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javatomcatpuppetpuppet-enterprise

Module name and directory name conflict?

I created a module named 'learn-tomcat' and it has a class named tomcat (in init.pp). When I try to include this class in a node definition, it does not work, all of following combination throw an error, the combinations are:

include learn-tomcat::tomcat
include learn-tomcat
include tomcat
include ::tomcat

And error is same with above combinations:

Error: Could not retrieve catalog from remote server: Error 400 on SERVER: Could not find class

Now when I rename module directory learn-tomcat to tomcat, then following start working!

include tomcat
include ::tomcat
include tomcat::tomcat

Now I am confused about a few things:

  • Although Puppet enforces the name of module to be USERNAME-MODULENAME while creating - should one rename it after creation?
  • I could not find relevant documentation but what exactly is happening here?
Solution

  • Here you have a comprehensive explanation how namespaces and scopes works in puppet.

    According to the example from the article:

    name:                   file path:
apache                  <modulepath>/apache/manifests/init.pp
apache::mod             <modulepath>/apache/manifests/mod.pp
apache::mod::passenger  <modulepath>/apache/manifests/mod/passenger.pp

    So in your situation you can also do one of the following suggestion:

    1. In module learn-tomcat in init.pp, rename tomcat class to learn-tomcat, and than instance it by:

      include learn-tomcat

    2. Rename the file init.pp to tomcat.pp and than instance it by:

      include learn-tomcat::tomcat