chef-solo -c /etc/chef/solo.rb.hc -j /etc/chef/solo.json

/etc/chef/solo.json

{ "user":"root", "packages":[], "gems":[], "users":[], "recipes":[ performance::ulimit ] }

{ "run_list": [ "recipe[performance::ulimit]", "recipe[project::default-account-setup]" ], }

cookbooks/project/default-account-setup.rb

ruby_block 'mysql_version' do block do require 'mysql' # hack that depends on /etc/mysql/mysql_grants.sql

begin
  db = Mysql.real_connect( "localhost", "root", "myPassword" )                                                                                                        
  puts db.get_server_info
rescue Mysql::Error => e
  puts e.errno, e.error
ensure
  db.close if db
end

end

action :nothing

end