Create a package with chocolatey

Puppet Enterprise — 2019.2

Sections

Creating your own packages is, for some system administrators, surprisingly simple compared to other packaging standards.

Ensure you have at least Chocolatey CLI (choco.exe) version 0.9.9.11 or newer for this next part.

From the command prompt, enter choco new -h to see a help menu of what the available options are.

Next, use

choco
            new vagrant

to create a package named 'vagrant'. The output should be similar to the following:

Creating a new package specification at C:\temppackages\vagrant
   Generating template to a file
    at 'C:\temppackages\vagrant\vagrant.nuspec'
   Generating template to a file
    at 'C:\temppackages\vagrant\tools\chocolateyinstall.ps1'
   Generating template to a file
    at 'C:\temppackages\vagrant\tools\chocolateyuninstall.ps1'
   Generating template to a file
    at 'C:\temppackages\vagrant\tools\ReadMe.md'
   Successfully generated vagrant package specification files
    at 'C:\temppackages\vagrant'

It comes with some files already templated for you to fill out (you can also create your own custom templates for later use).

Open vagrant.nuspec, and edit it to look like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<package xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/packaging/2015/06/nuspec.xsd">
  <metadata>
    <id>vagrant</id>
    <title>Vagrant (Install)</title>
    <version>1.8.4</version>
    <authors>HashiCorp</authors>
    <owners>my company</owners>
    <description>Vagrant - Development environments made easy.</description>
  </metadata>
  <files>
    <file src="tools\**" target="tools" />
  </files>
</package>

Unless you are sharing with the world, you don’t need most of what is in the nuspec template file, so only required items are included above. Match the version of the package in this nuspec file to the version of the underlying software as closely as possible. In this example, Vagrant 1.8.4 is being packaged.

Open chocolateyInstall.ps1 and edit it to look like the following:

$ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop';

$packageName= 'vagrant'
$toolsDir   = "$(Split-Path -parent $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Definition)"
$fileLocation = Join-Path $toolsDir 'vagrant_1.8.4.msi'

$packageArgs = @{
  packageName   = $packageName
  fileType      = 'msi'
  file         = $fileLocation

  silentArgs    = "/qn /norestart"
  validExitCodes= @(0, 3010, 1641)
}

Install-ChocolateyInstallPackage @packageArgs

Note: The above is Install-ChocolateyINSTALLPackage, not to be confused with Install-ChocolateyPackage. The names are very close to each other, however the latter also downloads software from a URI (URL, ftp, file) which is not necessary for this example.

Delete the ReadMe.md and chocolateyUninstall.ps1 files. Download Vagrant and move it to the tools folder of the package.
Note: Normally if a package is over 100MB, it is recommended to move the software installer/archive to a share drive and point to it instead. For this example, just bundle it as is.
Now pack it up by using choco pack. Copy the new vagrant.1.8.4.nupkg file to c:\packages.
Open the manifest, and add the new package you just created. Your chocolatey.pp file should look like the below.
```
package {'vagrant':
  ensure   => installed,
  provider => chocolatey,
  source   => 'c:\packages',
}
```
Save the file and make sure to validate with the Puppet parser.
Use puppet apply <FILE PATH>\chocolatey.pp to run the manifest.
Open Control Panel, Programs and Features and take a look.

A screenshot of the Programs and Features window, with Vagrant listed as an installed program.

Vagrant is installed!