How to use special characters in Chef? - ruby

Question

I am writing Chef recipes using chef-solo, where I need to run commands which include + but Chef returns an error if I use the + character.
bash "testing" do
code <<-EOH
/bin/grep '^+:' /etc/shadow >>/var/info
EOH
end
Method 1: put code in any script.sh file and use it as:
execute " script running " do
command "sh /path/script.sh"
end
but I don't want to use it. Is there any other way to use special characters?
Note: I tried using back-slash ("\").
update : got below error when i use code
bash "testing" do
code "/bin/grep '^+:' /etc/shadow >>/var/info"
end
Error:
chef-solo -c solo.rb -j web.json
Starting Chef Client, version 11.8.2
Compiling Cookbooks...
Converging 1 resources
Recipe: test::test
* bash[testing] action run
================================================================================
Error executing action `run` on resource 'bash[testing]'
================================================================================
Mixlib::ShellOut::ShellCommandFailed
------------------------------------
Expected process to exit with [0], but received '1'
---- Begin output of "bash" "/tmp/chef-script20150822-12224-kbivpd" ----
STDOUT:
STDERR:
---- End output of "bash" "/tmp/chef-script20150822-12224-kbivpd" ----
Ran "bash" "/tmp/chef-script20150822-12224-kbivpd" returned 1
Resource Declaration:
---------------------
# In /home/new/cookbooks/test/recipes/test.rb
1: bash "testing" do
2: code "/bin/grep '^+:' /etc/shadow >>/var/info"
3: end
Compiled Resource:
------------------
# Declared in /home/new/cookbooks/test/recipes/test.rb:1:in `from_file'
bash("testing") do
action "run"
retries 0
retry_delay 2
command "\"bash\" \"/tmp/chef-script20150822-12224-kbivpd\""
backup 5
returns 0
code "/bin/grep '^+:' /etc/shadow >>/var/info"
interpreter "bash"
cookbook_name :test
recipe_name "test"
end
[2015-08-22T19:49:52+05:30] ERROR: Running exception handlers
[2015-08-22T19:49:52+05:30] ERROR: Exception handlers complete
[2015-08-22T19:49:52+05:30] FATAL: Stacktrace dumped to /home/chef-solo/chef-stacktrace.out
Chef Client failed. 0 resources updated
[2015-08-22T19:49:52+05:30] ERROR: bash[testing] (test::test line 1) had an error: Mixlib::ShellOut::ShellCommandFailed: Expected process to exit with [0], but received '1'
---- Begin output of "bash" "/tmp/chef-script20150822-12224-kbivpd" ----
STDOUT:
STDERR:
---- End output of "bash" "/tmp/chef-script20150822-12224-kbivpd" ----
Ran "bash" "/tmp/chef-script20150822-12224-kbivpd" returned 1
[2015-08-22T19:49:52+05:30] FATAL: Chef::Exceptions::ChildConvergeError: Chef run process exited unsuccessfully (exit code 1)

Answer 1

This has nothing to do with the + in the command !
There's nothing wrong, chef works as expected:
# grep '^+' /etc/shadow; echo $?
1
This command returns a status code of 1 as nothing is found (quote of man grep emphasis is mine):
EXIT STATUS
The exit status is 0 if selected lines are found, and 1 if not found. If an error occurred the exit status is 2. (Note: POSIX
error handling
code should check for '2' or greater.)
And chef tell's you exactly this:
Expected process to exit with [0], but received '1'
Reading the bash resource documentation we see there's a returns attribute with this description:
returns Ruby Types: Integer, Array
The return value for a command. This may be an array of accepted
values. An exception is raised when the return value(s) do not match.
Default value: 0.
So if you want to accept this command return 0 or 1:
bash "testing" do
code "/bin/grep '^+:' /etc/shadow >>/var/info"
return [0,1]
end
So this may not solve your problem as you didn't describe what you're trying to achieve, we're on a XY problem here

Answer 2

Chef recipes are pure ruby, so you can write something like this without any problems:
bash "testing" do
code "/bin/grep '^+:' /etc/shadow >>/var/info"
end
If you need to use double quotes inside your command, you can escape it with back slash "\".

Answer 3

i solved my problem using
`/bin/grep '^+:' /etc/passwd >> /var/output`
this is ruby method to execute system command using backticks in which global variable $? is set through the backticks automatically