Puppet users - Jan 2007 - Setting a variable to true or false, if a certain file exists...

Hi,

I need to set a variable to true or false if a certain file exists. I  
need to use it in a case statement like:

case $is_installed {
	false: {
		exec...
		file...
		service...
	}
	true: {
		package...
	}
}

Is it possible...? I searched for the syntax, but I can''t find an  
appropriate example...


--
Med venlig hilsen
Juri Rischel Jensen

Fab:IT ApS
Vesterbrogade 50
DK-1620 København
Tlf: 70 202 407 / Fax: 33 313 640
www.fab-it.dk / juri@fab-it.dk

On Jan 23, 2007, at 2:54 PM, Juri Rischel Jensen wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I need to set a variable to true or false if a certain file exists. I
> need to use it in a case statement like:
>
> case $is_installed {
> 	false: {
> 		exec...
> 		file...
> 		service...
> 	}
> 	true: {
> 		package...
> 	}
> }
>
> Is it possible...? I searched for the syntax, but I can''t find an
> appropriate example...
The only way you could do such a thing right now is to use a fact,  
which does not scale very well.  It should work fine for one or two,  
but not so much for many more.

  --
  I happen to feel that the degree of a person''s intelligence is  
directly
  reflected by the number of conflicting attitudes she can bring to bear
  on the same topic.            -- Lisa Alther
  ---------------------------------------------------------------------
  Luke Kanies | http://reductivelabs.com | http://madstop.com

On Tue, Jan 23, 2007 at 09:54:47PM +0100, Juri Rischel Jensen
wrote:
> I need to set a variable to true or false if a certain file exists. I  
My rule of thumb on things like this is as follows: If you need to do
something like this, you''re probably not thinking about the problem in
the
"right" (Puppetish) way.  If you can give a representative sample
problem,
I''m pretty certain we can give you some guidance.

- Matt

On Jan 23, 2007, at 22:37, Matthew Palmer wrote:
> My rule of thumb on things like this is as follows: If you need to do
> something like this, you''re probably not thinking about the
problem
> in the
> "right" (Puppetish) way.  If you can give a representative sample
> problem,
> I''m pretty certain we can give you some guidance.
I''d like to install rubygems on my computers, but it''s not
part of
Debian stable so I have to install it by hand (e.g. download a .tgz  
file and run ruby setup.rb), but afterwards, I can use rubygems to  
update itself...

--
Med venlig hilsen
Juri Rischel Jensen

Fab:IT ApS
Vesterbrogade 50
DK-1620 København
Tlf: 70 202 407 / Fax: 33 313 640
www.fab-it.dk / juri@fab-it.dk

On Tue, Jan 23, 2007 at 10:41:22PM +0100, Juri Rischel Jensen
wrote:
> 
> On Jan 23, 2007, at 22:37, Matthew Palmer wrote:
> 
> > My rule of thumb on things like this is as follows: If you need to do
> > something like this, you''re probably not thinking about the
problem
> > in the
> > "right" (Puppetish) way.  If you can give a representative
sample
> > problem,
> > I''m pretty certain we can give you some guidance.
> 
> I''d like to install rubygems on my computers, but it''s
not part of
> Debian stable so I have to install it by hand (e.g. download a .tgz  
> file and run ruby setup.rb), but afterwards, I can use rubygems to  
> update itself...
Aaah.  Interesting problem.

For myself, I just use the rubygems Debian package from testing/unstable
(works fine on Ubuntu Breezy/Dapper, and I can''t see any reason why it
shouldn''t work on Debian Sarge).  But then, I run with a private
repository
all the time, so that is a trivial step for me.

If you want to persevere with the tarball method, Puppet isn''t
particularly
well suited to this task.  I''d write a shell script that did the
download
and install, and run that in an exec object with an appropriate
''creates''
parameter.

- Matt

-- 
"I''m tempted to try Gentoo, but then I learned that its installer
is in
Python, and, well, a base Python install on my system is something like
fifty megabytes (for what?  oh, right, we NEED four XML libraries, I
forgot)."  -- Dave Brown, ASR

On Jan 23, 2007, at 3:41 PM, Juri Rischel Jensen wrote:
>
> On Jan 23, 2007, at 22:37, Matthew Palmer wrote:
>
>> My rule of thumb on things like this is as follows: If you need to do
>> something like this, you''re probably not thinking about the
problem
>> in the
>> "right" (Puppetish) way.  If you can give a representative
sample
>> problem,
>> I''m pretty certain we can give you some guidance.
>
> I''d like to install rubygems on my computers, but it''s
not part of
> Debian stable so I have to install it by hand (e.g. download a .tgz
> file and run ruby setup.rb), but afterwards, I can use rubygems to
> update itself...
This is similar to the yum problems that someone else is having.

I agree with Matt that using a package is far preferred to the  
tarball, even if you just download the testing/unstable package and  
install that using ''dpkg''.  There still isn''t an easy
way to set up
all of the gem packages to require this package, so I''ll have to  
think about that a bit more.

  --
  Most people are born and years later die without really having lived
  at all.  They play it safe and tiptoe through life with no aspiration
  other than to arrive at death safely.  -- Tony Campolo, "Carpe Diem"
  ---------------------------------------------------------------------
  Luke Kanies | http://reductivelabs.com | http://madstop.com