Thanks.
On Nov 11, 3:21 pm, Bruce Richardson <itsbr...@workshy.org> wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 11, 2010 at 12:50:02PM -0800, Eric Snow wrote:
> > How do you dynamically create classes?
>
> You don't. 2.6 has parameterized classes but that's not quite what you
> mean.
>
>
>
> > For instance, I have a bunch of users to make. I have all their
> > usernames. Each is the same as the others except for the username and
> > one other value. I don't want to have to spell out a User for each,
> > but would rather set up them up dynamically, in a much cleaner way
> > (and more maintainable).
>
> You can use resource defaults to take out most of the drudgery
>
> User {
> managed => true,
> shell = '/bin/bash'
> }
>
> Then you only need type out the varying properties of each user.
>
>
>
> > It looks like parameterized classes would mostly do it, but is the
> > syntax for including a parameterized class the same everywhere? Can a
> > parameterized class be virtual?
>
> No. Resources can be virtual but not classes.
>
> If you were hoping to be able to create all of these users by iterating
> through a hash, or something similar, then Puppet really doesn't support
> that. Puppet's DSL is declaritive and can't be treated like some OO
> language (I wish Luke had chosen a name other than "class" for Puppet's
> classes; it only confuses people).
>
> Have you noticed that Puppet has arrays and hashes but doesn't have a
> keys() function? You *could* have a hash of users and their properties
>
> $users = { john => { shell => '/bin/bash', uid => '501' }, david => {
> shell => '/bin/tcsh', uid = '501' }
>
> and have a define which consulted that hash, as in
>
> define hash_user ( $user_hash ) {
> user { $name:
> ensure => 'present',
> managed => true,
> shell => $users[$name][shell],
> uid => $user_hash[$name][uid]
> }
> }
>
> But since there is no keys function, you can't do
>
> hash_user { [ keys($users) ]: user_hash => $users }
>
> You have to do
>
> hash_user { [ 'john', 'david' ]: user_hash => $users }
>
> which isn't really saving you a lot.
>
> Bluntly, Puppet wants you to declare your resources explicitly.
>
> > As well, I was hoping to set up some defines in the dynamically
> > created user so that they could be used from the class's namespace.
> > The alternative is to do them separately and pass in the same
> > information that I already passed in to the class, which seems messier
> > than just providing them from the class's namespace.
>
> I think there may be a misplaced word in there; it doesn't seem to make
> entire sense.
>
> --
> Bruce
>
> Get thee behind me, Stan: for it is written, thou hast gotten me into
> another fine mess. -- Oliver 4:8
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