chef

https://github.com/opscode/chef

Ruby

A systems integration framework, built to bring the benefits of configuration management to your entire infrastructure.

Chef::Node::CommonAPI#read

this is a safe non-autovivifying reader that returns nil if the attribute does not exist

Source | Google | Stack overflow

Edit

git clone [email protected]:opscode/chef.git
cd chef
open lib/chef/node/common_api.rb

Contribute

# Make a new branch
git checkout -b -your-name--update-docs-Chef--Node--CommonAPI-read-for-pr

# Commit to git
git add lib/chef/node/common_api.rbgit commit -m "better docs for Chef::Node::CommonAPI#read"

# Open pull request
gem install hub # on a mac you can `brew install hub`
hub fork
git push <your name> -your-name--update-docs-Chef--Node--CommonAPI-read-for-pr
hub pull-request

# Celebrate!