Would be nice if `set` would also `install` the alternative if needed. about puppet-alternatives HOT 21 CLOSED

Pardon the slow response; I just discovered that I wasn't watching a bunch of my own repositories. I'll be reviewing this shortly. Thanks!

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I could actually do this quickly and send you a pull request if you want but I was super busy at the time so just threw up a bug here in case someone got to it first.. up to you!

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I'm looking at the man page for update-alternatives and I don't know how this behavior would interact with the current interface. How would you want to use this resource to install alternatives? Could you add some example cases?

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Well before you can set an alternative it must be first installed if it's not already.

So in current form your module allows someone to switch between the various system installed alternatives.

I would honestly think that any time someone wants to set set you should just install it for them if it's not already..

My example in my first message earlier shows how I used exec{} to install it if it's not already installed.

So let's say I want to update hadoop-conf (which is /etc/hadoop/conf) to use /etc/hadoop/conf.mine instead of the default /etc/hadoop/conf.empty:

alt=hadoop-conf
mine=/etc/hadoop/conf.mine
path=/etc/hadoop/conf
priority=50

# if it's not already installed
update-alternatives --list $alt | grep -q $mine ||

# install it
update-alternatives --verbose --install $path $alt $mine $priority

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So to be sure I understand you, the update-alternatives --install option will both install the link as an alternative and set it as the active alternative?

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Actually you must first install before you can set.

Which is why above I use Exec -> alternative since you still need to perform a set afterwards.

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Since there are use cases for installing an alternative that don't involve actually forcibly setting one, I can see a case for making this a separate type. They should be easy enough to chain together.

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@chino sorry about the delay in responding to this; I haven't had a lot of time to work on my modules.

I've prototyped a type interface at https://github.com/adrienthebo/puppet-alternatives/blob/0622f1e577c86ecf5ca1a32035f007e959d1b8ca/lib/puppet/type/alternative_entry.rb ; could you take a look and let me know if that will suit your needs?

My concern is that right now the alternative link is disconnected from the actual alternative, so /bin/false could be used as an alternative for www-browser but there's no immediate way to tie the two together. Trying to make this might mean using multiple namevars, which is a gigantic bag of worms that I don't know if I want to get into.

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I would like to see Redhat support added to 0622f1e

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@adrienthebo Works for me. Although I had to make some changes (@property_hash[:key] to @resource.value(:key) in alternative_entry/dpkg.rb).

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sorry it works not for me on debian wheezy and puppet 3.4.2
I try that:
alternative_entry { '/bin/nano':
ensure => absent,
}
This error came on client:
Debug: Executing '/usr/sbin/update-alternatives --list '
Error: /Stage[main]/Debian/Alternative_entry[/bin/nano]: Could not evaluate: Execution of '/usr/sbin/update-alternatives --list ' returned 2: update-alternatives: error: /var/lib/dpkg/alternatives/ corrupt: while reading status: Is a directory

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@lgbff could you try isolating whats happening that's causing that corruption? Could you see what commands are being run by Puppet and if they are doing what's expected?

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Hmm, i run on client:
#puppet agent -vd -t

and the error is:
Debug: Executing '/usr/sbin/update-alternatives --list '
Error: /Stage[main]/Debian/Alternative_entry[/bin/nano]: Could not evaluate: Execution of '/usr/sbin/update-alternatives --list ' returned 2: update-alternatives: error: /var/lib/dpkg/alternatives/ corrupt: while reading status: Is a directory

what can i try for more debugging?

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any ideas?

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@lgbff it seems like the commands being used by the provider aren't doing what's expected, could you do some testing around what is the correct way to remove alternates?

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I think, the variable @property_hash[:altname] in file lib /puppet/provider/alternative_entry/dpkg.rb on line 17 is empty.
the request of '/usr/sbin/update-alternatives --list ' gets a error:
-su: /usr/sbin/update-alternatives --list : Datei oder Verzeichnis nicht gefunden

here reminder my manifest:
alternative_entry { '/bin/nano':
ensure => 'present',
altlink => '/usr/bin/editor',
altname => 'editor',
priority => '5',
}

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I created a pull request with fixes of the bug(s) that trouble @lgbff

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alternative_entry merged to master.

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It would be nice if this feature was added to the documentation.

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@stkerr if you have a moment would you be able to submit a documentation pull request?

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Opened pull request #22 to add an example to the documentation.

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