README¶ ↑

editfile is a simple Puppet module to edit files through Puppet manifests. It is intended to be a Ruby-native replacement for Augeas.

Homepage

github.com/mstrauss/puppet-editfile

Installation¶ ↑

From the root directory of your Puppet repository:

git clone https://github.com/mstrauss/puppet-editfile.git modules/editfile

If you use submodules:

git submodule add https://github.com/mstrauss/puppet-editfile.git modules/editfile

Usage¶ ↑

editfile::config¶ ↑

editfile::config is a define (manifests/config.pp) which makes use of the custom type editfile. It manages files with entries like

• Parameter=Value or

• Parameter Value or

• Parameter="Value" or

• Parameter "Value"

To set a specific parameter:

editfile::config { 'sshd: disallow root':
  path   => '/etc/ssh/sshd_config',
  entry  => 'PermitRootLogin',
  ensure => 'no',       # the value shall be 'no'
  quote  => false,      # not quoted (that's the default)
  sep    => ' ',        # use space to separate the parameter from its value
                        # (default is '=')
}

To remove a specific parameter:

editfile::config { 'sshd: revert PermitRootLogin back to defaults':
  path   => '/etc/ssh/sshd_config',
  entry  => 'PermitRootLogin',
  ensure => absent,     # the parameter be removed
}

editfile¶ ↑

editfile is a custom type (lib/puppet/type/editfile.rb) with a single custom provider (lib/puppet/provider/editfile/regexp.rb). The regexp provider can replace lines matching a regular expression with given content.

The example from above without the editfile::config wrapper:

editfile { 'sshd: disallow root':   # use a unique, descriptive name
  provider => regexp,               # that's the default provider
  path     => '/etc/ssh/sshd_config',
  match    => '^#?\s*PermitRootLogin\s?\s',   # match all these lines
  ensure   => 'PermitRootLogin no',           # and replace with this
}

Motivation¶ ↑

The basic motivation for creating editfile was to have a simple, Ruby-native way of modifying system configuration files with Puppet.

editfile should support the most important use cases for which you would have used Augeas before.

Problems with Augeas¶ ↑

• On some (older) systems it may be very difficult to get Augeas up-and-running. You may need to build Augeas from sources and you may not want to have development files and/or build tools on your production machines. So you would need to manage your own Augeas RPM/DEBs/whatever.

• Augeas often seems way too impractical. When there is no “Lens” for the file format you have on hands, there is no way to use Augeas. Even if there is a Lens, but the source path of your file is not hard coded (yuck!!!) into the Lens, it is very difficult to make Puppet/Augeas manage that file.

• Even if you managed to get Puppet/Augeas working with your file, it sometimes -seemingly randomly and mostly silently- refuses to apply changes. This can be a very frustrating experience.

• Augeas is Linux-only. Puppet supports way more platforms (e.g. Windows).

• Augeas is usually overkill for the tasks generally at hand.

Module Design¶ ↑

TBD.

Legal¶ ↑

Author

Markus Strauss ([email protected])

Copyright

Copyright © 2011 by Markus Strauss

License

Attached