How to run setup activities when using application cookbook?

Question

I am trying to deploy my Rails app using application_ruby cookbook. I need to run a few one-time setup activities (like seeding the database using rake db:seed). These should not be done during subsequent chef runs. What's the right way to define these tasks ?

Answer 1

The way I solved this was using a conditional execute like this :

execute "seed database" do
  cwd node[:release_path]
  user node[:owner]
  environment ({'RAILS_ENV' => node[:environment]})
  command "bundle exec rake db:seed && touch #{node[:deploy_path]}/db.seeded"
  not_if { ::File.exists?("#{node[:deploy_path]}/db.seeded") }
end

This makes sure a setup step only happens once.