Puppet commands

Puppet’s command line interface (CLI) consists of a single puppet command with many subcommands.

Puppet Server and Puppet’s companion utilities  Facter  and  Hiera , have their own CLI.

Puppet agent

Puppet agent is a core service that manages systems, with the help of a Puppet master. It requests a configuration catalog from a Puppet master server, then ensures that all resources in that catalog are in their desired state.

For more information, see:

Puppet Server

Using Puppet code and various other data sources, Puppet Server compiles configurations for any number of Puppet agents. It provides the same services as the classic Puppet master application, and more.

Puppet Server is a core service and has its own subcommand, puppetserver, which isn’t prefaced by the usual puppet subcommand.

For more information, see:

Classic Rack-based Puppet master

Important: Before Puppet Server was released, most users ran a Rack-based Puppet master using the Apache + Passenger stack. This still works, but it’s deprecated and will be removed in Puppet 5.

Using Puppet modules and various other data sources, a Rack-based Puppet master compiles and serves configuration catalogs for any number of Puppet agents.

CAUTION: It’s possible to run a standalone WEBrick-based Puppet master, however we don’t recommend doing this in production.
For more information, see:

Puppet apply

Puppet apply is a core command that manages systems without contacting a Puppet master server. Using Puppet modules and various other data sources, it compiles its own configuration catalog, and then immediately applies the catalog.

For more information, see:

Puppet cert

Puppet cert is an administrative tool that helps manage Puppet’s built-in certificate authority (CA). It runs on the same server as the master, and you can use it to sign and revoke agent certificates. For more information, see Puppet Cert’s Man Page.

Puppet module

Puppet module is a multi-purpose administrative tool for working with Puppet modules. It can install and upgrade new modules from the Puppet Forge, help generate new modules, and package modules for public release.

For more information, see:

Puppet resource

Puppet resource is an administrative tool that lets you inspect and manipulate resources on a system. It can work with any resource type Puppet knows about. For more information, see Puppet Resource’s Man Page.

Puppet config

Puppet config is an administrative tool that lets you view and change Puppet settings.

For more information, see:

Puppet parser

Puppet parser lets you validate Puppet code to make sure it contains no syntax errors. It can be a useful part of your continuous integration toolchain. For more information, see Puppet Parser’s Man Page.

Puppet help and Puppet man

Puppet help and Puppet man can display online help for Puppet’s other subcommands.

For more information, see:

Full list of subcommands

For a full list of Puppet subcommands, see Puppet’s subcommands.