inifile

Table of Contents

1. Overview
2. Module Description - What the module does and why it is useful
3. Setup - The basics of getting started with inifile module
4. Usage - Configuration options and additional functionality
5. Reference - An under-the-hood peek at what the module is doing and how
6. Limitations - OS compatibility, etc.
7. Development - Guide for contributing to the module

Overview

The inifile module lets Puppet manage settings stored in INI-style configuration files.

Module Description

Many applications use INI-style configuration files to store their settings. This module supplies two custom resource types to let you manage those settings through Puppet.

Setup

Beginning with inifile

To manage a single setting in an INI file, add the ini_setting type to a class:

ini_setting { "sample setting":
  ensure  => present,
  path    => '/tmp/foo.ini',
  section => 'bar',
  setting => 'baz',
  value   => 'quux',
}

Usage

The inifile module is used to:

• Support comments starting with either '#' or ';'.
• Support either whitespace or no whitespace around '='.
• Add any missing sections to the INI file.

It does not manipulate your file any more than it needs to. In most cases, it doesn't affect the original whitespace, comments, or ordering. See the common usages below for examples.

Manage multiple values in a setting

Use the ini_subsetting type:

ini_subsetting {'sample subsetting':
  ensure            => present,
  section           => '',
  key_val_separator => '=',
  path              => '/etc/default/pe-puppetdb',
  setting           => 'JAVA_ARGS',
  subsetting        => '-Xmx',
  value             => '512m',
}

Results in managing this -Xmx subsetting:

JAVA_ARGS="-Xmx512m -XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError -XX:HeapDumpPath=/var/log/pe-puppetdb/puppetdb-oom.hprof"

Use a non-standard section header

ini_setting { 'default minage':
  ensure         => present,
  path           => '/etc/security/users',
  section        => 'default',
  setting        => 'minage',
  value          => '1',
  section_prefix => '',
  section_suffix => ':',
}

Results in:

default:
   minage = 1

Use a non-standard indent character

To use a non-standard indent character or string for added settings, set the indent_char and the indent_width parameters. The indent_width parameter controls how many indent_char appear in the indent.

ini_setting { 'procedure cache size':
  ensure         => present,
  path           => '/var/lib/ase/config/ASE-16_0/SYBASE.cfg',
  section        => 'SQL Server Administration',
  setting        => 'procedure cache size',
  value          => '15000',
  indent_char    => "\t",
  indent_width   => 2,
}

Results in:

[SQL Server Administration]
		procedure cache size = 15000

Implement child providers

You might want to create child providers that inherit the ini_setting provider, for one of the following reasons:

• To make a custom resource to manage an application that stores its settings in INI files, without recreating the code to manage the files themselves.
• To purge all unmanaged settings from a managed INI file.

To implement child providers, first specify a custom type. Have it implement a namevar called name and a property called value:

#my_module/lib/puppet/type/glance_api_config.rb
Puppet::Type.newtype(:glance_api_config) do
  ensurable
  newparam(:name, :namevar => true) do
    desc 'Section/setting name to manage from glance-api.conf'
    # namevar should be of the form section/setting
    newvalues(/\S+\/\S+/)
  end
  newproperty(:value) do
    desc 'The value of the setting to define'
    munge do |v|
      v.to_s.strip
    end
  end
end

Your type also needs a provider that uses the ini_setting provider as its parent:

# my_module/lib/puppet/provider/glance_api_config/ini_setting.rb
Puppet::Type.type(:glance_api_config).provide(
  :ini_setting,
  # set ini_setting as the parent provider
  :parent => Puppet::Type.type(:ini_setting).provider(:ruby)
) do
  # implement section as the first part of the namevar
  def section
    resource[:name].split('/', 2).first
  end
  def setting
    # implement setting as the second part of the namevar
    resource[:name].split('/', 2).last
  end
  # hard code the file path (this allows purging)
  def self.file_path
    '/etc/glance/glance-api.conf'
  end
end

Now you can manage the settings in the /etc/glance/glance-api.conf file as individual resources:

glance_api_config { 'HEADER/important_config':
  value => 'secret_value',
}

If you've implemented self.file_path, you can have Puppet purge the file of all lines that aren't implemented as Puppet resources:

resources { 'glance_api_config'
  purge => true,
}

Manage multiple ini_settings

To manage multiple ini_settings, use the create_ini_settings function.

$defaults = { 'path' => '/tmp/foo.ini' }
$example = { 'section1' => { 'setting1' => 'value1' } }
create_ini_settings($example, $defaults)

Results in:

ini_setting { '[section1] setting1':
  ensure  => present,
  section => 'section1',
  setting => 'setting1',
  value   => 'value1',
  path    => '/tmp/foo.ini',
}

To include special parameters, use the following code:

$defaults = { 'path' => '/tmp/foo.ini' }
$example = {
  'section1' => {
    'setting1'  => 'value1',
    'settings2' => {
      'ensure' => 'absent'
    }
  }
}
create_ini_settings($example, $defaults)

Results in:

ini_setting { '[section1] setting1':
  ensure  => present,
  section => 'section1',
  setting => 'setting1',
  value   => 'value1',
  path    => '/tmp/foo.ini',
}
ini_setting { '[section1] setting2':
  ensure  => absent,
  section => 'section1',
  setting => 'setting2',
  path    => '/tmp/foo.ini',
}

Manage multiple ini_settings with Hiera

This example requires Puppet 3.x/4.x, as it uses automatic retrieval of Hiera data for class parameters and puppetlabs/stdlib.

For the profile example:

class profile::example (
  $settings,
) {
  validate_hash($settings)
  $defaults = { 'path' => '/tmp/foo.ini' }
  create_ini_settings($settings, $defaults)
}

Provide this in your Hiera data:

profile::example::settings:
  section1:
    setting1: value1
    setting2: value2
    setting3:
      ensure: absent

Results in:

ini_setting { '[section1] setting1':
  ensure  => present,
  section => 'section1',
  setting => 'setting1',
  value   => 'value1',
  path    => '/tmp/foo.ini',
}
ini_setting { '[section1] setting2':
  ensure  => present,
  section => 'section1',
  setting => 'setting2',
  value   => 'value2',
  path    => '/tmp/foo.ini',
}
ini_setting { '[section1] setting3':
  ensure  => absent,
  section => 'section1',
  setting => 'setting3',
  path    => '/tmp/foo.ini',
}

Reference

Public Types

• ini_setting

• ini_subsetting

Public Functions

• create_ini_settings

Type: ini_setting

Manages a setting within an INI file.

Parameters

All parameters are optional unless specified as required.

ensure

Determines whether the specified setting should exist.

Valid options: 'present' and 'absent'.

Default value: 'present'.

key_val_separator

Specifies a string to use between each setting name and value, for example, to determine whether the separator includes whitespace.

Valid options: a string.

Default value: ' = '.

name

Specifies an arbitrary name to identify the resource.

Valid options: a string.

Default value: the title of your declared resource.

path

Required.

Specifies an INI file containing the setting to manage.

Valid options: a string containing an absolute path.

section

Designates a section of the specified INI file containing the setting to manage. To manage a global setting (at the beginning of the file, before any named sections) enter "". Defaults to "".

Valid options: a string.

setting

Required.

Designates a setting to manage within the specified INI file and section.

Valid options: a string.

show_diff

Prevents outputting actual values to the logfile. Useful for the handling of passwords and other sensitive information. Possible values are:

• true: This allows all values to be passed to logfiles. (default)
• false: The values in the logfiles will be replaced with [redacted sensitive information].
• md5: The values in the logfiles will be replaced with their md5 hash.

Global show_diff configuration takes priority over this one: https://docs.puppetlabs.com/references/latest/configuration.html#showdiff. Default value: true.

value

Supplies a value for the specified setting.

Valid options: a string.

Default value: undef.

section_prefix

Designates the string to appear before the section's name.

Default value: "["

section_suffix

Designates the string to appear after the section's name.

Default value: "]".

indent_char

Designates the character (or string) to indent newly created settings. This does not affect settings that already exist in the file, even if they are changed.

Default value: " ".

indent_width

Designates the number of indent_char with which to indent newly inserted settings. If this is not defined, the indentation is automatically computed from existing settings in the section, or if the section does not yet exist, no indent is made. This does not affect settings that already exist in the file, even if they are changed.

refreshonly

A Boolean to indicate whether or not the value associated with the setting should be updated if this resource is only part of a refresh event.

Default value: false.

For example, if we want a timestamp associated with the last time a setting's value was updated, we could do something like this:

ini_setting { 'foosetting':
  ensure  => present,
  path    => '/tmp/file.ini',
  section => 'foo',
  setting => 'foosetting',
  value   => 'bar',
  notify  => Ini_Setting['foosetting_timestamp'],
}

$now = strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')
ini_setting {'foosetting_timestamp':
  ensure      => present,
  path        => '/tmp/file.ini',
  section     => 'foo',
  setting     => 'foosetting_timestamp',
  value       => $now,
  refreshonly => true,
}

NOTE: This type finds all sections in the file by looking for lines like ${section_prefix}${title}${section_suffix}.

Type: ini_subsetting

Manages multiple values within the same INI setting.

Parameters

All parameters are optional unless specified as required.

ensure

Specifies whether the subsetting should be present.

Valid options: 'present' and 'absent'.

Default value: 'present'.

key_val_separator

Specifies a string to use between setting name and value, for example, to determine whether the separator includes whitespace.

Valid options: a string.

Default value: ' = '.

path

Required.

Specifies an INI file containing the subsetting to manage.

Valid options: a string containing an absolute path.

quote_char

The character used to quote the entire value of the setting. Valid values are '', '"', and "'". Defaults to ''.

Valid options: '', '"' and "'".

Default value: ''.

section

Designates a section of the specified INI file containing the setting to manage. You can manage a global setting by putting it at the beginning of the file, before any named sections, and entering "". Defaults to "".

Valid options: a string.

setting

Required.

Designates a setting within the specified section containing the subsetting to manage.

Valid options: a string.

show_diff

Prevents outputting actual values to the logfile. Useful for handling of passwords and other sensitive information. Possible values are:

• true: This allows all values to be passed to logfiles. (default)
• false: The values in the logfiles will be replaced with [redacted sensitive information].
• md5: The values in the logfiles will be replaced with their md5 hash.

Global show_diff configuraton takes priority over this one - https://docs.puppetlabs.com/references/latest/configuration.html#showdiff. Default value: 'true'.

subsetting

Required.

Designates a subsetting to manage within the specified setting.

Valid options: a string.

subsetting_separator

Specifies a string to use between subsettings.

Valid options: a string.

Default value: " ".

subsetting_key_val_separator

Specifies a string to use between subsetting name and value (if there is a separator between the subsetting name and its value).

Valid options: a string.

Default value: empty string.

use_exact_match

Whether to use partial or exact matching for subsetting. Should be set to true if the subsettings do not have values.

Valid options: true, false.

Default value: false.

value

Supplies a value for the specified subsetting.

Valid options: a string.

Default value: undef.

insert_type

Selects where a new subsetting item should be inserted.

• start - insert at the beginning of the line.
• end - insert at the end of the line (default).
• before - insert before the specified element if possible.
• after - insert after the specified element if possible.
• index - insert at the specified index number.

insert_value

The value for the insert type if the value if required.

Function: create_ini_settings

Manages multiple ini_setting resources from a hash. Note that this cannot be used with ini_subsettings.

create_ini_settings($settings, $defaults)

Arguments

First argument: settings

Required.

Specify a hash representing the ini_setting resources you want to create.

Second argument: defaults

Accepts a hash to be used as the values for any attributes not defined in the first argument.

$example = {
  'section1' => {
    'setting1' => {
      'value' => 'value1', 'path' => '/tmp/foo.ini'
    }
  }
}

Default value: '{}'.

Limitations

This module has been tested on all PE-supported platforms, and no issues have been identified. Additionally, it is tested (but not supported) on Windows 7, Mac OS X 10.9, and Solaris 12.

Due to (PUP-4709) the create_ini_settings function will cause errors when attempting to create multiple ini_settings in one go when using Puppet 4.0.x or 4.1.x. If needed, the temporary fix for this can be found here: puppetlabs/puppetlabs-inifile#196.

Development

Puppet Labs modules on the Puppet Forge are open projects, and community contributions are essential for keeping them great. We can't access the huge number of platforms and myriad of hardware, software, and deployment configurations that Puppet is intended to serve.

We want to keep it as easy as possible to contribute changes so that our modules work in your environment. There are a few guidelines that we need contributors to follow so that we can have a chance of keeping on top of things.

For more information, see our module contribution guide.

Contributors

To see who's already involved, see the list of contributors.