augeas & puppet & whitespace

Question

I try to edit the file limits.com with puppet. I need to add lines this files. I copy the example from: http://docs.puppetlabs.com/guides/augeas.html

# /etc/puppet/modules/limits/manifests/conf.pp
define limits::conf (
  $domain = "root",
  $type = "soft",
  $item = "nofile",
  $value = "10000"
  ) {

    # guid of this entry
    $key = "$domain/$type/$item"

    # augtool> match /files/etc/security/limits.conf/domain[.="root"][./type="hard" and ./item="nofile" and ./value="10000"]

    $context = "/files/etc/security/limits.conf"

    $path_list  = "domain[.=\"$domain\"][./type=\"$type\" and ./item=\"$item\"]"
    $path_exact = "domain[.=\"$domain\"][./type=\"$type\" and ./item=\"$item\" and ./value=\"$value\"]"

    augeas { "limits_conf/$key":
       context => "$context",
       onlyif  => "match $path_exact size != 1",
       changes => [
         # remove all matching to the $domain, $type, $item, for any $value
         "rm $path_list",
         # insert new node at the end of tree
         "set domain[last()+1] $domain",
         # assign values to the new node
         "set domain[last()]/type $type",
         "set domain[last()]/item $item",
         "set domain[last()]/value $value",
       ],
     }

and use case:

limits::conf {

  # maximum number of open files/sockets for root
  "root-soft": domain => root, type => soft, item => nofile, value =>  9999;
  "root-hard": domain => root, type => hard, item => nofile, value =>  9999;

}

The result inside of limits.conf is:

#@student        -       maxlogins       4
root hard nofile 9999
root soft nofile 9999

How I can put whitespace or tabs bettwen the values "root hard nofile & value" I try put the whitespace inside "", try with regex but doesn't works. Thanks

Answer 1

Elaborating on Raphink's correct answer: While augeas works with files in a semantic fashion (it knows what the content represents), there are alternatives if you care for the appearance more.

In your case, it might make more sense to manage your file through a template and take fine grained control of the result.