Puppet users - Jul 2012 - Calling a definition multiple times but with different parameters

I''ve got a bit stuck trying to implement something in Puppet.
I''m hoping
I''m just looking at it the wrong way and somebody can point me in the
right direction :-)

So here''s what I have. A definition that creates a site (it
doesn''t
really matter what it''s creating):

define mymodule::site ($path) {
  # ... do some stuff ...
}

mymodule::site { ''sitename'':
  path  => ''/some/path'',
}

This is fine. But what I want to do is create an arbitrary set of
symlinks along with the site. So I extend it something like this:

define mymodule::site ($path, $links) {
  # ... do some stuff ...
  mymodule::links { $links:
    path => $path,
  }
}

define mymodule::links () {
  # create a link: $name -> $path
}

mymodule::site { ''sitename'':
  path  => ''/some/path'',
  links => [ ''foo'', ''bar'' ],
}

So this works. It creates my site, and calls mymodule::links for each link
separately.

The problem comes if I want to call mymodule::links with more than just
one changing parameter (I''m using $name above). I''d like to be
able to
do something like this, but can''t see how to make it work:

mymodule::site { ''sitename'':
  path  => ''/some/path'',
  links => [ { ''link1'' => ''target1'' },
{ ''link2'' => ''target2'' }, ],
}

But you can''t pass a hash in through $name, and I can''t see
how I can
pass separate parameters each call of the definition. I''d like a for
loop really!

Any pointers? Am I looking at this completely the wrong way?

The only alternative I''ve come up with is to just manually create the
links with file resources where I call mymodule::site, but I ideally
wanted to encapsulate all the behaviour within the module.

Thanks in advance,

Tim.

-- 
Tim Bishop
http://www.bishnet.net/tim/
PGP Key: 0x5AE7D984

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First, I''ll say this sort of thing comes up rather often. It seems that
perhaps there''s a void in dynamic generation of resources based on some
data structure (where you wish you had full langage features to do so). 
However, you may be able to make use of the create_resources function if it 
makes sense for you to have $links look like this:

$links = {
  ''link1'' => {
    ''ensure'' => ''link'',
    ''target'' => ''target1'',
  },
}

and then: create_resources(File, $links). the hash key will be used for 
$name passed to File and the value (hash) is used to feed the other params 
of File.

You may also need to specify your own defined type that takes a base path 
instead of File. Or, you could use the prepend function in stdlib to 
pregenerate the file paths if need be. Or, regsubst.

Good luck :)

Mark

On Friday, July 20, 2012 4:40:42 PM UTC-4, Tim Bishop
wrote:
>
> I''ve got a bit stuck trying to implement something in Puppet.
I''m hoping
> I''m just looking at it the wrong way and somebody can point me in
the
> right direction :-) 
>
> So here''s what I have. A definition that creates a site (it
doesn''t
> really matter what it''s creating): 
>
> define mymodule::site ($path) { 
>   # ... do some stuff ... 
> } 
>
> mymodule::site { ''sitename'': 
>   path  => ''/some/path'', 
> } 
>
> This is fine. But what I want to do is create an arbitrary set of 
> symlinks along with the site. So I extend it something like this: 
>
> define mymodule::site ($path, $links) { 
>   # ... do some stuff ... 
>   mymodule::links { $links: 
>     path => $path, 
>   } 
> } 
>
> define mymodule::links () { 
>   # create a link: $name -> $path 
> } 
>
> mymodule::site { ''sitename'': 
>   path  => ''/some/path'', 
>   links => [ ''foo'', ''bar'' ], 
> } 
>
> So this works. It creates my site, and calls mymodule::links for each link 
> separately. 
>
> The problem comes if I want to call mymodule::links with more than just 
> one changing parameter (I''m using $name above). I''d like
to be able to
> do something like this, but can''t see how to make it work: 
>
> mymodule::site { ''sitename'': 
>   path  => ''/some/path'', 
>   links => [ { ''link1'' =>
''target1'' }, { ''link2'' =>
''target2'' }, ],
> } 
>
> But you can''t pass a hash in through $name, and I can''t
see how I can
> pass separate parameters each call of the definition. I''d like a
for
> loop really! 
>
> Any pointers? Am I looking at this completely the wrong way? 
>
> The only alternative I''ve come up with is to just manually create
the
> links with file resources where I call mymodule::site, but I ideally 
> wanted to encapsulate all the behaviour within the module. 
>
> Thanks in advance, 
>
> Tim. 
>
> -- 
> Tim Bishop 
> http://www.bishnet.net/tim/ 
> PGP Key: 0x5AE7D984 
>
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