Ubuntu Manpage: puppet.conf - Puppet configuration reference

Provided by: puppet-agent_8.10.0-2ubuntu1_all

NAME

       puppet.conf - Puppet configuration reference

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 documented here.
However, PE defaults differ from open source defaults for some settings, such as node_terminus,
storeconfigs, always_retry_plugins, disable18n, environment_timeout (when Code Manager is enabled),
and the Puppet Server JRuby max-active-instances setting. To verify PE configuration defaults, check
the puppet.conf or pe-puppet-server.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 ignores any setting that isn't relevant to their function.

See the configuration guide https://puppet.com/docs/puppet/latest/config_about_settings.html 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 request. If true, then
the old certificate must be cleaned using puppetserver ca clean, and the new request signed using
puppetserver ca sign.

• Default: false

allow_pson_serialization
Whether to allow PSON serialization. When unable to serialize to JSON or other formats, Puppet falls back
to PSON. This option affects the configuration management service responses of Puppet Server and the
process by which the agent saves its cached catalog. With a default value of false, this option is useful
in preventing the loss of data because rich data cannot be serialized via PSON.

• 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

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 Server
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 Server 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
puppetserver ca 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
https://puppet.com/docs/puppet/latest/config_file_autosign.html.

• 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:/usr/share/puppet/modules

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_fingerprint
The expected fingerprint of the CA certificate. If specified, the agent will compare the CA certificate
fingerprint that it downloads against this value and reject the CA certificate if the values do not
match. This only applies during the first download of the CA certificate.

• Default: ``

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: $serverport

ca_refresh_interval
How often the Puppet agent refreshes its local CA certificates. By default, CA certificates are refreshed
every 24 hours. If a different interval is specified, the agent refreshes its CA certificates during the
next agent run if the elapsed time since the certificates were last refreshed exceeds the specified
duration.

In general, the interval should be greater than the runinterval value. Setting the ca_refresh_interval
value to 0 or an equal or lesser value than runinterval causes the CA certificates to be refreshed on
every run.

If the agent downloads new CA certs, the agent uses those for subsequent network requests. If the refresh
request fails or if the CA certs are unchanged on the server, then the agent run will continue using the
local CA certs it already has. This setting can be a time interval in seconds (30 or 30s), minutes (30m),
hours (6h), days (2d), or years (5y).

• Default: 1d

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.

• Default: $cadir/ca_crl.pem

cadir
The root directory for the certificate authority.

• Default: /etc/puppet/puppetserver/ca

cakey
The CA private key.

• Default: $cadir/ca_key.pem

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 enabled, Puppet expects the contents of its CRL to be one or more
PEM-encoded CRLs concatenated together. When using a cert bundle, CRLs for all CAs in the chain of trust
must be included in the crl file. The chain should be ordered from least to most authoritative, with the
first CRL listed being for the root of the chain and the last being for the leaf CA.

When certificate_revocation is set to 'true' or 'chain', Puppet ensures that each CA in the chain of
trust has not been revoked by its issuing CA.

When certificate_revocation is set to 'leaf', Puppet verifies certs against the issuing CA's revocation
list, but it does not verify the revocation status of the issuing CA or any CA above it within the chain
of trust.

When certificate_revocation is set to 'false', Puppet disables all certificate revocation checking and
does 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 Server,
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 Puppet Server's auth.conf
https://puppet.com/docs/puppetserver/latest/config_file_auth.html. In most cases, it is also used as the
node's name when matching node definitions
https://puppet.com/docs/puppet/latest/lang_node_definitions.html 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 https://puppet.com/docs/puppet/latest/lang_facts_and_builtin_vars.html 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.

Note: You must set the certname in the main section of the puppet.conf file. Setting it in a
different section causes errors.

Defaults to the node's fully qualified domain name.

• Default: the Host's fully qualified domain name, as determined by Facter

ciphers
The list of ciphersuites for TLS connections initiated by puppet. The default value is chosen to support
TLS 1.0 and up, but can be made more restrictive if needed. The ciphersuites must be specified in OpenSSL
format, not IANA.

• Default:
ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:DHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:DHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA256:AES128-GCM-SHA256:AES256-GCM-SHA384:AES128-SHA256:AES256-SHA256

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.

• 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.

crl_refresh_interval
How often the Puppet agent refreshes its local Certificate Revocation List (CRL). By default, the CRL is
refreshed every 24 hours. If a different interval is specified, the agent refreshes its CRL on the next
Puppet agent run if the elapsed time since the CRL was last refreshed exceeds the specified interval.

In general, the interval should be greater than the runinterval value. Setting the crl_refresh_interval
value to 0 or an equal or lesser value than runinterval causes the CRL to be refreshed on every run.

If the agent downloads a new CRL, the agent will use it for subsequent network requests. If the refresh
request fails or if the CRL is unchanged on the server, then the agent run will continue using the local
CRL it already has.This setting can be a time interval in seconds (30 or 30s), minutes (30m), hours (6h),
days (2d), or years (5y).

• Default: 1d

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 Server; if it does, unwanted certificate
extensions may leak into certificates created with the puppetserver ca 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), "ppPrivCertExt" (1.3.6.1.4.1.34380.1.2), or "ppAuthCertExt"
(1.3.6.1.4.1.34380.1.3) 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. The ppAuthCert arc is
reserved for two pieces of data to embed: pp_authorization (.1) and pp_auth_role (.13). As with
ppRegCertExt, in the YAML file, these can be referred to by their short descriptive name instead of their
full OID.

• 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

deviceconfdir
The root directory of devices' $confdir.

• Default: $confdir/devices

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 sha256, sha384,
sha512, sha224, md5. Default is sha256.

• Default: sha256

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: true

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 creating a certificate for Puppet agent or Puppet Server. 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 regenerate the certificate.
For more information on that process, see the cert regen docs
https://puppet.com/docs/puppet/latest/ssl_regenerate_certificates.html.

To see all the alternate names your servers are using, log into your CA server and run puppetserver ca
list --all, 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 server,
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 primary server. The environment doesn't have to exist on the local filesystem because
the agent fetches it from the primary server. 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
https://puppet.com/docs/puppet/latest/config_file_main.html#config-sections 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 server should cache data it loads from an environment.

A value of 0 will disable caching. This setting can also be set to unlimited, which will cache
environments until the server is restarted or told to refresh the cache. All other values will result in
Puppet server evicting environments that haven't been used within the last environment_timeout seconds.

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 server. We recommend either:

• Setting this to unlimited and explicitly refreshing your Puppet server as part of your code
deployment process.

• Setting this to a number that will keep your most actively used environments cached, but allow
testing environments to fall out of the cache and reduce memory usage. A value of 3 minutes (3m) is a
reasonable value.

Once you set environment_timeout to a non-zero value, you need to tell Puppet server to read new code
from disk using the environment-cache API endpoint after you deploy new code. See the docs for the Puppet
Server administrative API
https://puppet.com/docs/puppetserver/latest/admin-api/v1/environment-cache.html.

• 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

exclude_unchanged_resources
Specifies how unchanged resources are listed in reports. When set to true, resources that have had no
changes after catalog application will not have corresponding unchanged resource status updates listed in
a report.

• Default: true

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 https://puppet.com/docs/puppet/latest/nodes_external.html.

• Default: none

fact_name_length_soft_limit
The soft limit for the length of a fact name.

• Default: 2560

fact_value_length_soft_limit
The soft limit for the length of a fact value.

• Default: 4096

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 puppet.conf) has changed on disk. The default
will change in a future release to be 'unlimited', requiring a reload of the Puppet service to pick up
changes to its internal configuration. Currently we do not accept a value of 'unlimited'. To reparse
files within an environment in Puppet Server please use the environment_cache endpoint

• 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

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
http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnigraffle/ (OS X) or graphviz http://www.graphviz.org/
(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
server 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

hostcert_renewal_interval
How often the Puppet agent renews its client certificate. By default, the client certificate is renewed
30 days before the certificate expires. If a different interval is specified, the agent renews its client
certificate during the next agent run, assuming that the client certificate has expired within the
specified duration.

In general, the hostcert_renewal_interval value should be greater than the runinterval value. Setting the
hostcert_renewal_interval value to 0 disables automatic renewal.

If the agent downloads a new certificate, the agent will use it for subsequent network requests. If the
refresh request fails, the agent run continues to use its existing certificate. This setting can be a
time interval in seconds (30 or 30s), minutes (30m), hours (6h), days (2d), or years (5y).

• Default: 30d

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 their certificate request (CSR) while waiting for the CA to issue their
certificate.

• Default: $requestdir/$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_extra_headers
The list of extra headers that will be sent with http requests to the primary server. The header
definition consists of a name and a value separated by a colon.

• Default: []

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. The proxy will be bypassed if the server's hostname
matches the NO_PROXY environment variable or no_proxy setting. 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 data 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 10 minutes. This setting can be a time
interval in seconds (30 or 30s), minutes (30m), hours (6h), days (2d), or years (5y).

• Default: 10m

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

• Default: Puppet/<version> Ruby/<version> (<architecture>)

ignore_plugin_errors
Whether the puppet run should ignore errors during pluginsync. If the setting is false and there are
errors during pluginsync, then the agent will abort the run and submit a report containing information
about the failed run.

• 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
primary server is restarted.

• Default: false

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

• Default: false

include_legacy_facts
Whether to include legacy facts when requesting a catalog. This option can be set to false if all puppet
manifests, hiera.yaml, and hiera configuration layers no longer access legacy facts, such as $osfamily,
and instead access structured facts, such as $facts['os']['family'].

• Default: false

key_type
The type of private key. Valid values are rsa and ec. Default is rsa.

• Default: rsa

keylength
The bit length of keys.

• Default: 4096

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

• Default: $publicdir/last_run_summary.yaml

lastrunreport
Where Puppet Agent stores the last run report, by default, in yaml format. The format of the report can
be changed by setting the cache key of the report terminus in the routes.yaml
https://puppet.com/docs/puppet/latest/config_file_routes.html file. To avoid mismatches between content
and file extension, this setting needs to be manually updated to reflect the terminus changes.

• 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.

• Default: 389

ldapserver
The LDAP server.

• 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

location_trusted
This will allow sending the name + password and the cookie header to all hosts that puppet may redirect
to. This may or may not introduce a security breach if puppet redirects you to a site to which you'll
send your authentication info and cookies.

• Default: false

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. Multiple destinations can be set using a comma
separated list (eg: /path/file1,console,/path/file2)

• 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. Note: For Windows
agents, the default is false for versions 4.10.13 and greater, versions 5.5.6 and greater, and versions
6.0 and greater.

• Default: true

manifest
The entry-point manifest for the primary server. 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: ``

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

maxwaitforcert
The maximum amount of time the Puppet agent should wait for its certificate request to be signed. A value
of unlimited will cause puppet agent to ask for a signed certificate indefinitely. This setting can be a
time interval in seconds (30 or 30s), minutes (30m), hours (6h), days (2d), or years (5y).

• Default: unlimited

maxwaitforlock
The maximum amount of time the puppet agent should wait for an already running puppet agent to finish
before starting a new one. This is set by default to 1 minute. A value of unlimited will cause puppet
agent to wait indefinitely. This setting can be a time interval in seconds (30 or 30s), minutes (30m),
hours (6h), days (2d), or years (5y).

• Default: 1m

merge_dependency_warnings
Whether to merge class-level dependency failure warnings.

When a class has a failed dependency, every resource in the class generates a notice level message about
the dependency failure, and a warning level message about skipping the resource.

If true, all messages caused by a class dependency failure are merged into one message associated with
the class.

• Default: false

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_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: ``

named_curve
The short name for the EC curve used to generate the EC private key. Valid values must be one of the
curves in OpenSSL::PKey::EC.builtin_curves. Default is prime256v1.

• Default: prime256v1

no_proxy
List of host or domain names that should not go through http_proxy_host. Environment variable no_proxy or
NO_PROXY will override this value. Names can be specified as an FQDN host.example.com, wildcard
*.example.com, dotted domain .example.com, or suffix example.com.

• Default: localhost, 127.0.0.1

node_cache_terminus
How to store cached nodes. Valid values are (none), 'json', 'msgpack', or 'yaml'.

• Default: ``

node_name_fact
The fact name used to determine the node name used for all requests the agent makes to the primary
server. WARNING: This setting is mutually exclusive with node_name_value. Changing this setting also
requires changes to Puppet Server's default auth.conf
https://puppet.com/docs/puppetserver/latest/config_file_auth.html.

node_name_value
The explicit value used for the node name for all requests the agent makes to the primary server.
WARNING: This setting is mutually exclusive with node_name_fact. Changing this setting also requires
changes to Puppet Server's default auth.conf
https://puppet.com/docs/puppetserver/latest/config_file_auth.html.

• 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)
https://puppet.com/docs/puppet/latest/nodes_external.html, 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 primary Puppet server, 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 https://puppet.com/docs/puppet/latest/metaparameter.html#noop
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

number_of_facts_soft_limit
The soft limit for the total number of fact values. This counts the child elements of all facts (e.g. all
items of an array or a hash), not just top level facts.

• Default: 10240

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

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 [server], [agent],
or an environment config section.

• Default: none

payload_soft_limit
The soft limit for the size of the payload.

• Default: 16777216

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

preprocess_deferred
Whether Puppet should call deferred functions before applying the catalog. If set to true, all
prerequisites required for the deferred function must be satisfied before the Puppet run. If set to
false, deferred functions follow Puppet relationships and ordering. In this way, Puppet can install the
prerequisites required for a deferred function and call the deferred function in the same run.

• Default: false

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

publicdir
Where Puppet stores public files.

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

publickeydir
The public key directory.

• Default: $ssldir/public_keys

puppet_trace
Whether to print the Puppet stack trace on some errors. This is a noop if trace is also set.

• Default: false

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 server 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 server, 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_configured_environmentpath
Specifies how environment paths are reported. When the value of versioned_environment_dirs is true,
Puppet applies the readlink function to the environmentpath setting when constructing the environment's
modulepath. The full readlinked path is referred to as the "resolved path," and the configured path
potentially containing symlinks is the "configured path." When reporting where resources come from, users
may choose between the configured and resolved path.

When set to false, the resolved paths are reported instead of the configured paths.

• Default: true

report_include_system_store
Whether the 'http' report processor should include the system certificate store when submitting reports
to HTTPS URLs. If false, then the 'http' processor will only trust HTTPS report servers whose
certificates are issued by the puppet CA or one of its intermediate CAs. If true, the processor will
additionally trust CA certificates in the system's certificate store.

• Default: false

report_port
The port to communicate with the report_server.

• Default: $serverport

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 server and puppet apply. The primary Puppet server 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.)

To turn off reports entirely, set this to none

• Default: none

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

resubmit_facts
Whether to send updated facts after every transaction. By default puppet only submits facts at the
beginning of the transaction before applying a catalog. Since puppet can modify the state of the system,
the value of the facts may change after puppet finishes. Therefore, any facts stored in puppetdb may not
be consistent until the agent next runs, typically in 30 minutes. If this feature is enabled, puppet will
resubmit facts after applying its catalog, ensuring facts for the node stored in puppetdb are current.
However, this will double the fact submission load on puppetdb, so it is disabled by default.

• Default: false

rich_data
Enables having extended data in the catalog by storing them as a hash with the special key __ptype. 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: true

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. A value of 0 disables the timeout. Defaults to 1 hour. This setting can be a time
interval in seconds (30 or 30s), minutes (30m), hours (6h), days (2d), or years (5y).

• Default: 1h

serial
Where the serial number for certificates is stored.

• Default: $cadir/serial

server
The primary Puppet 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 primary Puppet servers to which the Puppet agent should connect, in the order that they will
be tried. Each value should be a fully qualified domain name, followed by an optional ':' and port
number. If a port is omitted, Puppet uses masterport for that host.

• Default: []

serverport
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

settings_catalog
Whether to compile and apply the settings catalog

• Default: true

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_logging_catalog_request_destination
Specifies whether to suppress the notice of which compiler supplied the catalog. A value of true
suppresses the notice.

• Default: false

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 primary servers 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: example.com

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_lockfile
A lock file to indicate that the ssl bootstrap process is currently in progress.

• Default: $ssldir/ssl.lock

ssl_trust_store
A file containing CA certificates in PEM format that puppet should trust when making HTTPS requests. This
only applies to https requests to non-puppet infrastructure, such as retrieving file metadata and content
from https file sources, puppet module tool and the 'http' report processor. This setting is ignored when
making requests to puppet:// URLs such as catalog and report requests.

• 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 Server store state associated with the running configuration. In the case
of Puppet Server, 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
https://puppet.com/docs/puppet/latest/static_catalogs.html#enabling-or-disabling-static-catalogs, which
occurs only on Puppet Server 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

• error - perform extra validation, fail with error (default)

The strictness level is for both language semantics and runtime evaluation validation. In addition to
controlling the behavior with this primary server 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: error

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

• Default: true

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 sha256, sha256lite, sha384, sha512, sha224, sha1, sha1lite, md5,
md5lite, mtime, ctime. Default is sha256, sha384, sha512, sha224, md5.

• Default: ["sha256", "sha384", "sha512", "sha224", "md5"]

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

top_level_facts_soft_limit
The soft limit for the number of top level facts.

• Default: 512

trace
Whether to print stack traces on some errors. Will print internal Ruby stack trace interleaved with
Puppet function frames.

• Default: false

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

• Default: $statedir/transactionstore.yaml

trusted_external_command
The external trusted facts script or directory to use. This setting's value can be set to the path to an
executable command that can produce external trusted facts or to a directory containing those executable
commands. The command(s) must:

• Take the name of a node as a command-line argument.

• Return a JSON hash with the external trusted facts for this node.

• For unknown or invalid nodes, exit with a non-zero exit code.

If the setting points to an executable command, then the external trusted facts will be stored in the
'external' key of the trusted facts hash. Otherwise for each executable file in the directory, the
external trusted facts will be stored in the <basename> key of the trusted['external'] hash. For example,
if the files foo.rb and bar.sh are in the directory, then trusted['external'] will be the hash { 'foo' =>
<foo.rb output>, 'bar' => <bar.sh output> }.

• Default: ``

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

• Default: $confdir/custom_trusted_oid_mapping.yaml

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 primary server for a new catalog, it also does
not upload facts at the beginning of the Puppet run.

• Default: false

use_last_environment
Puppet saves both the initial and converged environment in the last_run_summary file. If they differ, and
this setting is set to true, we will use the last converged environment and skip the node request.

When set to false, we will do the node request and ignore the environment data from the last_run_summary
file.

• Default: true

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

vendormoduledir
The directory containing vendored modules. These modules will be used by all environments like those in
the basemodulepath. The only difference is that modules in the basemodulepath are pluginsynced, while
vendored modules are not

• Default: /usr/share/puppet/vendor_modules

versioned_environment_dirs
Whether or not to look for versioned environment directories, symlinked from
$environmentpath/<environment>. This is an experimental feature and should be used with caution.

• Default: false

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 primary Puppet server); 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, or a maximum amount of
time to wait in the maxwaitforcert setting, 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

waitforlock
How frequently puppet agent should try running when there is an already ongoing puppet agent instance.

This argument is by default disabled (value set to 0). In this case puppet agent will immediately exit if
it cannot run at that moment. When a value other than 0 is set, this can also be used in combination with
the maxwaitforlock argument. This setting can be a time interval in seconds (30 or 30s), minutes (30m),
hours (6h), days (2d), or years (5y).

• Default: 0

write_catalog_summary
Whether to write the classfile and resourcefile after applying the catalog. It is enabled by default,
except when running puppet apply.

• Default: true

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

• Default: $vardir/yaml

Puppet, Inc. November 2024 PUPPET.CONF(5)