Learning Puppet 4

Chapter 5. Using the Puppet Configuration Language

Now that you’ve been introduced to the Puppet manifest and the resource building block, you are ready to meet the Puppet configuration language.

This chapter will introduce you to the data types, operators, conditionals, and iterations that can be used to build manifests for Puppet 4. Writing manifests well is the single most important part of using Puppet. You’ll find yourself returning to this chapter again and again as you develop your own manifests.

Tip

Don’t stop here if you don’t understand how or why to use one piece of the language just yet. Just take in what is possible, and refer to this chapter as you build and grow your skills.

Consider this chapter a reference for the Puppet configuration language. The reasoning behind why and when to use particular bits of the language will become clear as specific implementations are discussed later in the book.

Puppet 4 Versus the Future Parser

You’ll find statements throughout this book about new features only available in Puppet 4. However, most of these features were available in Puppet 3, if the future parser was enabled. So when I say that a language change is “only available in Puppet 4,” you can read this to include “or when the future parser is enabled in Puppet 3.”

Puppet 4 contains all features and changes previously developed in the future parser. The future is here.

We’ll cover how to test Puppet 3 manifests with the future parser in “Testing with the Future Parser” ...