Installing a gem after native extension packages during chef execution

chef-infra, cookbook, recipe, ruby, rubygems

Solution

Why not try installing the dependencies at the start of the resource collection phase, as mentioned here: OPSCODE wiki: Run Resources from the Resource Collection

So your recipe would look like:

xsltdev = package "libxslt-dev" do
   action :nothing
end

xmldev = package "libxml2-dev" do
   action :nothing
end

xsltdev.run_action(:install)
xmldev.run_action(:install)

chef_gem "fog"

Problem

I am trying to install the fog gem in a chef recipe though the gem installation occurs before the native packages are being installed so the gem installation fails ``` package "libxslt-dev" package "libxml2-dev" chef_gem "fog" ``` This is the output ``` [Thu, 14 Mar 2013 13:04:30 +0000] INFO: Processing chef_gem[fog] action install (ebs4000::update_volumes line 23) [Thu, 14 Mar 2013 13:04:52 +0000] ERROR: Running exception handlers [Thu, 14 Mar 2013 13:04:52 +0000] FATAL: Saving node information to /var/cache/chef/failed-run-data.json [Thu, 14 Mar 2013 13:04:52 +0000] ERROR: Exception handlers complete [Thu, 14 Mar 2013 13:04:52 +0000] ERROR: Gem::Installer::ExtensionBuildError: chef_gem[fog] (cookbook::recipe line 4) had an error: Gem::Installer::ExtensionBuildError: ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension. /usr/bin/ruby1.8 extconf.rb checking for libxml/parser.h... no ----- libxml2 is missing. please visit http://nokogiri.org/tutorials/installing_nokogiri.html for help with installing dependencies. ----- *** extconf.rb failed *** Could not create Makefile due to some reason, probably lack of necessary libraries and/or headers. Check the mkmf.log file for more details. You may need configuration options. Provided configuration options: --with-opt-dir --without-opt-dir ... --with-pkg-config --without-pkg-config Gem files will remain installed in /var/lib/gems/1.8/gems/nokogiri-1.5.6 for inspection. Results logged to /var/lib/gems/1.8/gems/nokogiri-1.5.6/ext/nokogiri/gem_make.out ``` I am aware of the notifies attribute of the chef resources but still can get this run properly. So how can I actually force the execution order to first install the native packages and then the gem in the same run. Note: Manual installation of the packages is not an option, since we want that to be fully automated for new nodes.

Original source