When I run Chef-Client in PowerShell and allow the process to output to the screen using the following command:
& Chef-Client -z -r "chef-cookbook"
I get this output:
[2014-11-10T07:20:40-08:00] WARN: No config file found or specified on command line, using command line options.
Starting Chef Client, version 11.16.4
resolving cookbooks for run list: ["chef-cookbook"]
Synchronizing Cookbooks:
- chef-cookbook
- powershell-automation
Compiling Cookbooks...
Converging 2 resources
Recipe: powershell-automation::Port_Configuration
* powershell_script[Port_Configuration] action run (skipped due to not_if)
Recipe: powershell-automation::IIS_InstallAutomation
* powershell_script[IIS_InstallAutomation] action run (skipped due to not_if)
Running handlers:
Running handlers complete
Chef Client finished, 0/0 resources updated in 43.69728 seconds
When I run the same command, but capture it to a variable, using the following command:
$chefOutput = & Chef-Client -z -r "chef-cookbook"
The $chefOutput variable contains:
[2014-11-10T07:23:01-08:00] WARN: No config file found or specified on command line, using command line options.
[2014-11-10T07:23:01-08:00] INFO: Auto-discovered chef repository at C:/Temp
[2014-11-10T07:23:01-08:00] INFO: Starting chef-zero on host localhost, port 8889 with repository at repository at C:/Temp
One version per cookbook
[2014-11-10T07:23:06-08:00] INFO: *** Chef 11.16.4 ***
[2014-11-10T07:23:06-08:00] INFO: Chef-client pid: 3364
[2014-11-10T07:23:37-08:00] INFO: Setting the run_list to [recipe[chef-cookbook]] from CLI options
[2014-11-10T07:23:37-08:00] INFO: Run List is [recipe[chef-cookbook]]
[2014-11-10T07:23:37-08:00] INFO: Run List expands to [chef-cookbook]
[2014-11-10T07:23:37-08:00] INFO: Starting Chef Run for XXXXX.XXX.XXX.XXX.com
[2014-11-10T07:23:37-08:00] INFO: Running start handlers
[2014-11-10T07:23:37-08:00] INFO: Start handlers complete.
[2014-11-10T07:23:37-08:00] INFO: HTTP Request Returned 404 Not Found : Object not found: /reports/nodes/XXXXX.XX.XX.XX.com/runs
[2014-11-10T07:23:37-08:00] INFO: Loading cookbooks [chef-cookbook@2015.1.0, powershell-automation@2015.1.0]
[2014-11-10T07:23:37-08:00] INFO: Processing powershell_script[Port_Configuration] action run (powershell-automation::Port_Configuration line 22)
[2014-11-10T07:23:37-08:00] INFO: Processing bash[Guard resource] action run (dynamically defined)
[2014-11-10T07:23:38-08:00] INFO: bash[Guard resource] ran successfully
[2014-11-10T07:23:38-08:00] INFO: Processing powershell_script[IIS_InstallAutomation] action run (powershell-automation::IIS_InstallAutomation line 16)
[2014-11-10T07:23:43-08:00] INFO: Chef Run complete in 6.346486 seconds
[2014-11-10T07:23:43-08:00] INFO: Running report handlers
[2014-11-10T07:23:43-08:00] INFO: Report handlers complete
Why does this discrepancy between outputs happen?
Note: I am seeing that the output in the variable also contains the time stamps and INFO tags for each line. Based on this, I believe this is something to do with how Chef outputs vs something to do with PowerShell.