What does `Chef::Config[:file_cache_path]` do exactly?

Question

First off, I apologize for asking such a dumb question. But the reason I ask is because I'm having a hard time finding an answer. I've tried searching Chef's docs, but I have not found a clear explanation.

So what exactly doesChef::Config[:file_cache_path] provide? I've read that its better to use this instead of harding coding a filepath. But what does it evaluate to?

In this particular snippet

newrelic_agent = Chef::Config[:file_cache_path] + '/rewrelic_nginx_agent.tar.gz'


remote_file newrelic_agent do
  source 'http://nginx.com/download/newrelic/newrelic_nginx_agent.tar.gz'
  mode "0744"
end

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

The specific value varies by platform and method of install, but that config value defaults to somewhere you can write out temp files. Generally it will be something like /var/chef/cache. This is used for caching cookbooks and files in them, but as you noted you can also use it from your own code for the same kind of thing.