Puppet users - Jan 2011 - Is there a nice syntax for calling functions?

Hi all,

I''m using the class below to set the timezone on a Debian system,
however
there are two things I''m unhappy with.

1) Why do I have to specify a trailing colon after the exec command and when 
calling timezone::set?  If I leave it off I get the very helpful error
"Syntax
error at ''}''; expected ''}''"

2) Because of the exec command, /etc/timezone gets overwritten without a 
backup being made like with other functions.  Is there a way to get the file 
included in the file bucket?  I imagine I''d have to add an
"onlyif" directive
to make sure this only happened if the file contents changed.

I''m using this function-call "design" in a few places so if
it can be
rewritten in a nicer way I''d like to know as I can then tidy up a few
other
classes too.  This is all I have been able to decipher from the examples
I''ve
stumbled across.

Many thanks,
Adam.

-------

class timezone {

   define set($ensure = present) {

     file {
       "/etc/localtime":
         ensure  => symlink,
         target  => "/usr/share/zoneinfo/$name",
       ;
     }

     exec { "/bin/echo ''${name}'' >
/etc/timezone": }

   }

}

-------

include timezone
timezone::set { "Australia/Brisbane": }

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On Jan 8, 2011, at 3:52 AM, Adam Nielsen wrote:
> 2) Because of the exec command, /etc/timezone gets overwritten without a
backup being made like with other functions. Is there a way to get the file
included in the file bucket?  I imagine I''d have to add an
"onlyif" directive to make sure this only happened if the file
contents changed.
Nope.  Puppet can''t infer what files it should backup for an exec. 
What you can do is add a layer of indirection if you need it.

*) Create a temp folder that won''t be wiped on reboot.  I use
/usr/local/puppet_private for everything like this.
*) Use your exec to create the file in there. ie at
/usr/local/puppet_private/timezone
*) Use file to copy from /usr/local/puppet_private/timezone to /etc/timezone so
you get "file" to filebucket the old file.

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On Sat, Jan 8, 2011 at 3:52 AM, Adam Nielsen <a.nielsen@shikadi.net>
wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I''m using the class below to set the timezone on a Debian system,
however
> there are two things I''m unhappy with.
>
> 1) Why do I have to specify a trailing colon after the exec command and
> when calling timezone::set?  If I leave it off I get the very helpful error
> "Syntax error at ''}''; expected
''}''"
>

It''s the minimum required syntax for declaring a resource. The : is
required
to seperate the resource title and the list of attributes:

resource_type {
  title :
    attribute => value, (trailing comma optional for last attribute, can
omit all default value)
  ; (trailing semicolon optional for single resource)
}

So removing optional parts:
resource_type { title : }

> 2) Because of the exec command, /etc/timezone gets overwritten without a
> backup being made like with other functions.  Is there a way to get the
file
> included in the file bucket?  I imagine I''d have to add an
"onlyif"
> directive to make sure this only happened if the file contents changed.
>
You can use puppet filebucket command to backup the files before the exec,
but in this case why not use the file resource?

file { "/etc/timezone":
  content => $name,
}

I''m using this function-call "design" in a few places so if
it can be
> rewritten in a nicer way I''d like to know as I can then tidy up a
few other
> classes too.  This is all I have been able to decipher from the examples
> I''ve stumbled across.
>
> Many thanks,
> Adam.
>
> -------
>
> class timezone {
>
>  define set($ensure = present) {
>
>    file {
>      "/etc/localtime":
>        ensure  => symlink,
>        target  => "/usr/share/zoneinfo/$name",
>      ;
>    }
>
>    exec { "/bin/echo ''${name}'' >
/etc/timezone": }
>
>  }
>
> }
>
> -------
>
> include timezone
> timezone::set { "Australia/Brisbane": }
>
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>
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> It''s the minimum required syntax for declaring a resource. The :
is required
> to seperate the resource title and the list of attributes:
Thanks for the explanation.  Shame the colon isn''t optional when there
are no
attributes ;-)
> You can use puppet filebucket command to backup the files before the exec,
but
> in this case why not use the file resource?
>
> file { "/etc/timezone":
>    content => $name,
> }
Oh, I didn''t realise you could do that!  That''s much better,
thanks for the info.

Thanks Patrick as well for the idea with writing to a temp folder and then 
copying it, that''s an interesting workaround.

Cheers,
Adam.

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