Configuration Reference

This page is autogenerated; any changes will get overwritten

Configuration settings

• Each of these settings can be specified in puppet.conf or on the command line.
• Puppet Enterprise (PE) and open source Puppet share the configuration settings that are documented here. However, PE defaults for some settings differ from the open source Puppet defaults. Some examples of settings that have different PE defaults include disable18n, environment_timeout, always_retry_plugins, and the Puppet Server JRuby max-active-instances setting. To verify PE configuration defaults, check the puppet.conf file after installation.
• When using boolean settings on the command line, use --setting and --no-setting instead of --setting (true|false). (Using --setting false results in “Error: Could not parse application options: needless argument”.)
• Settings can be interpolated as $variables in other settings; $environment is special, in that puppet master will interpolate each agent node’s environment instead of its own.
• Multiple values should be specified as comma-separated lists; multiple directories should be separated with the system path separator (usually a colon).
• Settings that represent time intervals should be specified in duration format: an integer immediately followed by one of the units ‘y’ (years of 365 days), ‘d’ (days), ‘h’ (hours), ‘m’ (minutes), or ‘s’ (seconds). The unit cannot be combined with other units, and defaults to seconds when omitted. Examples are ‘3600’ which is equivalent to ‘1h’ (one hour), and ‘1825d’ which is equivalent to ‘5y’ (5 years).
• If you use the splay setting, note that the period that it waits changes each time the Puppet agent is restarted.
• Settings that take a single file or directory can optionally set the owner, group, and mode for their value: rundir = $vardir/run { owner = puppet, group = puppet, mode = 644 }
• The Puppet executables will ignore any setting that isn’t relevant to their function.

See the configuration guide for more details.

agent_catalog_run_lockfile

A lock file to indicate that a puppet agent catalog run is currently in progress. The file contains the pid of the process that holds the lock on the catalog run.

• Default: $statedir/agent_catalog_run.lock

agent_disabled_lockfile

A lock file to indicate that puppet agent runs have been administratively disabled. File contains a JSON object with state information.

• Default: $statedir/agent_disabled.lock

allow_duplicate_certs

Whether to allow a new certificate request to overwrite an existing certificate.

• Default: false

always_retry_plugins

Affects how we cache attempts to load Puppet resource types and features. If true, then calls to Puppet.type.<type>? Puppet.feature.<feature>? will always attempt to load the type or feature (which can be an expensive operation) unless it has already been loaded successfully. This makes it possible for a single agent run to, e.g., install a package that provides the underlying capabilities for a type or feature, and then later load that type or feature during the same run (even if the type or feature had been tested earlier and had not been available).

If this setting is set to false, then types and features will only be checked once, and if they are not available, the negative result is cached and returned for all subsequent attempts to load the type or feature. This behavior is almost always appropriate for the server, and can result in a significant performance improvement for types and features that are checked frequently.

• Default: true

app_management

This setting has no effect and will be removed in a future Puppet version.

• Default: false

autoflush

Whether log files should always flush to disk.

• Default: true

autosign

Whether (and how) to autosign certificate requests. This setting is only relevant on a puppet master acting as a certificate authority (CA).

Valid values are true (autosigns all certificate requests; not recommended), false (disables autosigning certificates), or the absolute path to a file.

The file specified in this setting may be either a configuration file or a custom policy executable. Puppet will automatically determine what it is: If the Puppet user (see the user setting) can execute the file, it will be treated as a policy executable; otherwise, it will be treated as a config file.

If a custom policy executable is configured, the CA puppet master will run it every time it receives a CSR. The executable will be passed the subject CN of the request as a command line argument, and the contents of the CSR in PEM format on stdin. It should exit with a status of 0 if the cert should be autosigned and non-zero if the cert should not be autosigned.

If a certificate request is not autosigned, it will persist for review. An admin user can use the puppet cert sign command to manually sign it, or can delete the request.

For info on autosign configuration files, see the guide to Puppet’s config files.

• Default: $confdir/autosign.conf

basemodulepath

The search path for global modules. Should be specified as a list of directories separated by the system path separator character. (The POSIX path separator is ‘:’, and the Windows path separator is ‘;’.)

These are the modules that will be used by all environments. Note that the modules directory of the active environment will have priority over any global directories. For more info, see https://puppet.com/docs/puppet/latest/environments_about.html

• Default: $codedir/modules:/opt/puppetlabs/puppet/modules

bindaddress

The address a listening server should bind to.

• Default: *

binder_config

The binder configuration file. Puppet reads this file on each request to configure the bindings system. If set to nil (the default), a $confdir/binder_config.yaml is optionally loaded. If it does not exists, a default configuration is used. If the setting :binding_config is specified, it must reference a valid and existing yaml file.

• Default:

bucketdir

Where FileBucket files are stored.

• Default: $vardir/bucket

ca

Whether the master should function as a certificate authority.

• Default: true

ca_name

The name to use the Certificate Authority certificate.

• Default: Puppet CA: $certname

ca_port

The port to use for the certificate authority.

• Default: $masterport

ca_server

The server to use for certificate authority requests. It’s a separate server because it cannot and does not need to horizontally scale.

• Default: $server

ca_ttl

The default TTL for new certificates. This setting can be a time interval in seconds (30 or 30s), minutes (30m), hours (6h), days (2d), or years (5y).

• Default: 5y

cacert

The CA certificate.

• Default: $cadir/ca_crt.pem

cacrl

The certificate revocation list (CRL) for the CA. Will be used if present but otherwise ignored.

• Default: $cadir/ca_crl.pem

cadir

The root directory for the certificate authority.

• Default: $ssldir/ca

cakey

The CA private key.

• Default: $cadir/ca_key.pem

capass

Where the CA stores the password for the private key. This setting is deprecated and will be removed in Puppet 6.

• Default: $caprivatedir/ca.pass

caprivatedir

Where the CA stores private certificate information. This setting is deprecated and will be removed in Puppet 6.

• Default: $cadir/private

capub

The CA public key.

• Default: $cadir/ca_pub.pem

catalog_cache_terminus

How to store cached catalogs. Valid values are ‘json’, ‘msgpack’ and ‘yaml’. The agent application defaults to ‘json’.

• Default:

catalog_terminus

Where to get node catalogs. This is useful to change if, for instance, you’d like to pre-compile catalogs and store them in memcached or some other easily-accessed store.

• Default: compiler

cert_inventory

The inventory file. This is a text file to which the CA writes a complete listing of all certificates.

• Default: $cadir/inventory.txt

certdir

The certificate directory.

• Default: $ssldir/certs

certificate_revocation

Whether certificate revocation checking should be enabled, and what level of checking should be performed.

When certificate_revocation is set to ‘true’ or ‘chain’, Puppet will download the CA CRL and will perform revocation checking against each certificate in the chain.

Puppet is unable to load multiple CRLs, so if certificate_revocation is set to ‘chain’ and Puppet attempts to verify a certificate signed by a root CA the behavior is equivalent to the ‘leaf’ setting, and if Puppet attempts to verify a certificate signed by an intermediate CA then verification will fail as Puppet will be unable to load the multiple CRLs required for full chain checking. As such the ‘chain’ setting is limited in functionality and is meant as a stand in pending the implementation of full chain checking.

When certificate_revocation is set to ‘leaf’, Puppet will download the CA CRL and will verify the leaf certificate against that CRL. CRLs will not be fetched or checked for the rest of the certificates in the chain. If you are using an intermediate CA certificate and want to enable certificate revocation checking, this setting must be set to ‘leaf’.

When certificate_revocation is set to ‘false’, Puppet will disable all certificate revocation checking and will not attempt to download the CRL.

• Default: chain

certname

The name to use when handling certificates. When a node requests a certificate from the CA puppet master, it uses the value of the certname setting as its requested Subject CN.

This is the name used when managing a node’s permissions in auth.conf. In most cases, it is also used as the node’s name when matching node definitions and requesting data from an ENC. (This can be changed with the node_name_value and node_name_fact settings, although you should only do so if you have a compelling reason.)

A node’s certname is available in Puppet manifests as $trusted['certname']. (See Facts and Built-In Variables for more details.)

• For best compatibility, you should limit the value of certname to only use lowercase letters, numbers, periods, underscores, and dashes. (That is, it should match /A[a-z0-9._-]+Z/.)
• The special value ca is reserved, and can’t be used as the certname for a normal node.

Defaults to the node’s fully qualified domain name.

• Default: the Host’s fully qualified domain name, as determined by facter

classfile

The file in which puppet agent stores a list of the classes associated with the retrieved configuration. Can be loaded in the separate puppet executable using the --loadclasses option.

• Default: $statedir/classes.txt

client_datadir

The directory in which serialized data is stored on the client.

• Default: $vardir/client_data

clientbucketdir

Where FileBucket files are stored locally.

• Default: $vardir/clientbucket

clientyamldir

The directory in which client-side YAML data is stored.

• Default: $vardir/client_yaml

code

Code to parse directly. This is essentially only used by puppet, and should only be set if you’re writing your own Puppet executable.

codedir

The main Puppet code directory. The default for this setting is calculated based on the user. If the process is running as root or the user that Puppet is supposed to run as, it defaults to a system directory, but if it’s running as any other user, it defaults to being in the user’s home directory.

• Default: Unix/Linux: /etc/puppetlabs/code – Windows: C:\ProgramData\PuppetLabs\code – Non-root user: ~/.puppetlabs/etc/code

color

Whether to use colors when logging to the console. Valid values are ansi (equivalent to true), html, and false, which produces no color. Defaults to false on Windows, as its console does not support ansi colors.

• Default: ansi

confdir

The main Puppet configuration directory. The default for this setting is calculated based on the user. If the process is running as root or the user that Puppet is supposed to run as, it defaults to a system directory, but if it’s running as any other user, it defaults to being in the user’s home directory.

• Default: Unix/Linux: /etc/puppetlabs/puppet – Windows: C:\ProgramData\PuppetLabs\puppet\etc – Non-root user: ~/.puppetlabs/etc/puppet

config

The configuration file for the current puppet application.

• Default: $confdir/${config_file_name}

config_file_name

The name of the puppet config file.

• Default: puppet.conf

config_version

How to determine the configuration version. By default, it will be the time that the configuration is parsed, but you can provide a shell script to override how the version is determined. The output of this script will be added to every log message in the reports, allowing you to correlate changes on your hosts to the source version on the server.

Setting a global value for config_version in puppet.conf is not allowed (but it can be overridden from the commandline). Please set a per-environment value in environment.conf instead. For more info, see https://puppet.com/docs/puppet/latest/environments_about.html

configprint

Prints the value of a specific configuration setting. If the name of a setting is provided for this, then the value is printed and puppet exits. Comma-separate multiple values. For a list of all values, specify ‘all’. This setting is deprecated, the ‘puppet config’ command replaces this functionality.

configtimeout

How long the client should wait for the configuration to be retrieved before considering it a failure. This setting is deprecated and has been replaced by http_connect_timeout and http_read_timeout. This setting can be a time interval in seconds (30 or 30s), minutes (30m), hours (6h), days (2d), or years (5y).

• Default: 2m

csr_attributes

An optional file containing custom attributes to add to certificate signing requests (CSRs). You should ensure that this file does not exist on your CA puppet master; if it does, unwanted certificate extensions may leak into certificates created with the puppet cert generate command.

If present, this file must be a YAML hash containing a custom_attributes key and/or an extension_requests key. The value of each key must be a hash, where each key is a valid OID and each value is an object that can be cast to a string.

Custom attributes can be used by the CA when deciding whether to sign the certificate, but are then discarded. Attribute OIDs can be any OID value except the standard CSR attributes (i.e. attributes described in RFC 2985 section 5.4). This is useful for embedding a pre-shared key for autosigning policy executables (see the autosign setting), often by using the 1.2.840.113549.1.9.7 (“challenge password”) OID.

Extension requests will be permanently embedded in the final certificate. Extension OIDs must be in the “ppRegCertExt” (1.3.6.1.4.1.34380.1.1) or “ppPrivCertExt” (1.3.6.1.4.1.34380.1.2) OID arcs. The ppRegCertExt arc is reserved for four of the most common pieces of data to embed: pp_uuid (.1), pp_instance_id (.2), pp_image_name (.3), and pp_preshared_key (.4) — in the YAML file, these can be referred to by their short descriptive names instead of their full OID. The ppPrivCertExt arc is unregulated, and can be used for site-specific extensions.

• Default: $confdir/csr_attributes.yaml

csrdir

Where the CA stores certificate requests.

• Default: $cadir/requests

daemonize

Whether to send the process into the background. This defaults to true on POSIX systems, and to false on Windows (where Puppet currently cannot daemonize).

• Default: true

data_binding_terminus

This setting has been deprecated. Use of any value other than ‘hiera’ should instead be configured in a version 5 hiera.yaml. Until this setting is removed, it controls which data binding terminus to use for global automatic data binding (across all environments). By default this value is ‘hiera’. A value of ‘none’ turns off the global binding.

• Default: hiera

default_file_terminus

The default source for files if no server is given in a uri, e.g. puppet:///file. The default of rest causes the file to be retrieved using the server setting. When running apply the default is file_server, causing requests to be filled locally.

• Default: rest

default_manifest

The default main manifest for directory environments. Any environment that doesn’t set the manifest setting in its environment.conf file will use this manifest.

This setting’s value can be an absolute or relative path. An absolute path will make all environments default to the same main manifest; a relative path will allow each environment to use its own manifest, and Puppet will resolve the path relative to each environment’s main directory.

In either case, the path can point to a single file or to a directory of manifests to be evaluated in alphabetical order.

• Default: ./manifests

default_schedules

Boolean; whether to generate the default schedule resources. Setting this to false is useful for keeping external report processors clean of skipped schedule resources.

• Default: true

deviceconfig

Path to the device config file for puppet device.

• Default: $confdir/device.conf

devicedir

The root directory of devices’ $vardir.

• Default: $vardir/devices

diff

Which diff command to use when printing differences between files. This setting has no default value on Windows, as standard diff is not available, but Puppet can use many third-party diff tools.

• Default: diff

diff_args

Which arguments to pass to the diff command when printing differences between files. The command to use can be chosen with the diff setting.

• Default: -u

digest_algorithm

Which digest algorithm to use for file resources and the filebucket. Valid values are md5, sha256, sha384, sha512, sha224. Default is md5.

• Default: md5

disable_i18n

If true, turns off all translations of Puppet and module log messages, which affects error, warning, and info log messages, as well as any translations in the report and CLI.

• Default: false

disable_per_environment_manifest

Whether to disallow an environment-specific main manifest. When set to true, Puppet will use the manifest specified in the default_manifest setting for all environments. If an environment specifies a different main manifest in its environment.conf file, catalog requests for that environment will fail with an error.

This setting requires default_manifest to be set to an absolute path.

• Default: false

disable_warnings

A comma-separated list of warning types to suppress. If large numbers of warnings are making Puppet’s logs too large or difficult to use, you can temporarily silence them with this setting.

If you are preparing to upgrade Puppet to a new major version, you should re-enable all warnings for a while.

Valid values for this setting are:

• deprecations — disables deprecation warnings.
• undefined_variables — disables warnings about non existing variables.

• undefined_resources — disables warnings about non existing resources.

• Default: []

dns_alt_names

A comma-separated list of alternate DNS names for Puppet Server. These are extra hostnames (in addition to its certname) that the server is allowed to use when serving agents. Puppet checks this setting when automatically requesting a certificate for Puppet agent or Puppet Server, and when manually generating a certificate with puppet cert generate. These can be either IP or DNS, and the type should be specified and followed with a colon. Untyped inputs will default to DNS.

In order to handle agent requests at a given hostname (like “puppet.example.com”), Puppet Server needs a certificate that proves it’s allowed to use that name; if a server shows a certificate that doesn’t include its hostname, Puppet agents will refuse to trust it. If you use a single hostname for Puppet traffic but load-balance it to multiple Puppet Servers, each of those servers needs to include the official hostname in its list of extra names.

Note: The list of alternate names is locked in when the server’s certificate is signed. If you need to change the list later, you can’t just change this setting; you also need to:

• On the server: Stop Puppet Server.
• On the CA server: Revoke and clean the server’s old certificate. (puppet cert clean <NAME>) (Note puppet cert clean is deprecated and will be replaced with puppetserver ca clean in Puppet 6.)
• On the server: Delete the old certificate (and any old certificate signing requests) from the ssldir.
• On the server: Run puppet agent -t --ca_server <CA HOSTNAME> to request a new certificate
• On the CA server: Sign the certificate request, explicitly allowing alternate names (puppet cert sign --allow-dns-alt-names <NAME>). (Note puppet cert sign is deprecated and will be replaced with puppetserver ca sign in Puppet 6.)
• On the server: Run puppet agent -t --ca_server <CA HOSTNAME> to retrieve the cert.
• On the server: Start Puppet Server again.

To see all the alternate names your servers are using, log into your CA server and run puppet cert list -a, then check the output for (alt names: ...). Most agent nodes should NOT have alternate names; the only certs that should have them are Puppet Server nodes that you want other agents to trust.

document_all

Whether to document all resources when using puppet doc to generate manifest documentation.

• Default: false

environment

The environment in which Puppet is running. For clients, such as puppet agent, this determines the environment itself, which Puppet uses to find modules and much more. For servers, such as puppet master, this provides the default environment for nodes that Puppet knows nothing about.

When defining an environment in the [agent] section, this refers to the environment that the agent requests from the master. The environment doesn’t have to exist on the local filesystem because the agent fetches it from the master. This definition is used when running puppet agent.

When defined in the [user] section, the environment refers to the path that Puppet uses to search for code and modules related to its execution. This requires the environment to exist locally on the filesystem where puppet is being executed. Puppet subcommands, including puppet module and puppet apply, use this definition.

Given that the context and effects vary depending on the config section in which the environment setting is defined, do not set it globally.

• Default: production

environment_data_provider

The name of a registered environment data provider used when obtaining environment specific data. The three built in and registered providers are ‘none’ (no data), ‘function’ (data obtained by calling the function ‘environment::data()’) and ‘hiera’ (data obtained using a data provider configured using a hiera.yaml file in root of the environment). Other environment data providers may be registered in modules on the module path. For such custom data providers see the respective module documentation. This setting is deprecated.

• Default:

environment_timeout

How long the Puppet master should cache data it loads from an environment. This setting can be a time interval in seconds (30 or 30s), minutes (30m), hours (6h), days (2d), or years (5y). A value of 0 will disable caching. This setting can also be set to unlimited, which will cache environments until the master is restarted or told to refresh the cache.

You should change this setting once your Puppet deployment is doing non-trivial work. We chose the default value of 0 because it lets new users update their code without any extra steps, but it lowers the performance of your Puppet master.

We recommend setting this to unlimited and explicitly refreshing your Puppet master as part of your code deployment process.

• With Puppet Server, you should refresh environments by calling the See the docs for the Puppet Server administrative API.
• With a Rack Puppet master, you should restart the web server or the application server. Passenger lets you touch a restart.txt file to refresh an application without restarting Apache; see the Passenger docs for details.

We don’t recommend using any value other than 0 or unlimited, since most Puppet masters use a pool of Ruby interpreters which all have their own cache timers. When these timers drift out of sync, agents can be served inconsistent catalogs.

• Default: 0

environmentpath

A search path for directory environments, as a list of directories separated by the system path separator character. (The POSIX path separator is ‘:’, and the Windows path separator is ‘;’.)

This setting must have a value set to enable directory environments. The recommended value is $codedir/environments. For more details, see https://puppet.com/docs/puppet/latest/environments_about.html

• Default: $codedir/environments

evaltrace

Whether each resource should log when it is being evaluated. This allows you to interactively see exactly what is being done.

• Default: false

external_nodes

The external node classifier (ENC) script to use for node data. Puppet combines this data with the main manifest to produce node catalogs.

To enable this setting, set the node_terminus setting to exec.

This setting’s value must be the path to an executable command that can produce node information. The command must:

• Take the name of a node as a command-line argument.
• Return a YAML hash with up to three keys:
  • classes — A list of classes, as an array or hash.
  • environment — A string.
  • parameters — A list of top-scope variables to set, as a hash.
• For unknown nodes, exit with a non-zero exit code.

Generally, an ENC script makes requests to an external data source.

For more info, see the ENC documentation.

• Default: none

factpath

Where Puppet should look for facts. Multiple directories should be separated by the system path separator character. (The POSIX path separator is ‘:’, and the Windows path separator is ‘;’.)

• Default: $vardir/lib/facter:$vardir/facts

facts_terminus

The node facts terminus.

• Default: facter

fileserverconfig

Where the fileserver configuration is stored.

• Default: $confdir/fileserver.conf

filetimeout

The minimum time to wait between checking for updates in configuration files. This timeout determines how quickly Puppet checks whether a file (such as manifests or templates) has changed on disk. This setting can be a time interval in seconds (30 or 30s), minutes (30m), hours (6h), days (2d), or years (5y).

• Default: 15s

forge_authorization

The authorization key to connect to the Puppet Forge. Leave blank for unauthorized or license based connections

• Default:

freeze_main

Freezes the ‘main’ class, disallowing any code to be added to it. This essentially means that you can’t have any code outside of a node, class, or definition other than in the site manifest.

• Default: false

future_features

Whether or not to enable all features currently being developed for future major releases of Puppet. Should be used with caution, as in development features are experimental and can have unexpected effects.

• Default: false

genconfig

When true, causes Puppet applications to print an example config file to stdout and exit. The example will include descriptions of each setting, and the current (or default) value of each setting, incorporating any settings overridden on the CLI (with the exception of genconfig itself). This setting only makes sense when specified on the command line as --genconfig.

• Default: false

genmanifest

Whether to just print a manifest to stdout and exit. Only makes sense when specified on the command line as --genmanifest. Takes into account arguments specified on the CLI.

• Default: false

graph

Whether to create .dot graph files, which let you visualize the dependency and containment relationships in Puppet’s catalog. You can load and view these files with tools like OmniGraffle (OS X) or graphviz (multi-platform).

Graph files are created when applying a catalog, so this setting should be used on nodes running puppet agent or puppet apply.

The graphdir setting determines where Puppet will save graphs. Note that we don’t save graphs for historical runs; Puppet will replace the previous .dot files with new ones every time it applies a catalog.

See your graphing software’s documentation for details on opening .dot files. If you’re using GraphViz’s dot command, you can do a quick PNG render with dot -Tpng <DOT FILE> -o <OUTPUT FILE>.

• Default: false

graphdir

Where to save .dot-format graphs (when the graph setting is enabled).

• Default: $statedir/graphs

group

The group Puppet Server will run as. Used to ensure the agent side processes (agent, apply, etc) create files and directories readable by Puppet Server when necessary.

• Default: puppet

hiera_config

The hiera configuration file. Puppet only reads this file on startup, so you must restart the puppet master every time you edit it.

• Default: $confdir/hiera.yaml. However for backwards compatibility, if a file exists at $codedir/hiera.yaml, Puppet uses that instead.

hostcert

Where individual hosts store and look for their certificates.

• Default: $certdir/$certname.pem

hostcrl

Where the host’s certificate revocation list can be found. This is distinct from the certificate authority’s CRL.

• Default: $ssldir/crl.pem

hostcsr

Where individual hosts store and look for their certificate requests.

• Default: $ssldir/csr_$certname.pem

hostprivkey

Where individual hosts store and look for their private key.

• Default: $privatekeydir/$certname.pem

hostpubkey

Where individual hosts store and look for their public key.

• Default: $publickeydir/$certname.pem

http_connect_timeout

The maximum amount of time to wait when establishing an HTTP connection. The default value is 2 minutes. This setting can be a time interval in seconds (30 or 30s), minutes (30m), hours (6h), days (2d), or years (5y).

• Default: 2m

http_debug

Whether to write HTTP request and responses to stderr. This should never be used in a production environment.

• Default: false

http_keepalive_timeout

The maximum amount of time a persistent HTTP connection can remain idle in the connection pool, before it is closed. This timeout should be shorter than the keepalive timeout used on the HTTP server, e.g. Apache KeepAliveTimeout directive. This setting can be a time interval in seconds (30 or 30s), minutes (30m), hours (6h), days (2d), or years (5y).

• Default: 4s

http_proxy_host

The HTTP proxy host to use for outgoing connections. Note: You may need to use a FQDN for the server hostname when using a proxy. Environment variable http_proxy or HTTP_PROXY will override this value

• Default: none

http_proxy_password

The password for the user of an authenticated HTTP proxy. Requires the http_proxy_user setting.

Note that passwords must be valid when used as part of a URL. If a password contains any characters with special meanings in URLs (as specified by RFC 3986 section 2.2), they must be URL-encoded. (For example, # would become %23.)

• Default: none

http_proxy_port

The HTTP proxy port to use for outgoing connections

• Default: 3128

http_proxy_user

The user name for an authenticated HTTP proxy. Requires the http_proxy_host setting.

• Default: none

http_read_timeout

The time to wait for one block to be read from an HTTP connection. If nothing is read after the elapsed interval then the connection will be closed. The default value is unlimited. This setting can be a time interval in seconds (30 or 30s), minutes (30m), hours (6h), days (2d), or years (5y).

• Default:

http_user_agent

The HTTP User-Agent string to send when making network requests.

• Default: Puppet/5.5.8 Ruby/2.4.1-p111 (x86_64-darwin17)

ignorecache

This setting has no effect and will be removed in a future Puppet version.

• Default: false

ignoremissingtypes

Skip searching for classes and definitions that were missing during a prior compilation. The list of missing objects is maintained per-environment and persists until the environment is cleared or the master is restarted.

• Default: false

ignoreschedules

Boolean; whether puppet agent should ignore schedules. This is useful for initial puppet agent runs.

• Default: false

keylength

The bit length of keys.

• Default: 4096

lastrunfile

Where puppet agent stores the last run report summary in yaml format.

• Default: $statedir/last_run_summary.yaml

lastrunreport

Where puppet agent stores the last run report in yaml format.

• Default: $statedir/last_run_report.yaml

ldapattrs

The LDAP attributes to include when querying LDAP for nodes. All returned attributes are set as variables in the top-level scope. Multiple values should be comma-separated. The value ‘all’ returns all attributes.

• Default: all

ldapbase

The search base for LDAP searches. It’s impossible to provide a meaningful default here, although the LDAP libraries might have one already set. Generally, it should be the ‘ou=Hosts’ branch under your main directory.

ldapclassattrs

The LDAP attributes to use to define Puppet classes. Values should be comma-separated.

• Default: puppetclass

ldapparentattr

The attribute to use to define the parent node.

• Default: parentnode

ldappassword

The password to use to connect to LDAP.

ldapport

The LDAP port. Only used if node_terminus is set to ldap.

• Default: 389

ldapserver

The LDAP server. Only used if node_terminus is set to ldap.

• Default: ldap

ldapssl

Whether SSL should be used when searching for nodes. Defaults to false because SSL usually requires certificates to be set up on the client side.

• Default: false

ldapstackedattrs

The LDAP attributes that should be stacked to arrays by adding the values in all hierarchy elements of the tree. Values should be comma-separated.

• Default: puppetvar

ldapstring

The search string used to find an LDAP node.

• Default: (&(objectclass=puppetClient)(cn=%s))

ldaptls

Whether TLS should be used when searching for nodes. Defaults to false because TLS usually requires certificates to be set up on the client side.

• Default: false

ldapuser

The user to use to connect to LDAP. Must be specified as a full DN.

libdir

An extra search path for Puppet. This is only useful for those files that Puppet will load on demand, and is only guaranteed to work for those cases. In fact, the autoload mechanism is responsible for making sure this directory is in Ruby’s search path

• Default: $vardir/lib

localcacert

Where each client stores the CA certificate.

• Default: $certdir/ca.pem

localedest

Where Puppet should store translation files that it pulls down from the central server.

• Default: $vardir/locales

localesource

From where to retrieve translation files. The standard Puppet file type is used for retrieval, so anything that is a valid file source can be used here.

• Default: puppet:///locales

log_level

Default logging level for messages from Puppet. Allowed values are:

• debug
• info
• notice
• warning
• err
• alert
• emerg

• crit

• Default: notice

logdest

Where to send log messages. Choose between ‘syslog’ (the POSIX syslog service), ‘eventlog’ (the Windows Event Log), ‘console’, or the path to a log file.

• Default:

logdir

The directory in which to store log files

• Default: Unix/Linux: /var/log/puppetlabs/puppet – Windows: C:\ProgramData\PuppetLabs\puppet\var\log – Non-root user: ~/.puppetlabs/var/log

manage_internal_file_permissions

Whether Puppet should manage the owner, group, and mode of files it uses internally

• Default: true

manifest

The entry-point manifest for puppet master. This can be one file or a directory of manifests to be evaluated in alphabetical order. Puppet manages this path as a directory if one exists or if the path ends with a / or .

Setting a global value for manifest in puppet.conf is not allowed (but it can be overridden from the commandline). Please use directory environments instead. If you need to use something other than the environment’s manifests directory as the main manifest, you can set manifest in environment.conf. For more info, see https://puppet.com/docs/puppet/latest/environments_about.html

• Default:

masterhttplog

Where the puppet master web server saves its access log. This is only used when running a WEBrick puppet master. When puppet master is running under a Rack server like Passenger, that web server will have its own logging behavior.

• Default: $logdir/masterhttp.log

masterport

The default port puppet subcommands use to communicate with Puppet Server. (eg puppet facts upload, puppet agent). May be overridden by more specific settings (see ca_port, report_port).

• Default: 8140

max_deprecations

Sets the max number of logged/displayed parser validation deprecation warnings in case multiple deprecation warnings have been detected. A value of 0 blocks the logging of deprecation warnings. The count is per manifest.

• Default: 10

max_errors

Sets the max number of logged/displayed parser validation errors in case multiple errors have been detected. A value of 0 is the same as a value of 1; a minimum of one error is always raised. The count is per manifest.

• Default: 10

max_warnings

Sets the max number of logged/displayed parser validation warnings in case multiple warnings have been detected. A value of 0 blocks logging of warnings. The count is per manifest.

• Default: 10

maximum_uid

The maximum allowed UID. Some platforms use negative UIDs but then ship with tools that do not know how to handle signed ints, so the UIDs show up as huge numbers that can then not be fed back into the system. This is a hackish way to fail in a slightly more useful way when that happens.

• Default: 4294967290

mkusers

Whether to create the necessary user and group that puppet agent will run as.

• Default: false

module_groups

Extra module groups to request from the Puppet Forge. This is an internal setting, and users should never change it.

• Default:

module_repository

The module repository

• Default: https://forgeapi.puppet.com

module_skeleton_dir

The directory which the skeleton for module tool generate is stored.

• Default: $module_working_dir/skeleton

module_working_dir

The directory into which module tool data is stored

• Default: $vardir/puppet-module

modulepath

The search path for modules, as a list of directories separated by the system path separator character. (The POSIX path separator is ‘:’, and the Windows path separator is ‘;’.)

Setting a global value for modulepath in puppet.conf is not allowed (but it can be overridden from the commandline). Please use directory environments instead. If you need to use something other than the default modulepath of <ACTIVE ENVIRONMENT'S MODULES DIR>:$basemodulepath, you can set modulepath in environment.conf. For more info, see https://puppet.com/docs/puppet/latest/environments_about.html

name

The name of the application, if we are running as one. The default is essentially $0 without the path or .rb.

• Default:

node_cache_terminus

How to store cached nodes. Valid values are (none), ‘json’, ‘msgpack’, ‘yaml’ or write only yaml (‘write_only_yaml’).

• Default:

node_name

How the puppet master determines the client’s identity and sets the ‘hostname’, ‘fqdn’ and ‘domain’ facts for use in the manifest, in particular for determining which ‘node’ statement applies to the client. Possible values are ‘cert’ (use the subject’s CN in the client’s certificate) and ‘facter’ (use the hostname that the client reported in its facts)

• Default: cert

node_name_fact

The fact name used to determine the node name used for all requests the agent makes to the master. WARNING: This setting is mutually exclusive with node_name_value. Changing this setting also requires changes to the default auth.conf configuration on the Puppet Master. Please see http://links.puppet.com/node_name_fact for more information.

node_name_value

The explicit value used for the node name for all requests the agent makes to the master. WARNING: This setting is mutually exclusive with node_name_fact. Changing this setting also requires changes to the default auth.conf configuration on the Puppet Master. Please see http://links.puppet.com/node_name_value for more information.

• Default: $certname

node_terminus

Which node data plugin to use when compiling node catalogs.

When Puppet compiles a catalog, it combines two primary sources of info: the main manifest, and a node data plugin (often called a “node terminus,” for historical reasons). Node data plugins provide three things for a given node name:

1. A list of classes to add to that node’s catalog (and, optionally, values for their parameters).
2. Which Puppet environment the node should use.
3. A list of additional top-scope variables to set.

The three main node data plugins are:

• plain — Returns no data, so that the main manifest controls all node configuration.
• exec — Uses an external node classifier (ENC), configured by the external_nodes setting. This lets you pull a list of Puppet classes from any external system, using a small glue script to perform the request and format the result as YAML.

• classifier (formerly console) — Specific to Puppet Enterprise. Uses the PE console for node data.”

• Default: plain

noop

Whether to apply catalogs in noop mode, which allows Puppet to partially simulate a normal run. This setting affects puppet agent and puppet apply.

When running in noop mode, Puppet will check whether each resource is in sync, like it does when running normally. However, if a resource attribute is not in the desired state (as declared in the catalog), Puppet will take no action, and will instead report the changes it would have made. These simulated changes will appear in the report sent to the puppet master, or be shown on the console if running puppet agent or puppet apply in the foreground. The simulated changes will not send refresh events to any subscribing or notified resources, although Puppet will log that a refresh event would have been sent.

Important note: The noop metaparameter allows you to apply individual resources in noop mode, and will override the global value of the noop setting. This means a resource with noop => false will be changed if necessary, even when running puppet agent with noop = true or --noop. (Conversely, a resource with noop => true will only be simulated, even when noop mode is globally disabled.)

• Default: false

onetime

Perform one configuration run and exit, rather than spawning a long-running daemon. This is useful for interactively running puppet agent, or running puppet agent from cron.

• Default: false

ordering

How unrelated resources should be ordered when applying a catalog. Allowed values are title-hash, manifest, and random. This setting affects puppet agent and puppet apply, but not puppet master.

• manifest (the default) will use the order in which the resources were declared in their manifest files.
• title-hash (the default in 3.x) will order resources randomly, but will use the same order across runs and across nodes. It is only of value if you’re migrating from 3.x and have errors running with manifest.
• random will order resources randomly and change their order with each run. This can work like a fuzzer for shaking out undeclared dependencies.

Regardless of this setting’s value, Puppet will always obey explicit dependencies set with the before/require/notify/subscribe metaparameters and the ->/~> chaining arrows; this setting only affects the relative ordering of unrelated resources.

This setting is deprecated, and will always have a value of manifest in 6.0 and up.

• Default: manifest

passfile

Where puppet agent stores the password for its private key. Generally unused.

• Default: $privatedir/password

path

The shell search path. Defaults to whatever is inherited from the parent process.

This setting can only be set in the [main] section of puppet.conf; it cannot be set in [master], [agent], or an environment config section.

• Default: none

pidfile

The file containing the PID of a running process. This file is intended to be used by service management frameworks and monitoring systems to determine if a puppet process is still in the process table.

• Default: $rundir/${run_mode}.pid

plugindest

Where Puppet should store plugins that it pulls down from the central server.

• Default: $libdir

pluginfactdest

Where Puppet should store external facts that are being handled by pluginsync

• Default: $vardir/facts.d

pluginfactsource

Where to retrieve external facts for pluginsync

• Default: puppet:///pluginfacts

pluginsignore

What files to ignore when pulling down plugins.

• Default: .svn CVS .git .hg

pluginsource

From where to retrieve plugins. The standard Puppet file type is used for retrieval, so anything that is a valid file source can be used here.

• Default: puppet:///plugins

pluginsync

Whether plugins should be synced with the central server. This setting is deprecated.

• Default: true

postrun_command

A command to run after every agent run. If this command returns a non-zero return code, the entire Puppet run will be considered to have failed, even though it might have performed work during the normal run.

preferred_serialization_format

The preferred means of serializing ruby instances for passing over the wire. This won’t guarantee that all instances will be serialized using this method, since not all classes can be guaranteed to support this format, but it will be used for all classes that support it.

• Default: json

prerun_command

A command to run before every agent run. If this command returns a non-zero return code, the entire Puppet run will fail.

preview_outputdir

The directory where catalog previews per node are generated.

• Default: $vardir/preview

priority

The scheduling priority of the process. Valid values are ‘high’, ‘normal’, ‘low’, or ‘idle’, which are mapped to platform-specific values. The priority can also be specified as an integer value and will be passed as is, e.g. -5. Puppet must be running as a privileged user in order to increase scheduling priority.

• Default:

privatedir

Where the client stores private certificate information.

• Default: $ssldir/private

privatekeydir

The private key directory.

• Default: $ssldir/private_keys

profile

Whether to enable experimental performance profiling

• Default: false

publickeydir

The public key directory.

• Default: $ssldir/public_keys

puppetdlog

The fallback log file. This is only used when the --logdest option is not specified AND Puppet is running on an operating system where both the POSIX syslog service and the Windows Event Log are unavailable. (Currently, no supported operating systems match that description.)

Despite the name, both puppet agent and puppet master will use this file as the fallback logging destination.

For control over logging destinations, see the --logdest command line option in the manual pages for puppet master, puppet agent, and puppet apply. You can see man pages by running puppet <SUBCOMMAND> --help, or read them online at https://puppet.com/docs/puppet/latest/man/.

• Default: $logdir/puppetd.log

report

Whether to send reports after every transaction.

• Default: true

report_port

The port to communicate with the report_server.

• Default: $masterport

report_server

The server to send transaction reports to.

• Default: $server

reportdir

The directory in which to store reports. Each node gets a separate subdirectory in this directory. This setting is only used when the store report processor is enabled (see the reports setting).

• Default: $vardir/reports

reports

The list of report handlers to use. When using multiple report handlers, their names should be comma-separated, with whitespace allowed. (For example, reports = http, store.)

This setting is relevant to puppet master and puppet apply. The puppet master will call these report handlers with the reports it receives from agent nodes, and puppet apply will call them with its own report. (In all cases, the node applying the catalog must have report = true.)

See the report reference for information on the built-in report handlers; custom report handlers can also be loaded from modules. (Report handlers are loaded from the lib directory, at puppet/reports/NAME.rb.)

• Default: store

reporturl

The URL that reports should be forwarded to. This setting is only used when the http report processor is enabled (see the reports setting).

• Default: http://localhost:3000/reports/upload

requestdir

Where host certificate requests are stored.

• Default: $ssldir/certificate_requests

resourcefile

The file in which puppet agent stores a list of the resources associated with the retrieved configuration.

• Default: $statedir/resources.txt

rest_authconfig

The configuration file that defines the rights to the different rest indirections. This can be used as a fine-grained authorization system for puppet master. The puppet master command is deprecated and Puppet Server uses its own auth.conf that must be placed within its configuration directory.

• Default: $confdir/auth.conf

rich_data

Enables having extended data in the catalog by storing them as a hash with the special key __pcore_type__. When enabled, resource containing values of the data types Binary, Regexp, SemVer, SemVerRange, Timespan and Timestamp, as well as instances of types derived from Object retain their data type.

• Default: false

route_file

The YAML file containing indirector route configuration.

• Default: $confdir/routes.yaml

rundir

Where Puppet PID files are kept.

• Default: Unix/Linux: /var/run/puppetlabs – Windows: C:\ProgramData\PuppetLabs\puppet\var\run – Non-root user: ~/.puppetlabs/var/run

runinterval

How often puppet agent applies the catalog. Note that a runinterval of 0 means “run continuously” rather than “never run.” This setting can be a time interval in seconds (30 or 30s), minutes (30m), hours (6h), days (2d), or years (5y).

• Default: 30m

runtimeout

The maximum amount of time an agent run is allowed to take. A Puppet agent run that exceeds this timeout will be aborted. Defaults to 0, which is unlimited. This setting can be a time interval in seconds (30 or 30s), minutes (30m), hours (6h), days (2d), or years (5y).

• Default: 0

serial

Where the serial number for certificates is stored.

• Default: $cadir/serial

server

The puppet master server to which the puppet agent should connect.

• Default: puppet

server_datadir

The directory in which serialized data is stored, usually in a subdirectory.

• Default: $vardir/server_data

server_list

The list of puppet master servers to which the puppet agent should connect, in the order that they will be tried.

• Default: []

show_diff

Whether to log and report a contextual diff when files are being replaced. This causes partial file contents to pass through Puppet’s normal logging and reporting system, so this setting should be used with caution if you are sending Puppet’s reports to an insecure destination. This feature currently requires the diff/lcs Ruby library.

• Default: false

signeddir

Where the CA stores signed certificates.

• Default: $cadir/signed

skip_tags

Tags to use to filter resources. If this is set, then only resources not tagged with the specified tags will be applied. Values must be comma-separated.

sourceaddress

The address the agent should use to initiate requests.

• Default:

splay

Whether to sleep for a random amount of time, ranging from immediately up to its $splaylimit, before performing its first agent run after a service restart. After this period, the agent runs periodically on its $runinterval.

For example, assume a default 30-minute $runinterval, splay set to its default of false, and an agent starting at :00 past the hour. The agent would check in every 30 minutes at :01 and :31 past the hour.

With splay enabled, it waits any amount of time up to its $splaylimit before its first run. For example, it might randomly wait 8 minutes, then start its first run at :08 past the hour. With the $runinterval at its default 30 minutes, its next run will be at :38 past the hour.

If you restart an agent’s puppet service with splay enabled, it recalculates its splay period and delays its first agent run after restarting for this new period. If you simultaneously restart a group of puppet agents with splay enabled, their checkins to your puppet masters can be distributed more evenly.

• Default: false

splaylimit

The maximum time to delay before an agent’s first run when splay is enabled. Defaults to the agent’s $runinterval. The splay interval is random and recalculated each time the agent is started or restarted. This setting can be a time interval in seconds (30 or 30s), minutes (30m), hours (6h), days (2d), or years (5y).

• Default: $runinterval

srv_domain

The domain which will be queried to find the SRV records of servers to use.

• Default:

ssl_client_ca_auth

Certificate authorities who issue server certificates. SSL servers will not be considered authentic unless they possess a certificate issued by an authority listed in this file. If this setting has no value then the Puppet master’s CA certificate (localcacert) will be used.

• Default:

ssl_client_header

The header containing an authenticated client’s SSL DN. This header must be set by the proxy to the authenticated client’s SSL DN (e.g., /CN=puppet.puppetlabs.com). Puppet will parse out the Common Name (CN) from the Distinguished Name (DN) and use the value of the CN field for authorization.

Note that the name of the HTTP header gets munged by the web server common gateway interface: an HTTP_ prefix is added, dashes are converted to underscores, and all letters are uppercased. Thus, to use the X-Client-DN header, this setting should be HTTP_X_CLIENT_DN.

• Default: HTTP_X_CLIENT_DN

ssl_client_verify_header

The header containing the status message of the client verification. This header must be set by the proxy to ‘SUCCESS’ if the client successfully authenticated, and anything else otherwise.

Note that the name of the HTTP header gets munged by the web server common gateway interface: an HTTP_ prefix is added, dashes are converted to underscores, and all letters are uppercased. Thus, to use the X-Client-Verify header, this setting should be HTTP_X_CLIENT_VERIFY.

• Default: HTTP_X_CLIENT_VERIFY

ssl_server_ca_auth

Certificate authorities who issue client certificates. SSL clients will not be considered authentic unless they possess a certificate issued by an authority listed in this file. If this setting has no value then the Puppet master’s CA certificate (localcacert) will be used.

• Default:

ssldir

Where SSL certificates are kept.

• Default: $confdir/ssl

statedir

The directory where Puppet state is stored. Generally, this directory can be removed without causing harm (although it might result in spurious service restarts).

• Default: $vardir/state

statefile

Where puppet agent and puppet master store state associated with the running configuration. In the case of puppet master, this file reflects the state discovered through interacting with clients.

• Default: $statedir/state.yaml

statettl

How long the Puppet agent should cache when a resource was last checked or synced. This setting can be a time interval in seconds (30 or 30s), minutes (30m), hours (6h), days (2d), or years (5y). A value of 0 or unlimited will disable cache pruning.

This setting affects the usage of schedule resources, as the information about when a resource was last checked (and therefore when it needs to be checked again) is stored in the statefile. The statettl needs to be large enough to ensure that a resource will not trigger multiple times during a schedule due to its entry expiring from the cache.

• Default: 32d

static_catalogs

Whether to compile a static catalog, which occurs only on a Puppet Server master when the code-id-command and code-content-command settings are configured in its puppetserver.conf file.

• Default: true

storeconfigs

Whether to store each client’s configuration, including catalogs, facts, and related data. This also enables the import and export of resources in the Puppet language - a mechanism for exchange resources between nodes.

By default this uses the ‘puppetdb’ backend.

You can adjust the backend using the storeconfigs_backend setting.

• Default: false

storeconfigs_backend

Configure the backend terminus used for StoreConfigs. By default, this uses the PuppetDB store, which must be installed and configured before turning on StoreConfigs.

• Default: puppetdb

strict

The strictness level of puppet. Allowed values are:

• off - do not perform extra validation, do not report
• warning - perform extra validation, report as warning (default)
• error - perform extra validation, fail with error

The strictness level is for both language semantics and runtime evaluation validation. In addition to controlling the behavior with this master switch some individual warnings may also be controlled by the disable_warnings setting.

No new validations will be added to a micro (x.y.z) release, but may be added in minor releases (x.y.0). In major releases it expected that most (if not all) strictness validation become standard behavior.

• Default: warning

strict_environment_mode

Whether the agent specified environment should be considered authoritative, causing the run to fail if the retrieved catalog does not match it.

• Default: false

strict_hostname_checking

Whether to only search for the complete hostname as it is in the certificate when searching for node information in the catalogs.

• Default: false

strict_variables

Causes an evaluation error when referencing unknown variables. (This does not affect referencing variables that are explicitly set to undef).

• Default: false

summarize

Whether to print a transaction summary.

• Default: false

supported_checksum_types

Checksum types supported by this agent for use in file resources of a static catalog. Values must be comma-separated. Valid types are md5, md5lite, sha256, sha256lite, sha384, sha512, sha224, sha1, sha1lite, mtime, ctime. Default is md5, sha256, sha384, sha512, sha224.

• Default: [“md5”, “sha256”, “sha384”, “sha512”, “sha224”]

syslogfacility

What syslog facility to use when logging to syslog. Syslog has a fixed list of valid facilities, and you must choose one of those; you cannot just make one up.

• Default: daemon

tags

Tags to use to find resources. If this is set, then only resources tagged with the specified tags will be applied. Values must be comma-separated.

tasks

Turns on experimental support for tasks and plans in the puppet language. This is for internal API use only. Do not change this setting.

• Default: false

trace

Whether to print stack traces on some errors

• Default: false

transactionstorefile

Transactional storage file for persisting data between transactions for the purposes of infering information (such as corrective_change) on new data received.

• Default: $statedir/transactionstore.yaml

trusted_oid_mapping_file

File that provides mapping between custom SSL oids and user-friendly names

• Default: $confdir/custom_trusted_oid_mapping.yaml

trusted_server_facts

The ‘trusted_server_facts’ setting is deprecated and has no effect as the feature this enabled is now always on. The setting will be removed in a future version of puppet.

• Default: true

use_cached_catalog

Whether to only use the cached catalog rather than compiling a new catalog on every run. Puppet can be run with this enabled by default and then selectively disabled when a recompile is desired. Because a Puppet agent using cached catalogs does not contact the master for a new catalog, it also does not upload facts at the beginning of the Puppet run.

• Default: false

use_srv_records

Whether the server will search for SRV records in DNS for the current domain.

• Default: false

usecacheonfailure

Whether to use the cached configuration when the remote configuration will not compile. This option is useful for testing new configurations, where you want to fix the broken configuration rather than reverting to a known-good one.

• Default: true

user

The user Puppet Server will run as. Used to ensure the agent side processes (agent, apply, etc) create files and directories readable by Puppet Server when necessary.

• Default: puppet

vardir

Where Puppet stores dynamic and growing data. The default for this setting is calculated specially, like confdir_.

• Default: Unix/Linux: /opt/puppetlabs/puppet/cache – Windows: C:\ProgramData\PuppetLabs\puppet\cache – Non-root user: ~/.puppetlabs/opt/puppet/cache

waitforcert

How frequently puppet agent should ask for a signed certificate.

When starting for the first time, puppet agent will submit a certificate signing request (CSR) to the server named in the ca_server setting (usually the puppet master); this may be autosigned, or may need to be approved by a human, depending on the CA server’s configuration.

Puppet agent cannot apply configurations until its approved certificate is available. Since the certificate may or may not be available immediately, puppet agent will repeatedly try to fetch it at this interval. You can turn off waiting for certificates by specifying a time of 0, in which case puppet agent will exit if it cannot get a cert. This setting can be a time interval in seconds (30 or 30s), minutes (30m), hours (6h), days (2d), or years (5y).

• Default: 2m

yamldir

The directory in which YAML data is stored, usually in a subdirectory.

• Default: $vardir/yaml