CHEF - ArgumentError: could not find a temporary directory

When running chef-client as non root user, you may encounter the following error:

==============================
  Error Syncing Cookbooks:
  =============================
  Unexpected Error:
  -----------------
  ArgumentError: could not find a temporary directory
 
  Platform:
  ---------
  x86_64-linux

In the stacktrace, the error shows up as:
ArgumentError: could not find a temporary directory
/opt/chef/embedded/lib/ruby/2.1.0/tmpdir.rb:34:in `tmpdir'
/opt/chef/embedded/lib/ruby/2.1.0/tmpdir.rb:105:in `tmpdir'
/opt/chef/embedded/lib/ruby/2.1.0/tmpdir.rb:137:in `create'
/opt/chef/embedded/lib/ruby/2.1.0/tempfile.rb:136:in `initialize'
/opt/chef/embedded/lib/ruby/2.1.0/tempfile.rb:320:in `new'
/opt/chef/embedded/lib/ruby/2.1.0/tempfile.rb:320:in `open'

Solution:
This is not a CHEF issue rather a ruby one. Newer versions of ruby do not allow any directory to be used as a temporary directory that has (777) permissions set on it unless setuid of 1 is set on the directory too. As root user do the following:

chmod 1777 /tmp
ls -ld /tmp  drwxrwxrwt. /tmp

notice the "t" in the output.