How to make chef check for RPM package and then install?

Question

I am currently using chef to install the RPM JDK package but the problem is that it does it every single time even if the package is already downloaded and installed. I tried finding an option for checking before installing but there wasn't any. Is there a way to get around this such that I can skip packages that are already installed? Debian's package management skips already installed packages by default, but RPM package manager doesn't seem to do that.

[Tue, 23 Oct 2012 10:34:32 -0500] INFO: Processing remote_file[/var/chef/cache/jdk-1.6-u30-linux-amd64.rpm] action create_if_missing (sun_java::default line 18)
[Tue, 23 Oct 2012 10:34:36 -0500] INFO: Processing package[jdk-1.6-u30-linux-amd64.rpm] action upgrade (sun_java::default line 25)
[Tue, 23 Oct 2012 10:37:15 -0500] INFO: Processing bash[update-alternatives java] action nothing (sun_java::default line 40)

The recipe is show below:

    urlVersion = "1."+node["sun_java"]["version"].sub(/[u]/, "-u")
    node.default["sun_java"]["rpm_url"] = "http://***/#{urlVersion}/jdk-#{urlVersion}-linux-#{node["sun_java"]["arch"]}.rpm"

    #Check that we are using the .rpm file because of the recent change
    if File.extname(File.basename(node["sun_java"]["rpm_url"]))!=".rpm"
      raise "You must use the jdk*.rpm file to install the Sun JDK. You can get it from the jdk*-rpm.bin file by running the command './jdk*-rpm.bin -x'"
    end

    javaRPM = File.basename(node["sun_java"]["rpm_url"])

    remote_file "#{Chef::Config[:file_cache_path]}/#{javaRPM}" do
      action :create_if_missing
      source node["sun_java"]["rpm_url"]
      mode "0755"
      backup false
    end

    package javaRPM do
      action :install
      source "#{Chef::Config[:file_cache_path]}/#{javaRPM}"
      options "--nogpgcheck" # sun/oracle doesn't sign their RPMs o_O
      notifies :run, "bash[update-alternatives java]", :immediately
    end

    javaHomeFolder = "/usr/java/jdk1.#{node["sun_java"]["version"].sub(/[u]/, ".0_")}"
    jdkFolder = "#{javaHomeFolder}/bin"
    slaveString = ""

    node["sun_java"]["update_slaves"].each do |java_bin|
      slaveString = slaveString + "--slave \"/usr/bin/#{java_bin}\" \"#{java_bin}\" \"#{jdkFolder}/#{java_bin}\" "
    end

    bash "update-alternatives java" do
      action :nothing
      code <<-EOH
        update-alternatives --install "/usr/bin/java" "java" "#{jdkFolder}/java" 1 #{slaveString}
        update-alternatives --set java #{jdkFolder}/java
      EOH
    end

    #Remove old environment then notify new environment to be created
    ruby_block "delete_environement" do
            block do
                editBashrc = Chef::Util::FileEdit.new("/etc/profile")
                    editBashrc.search_file_delete_line(/^.*#JAVA_HOME environment settings.*$/)
                    editBashrc.search_file_delete_line(/^.*#Auto-generated by Chef Cookbook sun_java.*$/)
                    editBashrc.search_file_delete_line(/^.*export JAVA_HOME=.*$/)
                    editBashrc.write_file 
            end
            action :create
    end

    #create environment of root user
    execute "create_environment" do
      user "root"
      command "echo -e '#JAVA_HOME environment settings\n#Auto-generated by Chef Cookbook sun_java\nexport JAVA_HOME=#{javaHomeFolder}' >> /etc/profile"
    end

Answer 1

Chef provide a resource for rpm_packages. and you can find a lot numbers of examples that show how chef verify if a package is installed