Puppet users - Jan 2009 - variable scope is making my head hurt

I''m trying to add a "node type" variable that can be
interpolated into
source values.  In this, my latest attempt, $nodetype always ends up
as "base":

# manifests/nodes
$nodetype = "base"

node "base" {
    include postfix
    ...snip...
}

node "www01", "www02", ... , "www10" inherits
"base" {
     $nodetype = "wwwnode"
     include postfix::custom
}

# modules/postfix/manifests/init.pp
class postfix {
     package {"postfix": ensure => installed}
     file {"/etc/postfix/main.cf":
          content => template("puppet:///files/main.cf.erb})
     }
}

# modules/postfix/manifests/custom.pp
class postfix::custom inherits postfix {
     File ["/etc/postfix/main.cf"] {
          content => undef,
          source => ["puppet:///files/$hostname/main.cf",
                           "puppet:///files/$nodetype/main.cf" ]
     }
}


This seems almost exactly the same as the "variable scope" example
from the language tutorial, but there''s clearly a subtltly that
I''m
missing.  Can anyone point it out?

And is there a better way of accomplishing this?  I''m trying to avoid
needing to create a unique class for every single kind of server while
at the same time trying to avoid a separate (identical) config file
for every server within a "kind".

Thanks...

-Ben

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OK, this one I know!   I had the same problem and while my solution is
not "pretty" it does seem to work.  :)  It''s just three easy
steps
(and you''ve already done the first one!)

1) Define your "global" variable in a node definition (i.e. $nodetype)

2) Create a mapping class to map those "global" variables to a class
level variable
   class global {
     $NODE_TYPE = $nodetype
   }

3) include the global class in your node.
   node "www01", "www02", ... , "www10" inherits
"base" {
     $nodetype = "wwwnode"
     include global
     include postfix::custom
   }

Now you should be able to reference the $NODE_TYPE variable in any
class that is included after the global class.  Hey, I said it was
ugly...

Later...
  Richard
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