Configuration Reference
This page is autogenerated; any changes will get overwritten (last generated on Tue Apr 01 04:04:51 +0200 2008)
Specifying Configuration Parameters
On The Command-Line
Every Puppet executable (with the exception of puppetdoc) accepts all of the parameters below, but not all of the arguments make sense for every executable. Each parameter has a section listed with it in parentheses; often, that section will map to an executable (e.g., puppetd), in which case it probably only makes sense for that one executable. If main is listed as the section, it is most likely an option that is valid for everyone.
I have tried to be as thorough as possible in the descriptions of the arguments, so it should be obvious whether an argument is appropriate or not.
These parameters can be supplied to the executables either as command-line options or in the configuration file. For instance, the command-line invocation below would set the configuration directory to /private/puppet:
$ puppetd --confdir=/private/puppet
Note that boolean options are turned on and off with a slightly different syntax on the command line:
$ puppetd --storeconfigs $ puppetd --no-storeconfigs
The invocations above will enable and disable, respectively, the storage of the client configuration.
Configuration Files
As mentioned above, the configuration parameters can also be stored in a configuration file, located in the configuration directory. As root, the default configuration directory is /etc/puppet, and as a regular user, the default configuration directory is ~user/.puppet. As of 0.23.0, all executables look for puppet.conf in their configuration directory (although they previously looked for separate files). For example, puppet.conf is located at /etc/puppet/puppet.conf as root and ~user/.puppet/puppet.conf as a regular user by default.
All executables will set any parameters set within the main section, while each executable will also look for a section named for the executable and load those parameters. For example, puppetd will look for a section named puppetd, and puppetmasterd looks for a section named puppetmasterd. This allows you to use a single configuration file to customize the settings for all of your executables.
File Format
The file follows INI-style formatting. Here is an example of a very simple puppet.conf file:
[main]
confdir = /private/puppet
storeconfigs = true
Note that boolean parameters must be explicitly specified as true or false as seen above.
If you need to change file parameters (e.g., reset the mode or owner), do so within curly braces on the same line:
[main]
myfile = /tmp/whatever {owner = root, mode = 644}
If you're starting out with a fresh configuration, you may wish to let the executable generate a template configuration file for you by invoking the executable in question with the --genconfig command. The executable will print a template configuration to standard output, which can be redirected to a file like so:
$ puppetd --genconfig > /etc/puppet/puppet.conf
Note that this invocation will replace the contents of any pre-existing puppet.conf file, so make a backup of your present config if it contains valuable information.
All parameters will be under a single section heading matching the name of the process used to generate the configuraiton ('puppetd', in this case).
Like the --genconfig argument, the executables also accept a --genmanifest argument, which will generate a manifest that can be used to manage all of Puppet's directories and files and prints it to standard output. This can likewise be redirected to a file:
$ puppetd --genmanifest > /etc/puppet/manifests/site.pp
Puppet can also create user and group accounts for itself (one puppet group and one puppet user) if it is invoked as root with the --mkusers argument:
$ puppetd --mkusers
Signals
The puppetd and puppetmasterd executables catch some signals for special handling. Both daemons catch (SIGHUP), which forces the server to restart tself. Predictably, interrupt and terminate (SIGINT and SIGHUP) will shut down the server, whether it be an instance of puppetd or puppetmasterd.
Sending the SIGUSR1 signal to an instance of puppetd will cause it to immediately begin a new configuration transaction with the server. This signal has no effect on puppetmasterd.
Configuration Parameter Reference
Below is a list of all documented parameters. Not all of them are valid with all Puppet executables, but the executables will ignore any inappropriate values.
authconfig
The configuration file that defines the rights to the different namespaces and methods. This can be used as a coarse-grained authorization system for both puppetd and puppetmasterd.
- Default: $confdir/namespaceauth.conf
autosign
Whether to enable autosign. Valid values are true (which autosigns any key request, and is a very bad idea), false (which never autosigns any key request), and the path to a file, which uses that configuration file to determine which keys to sign.
- Default: $confdir/autosign.conf
bindaddress
The address to bind to. Mongrel servers default to 127.0.0.1 and WEBrick defaults to 0.0.0.0.
ca_days
How long a certificate should be valid. This parameter is deprecated, use ca_ttl instead
ca_server
The server to use for certificate authority requests. It's a separate server because it cannot and does not need to horizontally scale.
- Default: $server
ca_ttl
The default TTL for new certificates; valid values must be an integer, optionally followed by one of the units 'y' (years of 365 days), 'd' (days), 'h' (hours), or 's' (seconds). The unit defaults to seconds. If this parameter is set, ca_days is ignored. Examples are '3600' (one hour) and '1825d', which is the same as '5y' (5 years)
- Default: 5y
cacrl
The certificate revocation list (CRL) for the CA. Set this to 'false' if you do not want to use a CRL.
- Default: $cadir/ca_crl.pem
casesensitive
Whether matching in case statements and selectors should be case-sensitive. Case insensitivity is handled by downcasing all values before comparison.
- Default: false
certdnsnames
The DNS names on the Server certificate as a colon-separated list. If it's anything other than an empty string, it will be used as an alias in the created certificate. By default, only the server gets an alias set up, and only for 'puppet'.
certname
The name to use when handling certificates. Defaults to the fully qualified domain name.
- Default: laeg.reductivelabs.com
classfile
The file in which puppetd stores a list of the classes associated with the retrieved configuration. Can be loaded in the separate puppet executable using the --loadclasses option.
- Default: $statedir/classes.txt
code
Code to parse directly. This is essentially only used by puppet, and should only be set if you're writing your own Puppet executable
color
Whether to use colors when logging to the console. Valid values are ansi (equivalent to true), html (mostly used during testing with TextMate), and false, which produces no color.
- Default: ansi
confdir
The main Puppet configuration directory. The default for this parameter is calculated based on the user. If the process is runnig as root or the user that puppetmasterd is supposed to run as, it defaults to a system directory, but if it's running as any other user, it defaults to being in ~.
- Default: /etc/puppet
configprint
Print the value of a specific configuration parameter. If a parameter is provided for this, then the value is printed and puppet exits. Comma-separate multiple values. For a list of all values, specify 'all'. This feature is only available in Puppet versions higher than 0.18.4.
configtimeout
How long the client should wait for the configuration to be retrieved before considering it a failure. This can help reduce flapping if too many clients contact the server at one time.
- Default: 120
dblocation
The database cache for client configurations. Used for querying within the language.
- Default: $statedir/clientconfigs.sqlite3
dbpassword
The database password for Client caching. Only used when networked databases are used.
- Default: puppet
dbserver
The database server for Client caching. Only used when networked databases are used.
- Default: localhost
dbsocket
The database socket location. Only used when networked databases are used. Will be ignored if the value is an empty string.
dbuser
The database user for Client caching. Only used when networked databases are used.
- Default: puppet
diff_args
Which arguments to pass to the diff command when printing differences between files.
dynamicfacts
Facts that are dynamic; these facts will be ignored when deciding whether changed facts should result in a recompile. Multiple facts should be comma-separated.
- Default: memorysize,memoryfree,swapsize,swapfree
environment
The environment Puppet is running in. For clients (e.g., puppetd) this determines the environment itself, which is used to find modules and much more. For servers (i.e., puppetmasterd) this provides the default environment for nodes we know nothing about.
- Default: development
environments
The valid environments for Puppet clients. This is more useful as a server-side setting than client, but any environment chosen must be in this list. Values should be separated by a comma.
- Default: production,development
evaltrace
Whether each resource should log when it is being evaluated. This allows you to interactively see exactly what is being done.
- Default: false
external_nodes
An external command that can produce node information. The output must be a YAML dump of a hash, and that hash must have one or both of classes and parameters, where classes is an array and parameters is a hash. For unknown nodes, the commands should exit with a non-zero exit code. This command makes it straightforward to store your node mapping information in other data sources like databases.
- Default: none
factdest
Where Puppet should store facts that it pulls down from the central server.
- Default: $vardir/facts
factpath
Where Puppet should look for facts. Multiple directories should be colon-separated, like normal PATH variables.
- Default: $vardir/facts
factsource
From where to retrieve facts. The standard Puppet file type is used for retrieval, so anything that is a valid file source can be used here.
- Default: puppet://$server/facts
filetimeout
The minimum time to wait (in seconds) between checking for updates in configuration files. This timeout determines how quickly Puppet checks whether a file (such as manifests or templates) has changed on disk.
- Default: 15
genconfig
Whether to just print a configuration to stdout and exit. Only makes sense when used interactively. Takes into account arguments specified on the CLI.
- Default: false
genmanifest
Whether to just print a manifest to stdout and exit. Only makes sense when used interactively. Takes into account arguments specified on the CLI.
- Default: false
graph
Whether to create dot graph files for the different configuration graphs. These dot files can be interpreted by tools like OmniGraffle or dot (which is part of ImageMagick).
- Default: false
hostcert
Where individual hosts store and look for their certificates.
- Default: $certdir/$certname.pem
hostcsr
Where individual hosts store and look for their certificates.
- Default: $ssldir/csr_$certname.pem
hostprivkey
Where individual hosts store and look for their private key.
- Default: $privatekeydir/$certname.pem
hostpubkey
Where individual hosts store and look for their public key.
- Default: $publickeydir/$certname.pem
http_enable_post_connection_check
Boolean; wheter or not puppetd should validate the server SSL certificate against the request hostname.
- Default: true
http_proxy_host
The HTTP proxy host to use for outgoing connections. Note: You may need to use a FQDN for the server hostname when using a proxy.
- Default: none
ignorecache
Ignore cache and always recompile the configuration. This is useful for testing new configurations, where the local cache may in fact be stale even if the timestamps are up to date - if the facts change or if the server changes.
- Default: false
ignoreimport
A parameter that can be used in commit hooks, since it enables you to parse-check a single file rather than requiring that all files exist.
- Default: false
ignoreschedules
Boolean; whether puppetd should ignore schedules. This is useful for initial puppetd runs.
- Default: false
ldapattrs
The LDAP attributes to include when querying LDAP for nodes. All returned attributes are set as variables in the top-level scope. Multiple values should be comma-separated. The value 'all' returns all attributes.
- Default: all
ldapbase
The search base for LDAP searches. It's impossible to provide a meaningful default here, although the LDAP libraries might have one already set. Generally, it should be the 'ou=Hosts' branch under your main directory.
ldapclassattrs
The LDAP attributes to use to define Puppet classes. Values should be comma-separated.
- Default: puppetclass
ldapnodes
Whether to search for node configurations in LDAP. See http://reductivelabs.com/puppet/trac/wiki/LdapNodes/ for more information.
- Default: false
ldappassword
The password to use to connect to LDAP.
ldapssl
Whether SSL should be used when searching for nodes. Defaults to false because SSL usually requires certificates to be set up on the client side.
- Default: false
ldapstring
The search string used to find an LDAP node.
- Default: (&(objectclass=puppetClient)(cn=%s))
ldaptls
Whether TLS should be used when searching for nodes. Defaults to false because TLS usually requires certificates to be set up on the client side.
- Default: false
ldapuser
The user to use to connect to LDAP. Must be specified as a full DN.
libdir
An extra search path for Puppet. This is only useful for those files that Puppet will load on demand, and is only guaranteed to work for those cases. In fact, the autoload mechanism is responsible for making sure this directory is in Ruby's search path
- Default: $vardir/lib
listen
Whether puppetd should listen for connections. If this is true, then by default only the runner server is started, which allows remote authorized and authenticated nodes to connect and trigger puppetd runs.
- Default: false
localconfig
Where puppetd caches the local configuration. An extension indicating the cache format is added automatically.
- Default: $statedir/localconfig
masterlog
Where puppetmasterd logs. This is generally not used, since syslog is the default log destination.
- Default: $logdir/puppetmaster.log
maximum_uid
The maximum allowed UID. Some platforms use negative UIDs but then ship with tools that do not know how to handle signed ints, so the UIDs show up as huge numbers that can then not be fed back into the system. This is a hackish way to fail in a slightly more useful way when that happens.
- Default: 4294967290
modulepath
The search path for modules as a colon-separated list of directories.
- Default: $confdir/modules:/usr/share/puppet/modules
name
The name of the service, if we are running as one. The default is essentially $0 without the path or .rb.
- Default: puppetdoc
node_name
How the puppetmaster determines the client's identity and sets the 'hostname', 'fqdn' and 'domain' facts for use in the manifest, in particular for determining which 'node' statement applies to the client. Possible values are 'cert' (use the subject's CN in the client's certificate) and 'facter' (use the hostname that the client reported in its facts)
- Default: cert
passfile
Where puppetd stores the password for its private key. Generally unused.
- Default: $privatedir/password
path
The shell search path. Defaults to whatever is inherited from the parent process.
- Default: none
pidfile
The pid file
plugindest
Where Puppet should store plugins that it pulls down from the central server.
- Default: $libdir
pluginpath
Where Puppet should look for plugins. Multiple directories should be colon-separated, like normal PATH variables. As of 0.23.1, this option is deprecated; download your custom libraries to the $libdir instead.
- Default: $vardir/plugins
pluginsource
From where to retrieve plugins. The standard Puppet file type is used for retrieval, so anything that is a valid file source can be used here.
- Default: puppet://$server/plugins
puppetdlockfile
A lock file to temporarily stop puppetd from doing anything.
- Default: $statedir/puppetdlock
rails_loglevel
The log level for Rails connections. The value must be a valid log level within Rails. Production environments normally use info and other environments normally use debug.
- Default: info
reportdir
The directory in which to store reports received from the client. Each client gets a separate subdirectory.
- Default: $vardir/reports
reports
The list of reports to generate. All reports are looked for in puppet/reports/<name>.rb, and multiple report names should be comma-separated (whitespace is okay).
- Default: store
rrddir
The directory where RRD database files are stored. Directories for each reporting host will be created under this directory.
- Default: $vardir/rrd
rrdinterval
How often RRD should expect data. This should match how often the hosts report back to the server.
- Default: $runinterval
servertype
The type of server to use. Currently supported options are webrick and mongrel. If you use mongrel, you will need a proxy in front of the process or processes, since Mongrel cannot speak SSL.
- Default: webrick
show_diff
Whether to print a contextual diff when files are being replaced. The diff is printed on stdout, so this option is meaningless unless you are running Puppet interactively. This feature currently requires the diff/lcs Ruby library.
- Default: false
splay
Whether to sleep for a pseudo-random (but consistent) amount of time before a run.
- Default: false
splaylimit
The maximum time to delay before runs. Defaults to being the same as the run interval.
- Default: $runinterval
ssl_client_header
The header containing an authenticated client's SSL DN. Only used with Mongrel. This header must be set by the proxy to the authenticated client's SSL DN (e.g., /CN=puppet.reductivelabs.com). See http://reductivelabs.com/puppet/trac/wiki/UsingMongrel for more information.
- Default: HTTP_X_CLIENT_DN
ssl_client_verify_header
The header containing the status message of the client verification. Only used with Mongrel. This header must be set by the proxy to 'SUCCESS' if the client successfully authenticated, and anything else otherwise. See http://reductivelabs.com/puppet/trac/wiki/UsingMongrel for more information.
- Default: HTTP_X_CLIENT_VERIFY
statedir
The directory where Puppet state is stored. Generally, this directory can be removed without causing harm (although it might result in spurious service restarts).
- Default: $vardir/state
statefile
Where puppetd and puppetmasterd store state associated with the running configuration. In the case of puppetmasterd, this file reflects the state discovered through interacting with clients.
- Default: $statedir/state.yaml
storeconfigs
Whether to store each client's configuration. This requires ActiveRecord from Ruby on Rails.
- Default: false
syslogfacility
What syslog facility to use when logging to syslog. Syslog has a fixed list of valid facilities, and you must choose one of those; you cannot just make one up.
- Default: daemon
tags
Tags to use to find resources. If this is set, then only resources tagged with the specified tags will be applied. Values must be comma-separated.
usecacheonfailure
Whether to use the cached configuration when the remote configuration will not compile. This option is useful for testing new configurations, where you want to fix the broken configuration rather than reverting to a known-good one.
- Default: true
vardir
Where Puppet stores dynamic and growing data. The default for this parameter is calculated specially, like confdir.
- Default: /var/puppet
yamldir
The directory in which YAML data is stored, usually in a subdirectory.
- Default: $vardir/yaml
This page autogenerated on Tue Apr 01 04:04:51 +0200 2008
