Chef-Solo "undefined method `[]' for nil:NilClass" - centos

Question

I just installed a fresh CentOS 6.3 VM and disabled SELinux. Below is the exact script that I ran to install Ruby, Chef Solo, and attempted to provision the VM:
#!/bin/bash
#
# Install Chef-Solo if it doesn't exist, then provision the server.
#
CHEF_FILE="https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4204671/LiquidCompass/lc-chef.tar.gz"
if [ "$#" -eq 0 ]; then
echo "You must provide the type of server this is. (Eg: production-api, qa-api, development)"
exit 1
fi
if [ ! -x "/usr/bin/chef-solo" ]; then
rpm -Uvh http://rbel.frameos.org/rbel6
yum install -y ruby ruby-devel ruby-ri ruby-rdoc ruby-shadow gcc gcc-c++ automake autoconf make curl dmidecode
cd /tmp
curl -O http://production.cf.rubygems.org/rubygems/rubygems-1.8.10.tgz
tar zxf rubygems-1.8.10.tgz
cd rubygems-1.8.10
ruby setup.rb --no-format-executable
gem install chef --no-ri --no-rdoc
fi
if [ -d "/etc/chef" ]; then
rm -rf /etc/chef
fi
if [ -d "/tmp/lc-chef" ]; then
rm -rf /tmp/lc-chef*
fi
mkdir /etc/chef
echo "file_cache_path \"/tmp/lc-chef/chef-solo\"
cookbook_path \"/tmp/lc-chef/cookbooks\"
role_path \"/tmp/lc-chef/roles\"
json_attribs \"/etc/chef/node.json\"" > /etc/chef/solo.rb
echo "{
\"name\": \"$1\",
\"normal\": {
\"company\": \"Liquid Compass LLC\",
\"tags\": []
},
\"chef_environment\": \"_default\",
\"run_list\": [
\"role[$1]\"
]
}" > /etc/chef/node.json
cd /tmp
curl -O $CHEF_FILE
tar zxf lc-chef.tar.gz
chef-solo -c /etc/chef/solo.rb
Unfortunately, right as the script runs I receive:
[2012-12-05T17:39:27-07:00] INFO: Start handlers complete.
================================================================================
Recipe Compile Error in /tmp/lc-chef/cookbooks/liquidcompass/recipes/php.rb
================================================================================
NoMethodError
-------------
undefined method `[]' for nil:NilClass
Cookbook Trace:
---------------
/tmp/lc-chef/cookbooks/liquidcompass/recipes/php.rb:20:in `from_file'
Relevant File Content:
----------------------
/tmp/lc-chef/cookbooks/liquidcompass/recipes/php.rb:
13: # Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
14: # distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
15: # WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
16: # See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
17: # limitations under the License.
18: #
19:
20>> php_url = "http://us.php.net/distributions/php-#{node['php']['version']}.tar.gz"
21: node.set['php']['prefix'] = "/opt/php-#{node['php']['version']}"
22: node.set['php']['conf_path'] = "#{node['php']['dir']}/php.ini"
23: node.set['php']['configure_flags'] = [
24: "--prefix=#{node['php']['prefix']}",
25: "--with-config-file-path=#{node['php']['dir']}",
26: "--with-config-file-scan-dir=#{node['php']['dir']}/conf.d",
27: "--with-curl",
28: "--with-pear",
29: "--with-gd",
So it looks like it's choking on trying to load node['php']['version']. This is defined in my /tmp/lc-chef/cookbooks/liquidcompass/attributes/default.rb with:
default['php']['version'] = "5.4.9"
So it appears that Chef is either not loading the attributes file, or something else is wrong. Not exactly sure how to find this out or not.
Running:
RubyGems 1.8.10
Chef 10.16.2
Best regards,
Andrew
By the way, this is the stack trace:
Generated at Wed Dec 05 17:39:27 -0700 2012
NoMethodError: undefined method `[]' for nil:NilClass
/tmp/lc-chef/cookbooks/liquidcompass/recipes/php.rb:20:in `from_file'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-10.16.2/bin/../lib/chef/cookbook_version.rb:558:in `load_recipe'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-10.16.2/bin/../lib/chef/mixin/language_include_recipe.rb:46:in `load_recipe'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-10.16.2/bin/../lib/chef/mixin/language_include_recipe.rb:33:in `include_recipe'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-10.16.2/bin/../lib/chef/mixin/language_include_recipe.rb:27:in `each'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-10.16.2/bin/../lib/chef/mixin/language_include_recipe.rb:27:in `include_recipe'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-10.16.2/bin/../lib/chef/run_context.rb:79:in `load'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-10.16.2/bin/../lib/chef/run_context.rb:75:in `each'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-10.16.2/bin/../lib/chef/run_context.rb:75:in `load'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-10.16.2/bin/../lib/chef/client.rb:198:in `setup_run_context'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-10.16.2/bin/../lib/chef/client.rb:418:in `do_run'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-10.16.2/bin/../lib/chef/client.rb:176:in `run'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-10.16.2/bin/../lib/chef/application.rb:140:in `run_chef_client'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-10.16.2/bin/../lib/chef/application/solo.rb:224:in `run_application'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-10.16.2/bin/../lib/chef/application/solo.rb:216:in `loop'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-10.16.2/bin/../lib/chef/application/solo.rb:216:in `run_application'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-10.16.2/bin/../lib/chef/application.rb:72:in `run'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-10.16.2/bin/chef-solo:25
/usr/bin/chef-solo:19:in `load'
/usr/bin/chef-solo:19

Answer 1

Default attributes work fine in Chef Solo
I'm not sure what's happening inside your cookbook - but it is an issue with your code, not with Chef. As a simple example, check this out:
https://gist.github.com/adamhjk/6141718

Answer 2

chef solo does not support default attributes.
You're going to need to put together a node.json under your nodes directory which lists the attributes in .json form.
So in your case:
{
"php": {
"version": "5.4.9"
}
}
If you want to use default attributes/any attributes in .rb format, you're going to need to use chef-server/chef-client.