vcsrepo

Table of contents

  1. Overview

  2. Module Description - What the module does and why it is useful

  3. Setup - The basics of getting started with vcsrepo

  4. Usage - Configuration options and additional functionality

  5. Reference - An under-the-hood peek at what the module is doing and how

  6. Limitations - OS compatibility, etc.

  7. Development - Guide for contributing to the module

Overview

The vcsrepo module lets you use Puppet to easily deploy content from your version control system (VCS).

Module description

The vcsrepo module provides a single type with providers to support the following version control systems:

Note: git is the only vcs provider officially supported by Puppet Inc.

Setup

Setup requirements

The vcsrepo module does not install any VCS software for you. You must install a VCS before you can use this module.

Like Puppet in general, the vcsrepo module does not automatically create parent directories for the files it manages. Set up any needed directory structures before you start.

Beginning with vcsrepo

To create and manage a blank repository, define the type vcsrepo with a path to your repository and supply the provider parameter based on the VCS you’re using.

<s>~ puppet vcsrepo { '/path/to/repo': ensure => present, provider => git, } </s>~

Usage

Note: git is the only vcsrepo provider officially supported by Puppet Inc.

Git

Create a blank repository

To create a blank repository suitable for use as a central repository, define vcsrepo without source or revision:

<s>~ puppet vcsrepo { '/path/to/repo': ensure => present, provider => git, } </s>~

If you're managing a central or official repository, you might want to make it a bare repository. To do this, set ensure to 'bare':

<s>~ puppet vcsrepo { '/path/to/repo': ensure => bare, provider => git, } </s>~

Clone/pull a repository

<s>~ puppet vcsrepo { '/path/to/repo': ensure => present, provider => git, source => 'git://example.com/repo.git', } </s>~

To clone your repository as bare or mirror, you can set ensure to 'bare' or 'mirror':

<s>~ puppet vcsrepo { '/path/to/repo': ensure => mirror, provider => git, source => 'git://example.com/repo.git', } </s>~

By default, vcsrepo will use the HEAD of the source repository's master branch. To use another branch or a specific commit, set revision to either a branch name or a commit SHA or tag.

Branch name:

<s>~ puppet vcsrepo { '/path/to/repo': ensure => present, provider => git, source => 'git://example.com/repo.git', revision => 'development', } </s>~

SHA:

<s>~ puppet vcsrepo { '/path/to/repo': ensure => present, provider => git, source => 'git://example.com/repo.git', revision => '0c466b8a5a45f6cd7de82c08df2fb4ce1e920a31', } </s>~

Tag:

<s>~ puppet vcsrepo { '/path/to/repo': ensure => present, provider => git, source => 'git://example.com/repo.git', revision => '1.1.2rc1', } </s>~

To check out a branch as a specific user, supply the user parameter:

<s>~ puppet vcsrepo { '/path/to/repo': ensure => present, provider => git, source => 'git://example.com/repo.git', revision => '0c466b8a5a45f6cd7de82c08df2fb4ce1e920a31', user => 'someUser', } </s>~

To keep the repository at the latest revision, set ensure to 'latest'.

WARNING: This overwrites any local changes to the repository.

<s>~ puppet vcsrepo { '/path/to/repo': ensure => latest, provider => git, source => 'git://example.com/repo.git', revision => 'master', } </s>~

To clone the repository but skip initializing submodules, set submodules to 'false':

<s>~ puppet vcsrepo { '/path/to/repo': ensure => latest, provider => git, source => 'git://example.com/repo.git', submodules => false, } </s>~

To clone the repository and trust the server certificate (sslVerify=false), set trust_server_cert to 'true':

<s>~ puppet vcsrepo { '/path/to/repo': ensure => present, provider => git, source => 'git://example.com/repo.git', trust_server_cert => true, } </s>~

Use multiple remotes with a repository

In place of a single string, you can set source to a hash of one or more name => URL pairs:

<s>~ puppet vcsrepo { '/path/to/repo': ensure => present, provider => git, remote => 'origin' source => { 'origin' => 'github.com/puppetlabs/puppetlabs-vcsrepo.git', 'other_remote' => 'github.com/other_user/puppetlabs-vcsrepo.git' }, } </s>~

Note: If you set source to a hash, one of the names you specify must match the value of the remote parameter. That remote serves as the upstream of your managed repository.

Connect via SSH

To connect to your source repository via SSH (such as 'username@server:…'), we recommend managing your SSH keys with Puppet and using the require metaparameter to make sure they are present before the vcsrepo resource is applied.

To use SSH keys associated with a user, specify the username in the user parameter:

<s>~ puppet vcsrepo { '/path/to/repo': ensure => latest, provider => git, source => 'ssh://username@example.com/repo.git', user => 'toto', #uses toto's $HOME/.ssh setup require => File, } </s>~

To use SSH over a nonstandard port, use the full SSH scheme and include the port number:

<s>~ puppet vcsrepo { '/path/to/repo': ensure => latest, provider => git, source => 'ssh://username@example.com:7999/repo.git', } </s>~

Bazaar

Create a blank repository

To create a blank repository, suitable for use as a central repository, define vcsrepo without source or revision:

<s>~ puppet vcsrepo { '/path/to/repo': ensure => present, provider => bzr, } </s>~

Branch from an existing repository

<s>~ puppet vcsrepo { '/path/to/repo': ensure => present, provider => bzr, source => '/some/path', } </s>~

To branch from a specific revision, set revision to a valid Bazaar revision spec:

<s>~ puppet vcsrepo { '/path/to/repo': ensure => present, provider => bzr, source => '/some/path', revision => 'menesis@pov.lt-20100309191856-4wmfqzc803fj300x', } </s>~

Connect via SSH

To connect to your source repository via SSH (such as 'bzr+ssh://...' or 'sftp://...,'), we recommend using the require metaparameter to make sure your SSH keys are present before the vcsrepo resource is applied:

<s>~ puppet vcsrepo { '/path/to/repo': ensure => latest, provider => bzr, source => 'bzr+ssh://bzr.example.com/some/path', user => 'toto', #uses toto's $HOME/.ssh setup require => File, } </s>~

CVS

Create a blank repository

To create a blank repository suitable for use as a central repository, define vcsrepo without source or revision:

<s>~ puppet vcsrepo { '/path/to/repo': ensure => present, provider => cvs, } </s>~

Checkout/update from a repository

<s>~ puppet vcsrepo { '/path/to/workspace': ensure => present, provider => cvs, source => ':pserver:anonymous@example.com:/sources/myproj', } </s>~

To get a specific module on the current mainline, supply the module parameter:

<s>~ puppet vcsrepo { '/vagrant/lockss-daemon-source': ensure => present, provider => cvs, source => ':pserver:anonymous@lockss.cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/lockss', module => 'lockss-daemon', } </s>~

To set the GZIP compression levels for your repository history, use the compression parameter:

<s>~ puppet vcsrepo { '/path/to/workspace': ensure => present, provider => cvs, compression => 3, source => ':pserver:anonymous@example.com:/sources/myproj', } </s>~

To get a specific revision, set revision to the revision number.

<s>~ puppet vcsrepo { '/path/to/workspace': ensure => present, provider => cvs, compression => 3, source => ':pserver:anonymous@example.com:/sources/myproj', revision => '1.2', } </s>~

You can also set revision to a tag:

<s>~ puppet vcsrepo { '/path/to/workspace': ensure => present, provider => cvs, compression => 3, source => ':pserver:anonymous@example.com:/sources/myproj', revision => 'SOMETAG', } </s>~

Connect via SSH

To connect to your source repository via SSH, we recommend using the require metaparameter to make sure your SSH keys are present before the vcsrepo resource is applied:

<s>~ puppet vcsrepo { '/path/to/repo': ensure => latest, provider => cvs, source => ':pserver:anonymous@example.com:/sources/myproj', user => 'toto', #uses toto's $HOME/.ssh setup require => File, } </s>~

Mercurial

Create a blank repository

To create a blank repository suitable for use as a central repository, define vcsrepo without source or revision:

<s>~ puppet vcsrepo { '/path/to/repo': ensure => present, provider => hg, } </s>~

Clone/pull and update a repository

To get the default branch tip:

<s>~ puppet vcsrepo { '/path/to/repo': ensure => present, provider => hg, source => 'hg.example.com/myrepo', } </s>~

For a specific changeset, use revision:

<s>~ puppet vcsrepo { '/path/to/repo': ensure => present, provider => hg, source => 'hg.example.com/myrepo', revision => '21ea4598c962', } </s>~

You can also set revision to a tag:

<s>~ puppet vcsrepo { '/path/to/repo': ensure => present, provider => hg, source => 'hg.example.com/myrepo', revision => '1.1.2', } </s>~

To check out as a specific user:

<s>~ puppet vcsrepo { '/path/to/repo': ensure => present, provider => hg, source => 'hg.example.com/myrepo', user => 'user', } </s>~

To specify an SSH identity key:

<s>~ puppet vcsrepo { '/path/to/repo': ensure => present, provider => hg, source => 'ssh://hg@hg.example.com/myrepo', identity => '/home/user/.ssh/id_dsa1', } </s>~

To specify a username and password for HTTP Basic authentication:

<s>~ puppet vcsrepo { '/path/to/repo': ensure => latest, provider => hg, source => 'hg.example.com/myrepo', basic_auth_username => 'hgusername', basic_auth_password => 'hgpassword', } </s>~

Connect via SSH

To connect to your source repository via SSH (such as 'ssh://...'), we recommend using the require metaparameter to make sure your SSH keys are present before the vcsrepo resource is applied:

<s>~ puppet vcsrepo { '/path/to/repo': ensure => latest, provider => hg, source => 'ssh://hg.example.com//path/to/myrepo', user => 'toto', #uses toto's $HOME/.ssh setup require => File, } </s>~

Perforce

Create an empty workspace

To set up the connection to your Perforce service, set p4config to the location of a valid Perforce config file stored on the node:

<s>~ puppet vcsrepo { '/path/to/repo': ensure => present, provider => p4, p4config => '/root/.p4config' } </s>~

Note: If you don't include the P4CLIENT setting in your config file, the provider generates a workspace name based on the digest of path and the node's hostname (such as puppet-91bc00640c4e5a17787286acbe2c021c).

Create/update and sync a Perforce workspace

To sync a depot path to head, set ensure to 'latest':

<s>~ puppet vcsrepo { '/path/to/repo': ensure => latest, provider => p4, source => '//depot/branch/…' } </s>~

To sync to a specific changelist, specify its revision number with the revision parameter:

<s>~ puppet vcsrepo { '/path/to/repo': ensure => present, provider => p4, source => '//depot/branch/…', revision => '2341' } </s>~

You can also set revision to a label:

<s>~ puppet vcsrepo { '/path/to/repo': ensure => present, provider => p4, source => '//depot/branch/…', revision => 'my_label' } </s>~

Subversion

Create a blank repository

<s>~ puppet vcsrepo { '/path/to/repo': ensure => present, provider => svn, } </s>~

Check out from an existing repository

Provide a source pointing to the branch or tag you want to check out:

<s>~ puppet vcsrepo { '/path/to/repo': ensure => present, provider => svn, source => 'svn://svnrepo/hello/branches/foo', } </s>~

You can also designate a specific revision:

<s>~ puppet vcsrepo { '/path/to/repo': ensure => present, provider => svn, source => 'svn://svnrepo/hello/branches/foo', revision => '1234', } </s>~

Checking out only specific paths

Note: The includes param is only supported when subversion client version is >= 1.6.

You can check out only specific paths in a particular repository by providing their relative paths to the includes parameter, like so:

<s>~ vcsrepo { '/path/to/repo': ensure => present, provider => svn, source => 'svnrepo/hello/trunk', includes => [ 'root-file.txt', 'checkout-folder', 'file/this-file.txt', 'folder/this-folder/', ] } </s>~

This will create files /path/to/repo/file-at-root-path.txt and /path/to/repo/file/nested/within/repo.jmx, with folders /path/to/repo/some-folder and /path/to/repo/nested/folder/to/checkout completely recreating their corresponding working tree path.

When specified, the depth parameter will also be applied to the includes – the root directory will be checked out using an empty depth, and the includes you specify will be checked out using the depth you provide.

To illustrate this point, using the above snippet (with the specified includes) and a remote repository layout like this:

<s>~ . ├── checkout-folder │ ├── file1 │ └── nested-1 │ ├── nested-2 │ │ └── nested-file-2 │ └── nested-file-1 ├── file │ ├── NOT-this-file.txt │ └── this-file.txt ├── folder │ ├── never-checked-out │ └── this-folder │ ├── deep-nested-1 │ │ ├── deep-nested-2 │ │ │ └── deep-nested-file-2 │ │ └── deep-nested-file-1 │ └── this-file.txt ├── NOT-this-file.txt ├── NOT-this-folder │ ├── NOT-this-file.txt │ └── NOT-this-one-either.txt └── root-file.txt </s>~

With no depth given, your local folder /path/to/repo will look like this:

<s>~ . ├── checkout-folder │ ├── file1 │ └── nested-1 │ ├── nested-2 │ │ └── nested-file-2 │ └── nested-file-1 ├── file │ └── this-file.txt ├── folder │ └── this-folder │ ├── deep-nested-1 │ │ ├── deep-nested-2 │ │ │ └── deep-nested-file-2 │ │ └── deep-nested-file-1 │ └── this-file.txt └── root-file.txt </s>~

And with a depth of files will look like this:

<s>~ . ├── checkout-folder │ └── file1 ├── file │ └── this-file.txt ├── folder │ └── this-folder │ └── this-file.txt └── root-file.txt </s>~

Use a specific Subversion configuration directory

Use the configuration parameter to designate the directory that contains your Subversion configuration files (typically, '/path/to/.subversion'):

<s>~ puppet vcsrepo { '/path/to/repo': ensure => present, provider => svn, source => 'svn://svnrepo/hello/branches/foo', configuration => '/path/to/.subversion', } </s>~

Connect via SSH

To connect to your source repository via SSH (such as 'svn+ssh://...'), we recommend using the require metaparameter to make sure your SSH keys are present before the vcsrepo resource is applied:

<s>~ puppet vcsrepo { '/path/to/repo': ensure => latest, provider => svn, source => 'svn+ssh://svnrepo/hello/branches/foo', user => 'toto', #uses toto's $HOME/.ssh setup require => File, } </s>~

Reference

Type: vcsrepo

The vcsrepo module adds only one type with several providers.

For information on the classes and types, see the REFERENCE.md

Providers

Note: Not all features are available with all providers.

git - Supports the Git VCS.

Features: bare_repositories, depth, multiple_remotes, reference_tracking, ssh_identity, submodules, user

Parameters: depth, ensure, excludes, force, group, identity, owner, path, provider, remote, revision, source, user

bzr - Supports the Bazaar VCS.

Features: reference_tracking

Parameters: ensure, excludes, force, group, owner, path, provider, revision, source

cvs - Supports the CVS VCS.

Features: cvs_rsh, gzip_compression, modules, reference_tracking, user

Parameters: compression, cvs_rsh, ensure, excludes, force, group, module, owner, path, provider

hg - Supports the Mercurial VCS.

Features: reference_tracking, ssh_identity, user

Parameters: ensure, excludes, force, group, identity, owner, path, provider, revision, source, user

p4 - Supports the Perforce VCS.

Features: p4config, reference_tracking

Parameters: ensure, excludes, force, group, owner, p4config, path, provider, revision, source

svn - Supports the Subversion VCS.

Features: basic_auth, configuration, conflict, depth, filesystem_types, reference_tracking

Parameters: basic_auth_password, basic_auth_username, configuration, conflict, ensure, excludes, force, fstype, group, includes, owner, path, provider, revision, source, trust_server_cert

Features

Note: Not all features are available with all providers.

  • bare_repositories - Differentiates between bare repositories and those with working copies. (Available with git.)

  • basic_auth - Supports HTTP Basic authentication. (Available with hg and svn.)

  • conflict - Lets you decide how to resolve any conflicts between the source repository and your working copy. (Available with svn.)

  • configuration - Lets you specify the location of your configuration files. (Available with svn.)

  • cvs_rsh - Understands the CVS_RSH environment variable. (Available with cvs.)

  • depth - Supports shallow clones in git or sets the scope limit in svn. (Available with git and svn.)

  • filesystem_types - Supports multiple types of filesystem. (Available with svn.)

  • gzip_compression - Supports explicit GZip compression levels. (Available with cvs.)

  • include_paths - Lets you checkout only certain paths. (Available with svn.)

  • modules - Lets you choose a specific repository module. (Available with cvs.)

  • multiple_remotes - Tracks multiple remote repositories. (Available with git.)

  • reference_tracking - Lets you track revision references that can change over time (e.g., some VCS tags and branch names). (Available with all providers)

  • ssh_identity - Lets you specify an SSH identity file. (Available with git and hg.)

  • user - Can run as a different user. (Available with git, hg and cvs.)

  • p4config - Supports setting the P4CONFIG environment. (Available with p4.)

  • submodules - Supports repository submodules which can be optionally initialized. (Available with git.)

Limitations

Git is the only VCS provider officially supported by Puppet Inc. Git with 3.18 changes the maximum enabled TLS protocol version, this breaks some HTTPS functionality on older operating systems. They are Enterprise Linux 5 and OracleLinux 6.

The includes parameter is only supported when SVN client version is >= 1.6.

For an extensive list of supported operating systems, see metadata.json

Development

Puppet Inc. modules on the Puppet Forge are open projects, and community contributions are essential for keeping them great. We can't access the huge number of platforms and myriad of hardware, software, and deployment configurations that Puppet is intended to serve.

We want to keep it as easy as possible to contribute changes so that our modules work in your environment. There are a few guidelines that we need contributors to follow so that we can have a chance of keeping on top of things.

You can read the complete module contribution guide on the Puppet documentation site.