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I want to deploy a simple text file (a git commit message template) to each user's home directory using Puppet.

I came across this post which seems very close, but the part I'm not clear on is how do I generate a list of users for each node?

In the post they hardcode the users like this:

 applink::desktoplinks { [ "user1", "user2", "user3" ]: }

I can't hard-code the list because these are developer machines and might have a variety of different users that are specific to each node.

Looking at this post, I think I need to use virtual resources, but being a total newbie, just by reading the docs and the provided samples I can't quite seem to figure it out.

Can somebody point me to a quick sample or recipe somewhere that illustrates how to do this?

Community
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Millhouse
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2 Answers2

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To generate a list of users you need to create a new fact. Any information that comes from the host that will be configured needs to be a fact.

For example, the following fact returns the whole /etc/passwd:

# etcpasswd.rb

Facter.add("etcpasswd") do
        setcode do
                File.read('/etc/passwd')
        end
end

You put this fact on the lib/facter subdirectory of a module, or under plugins/facter in Puppet's base directory. I think you need pluginsync = true in puppet.conf too, but that might be only for older Puppet versions.

You can see an example of this at work on my puppet users module.

Daniel C. Sobral
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I am realtively new to puppet, so I am not sure if this is possible, but I suspect not.

Have you considered simply transmitting a copying your template, and a script to a single location on each box. Then setup an exec resource so that whenever the git template is updated, it will run the script. The script would loop over /home copying the files into the appropriate locations.

Zoredache
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  • This is definitely the easiest way to go, but I was hoping to keep as much of the process with puppet's declarative style, mainly for consistency. – Millhouse Oct 21 '11 at 16:34