Puppet users - Jun 2009 - Variable named "memory" in templates

I tried to use a Puppet variable named "$memory" and access it from
a template, like this:

     $memory = 4711
     file {
         "/tmp/test.txt":
             content => inline_template("memory = <%= memory
%>\n");
     }

One would think that my file would contain "memory = 4711" after that,
but instead the memory variable seems to hold a somewhat random number
each time I run Puppet.  On the two machines I have tried it (using the
stand-alone puppet executable), I get values that are on the order of
100000.  Other variable names work as expected, though.

Why can''t I access $memory like other variables?  From where does the
value I do get come from?


(My real use case was a define with a parameter named "memory", from
where I called template(), but the above is a slightly shorter test
case.)


	/Bellman

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Hi
> Why can''t I access $memory like other variables?  From where does
the
> value I do get come from?
it looks like memory is somehow a special variable (dunno why), but if
you don''t name your variable memory, it works.

maybe report a bug report if nobody comes up with a reason why memory is
special (it''s not a facter value!) and name your variable so long
different.

The following example works fine:

    $memory_foo = 123
    notice("$memory_foo")
    file { "/tmp/test.txt":
        content => inline_template("memory = <%= memory_foo
%>\n");
    }

cheers pete

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Peter Meier wrote:
> Hi
> 
>> Why can''t I access $memory like other variables?  From where
does the
>> value I do get come from?
> 
> it looks like memory is somehow a special variable (dunno why), but if
> you don''t name your variable memory, it works.
$memory is a fact containing amount of memory on the client.


Regards, DavidS

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Hi
>>> Why can''t I access $memory like other variables?  From
where does the
>>> value I do get come from?
>>
>> it looks like memory is somehow a special variable (dunno why), but if
>> you don''t name your variable memory, it works.
>
> $memory is a fact containing amount of memory on the client.
hmm I thought that, but this one isn''t displayed with facter:

# facter | grep memory
memoryfree => 933.89 MB
memorysize => 3.36 GB

and if I do:

# cat foo.pp
notice("$memory")
notice(inline_template("<%= memory %>"))

# puppet foo.pp
notice: Scope(Class[main]):
notice: Scope(Class[main]): 36312

I don''t understand the difference.

cheers pete

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Peter Meier wrote:
> Hi
> 
>>>> Why can''t I access $memory like other variables?  From
where does the
>>>> value I do get come from?
>>> it looks like memory is somehow a special variable (dunno why), but
if
>>> you don''t name your variable memory, it works.
>> $memory is a fact containing amount of memory on the client.
> 
> hmm I thought that, but this one isn''t displayed with facter:
> 
> # facter | grep memory
> memoryfree => 933.89 MB
> memorysize => 3.36 GB
> 
> and if I do:
> 
> # cat foo.pp
> notice("$memory")
> notice(inline_template("<%= memory %>"))
> 
> # puppet foo.pp
> notice: Scope(Class[main]):
> notice: Scope(Class[main]): 36312
> 
> I don''t understand the difference.
d''oh. Perhaps this comes from ruby then?


Regards, DavidS

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David Schmitt wrote:
> Peter Meier wrote:
>> it looks like memory is somehow a special variable (dunno why), but if
>> you don''t name your variable memory, it works.
> $memory is a fact containing amount of memory on the client.
No, it isn''t.  At least not a fact that facter (version 1.5.5) reports.
And $memory isn''t available in the manifests unless I set it
explicitly.

And even if it were, variable assignments in the manifests override
facts.  Compare the lines output from:

     node default
     {
         $memorysize = 4711
         notice(inline_template("memorysize = <%= memorysize
%>"))
         notice(inline_template("memory (template) = <%= memory
%>"))
         notice("\$memory = <$memory>")
         notice("\$memoryfree = <$memoryfree>")
     }

$memorysize *is* a fact from facter, and the above code tells me
"memorysize = 4711" (while facter says it is "1.93 GB").  On
the
other hand, it says "$memory = <>", but "memory (template)
= 105452"
(or some similar, but varying, figure).


I can of course work around it by doing ''$xmemory = $memory''
inside
my definition (I don''t want to have a strange name as parameter to
the definition), and accessing "xmemory" from the template, but
it''s
not particularly pretty...

I''ll file this as a bug then, probably later today.


	/Bellman

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> I''ll file this as a bug then, probably later today.
yeah, good idea.

cheers pete


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