[Puppet Users] Re: variables created with generate() function have a newline when used in a template

No, it wouldn't. The 'chomp' is a method of Ruby's String class. It works
in the embedded Ruby context in a template, but it is not part of the
Puppet DSL, so it does not work for ordinary variable interpolation.

The underlying problem is that the generate() command you are using is
outputting a trailing newline that gets incorporated into the resulting
value. That's not too surprising, as it is good form for programs (such as
whatever external command you are running) to terminate their output with a
newline.

You have two main options:

1. Modify the command in some way or filter its output to remove the
newline before it reaches Puppet
2. Remove the newline inside Puppet

I leave you to figure out (1) on your own. You have multiple approaches
available for (2). The easiest built into Puppet is to use a template,
probably via the inline_template() function:

$result_line = generate('my command')
$result = inline_template('<%= @result_line.chomp %>')

That's a little ugly, though. If you have or are willing to install
Puppetlabs' "stdlib" add-on module, then it provides a chomp() function in
Puppet. With that, you could replace the second line above with:

$result = chomp($result_line)

Note well that Puppet variables can only be assigned values once each.
That's why my examples use two variables ($result_line and $result).


John

Thanks for your complete answer! I used the inline_template method which is
good enough for me