Puppet Module Tool

The Puppet Module Tool, puppet-module, creates, installs and searches for modules on the Puppet Forge at http://forge.puppetlabs.com

Dependencies

To run puppet-module, you must have the following installed:

Soure code

The source code for this tool is available online at http://github.com/puppetlabs/puppet-module-tool

You can checkout the source code by installing the git distributed version control system and running:

git clone git://github.com/puppetlabs/puppet-module-tool.git

Running

There are a number of ways to run the puppet-module program:

  1. From an official gem: Install it by running:

    sudo gem install puppet-module

  2. From a locally-built gem: Checkout the source code and from the checkout directory, run:

    # Build the gem
rake gem
# Install the file produced by the above command, e.g.:
sudo gem install pkg/puppet-module-0.3.0.gem

  3. From a source code checkout: Checkout the source code and from the checkout directory, run:

    alias puppet-module=$PWD/bin/puppet-module

Basics

Display the program's built-in help by running:

puppet-module help

Display information on a specific command by running a command like:

puppet-module help install

Many commands will use a specific repository if you pass it to the -r option at the end, like:

puppet-module search mymodule -r http://forge.puppetlabs.com/

Search for modules

Searching displays modules on the repository that match your query.

For example, search the default repository for modules whose names include the substring mymodule:

puppet-module search mymodule

Install a module release

Installing a module release from a repository downloads a special archive file. This archive is then automatically unpacked into a new directory under your current directory. You can then add this module directory to your Puppet configuration files to use it.

For example, install the latest release of the module named mymodule written by myuser from the default repository:

puppet-module install myuser-mymodule

Or install a specific version:

puppet-module install myuser-mymodule --version=0.0.1

Generate a module

Generating a new module produces a new directory prepopulated with a directory structure and files recommended for Puppet best practices.

For example, generate a new module:

puppet-module generate myuser-mymodule

The above command will create a new module directory called myuser-mymodule under your current directory with the generated files.

Please read the files in this generated directory for further details.

Build a module release

Building a module release processes the files in your module directory and produces a special archive file that you can share or install.

For example, build a module release from within the module directory:

puppet-module build

The above command will report where it created the module release archive file.

For example, if this was version 0.0.1 of myuser-mymodule, then this would have created a pkg/myuser-mymodule-0.0.1.tar.gz release file.

The build process reads a Modulefile in your module directory and uses its contents to direct its work.

The Modulefile is a Ruby domain-specific language (DSL).

Here's an example of a Modulefile:

name 'myuser-mymodule'
version '0.0.1'
dependency 'otheruser-othermodule', '1.2.3'

The build process reads the Modulefile and uses it to build a metadata.json file. This generated JSON file is included in the module release archive so that repositories and installers can extract details from your release. Do not edit this metadata.json file yourself because it's clobbered each time during the build process -- you should make all your changes to the Modulefile instead.

All the files in the pkg directory of your module directory are artifacts of the build process. You can delete them when you're done.

Share a module

Sharing a module release with others helps others avoid reinventing the wheel, and encourages them to help with your work by improving it. For every module you share, we hope you'll find many modules by others that will be useful to you.

You can share your modules at http://forge.puppetlabs.com/

Building and sharing a new module version

To build and share a new module version:

  1. Edit the Modulefile and increase the version number.
  2. Run the puppet-module build as explained in the Build a module release section.
  3. Upload the new release file as explained in the Share a module section.

Cleaning the cache

Modules that you install are saved to a cache within your ~/.puppet directory. This cache can be cleaned out by running:

puppet-module clean

Deleting a module

The tool does not keep track of what modules you have installed. TO delete a module just delete the directory the module was extracted into.

Developing or submitting patches

You need the following RubyGems to run the test suite: mocha, rspec.

You can run the tests with:

rake spec

Get involved

This is new and exciting for us. We have many plans for this and what you see now is just the beginning. If you have ideas, please get in touch. Puppet Labs can be contacted at: [email protected]

Technical disclaimer for techies

This tool downloads untrusted code from the Internet. Please read the source code before executing it to avoid surprises. If it breaks, it's not our fault -- although we encourage you to contact the authors, file a bug report and send patches.

THE PROGRAM AND MODULES ARE DISTRIBUTED IN THE HOPE THAT THEY WILL BE USEFUL, BUT WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY. THEY ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM OR MODULES PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.

IN NO EVENT WILL Puppet Labs Inc. BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THIS PROGRAM OR MODULES (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM OR MODULES TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS OR MODULES), EVEN IF Puppet Labs Inc. HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

License

This software is distributed under the GNU General Public License version 2 or any later version. See the LICENSE file for details.

Copyright (C) 2010 Puppet Labs Inc.