Issue #12418 has been updated by Nigel Kersten.

There's actually a pretty common use case for this.

You're serving out an application by a recursive file copy because you can't 
get your app developers to a point where they produce packages.

Inside that file structure are symlinks that point outside the application 
tree, perhaps to a location for common configuration elements.

To simply deliver the app as a recursive file copy, you need the symlinks to be 
copied as is, as the target doesn't actually exist on the master itself, but 
only on the clients.
----------------------------------------
Bug #12418: links => follow can't replace existing symlinks in the destination 
directory
https://projects.puppetlabs.com/issues/12418#change-54791

Author: Nick Fagerlund
Status: Needs Decision
Priority: Normal
Assignee: Daniel Pittman
Category: file
Target version: 
Affected Puppet version: 
Keywords: 
Branch: 


When serving a directory recursively, setting the `links` attribute to `follow` 
is supposed to dereference symlinks in the source and serve their targets to 
the destination as normal files. However, it can't replace existing symlinks in 
the destination directory, so it's not idempotent.

Assume that `$modulepath/fistfuloflinks/files/links` is a directory containing 
directories that contain symlinks. 

### Step 1

Apply the following resource:

    file {'/tmp/fistfuloflinks':
      ensure  => directory,
      source  => "puppet:///modules/fistfuloflinks/links",
      recurse => true,
      links   => follow,
      force   => true,
    }

As expected, the directories it creates contain normal files.

### Step 2:

Change the value of "links" to "manage," then apply the modified resource. As 
expected, the directories now mimic the source directories -- instead of normal 
files, they have symlinks. 

### Step 3:

Change "links" back to "follow" and apply again. Whoops: they stay symlinks 
instead of turning back to normal files. You can only get back to the results 
of step 1 if you delete the files out of band before applying the resource. 

Tested in puppet 2.7.6. Of course, it only now occurs to me that probably no 
one is actually using this feature, since putting symlinks inside a module is 
kind of brittle and deranged. 


-- 
You have received this notification because you have either subscribed to it, 
or are involved in it.
To change your notification preferences, please click here: 
http://projects.puppetlabs.com/my/account

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
"Puppet Bugs" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to 
[email protected].
For more options, visit this group at 
http://groups.google.com/group/puppet-bugs?hl=en.

Reply via email to