About Knife Environment

Create

To add an environment object to the Chef Infra Server, use the create argument. The knife will open $EDITOR to allow editing of the ENVIRONMENT description field when this argument is run (unless a description is specified as part of the command). The knife will add the environment to the Chef Infra Server after it is finished

Examples 

Create an environment 

To create an environment named Coding with a description of The Coding Ninjas. 

knife environment create Coding -d --description "The Coding Ninjas."

Delete 

Use the delete argument to remove an environment from a Chef Infra Server. 

Examples 

Delete an environment 

To delete an environment named Coding, enter:

knife environment delete Coding

Edit 

To change an environment's attributes, use the edit argument. The knife will open $EDITOR to allow editing of ENVIRONMENT attributes when this argument is run. When finished, the knife will apply those changes to the Chef Infra Server. 

Examples

Edit an environment

To edit an environment named codeLife, enter:

knife environment edit codeLife

From File 

To add or modify an environment using a JSON or Ruby DSL description, use the from file argument. 

Examples 

Create an environment from a JSON file

Adding an environment with data from a JSON file: 

knife environment from file "path to JSON file"

List 

The environments currently accessible on the Chef Infra Server can be listed using the list argument. 

Examples 

View a list of environments 

For viewing the list of environments 

knife environment list -w

Show 

To display details about the specified environment, use the show argument.

Examples 

Show environments  

To view information about the CodeLife environment, enter the following:

knife environment show CodeLife

Output 

% knife environment show dev
chef_type:          environment
cookbook_versions:
default_attributes:
description:
json_class:         Chef::Environment
name:               dev
override_attributes:

Show environments  as JSON

knife environment show CodeLife -F json 

Other formats available include text, YAML, and pp.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a cookbook in software?

A cookbook in the context of programming means a collection of small programs that each depict a particular programming concept.

What is a Knife?

A knife is a command-line tool that interfaces between a chef Infra Server and local chef-repo.

Why is Chef used in DevOps?

In DevOps, Chef manages and deploys servers and applications in-house and on the cloud.

What does the From File command do in a knife environment? 

When adding or updating an environment with a JSON or Ruby DSL description, we use the from file command. 

What does the Compare command do in a knife environment? 

We compare the cookbook version constraints imposed on one (or more) environments using the compare argument.

Conclusion

In this article, we discussed the knife environments and various commands of the knife environment, along with examples. 

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