undefined method `source_url' for #<Chef::Cookbook::Metadata:0x000000006f1378> - docker

Question

I'm learning docker using book docker in practice.
I am working on technique 47 in chapter 5.
This recipe is about using chef for managing docker configurations.
The github link is here.
When I build the docker image from the container, I encounter below error.
$ docker build -t chef-example .
Sending build context to Docker daemon 9.728kB
Step 1/12 : FROM ubuntu:latest
---> ccc7a11d65b1
Step 2/12 : RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -yy git curl
---> Using cache
---> ef956c61c59f
Step 3/12 : RUN curl -L https://opscode-omnibus-packages.s3.amazonaws.com/ubuntu/12.04/x86_64/chefdk_0.3.5-1_amd64.deb -o chef.deb
---> Using cache
---> 1260301dbe67
Step 4/12 : RUN dpkg -i chef.deb && rm chef.deb
---> Using cache
---> 8c1aeaf84423
Step 5/12 : COPY . /chef
---> 18986195e732
Removing intermediate container 758dfce43670
Step 6/12 : WORKDIR /chef/cookbooks
---> fbdd9c386801
Removing intermediate container 936393187cb4
Step 7/12 : RUN knife cookbook site download apache2
---> Running in 2ba7d0765ae2
WARNING: No knife configuration file found
Downloading apache2 from the cookbooks site at version 5.0.1 to /chef/cookbooks/apache2-5.0.1.tar.gz
Cookbook saved: /chef/cookbooks/apache2-5.0.1.tar.gz
---> 8b3fa14f4416
Removing intermediate container 2ba7d0765ae2
Step 8/12 : RUN knife cookbook site download iptables
---> Running in 94275acfdb44
WARNING: No knife configuration file found
Downloading iptables from the cookbooks site at version 4.3.1 to /chef/cookbooks/iptables-4.3.1.tar.gz
Cookbook saved: /chef/cookbooks/iptables-4.3.1.tar.gz
---> c8a4c6d17253
Removing intermediate container 94275acfdb44
Step 9/12 : RUN knife cookbook site download logrotate
---> Running in 27b5f736d6cf
WARNING: No knife configuration file found
Downloading logrotate from the cookbooks site at version 2.2.0 to /chef/cookbooks/logrotate-2.2.0.tar.gz
Cookbook saved: /chef/cookbooks/logrotate-2.2.0.tar.gz
---> 1b4b4460bdc9
Removing intermediate container 27b5f736d6cf
Step 10/12 : RUN /bin/bash -c 'for f in $(ls *gz); do tar -zxf $f; rm $f; done'
---> Running in 7e6b912d910e
---> d5e77acc14f1
Removing intermediate container 7e6b912d910e
Step 11/12 : RUN chef-solo -c /chef/config.rb -j /chef/attributes.json
---> Running in a0c7f7f7a00a
[2017-12-05T08:01:08+00:00] INFO: Forking chef instance to converge...
[2017-12-05T08:01:08+00:00] INFO: *** Chef 11.18.0.rc.1 ***
[2017-12-05T08:01:08+00:00] INFO: Chef-client pid: 9
[2017-12-05T08:01:09+00:00] INFO: Setting the run_list to
["recipe[apache2::default]", "recipe[mysite::default]"] from CLI options
[2017-12-05T08:01:09+00:00] INFO: Run List is
[recipe[apache2::default], recipe[mysite::default]]
[2017-12-05T08:01:09+00:00] INFO: Run List expands to [apache2::default, mysite::default]
[2017-12-05T08:01:09+00:00] INFO: Starting Chef Run for 8089fe031125
[2017-12-05T08:01:09+00:00] INFO: Running start handlers
[2017-12-05T08:01:09+00:00] INFO: Start handlers complete.
[2017-12-05T08:01:09+00:00] ERROR: Running exception handlers
[2017-12-05T08:01:09+00:00] ERROR: Exception handlers complete
[2017-12-05T08:01:09+00:00] FATAL: Stacktrace dumped to /chef/cache/chef-stacktrace.out
[2017-12-05T08:01:09+00:00] ERROR: undefined method `source_url' for #<Chef::Cookbook::Metadata:0x000000006f1378>
[2017-12-05T08:01:09+00:00] FATAL: Chef::Exceptions::ChildConvergeError: Chef run process exited unsuccessfully (exit code 1)
The command '/bin/sh -c chef-solo -c /chef/config.rb -j /chef/attributes.json' returned a non-zero code: 1
I'm new to chef. Not sure why I'm getting this error.

Answer 1

Your cookbook doesn't have a metadata.rb which is probably breaking things, but you're also using Chef 11.18 which is entirely out of support at this point. Current Chef is 13.6.4.
Also we don't really recommend using Chef to build container images in most cases. It can definitely work, but overall Chef was built to manage servers so this will result in server-like fat images in most cases.