Re: [Puppet Users] Problems In New "Pro Puppet" Book

[James Turnbull]

Jon Forrest wrote:

I should first say that I'm a complete beginner to Puppet
so some of what I saw below could be incorrect. "Pro Puppet"
is a pretty good book so far but it really should have had
another editing step to correct the problems I've mentioned
below.



Thanks for the feedback.  Better to send it to the publisher than 
sending it here - they can actually act on Errata.


http://www.apress.com/9781430230571

Thanks again

James Turnbull


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James Turnbull
Puppet Labs
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[Puppet Users] Problems In New "Pro Puppet" Book

[Jon Forrest]

I should first say that I'm a complete beginner to Puppet
so some of what I saw below could be incorrect. "Pro Puppet"
is a pretty good book so far but it really should have had
another editing step to correct the problems I've mentioned
below.

Here are the problems I've found so far. Some of these are
embarrassingly trivial but some are true mistakes. I expect
to find more.

Jon Forrest
--
Pro Puppet Errata

M = mistake
U = unclear
T = typo
E = text edit


(E) 1) Page 1, first two sentences. "configuration" -> "configurations"

(U) 2) Page 2, "and the host itself is defined as a node". What host? I 
suggest removing this.


(M) 3) Page 2, "Each agent can run Puppet as a daemon via a mechanism
such as cron, or can be manually triggered". Running something via cron 
doesn't run it as a daemon.


(E) 4) Page 4, "... Puppet uses a tool called "Facter" to
return information about the that agent ..." => "... Puppet uses a
tool called "Facter" to return information about the host the agent is 
running on ..". This problem also occurs on Page 5. In fact, in one 
place on Page 5 this is stated in the way I suggest, e.g. "... to apply 
each resource to your host".


(U) 5) Page 5, "... knowing the IP address of a host allows us to 
configure networking on that host". This isn't a great example because 
it's probably true that if a host has an IP address then networking has 
already been configured.


(M) 6) Page 7, "... the master needs to be a later release than
the agents." => "... the master needs to be the same or a later
release than the agents."

(E) 7) Page 7, "... Puppet manages a variety of configuration
items ..." => "... Puppet manages a variety of resources ..."

(E) 8) Page 8, Sometimes the first person singular is used,
and sometimes the first person plural is used.

(E) 9) Page 9, If there's another edition of this book,
I recommend removing sections about OpenSolaris.

(E) 10) Page 11, "... Puppet's configuration will be located ..."
=> ... the Puppet master and agent configuration will be located ..."

(E) 11) Page 11, "... and is stored at ..." => "... and is stored
in ..."

(U) 12) Page 12, "All components of Puppet will set ...".
I recommend removing this sentence since we don't yet know what
the components of Puppet are.

(M) 13)  Page 13, A DNS CNAME can't be added to a /etc/hosts file.
What you're showing is adding an alias. Also, both an alias and a
CNAME wouldn't be added. Only one or the other should be added.

(E) 14) Page 13, "Once we've configured appropriate DNS ..." =>
"Once you've configured your DNS ..."

(E) 15) Page 13, "... which holds the basics of the configuration ..."
=> "... which holds the configuration ..."

(E) 16) Page 13, "We'll add some configuration to the file ..."
=> We'll add some resources to the file ..."

(M) 17) Page 14, "... your client must be able to route and
connect ..." => ... your client must be able to connect ...".
Clients generally don't route.

(E) 18) Page 15, "... for your master and ..." => "... for your
master, and ..." There are other occurrences of this throughout
the book.

(T) 19) Page 17, "... time in seconds or o to not wait ..." =>
" ... time in seconds or 0 to not wait ..."

(U) 20) Page 18, (and elsewhere) You should be more consistent
in using "agent" and "client".

(U) 21) Page 19, "... for each agent we connect ..." =>
"... for each agent we connect to the Puppet master ..."

(T) 22) Page 19, "The import statement ..." => "The import
statements ..."

(U) 23) Page 19, "... configuration statements starting with
a dollar sign are variables". This is misleading. The statements
aren't variables. The statements contain variables whose names
start with dollar signs.

(T) 24) Page 20, "... specifies a collection of configuration ..."
=> "... specifies a collection of configurations ..."

(U) 25) Page 20, I suggest that you explain the difference between
the "import " directive and the "include" directive.

(M) 25.1 Page 21, You show a directive called "moduledir".
Shouldn't this be "modulepath"?

(U) 26) Page 22, You should say more about what a class is before
using one in an example.

(E) 27) Page 22, "... should install ..." => "... will install ..."

(E) 28) Page 23, "... would rely ..." => "... rely ..."

(C) 29) Page 24, You should mention that the the "modulepath" path,
as shown on page 21, is used as the initial directory in which
the "modules" directory is searched.

(C) 30) Page 30, It's unclear to say "the Puppet software is called
the "agent". In fact, in the "Installing Puppet" paragraph,
you correctly say to install the "master and agent".

(C) 31) Page 30, "Puppet calls the definition of the host itself
a 'node'" => "Puppet uses the term 'node' to refer to a host."

(M) 32) Page 34, There's a missing right curly bracket in
the ssh_server definition. Plus, the wording of the paragraph
below that definition is backwards. The ssh class comes before
the ssh_server class.

(C) 33) Page 36, "The included function adds ..."