arrays in puppet

Question

I'm wondering how to solve the following puppet problem: I want to create several files based on an array of strings. The complication is that I want to create multiple directories with the files:

dir1/
    fileA
    fileB
dir2/
    fileA
    fileB
    fileC

The problem is that the file resource titles must be unique. So if I keep the file names in an array, I need to iterate over the array in a custom way to be able to postfix the file names with the directory name:

$file_names = ['fileA', 'fileB']
$file_names_2 = [$file_names, 'fileC']

file {'dir1': ensure => directory }
file {'dir2': ensure => directory }

file { $file_names: path = 'dir1', ensure =>present, }
file { $file_names_2: path = 'dir2', ensure =>present, }

This wont work because the file resource titles clash. So I need to append e.g. the dir name to the file title, however, this will cause the array of files to be concatenated and not treated as multiple files...

arghh..

file { "${file_names}-dir1": path = 'dir1', ensure =>present, }
file { "${file_names_2}-dir2": path = 'dir1', ensure =>present, }

How to solve this problem without the necessity of repeating the file resource itself. Thanks

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 22 '13 at 04:29

3

You can use regsubst() function to modify an array of strings and return an array. See Puppet Function Reference.

$filenames = ['fileA', 'fileB', 'fileC']
$filepaths_dir1 = regsubst($filenames, '^', '/path/to/dir1/')

file {$filepaths_dir1:
    ensure => present,
}

Keep in mind that file resource title needs to be a fully qualified path, or the full path must be specified with path parameter. Specifying path => 'dir1' for the files probably does not do what you want.

edited Aug 22 '13 at 04:29

Community

1

answered Oct 19 '12 at 00:46

Mikko

955
8
14

Thanks for the answer. Concerning the fq paths: I used 'dir1' only as a 'placeholder' for the question. Thanks! – paweloque Oct 19 '12 at 07:42
@paweloque: I thought so, but as the path must also include the file name and the resource definition here defines multiple files, `path` parameter woudn't work with any value. It would be the same value for all files, and I dont' even know what that would do. Perhaps there would be many resource definitions defining the same file. – Mikko Oct 19 '12 at 15:02

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 18 '12 at 15:59

2

It's been a while since I used this but a define should handle what you want.

define myfiles::config ($directory_name, $file_name) {
  ; add command to create directories if needed

  file { "myfiles/conf.d/$directory_name/$file_name":
    ensure  => present,
    ...
  }

}

$directory_name= <from array>
$file_name= <from array>
; loop the following statement 
myfiles::config { "$directory_name-$file_name":
  directory_name => 'dir1',
  file_name   => 'file',
}

answered Oct 18 '12 at 15:59

Tim Brigham

15,545
10
75
115

Hi, doesn't exactly this 'flatten' the arrays "$directory_name-$file_name"? in the parameter assignment insude myfiles::config you then used the constants 'dir1' and 'file'. What I want to do is to iterate over the values from the arrays. – paweloque Oct 19 '12 at 08:46

arrays in puppet

2 Answers2