Writing plans in YAML

Indexing arrays or hashes

You can retrieve a value from an Array or a Hash using the [] operator. This operator can also be used when interpolating a value inside a string.

parameters:
  users:
    # Array[String] is a Puppet data type representing an array of strings
    type: Array[String]

steps:
  - task: user::add
    target: 'host.example.com'
    parameters:
      name: $users[0]
  - task: echo
    target: 'host.example.com'
    parameters:
      message: "hello ${users[0]}"

Calling functions

You can call a built-in Bolt function or Puppet function to compute a value.

parameters:
  users:
    type: Array[String]

steps:
  - task: user::add
    parameters:
      name: $users.first
  - task: echo
    message: "hello ${users.join(',')}"

Using code blocks

Some Puppet functions take a block of code as an argument. For instance, you can filter an array of items based on the result of a block of code.

parameters:
  numbers:
    type: Array[Integer]

steps:
  - task: sum
    description: "add up the numbers > 5"
    parameters:
      indexes: $numbers.filter |$num| { $num > 5 }

name key

The name key makes its results available to later steps in a variable with that name.

parameters:
  nodes:
    type: TargetSpec

steps:
  - name: hostnames
    command: hostname -f
    target: $nodes
  - task: echo
    parameters:
      message: $hostnames.map |$hostname_result| { $hostname_result['stdout'] }.join(',')

eval step

The eval step evaluates an expression and saves the result in a variable. This is useful to compute a variable to use multiple times later.

parameters:
  count:
    type: Integer

steps:
  - name: double_count
    eval: $count * 2
  - task: echo
    target: web1.example.com
    parameters:
      message: "The count is ${count}, and twice the count is ${double_count}"

Named eval step

The eval step allows snippets of Puppet code to be expressed in YAML plans. When converting a multi-line eval step to Puppet code and storing the result in a variable, use the with lambda.

For example, here is a YAML plan with a multi-line eval step:

parameters:
  foo:
    type: Optional[Integer]
    description: foo
    default: 0

steps:
  - eval: |
      $x = $foo + 1
      $x * 2
    name: eval_step

return: $eval_step

And here is the same plan, converted to the Puppet language:

plan yaml_plans::with_lambda(
  Optional[Integer] $foo = 0
) {
  $eval_step = with() || {
    $x = $foo + 1
    $x * 2
  }

  return $eval_step
}

Writing this plan from scratch using the Puppet language, you would probably not use the lambda. In this example the converted Puppet code is correct, but not as natural or readable as it could be.

Resource step variable interpolation

When applying Puppet resources in a resource step, variable interpolation behaves differently in YAML plans and Puppet language plans. To illustrate this difference, consider this YAML plan:

steps:
  - target: localhost
    description: Apply a file resource
    resources:
    - type: file
      title: '/tmp/foo'
      parameters:
        content: $facts['os']['family']
        ensure: present
  - name: file_contents
    description: Read contents of file managed with file resource
    eval: >
      file::read('/tmp/foo')
      
return: $file_contents

This plan performs apply_prep on a localhost target. Then it uses a Puppet file resource to write the OS family discovered from the Puppet $facts hash to a temporary file. Finally, it reads the value written to the file and returns it. Running bolt plan convert on this plan produces this Puppet code:

plan yaml_plans::interpolation_pp() {
  apply_prep('localhost')
  $interpolation = apply('localhost') {
    file { '/tmp/foo':
      content => $facts['os']['family'],
      ensure => 'present',
    }
  }
  $file_contents = file::read('/tmp/foo')

  return $file_contents
}

This Puppet language plan works as expected, whereas the YAML plan it was converted from fails. The failure stems from the $factsvariable being resolved as a plan variable, instead of being evaluated as part of compiling the manifest code in an applyblock.

Dependency order

The resources in a resources list are applied in order. It is possible to set dependencies explicitly, but when doing so you must refer to them in a particular way. Consider the following YAML plan:

parameters:
  nodes:
    type: TargetSpec
steps:
  - name: pkg
    target: $nodes
    resources:
      - title: openssh-server
        type: package
        parameters:
          ensure: present
          before: File['/etc/ssh/sshd_config']
      - title: /etc/ssh/sshd_config
        type: file
        parameters:
          ensure: file
          mode: '0600'
          content: ''
          require: Package['openssh-server']

Executing this plan fails during catalog compilation because of how Bolt parses the resources referenced in the before and require parameters. You will see the error message Could not find resource 'File['/etc/ssh/sshd_config']' in parameter 'before'. The solution is to not quote the resource titles:

parameters:
  nodes:
    type: TargetSpec
steps:
  - name: pkg
    target: $nodes
    resources:
      - title: openssh-server
        type: package
        parameters:
          ensure: present
          before: File[/etc/ssh/sshd_config]
      - title: /etc/ssh/sshd_config
        type: file
        parameters:
          ensure: file
          mode: '0600'
          content: ''
          require: Package[openssh-server]

In general, declare resources in order. This is an unusual example to illustrate a case where parameter parsing leads to non-intuitive results.