/mixin/language_include_recipe.rb:27:in `include_recipe'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-10.16.2/bin/../lib/chef/run_context.rb:79:in `load'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-10.16.2/bin/../lib/chef/run_context.rb:75:in `each'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-10.16.2/bin/../lib/chef/run_context.rb:75:in `load'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-10.16.2/bin/../lib/chef/client.rb:198:in `setup_run_context'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-10.16.2/bin/../lib/chef/client.rb:418:in `do_run'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-10.16.2/bin/../lib/chef/client.rb:176:in `run'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-10.16.2/bin/../lib/chef/application.rb:140:in `run_chef_client'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-10.16.2/bin/../lib/chef/application/solo.rb:224:in `run_application'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-10.16.2/bin/../lib/chef/application/solo.rb:216:in `loop'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-10.16.2/bin/../lib/chef/application/solo.rb:216:in `run_application'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-10.16.2/bin/../lib/chef/application.rb:72:in `run'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-10.16.2/bin/chef-solo:25
/usr/bin/chef-solo:19:in `load'
/usr/bin/chef-solo:19

Answer 1

Default attributes work fine in Chef Solo

I'm not sure what's happening inside your cookbook - but it is an issue with your code, not with Chef. As a simple example, check this out:

https://gist.github.com/adamhjk/6141718

Answer 2

chef solo does not support default attributes.

You're going to need to put together a node.json under your nodes directory which lists the attributes in .json form.

So in your case:

{
    "php": {
      "version": "5.4.9"
     }
}

If you want to use default attributes/any attributes in .rb format, you're going to need to use chef-server/chef-client.