Adding the web-data user to another group with puppet

this blog post is mainly a note to myself for future reference.

profile::nginx

  ...
  # the user is not created here. lets say the user is prepared here.
  @user { 'www-data':
    # groups     => ['somegroup'],
    gid         => '33',
    membership  => minimum,
  }
  ...

profile::other_profile_which_needs_to_add_the_group

  # here the user is created aka realized but with the extra group `mynewgroup` added.
  User <| title == 'www-data' |> { groups +> "mynewgroup" }

@@ means the resource is exported. also see https://puppet.com/docs/puppet/5.3/lang_exported.html

@@user { 'www-data':
    ...
}

@ means the resource is virtual. also see https://puppet.com/docs/puppet/5.3/lang_virtual.html

@user { 'www-data':
    ...
}

further reading:

• https://serverfault.com/questions/416254/adding-an-existing-user-to-a-group-with-puppet
• https://tickets.puppetlabs.com/browse/PUP-7541
• https://blog.scottlowe.org/2013/02/08/modifying-virtual-user-resources-in-puppet/
• https://ttboj.wordpress.com/2013/05/14/overriding-attributes-of-collected-exported-resources/

• https://serverfault.com/questions/707261/can-i-accumulate-an-array-of-values-in-puppet-from-a-collector

• cover image by Gaby Stein aka steinchen https://pixabay.com/en/stage-boards-wood-theater-233085/