Chef::Exceptions::nginx didn't start when installing nginx-1.16.1 from source - ruby

Question

I am trying to install nginx from source , My requirement is to install specific version of nginx i.e., 1.16.1 because of which i am downloading from source.
After running installNginx.rb , i see nginx.conf file got updated with default nginx configs , but nginx -v says command not found.
below is my configuration -
installNginx.rb
include_recipe 'nginx::source'
begin
t = resources(:template => 'nginx.conf')
t.source 'nginx.conf'
t.cookbook 'my_nginx'
rescue Chef::Exceptions::ResourceNotFound
Chef::Log.warn "Could not find template nginx.conf to modify"
end
service 'nginx' do
action :restart
end
attributes/Source.rb
node.default['nginx']['source']['version'] = '1.16.1'
node.default['nginx']['source']['url'] = 'http://nginx.org/download/nginx-1.16.1.tar.gz'
node.default['nginx']['source']['checksum'] = 'f11c2a6dd1d3515736f0324857957db2de98be862461b5a542a3ac6188dbe32b'
metadata.rb
depends 'nginx'
After analysing what I observed on cookbook logs is: The source version I gave is 1.16.1 but for some reason, the nginx::source recipe is pulling in 1.12.1 and nginx is not starting
"nginx": {
"version": "1.12.1",
"package_name": "nginx",
"port": "80",
"dir": "/etc/nginx",
"script_dir": "/usr/sbin",
"log_dir": "/var/log/nginx",
"log_dir_perm": "0750",
"binary": "/opt/nginx-1.12.1/sbin/nginx",
"default_root": "/var/www/nginx-default",
"ulimit": "1024",
"cleanup_runit": true,
"repo_source": "nginx",
"install_method": "package",
"user": "webadmin",
"upstart": {
"runlevels": "2345",
"respawn_limit": null,
"foreground": true
}
"init_style": "init",
"source": {
"version": "1.16.1",
"prefix": "/opt/nginx-1.12.1",
"conf_path": "/etc/nginx/nginx.conf",
"sbin_path": "/opt/nginx-1.12.1/sbin/nginx",
"default_configure_flags": [
"--prefix=/opt/nginx-1.12.1",
"--conf-path=/etc/nginx/nginx.conf",
"--sbin-path=/opt/nginx-1.12.1/sbin/nginx",
"--with-cc-opt=-Wno-error"
],
"url": "http://nginx.org/download/nginx-1.16.1.tar.gz",
"checksum": "f11c2a6dd1d3515736f0324857957db2de98be862461b5a542a3ac6188dbe32b",
"modules": [
"nginx::http_ssl_module",
"nginx::http_gzip_static_module"
],
INFO: remote_file[nginx source] created file /var/chef/runs/58bffee4-b5aa-4632-97cd-0eeacc4ebd4c/local-mode-cache/cache/nginx-1.16.1.tar.gz
INFO: remote_file[nginx source] updated file contents /var/chef/runs/58bffee4-b5aa-4632-97cd-0eeacc4ebd4c/local-mode-cache/cache/nginx-1.16.1.tar.gz
I am unable to figure out where the issue is, any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

The attributes file in the nginx cookbook refers to the default version in multiple places. For example, it uses the default version to define the directory where nginx is installed to as well as download URL for the nginx sources as
default['nginx']['source']['prefix'] = "/opt/nginx-#{node['nginx']['source']['version']}"
default['nginx']['source']['url'] = "http://nginx.org/download/nginx-#{node['nginx']['source']['version']}.tar.gz"
Thus, if you later update the version attribute in your own cookbook, the download URL will not automatically be updated with the new version since it has no reference to it anymore.
To resolve this, you have two options
You can manually set all related attributes in your cookbook. This is likely error-prone and may lead to inconsistencies as you have seen.
You can reload the default nginx attributes file after having set the overridden attributes. This can look like this in your attributes file:
override['nginx']['version'] = '1.16.1'
override['nginx']['source']['checksum'] = 'f11c2a6dd1d3515736f0324857957db2de98be862461b5a542a3ac6188dbe32b'
# Reload nginx::source attributes with our updated version
node.from_file(run_context.resolve_attribute('nginx', 'source'))
Note that the nginx cookbook maintains two nginx versions: node['nginx']['version'] and node['nginx']['source']['version'], with the latter value being set to the former value by default.
In your ohai output, you have only seen the node['nginx']['version'] attribute (which you have not overridden).
By overriding this attribute and reloading the attributes/source.rb file as shown about, things should be consistent again.