Using shef (with chef-solo) to debug chef runs

shef tips

# from inside a "chef-managed" instance (in this case, vagrant)
sudo shef -s -j /tmp/vagrant-chef-1/dna.json  -c /tmp/vagrant-chef-1/solo.rb
=> will have nothing in the run list, but all cookbooks loaded.
=> http://stevendanna.github.com/blog/2012/01/28/shef-debugging-tips-1/

# add recipe from source
load_recipe "apache2::mod_fastcgi"

# run chef...
run_chef

# debug/edit code... 

# reset run list to "empty"
run_context.resource_collection = Chef::ResourceCollection.new
# re-load recipe and run again...

# rinse & repeat