gistfile1.yml

#
# PRODUCTION
#
production:
  adapter: mysql2
  encoding: utf8
  reconnect: false
  database: gitlabhq_production
  pool: 5
  username: <%= ENV['PROD_DB_USER'] %>
  password: <%= ENV['PROD_DB_PASSWORD'] %>
  # host: localhost
  # socket: /tmp/mysql.sock

This is being put on our server with Chef - like this:

template "/home/gitlab/shared/config/database.yml" do
source "database.yml.erb"
owner "gitlab"
group "gitlab"
mode 0644
end

Currently, it just writes whatever the current ENV variables are in the final database.yml - is there a way to tell Chef to NOT evaluate those Ruby statements during the install? I want it to say:

<%= ENV['PROD_DB_USER'] %> and <%= ENV['PROD_DB_PASSWORD'] %> in the final template.

Answer is to use cookbook_file:

http://wiki.opscode.com/display/chef/Resources#Resources-CookbookFile