File location changes since Puppet 3.8.x

In Puppet 4.0, we changed the locations of a lot of important config files and directories. We also changed Puppet’s packaging to install different things in different places.

This page is a summary, to quickly orient users arriving from Puppet 3.

For details, we’ve written a specification of the directories used by all of Puppet’s tools.

New all-in-one puppet-agent package

On managed *nix systems, install puppet-agent instead of puppet. (This package also provides puppet apply, suitable for standalone Puppet systems.)

This is a new name for a new thing. Instead of using package dependencies to bring in tools like Facter, Hiera, and Ruby, it includes private versions of all of them. It also includes MCollective.

On Windows, use the same package as before. The open source package now includes MCollective.

*nix executables are in /opt/puppetlabs/bin/

On *nix platforms, the main executables moved to /opt/puppetlabs/bin. This means Puppet and related tools aren’t included in your PATH by default. You’ll need to either:

• Add /opt/puppetlabs/bin to your PATH
• Symlink Puppet’s tools to somewhere else in your PATH
• Use the full path (like /opt/puppetlabs/bin/puppet apply when running Puppet commands

On Windows, executables stayed in the same location, and the MSI package still adds Puppet’s tools to the PATH.

Private bin directories

The executables in /opt/puppetlabs/bin are just the “public” applications that make up Puppet. Private supporting commands like ruby and gem are in /opt/puppetlabs/puppet/bin, to keep them from accidentally overriding system tools if you add the public bin dir to your PATH.

*nix confdir is now /etc/puppetlabs/puppet

Puppet’s system confdir (used by root and the puppet user) is now /etc/puppetlabs/puppet, instead of /etc/puppet. Open source Puppet 4.0 and newer use the same confdir as Puppet Enterprise.

The confdir is the directory that holds config files like puppet.conf and auth.conf.

On Windows, this stayed the same. It’s still in the COMMON_APPDATA folder, defaulting to C:\ProgramData\PuppetLabs\puppet\etc on modern Windows versions.

ssldir is inside confdir

On some Linux distros, our default config in Puppet 3.x set Puppet’s ssldir as $vardir/ssl instead of $confdir/ssl. Since Puppet 4.x, the default location is in the confdir on all platforms.

Other configurations in /etc/puppetlabs

Other related configurations were also moved into the /etc/puppetlabs directory in Puppet 4.0. Puppet Server now uses /etc/puppetlabs/puppetserver, and MCollective uses /etc/puppetlabs/mcollective.

New codedir holds all modules, manifests, and data

All of the content that Puppet uses to configure nodes was moved into a new directory, named codedir. In Puppet 3.x, this content was in the confdir.

The default codedir location is:

• /etc/puppetlabs/code on *nix
• C:\ProgramData\PuppetLabs\code on Windows
• <USER DIRECTORY>/.puppetlabs/etc/code if you’re running as a non-root user

The main contents of the codedir are:

• The environments directory.
• The global modules directory. Use this location only for modules you want deployed in all environments.
• The hiera.yaml config file.

Directory environments are always enabled

Since Puppet 4.0, directory environments are always enabled.

The default environmentpath is $codedir/environments. Upon installation, Puppet creates a directory for the default production environment.

If you’re starting from scratch:

• Put modules in $codedir/environments/production/modules.
• Put your main manifest in $codedir/environments/production/manifests.

You can still put global modules in $codedir/modules, and can configure a global main manifest with the default_manifest setting.

Hiera data goes in environments by default

Hiera’s default settings now use an environment-specific datadir for the YAML and JSON backends. For example, the production environment’s default Hiera data directory would be /etc/puppetlabs/code/environments/production/hieradata.

Some other directories have moved

• The system vardir for puppet agent has moved, and is now separate from Puppet Server’s vardir.
  • On *nix: /opt/puppetlabs/puppet/cache
  • On Windows: C:\ProgramData\PuppetLabs\puppet\cache
• The rundir, where the service PID files go, has moved:
  • On *nix: /var/run/puppetlabs. (Puppet Server has a puppetserver directory in this directory.)
  • On Windows: C:\ProgramData\PuppetLabs\puppet\var\run — this is the same as before, but it’s now outside the main vardir.