Make the chef-client (v0.10+) daemon process wake and run, and print what its doing to stdout

run-chef.sh

#!/bin/bash
#
# Author:: Ash Berlin ([email protected])
# Copyright:: Copyright (c) 2011 DigiResults Ltd.
# License:: Apache License, Version 2.0
#
# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
# You may obtain a copy of the License at
#
#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
#
# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
# limitations under the License.
#
set -e

# Typically /var/run/chef/client.pid (init.d) or /etc/sv/chef-client/supervise/pid (runit)
pid_file="/var/run/chef/client.pid"
log_file="/var/log/chef/client.log"

declare tail_pid

on_exit() {
  rm -f $pipe
  [ -n "$tail_pid" ] && kill $tail_pid
}

trap "on_exit" EXIT ERR

pipe=/tmp/pipe-$$
mkfifo $pipe

tail -fn0 "$log_file" > $pipe &

tail_pid=$!

sudo kill -USR1 $(cat "$pid_file")
sed -r '/(ERROR: Sleeping for [[:digit:]]+ seconds before trying again|INFO: Report handlers complete)$/{q}' $pipe

patched to suggest where runit users should look for the pid: https://gist.github.com/1326206

also added to cluster chef -- https://github.com/infochimps/cluster_chef/blob/version_3/lib/chef/knife/cluster_kick.rb

Thanks @ashb!

Thanks - merged those two fixes in.

Patched the script to first test whether a pid file acutally exists before calling USR1 on the chef-client: https://gist.github.com/3016799.
Thanks from my side as well, @ashb!

here's an updated link to knife plugin