[Puppet Users] multi-line content= construct for puppet resource file command

Hi,

at first glance, it doesn't seem to be possible.

I had never thought of using puppet resource in this way. Is there a
reason why you prefer it over puppet apply?

Just preference and consistency. We've been using puppet as a
substitute for shell commands that use the 'command [options]
arguments ... ' pattern and 'puppet resource ...' matches that
pattern nicely. But if by using here-documents we can match the
pattern pretty closely and we gain the additional functionality, we'll
go that way.

Using 'puppet apply' with a here-document ....

puppet apply <<"eof"
file { "hello_world":
   path => "/tmp/hw.txt",
   ensure => "file",
   content => "hello\nworld\n",
}
eof

... looks pretty close to using arguments to 'puppet resource' ...

$ puppet resource \
   file hello_world \
   path=/tmp/hw.txt \
   ensure=file \
   content="hello\nworld\n"

... but actually works. :)

Regards,
- Robert

On Tue, Mar 12, 2013 at 8:36 AM, Felix Frank
wrote:

Il giorno mercoledì 6 marzo 2013 07:49:44 UTC+1, Robert Citek ha scritto:
one of the following will work (or either both):
content => inline_template('<%= "hello" + "\n" + "world" %>'),
content => inline_template('<%= "hello\nworld" %>'),

You did not say exactly what "does not work" means, but I suppose the
problem is that you get literal "\n" in the file instead of newlines. The
shell will not convert those when you execute the specific command you
presented, and I guess Puppet expects to receive a literal value. In that
case, this is more a shell problem than a Puppet problem, and probably it
can be solved via the shell. Details vary depending on which shell you are
using, but there are multiple possibilities, among them:

1. Include literal newlines in your parameter instead of "\n". In bash, at
least, this works as long as the newlines are quoted. For example:

$ puppet resource file hello_world \
path=/tmp/hw.txt \
ensure=file \
content="hello
world
"

2. Use the shell's form for C-style escapes. In bash, that would be:

$ puppet resource file hello_world \
path=/tmp/hw.txt \
ensure=file \
content=$'hello\nworld\n'

3. Obtain the wanted value as the output of a command. In bash, that would
be:

$ puppet resource file hello_world \
path=/tmp/hw.txt \
ensure=file \
content="`echo -e 'hello\nworld'`"

(By itself, however, this last alternative cannot produce a trailing
newline in the content, as shell command substitution eats those.)


John