undefined method `chef_gem' for #<Chef::Node::Attribute:0x000055cb839ecd58>

Question

so i'm trying to extract some values from vault in my attributes file. And the first few lines of code are the following:

chef_gem 'vault' do
  compile_time true
end
  
require 'vault'
  
Vault.address = ENV['VAULT_ADDR']
var_role_id = ENV['VAULT_ROLE_ID']
var_secret_id = ENV['VAULT_SECRET_ID']
Vault.auth.approle(var_role_id.to_s, var_secret_id.to_s)

I'm running this through a jenkins job hence the ENV variables. Anyways, I keep getting this error:

================================================================================
Recipe Compile Error in /var/chef/cache/cookbooks/****_core/attributes/rabbitmq.rb
================================================================================
 [172.24.9.161] 
NoMethodError
-------------
undefined method `chef_gem' for #<Chef::Node::Attribute:0x000055cb839ecd58>
 [172.24.9.161] 
Cookbook Trace: (most recent call first)
----------------------------------------
  /var/chef/cache/cookbooks/****_core/attributes/rabbitmq.rb:1:in `from_file'

Relevant File Content:
----------------------
/var/chef/cache/cookbooks/****_core/attributes/rabbitmq.rb:

  1>> chef_gem 'vault' do
  2:    compile_time true
  3:  end
 [172.24.9.161]   4:    
  5:  require 'vault'
  6:    
  7:  Vault.address = ENV['VAULT_ADDR']
  8:  var_role_id = ENV['VAULT_ROLE_ID']
  9:  var_secret_id = ENV['VAULT_SECRET_ID']
 10:  Vault.auth.approle(var_role_id.to_s, var_secret_id.to_s)

 [172.24.9.161] System Info:
------------
 [172.24.9.161] chef_version=16.13.16

Is there something that i'm missing? My only hunch is that it's probably because i'm doing it through the attributes file rather than the recipe itself, not really sure. Help!

Answer 1

You can't use resources like chef_gem inside an attributes file.