Chef Kitchen Synced Folders

Chef Kitchen is a command-line tool that is widely used to automate the testing of Chef cookbooks. One of its key features is synced folders, which allows developers to share files between the host machine and the virtual machine where the cookbook is tested.

What are synced folders?

Synced folders are essentially a shared directory between the host machine and the guest machine (i.e., the virtual machine). This allows developers to edit files on their local machine and see the changes reflected in the virtual machine without having to manually copy the files over.

How to use synced folders in Chef Kitchen

To use synced folders in Chef Kitchen, you need to define the shared directory in your .kitchen.yml file. Here's an example:

---
driver:
  name: vagrant

provisioner:
  name: chef_zero

platforms:
  - name: ubuntu-18.04

suites:
  - name: default
    run_list:
      - recipe[mycookbook::default]
    attributes:

    # Define synced folders
    synced_folders:
      - [ ".", "/app" ]

In this example, the synced folder is set up to share the current directory (i.e., the directory where you run kitchen converge) with the /app directory in the virtual machine.

Once you have defined synced folders in your .kitchen.yml file, you can use them in your cookbook recipes by referencing the /app directory in your cookbook code.

Conclusion

Chef Kitchen synced folders are a powerful tool that can save developers a lot of time and headaches. By allowing developers to share files between the host and guest machines, you can edit files on your local machine and see the changes reflected in the virtual machine without having to manually copy the files over. This makes testing and debugging much easier and more efficient.