1PUPPETD(8) PUPPETD(8)
2puppet agent [-D|--daemonize|--no-daemonize] [-d|--debug]
6 [--detailed-exitcodes] [--disable] [--enable]
10 [-h|--help] [--fqdn <host name>] [-l|--logdest syslog|<file>|console]
11 [-o|--onetime] [--serve <handler>] [-t|--test] [--noop]
12 [--digest <digest>] [--fingerprint] [-V|--version]
13 [-v|--verbose] [-w|--waitforcert <seconds>]
14 This is the main puppet client. Its job is to retrieve the local
17 machine´s configuration from a remote server and apply it. In order to
18 successfully communicate with the remote server, the client must have a
19 certificate signed by a certificate authority that the server trusts;
20 the recommended method for this, at the moment, is to run a certificate
21 authority as part of the puppet server (which is the default). The
22 client will connect and request a signed certificate, and will continue
23 connecting until it receives one.
24 Once the client has a signed certificate, it will retrieve its configu‐
26 ration and apply it.+puppet agent+ does its best to find a compromise
27 between interactive use and daemon use. Run with no arguments and no
28 configuration, it will go into the backgroun, attempt to get a signed
29 certificate, and retrieve and apply its configuration every 30 minutes.
30 Some flags are meant specifically for interactive use -- in particular,
32 +test+, +tags+ or +fingerprint+ are useful. +test+ enables verbose log‐
33 ging, causes the daemon to stay in the foreground, exits if the
34 server´s configuration is invalid (this happens if, for instance,
35 you´ve left a syntax error on the server), and exits after running the
36 configuration once (rather than hanging around as a long-running
37 process).
38 +tags+ allows you to specify what portions of a configuration you want
40 to apply. Puppet elements are tagged with all of the class or defini‐
41 tion names that contain them, and you can use the +tags+ flag to spec‐
42 ify one of these names, causing only configuration elements contained
43 within that class or definition to be applied. This is very useful when
44 you are testing new configurations -- for instance, if you are just
45 starting to manage +ntpd+, you would put all of the new elements into
46 an +ntpd+ class, and call puppet with +--tags ntpd+, which would only
47 apply that small portion of the configuration during your testing,
48 rather than applying the whole thing.
49 +fingerprint+ is a one-time flag. In this mode +puppet agent+ will run
51 once and display on the console (and in the log) the current certifi‐
52 cate (or certificate request) fingerprint. Providing the +--digest+
53 option allows to use a different digest algorithm to generate the fin‐
54 gerprint. The main use is to verify that before signing a certificate
55 request on the master, the certificate request the master received is
56 the same as the one the client sent (to prevent against man-in-the-mid‐
57 dle attacks when signing certificates).Note that any configuration
58 parameter that´s valid in the configuration file is also a valid long
59 argument. For example, ´server´ is a valid configuration parameter, so
60 you can specify ´--server servername´ as an argument.
61 See the configuration file documentation at http://docs.puppet‐
63 labs.com/references/stable/configuration.html for the full list of
64 acceptable parameters. A commented list of all configuration options
65 can also be generated by running puppet agent with ´--genconfig´.
66 daemonize: Send the process into the background. This is the
68 default.
72 no-daemonize: Do not send the process into the background.
76 debug: Enable full debugging.
78 digest: Change the certificate fingerprinting digest
80 algorithm. The default is MD5. Valid values depends
84 on the version of OpenSSL installed, but should
85 always at least contain MD5, MD2, SHA1 and SHA256.
86 detailed-exitcodes: Provide transaction information via exit codes. If
90 this is enabled, an exit code of ´2´ means there
94 were changes, and an exit code of ´4´ means that
95 there were failures during the transaction. This
96 option only makes sense in conjunction with
97 --onetime.
98 disable: Disable working on the local system. This puts a
102 lock file in place, causing +puppet agent+ not to
106 work on the system until the lock file is removed.
107 This is useful if you are testing a configuration
108 and do not want the central configuration to
109 override the local state until everything is tested
110 and committed.
111 +puppet agent+ uses the same lock file while it is running, so no more
115 than one +puppet agent+ process is working at a time.
116 +puppet agent+ exits after executing this.
118 enable: Enable working on the local system. This removes any
120 lock file, causing +puppet agent+ to start managing
124 the local system again (although it will continue to
125 use its normal scheduling, so it might not start for
126 another half hour).
127 +puppet agent+ exits after executing this.
131 fqdn: Set the fully-qualified domain name of the client.
133 This is only used for certificate purposes, but can
137 be used to override the discovered hostname. If you
138 need to use this flag, it is generally an indication
139 of a setup problem.
140 help: Print this help message
144 logdest: Where to send messages. Choose between syslog, the
146 console, and a log file. Defaults to sending
150 messages to syslog, or the console if debugging or
151 verbosity is enabled.
152 no-client: Do not create a config client. This will cause the
156 daemon to run without ever checking for its
160 configuration automatically, and only makes sense
161 when used in conjunction with --listen.
162 onetime: Run the configuration once. Runs a single (normally
166 daemonized) Puppet run. Useful for interactively
170 running puppet agent when used in conjunction with
171 the --no-daemonize option.
172 fingerprint: Display the current certificate or certificate
176 signing request fingerprint and then exit. Use the
180 +--digest+ option to change the digest algorithm
181 used.
182 serve: Start another type of server. By default, +puppet
186 agent+ will start a service handler that allows
190 authenticated and authorized remote nodes to trigger
191 the configuration to be pulled down and applied. You
192 can specify any handler here that does not require
193 configuration, e.g., filebucket, ca, or resource.
194 The handlers are in +lib/puppet/network/handler+,
195 and the names must match exactly, both in the call
196 to +serve+ and in +namespaceauth.conf+.
197 test: Enable the most common options used for testing.
201 These are +onetime+, +verbose+, +ignorecache,
205 +no-daemonize+, and +no-usecacheonfailure+.
206 noop: Use +noop+ mode where the daemon runs in a no-op or
210 dry-run mode. This is useful for seeing what changes
214 Puppet will make without actually executing the
215 changes.
216 verbose: Turn on verbose reporting.
220 version: Print the puppet version number and exit.
222 waitforcert: This option only matters for daemons that do not yet
224 have certificates and it is enabled by default, with
228 a value of 120 (seconds). This causes +puppet agent+
229 to connect to the server every 2 minutes and ask it
230 to sign a certificate request. This is useful for
231 the initial setup of a puppet client. You can turn
232 off waiting for certificates by specifying a time of
233 0.
234 puppet agent --server puppet.domain.comLuke KaniesCopyright (c) 2005,
237 2006 Puppet Labs, LLC Licensed under the GNU Public License
238 August 2010 PUPPETD(8)