Saltstack pillar - using sub-directories

Question

I need to organize my pillars into sub-directories.

/srv/pillar/
├── app1
│   └── env1
│       └── conf.sls
├── data.sls
└── top.sls

I've put in top.sls:

base:
  '*':
    - data
    - app1/env1/conf

When I request data.sls for variable info, it works :

salt '*' pillar.get info
local:
    some data

But when I request conf.sls for variable info, nothing works:

salt '*' pillar.get app1.env1.info 

shows nothing !

I already executed:

saltutil.refresh_pillar

and restarted salt process.

What should I do to make salt pillars recognize sub directories ?

Answer 1

There are several misconceptions in your example. Organizing your pillar files in subdirectories does not translate into a namespace on the resulting pillar variable. The variables in the subdirectory-nested-pillar file will still be at the root of the pillar dict.

To include subdirectories in your pillar top.sls file, you use dot notation:

Create pillar so/test/example.sls

cd /srv/pillar
mkdir -p so/test
echo 'foo: bar' > so/test/example.sls

Edit top.sls

base:
  '*':
    - users

  lead:
    - so.test.example

Refresh pillar on minion 'lead'

$ sudo salt lead saltutil.refresh_pillar
lead:
    None

Extract value of foo from pillar

$ sudo salt lead pillar.get foo
lead:
    bar

If you want to namespace the variable in the pillar dict, express that in so/test/example.sls:

$ cat /srv/pillar/so/test/examples.sls
so:
  test:
    foo: bar

$ sudo salt lead pillar.get so --out=json
{
    "lead": {
        "test": {
            "foo": "bar"
        }
    }
}

$ sudo salt lead pillar.get so:test:foo --out=json
{
    "lead": "bar"
}