The chef-client includes an option called local mode (--local-mode or -z), which runs the chef-client against the chef-repo on the local machine as if it were running against a Chef server. Local mode was added to the chef-client in the 11.8 release. If you are running that version of the chef-client (or later), you should consider using local mode instead of using chef-solo.


  • This file is loaded every time this executable is run
  • This file is not created by default


This configuration file has the following settings:

The location in which checksum files are stored. These are used to validate individual cookbook files, such as recipes. The checksum itself is stored in the Chef server database and is then compared to a file in the checksum path that has a filename identical to the checksum.
The sub-directory for cookbooks on the chef-client. This value can be a string or an array of file system locations, processed in the specified order. The last cookbook is considered to override local modifications.
The name of the environment.
The path to a file that contains JSON data.
The location of the chef-client lock file.
The location of the log file. Default value: STDOUT.
The name of the node.
Run the chef-client in chef-solo mode. This setting determines if the chef-client is to attempt to communicate with the Chef server. Default value: false.