## New Cookbook Helpers

Chef Infra Client now includes a new `chef-utils` gem, which ships with a large number of helpers to make writing cookbooks easier. Many of these helpers existed previously in the `chef-sugar` gem. We have renamed many of the named helpers for consistency, while providing backwards compatibility with existing `chef-sugar` names. Existing cookbooks written with `chef-sugar` should work unmodified with any of these new helpers. Expect a Cookstyle rule in the near future to help you update existing `chef-sugar` code to use the newer built-in helpers.

For more information all all of the new helpers available, see the [chef-utils readme](https://github.com/chef/chef/blob/master/chef-utils/README.md)

## Chefignore Improvements

We've reworked how chefignore files are handled in `knife`, which has allowed us to close out a large number of long outstanding bugs. `knife` will now traverse all the way up the directory structure looking for a chefignore file. This means you can place a chefignore file in each cookbook or any parent directory in your repository structure. Additionally, we have made fixes that ensure that commands like `knife diff` and `knife cookbook upload` always honor your chefignore files.

## Windows Habitat Plan

Official Habitat packages of Chef Infra Client are now available for Windows. It has all the executables of the traditional omnibus packages, but in Habitat form. You can find it in the Habitat Builder under [chef/chef-infra-client](https://bldr.habitat.sh/#/pkgs/chef/chef-infra-client/latest/windows).

## Performance Improvements

This release of Chef Infra Client ships with several optimizations to our Ruby installation that improve the performance of the chef-client and knife commands, especially on Windows systems. Expect to see more here in future releases.

## Chef InSpec 4.18.39

Chef InSpec has been updated from 4.17.17 to 4.18.38. This release includes a large number of bug fixes in addition to some great resource enhancements:

- Inputs can now be used within a `describe.one` block
- The `service` resource now includes a `startname` property for Windows and systemd services
- The `interface` resource now includes a `name` property
- The `user` resource now better supports Windows with the addition of `passwordage`, `maxbadpasswords`, and `badpasswordattempts` properties
- The `nginx` resource now includes parsing support for wildcard, dot prefix, and regex
- The `iis_app_pool` resource now handles empty app pools
- The `filesystem` resource now supports devices with very long names
- The `apt` better handles URIs and supports repos with an `arch`
- The `oracledb_session` has received multiple fixes to make it work better
- The `npm` resource now works under sudo on Unix and on Windows with a custom PATH

## New Resources

### chef_sleep

The `chef_sleep` resource can be used to sleep for a specified number of seconds during a Chef Infra Client run. This may be helpful to use with other commands that return a completed status before they are actually ready. In general, do not use this resource unless you truly need it.

Using with a Windows service that starts, but is not immediately ready:

```ruby
service 'Service that is slow to start and reports as started' do
  service_name 'my_database'
  action :start
  notifies :sleep, chef_sleep['wait for service start']
end

chef_sleep 'wait for service start' do
  seconds 30
  action :nothing
end
```

## Updated Resources

## systemd_unit / service

The `systemd_unit` and `service` resources (when on systemd) have been updated to not re-enable services with an indirect status. Thanks [@jaymzh](https://github.com/jaymzh) for this fix.

## windows_firewall

The `windows_firewall` resource has been updated to support passing in an array of profiles in the `profile` property. Thanks [@Happycoil](https://github.com/Happycoil) for this improvement.

## Security Updates

### libxslt

libxslt has been updated to 1.1.34 to resolve [CVE-2019-13118](https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-13118).