Using the PE docs

Archived PE docs

PE docs for recent end-of-life (EOL) or superseded product versions are archived in place, meaning that we continue to host them at their original URLs, but we limit their visibility on the main docs site and no longer update them. You can access archived-in-place docs using their original URLs, or from the links here.

PE docs for EOL versions earlier than those listed here are archived in our PE docs GitHub archive.


PE Version	URL
2021.4	https://puppet.com/docs/pe/2021.4/pe_user_guide.html
2021.3	https://puppet.com/docs/pe/2021.3/pe_user_guide.html
2021.2	https://puppet.com/docs/pe/2021.2/pe_user_guide.html
2021.1	https://puppet.com/docs/pe/2021.1/pe_user_guide.html
2021.0	https://puppet.com/docs/pe/2021.0/pe_user_guide.html
2019.7	https://puppet.com/docs/pe/2019.7/pe_user_guide.html
2019.5	https://puppet.com/docs/pe/2019.5/pe_user_guide.html
2019.4	https://puppet.com/docs/pe/2019.4/pe_user_guide.html
2019.3	https://puppet.com/docs/pe/2019.3/pe_user_guide.html
2019.2.z	https://puppet.com/docs/pe/2019.2/pe_user_guide.html
2019.1.z	https://puppet.com/docs/pe/2019.1/pe_user_guide.html
2019.0.z	https://puppet.com/docs/pe/2019.0/pe_user_guide.html

Usage notes for example commands

Review these guidelines to help you understand and use example commands throughout PE docs.

Using puppet commands to generate cURL arguments

The examples used throughout the PE docs rely on puppet commands to populate some cURL arguments, taking the guesswork out of providing those values. For example, you might see something like this:

url="http://$(puppet config print server):4433"
curl "$url"

Puppet commands can return different values depending on various conditions. In order for the cURL examples to work as intended, run the entire example (including setting the environment variables and calling the curl command) as root, Administrator, or with equivalent elevated privileges.

To run the command on a machine without elevated privileges, replace the inline puppet commands with hard-coded values. If you’re unsure about the correct values, run the puppet commands to get reasonable defaults.

Alternative ways to include authentication tokens

Any curl example that contains this line:

auth_header="X-Authentication: $(puppet-access show)"

can instead use an actual token if you have one available:

auth_header="X-Authentication: <TOKEN>"

Commands with elevated privileges

Some commands in PE require elevated privileges, using either sudo, root access, or "run as admin".

Elevated privileges allow a user to access and do more things than they could otherwise. There are three main types:

root: The root user has virtually unlimited access to read, write, or change files and system configurations, install/uninstall and upgrade software, or perform any operation as any user.
sudo: The sudo user, which stands for "super use do", allows a user to run most things the root user can without actually logging in as the root user.
"Run as admin": "Run as admin" is the Windows equivalent of root.

Almost all commands in Puppet can be run using sudo privileges. Using sudo is the most common way we recommend running commands in the docs because it is easier to copy and paste sudo in a command than log in as root.

There is an exception to this. All puppet infrastructure commands must be run while you are logged in as root. For more details about the puppet infrastructure command, run puppet infrastructure help <ACTION>