The puppet lookup command

The puppet lookup command is the command line interface (CLI) for Puppet's lookup function.

The puppet lookup command lets you do Hiera lookups from the command line. You must run it on a node that has a copy of your Hiera data. You can log into a Puppet Server node and run puppet lookup with sudo.

The most common version of this command is:

puppet lookup <KEY> --node <NAME> --environment <ENV> --explain

The puppet lookup command searches your Hiera data and returns a value for the requested lookup key, so you can test and explore your data. It replaces the hiera command. Hiera relies on a node's facts to locate the relevant data sources. By default, puppet lookup uses facts from the node you run the command on, but you can get data for any other node with the --node NAME option. If possible, the lookup command uses the requested node's real stored facts from PuppetDB. If PuppetDB is not configured or you want to provide other fact values, pass facts from a JSON or YAML file with the --facts FILE option.

The puppet lookup command replaces the hiera command.

Examples

To look up key_name using the Puppet Server node’s facts: 

$ puppet lookup key_name
To look up key_name with agent.local's facts:
$ puppet lookup --node agent.local key_name
To get the first value found for key_name_one and key_name_two with agent.local's facts while merging values and knocking out the prefix 'example' while merging:
puppet lookup --node agent.local --merge deep --knock-out-prefix example key_name_one key_name_two
To lookup key_name with agent.local's facts, and return a default value of 0 if nothing is found:
puppet lookup --node agent.local --default 0 key_name
To see an explanation of how the value for key_name is found, using agent.local facts:
puppet lookup --node agent.local --explain key_name

Options

The puppet lookup command has the following command options:

  • --help: Print a usage message.

  • --explain: Explain the details of how the lookup was performed and where the final value came from, or the reason no value was found. Useful when debugging Hiera data. If --explain isn't specified, lookup exits with 0 if a value was found and 1 if not. With --explain, lookup always exits with 0 unless there is a major error. You can provide multiple lookup keys to this command, but it only returns a value for the first found key, omitting the rest.

  • --node <NODE-NAME>: Specify which node to look up data for; defaults to the node where the command is run. The purpose of Hiera is to provide different values for different nodes; use specific node facts to explore your data. If the node where you're running this command is configured to talk to PuppetDB, the command uses the requested node's most recent facts. Otherwise, override facts with the '--facts' option.

  • --facts <FILE>: Specify a JSON or YAML file that contains key-value mappings to override the facts for this lookup. Any facts not specified in this file maintain their original value.

  • --environment <ENV>: Specify an environment. Different environments can have different Hiera data.

  • --merge first/unique/hash/deep: Specify the merge behavior, overriding any merge behavior from the data's lookup_options.

  • --knock-out-prefix <PREFIX-STRING>: Used with 'deep' merge. Specifies a prefix to indicate a value should be removed from the final result.

  • --sort-merged-arrays: Used with 'deep' merge. When this flag is used, all merged arrays are sorted.

  • --merge-hash-arrays: Used with the 'deep' merge strategy. When this flag is used, hashes within arrays are deep-merged with their counterparts by position.

  • --explain-options: Explain whether a lookup_options hash affects this lookup, and how that hash was assembled. (lookup_options is how Hiera configures merge behavior in data.)

  • --default <VALUE>: A value to return if Hiera can't find a value in data. Useful for emulating a call to the `lookup function that includes a default.

  • --type <TYPESTRING>: Assert that the value has the specified type. Useful for emulating a call to the lookup function that includes a data type.

  • --compile: Perform a full catalog compilation prior to the lookup. If your hierarchy and data only use the $facts, $trusted, and $server_facts variables, you don't need this option. If your Hiera configuration uses arbitrary variables set by a Puppet manifest, you need this to get accurate data. The lookup command doesn't cause catalog compilation unless this flag is given.

  • --render-as s/json/yaml/binary/msgpack: Specify the output format of the results; s means plain text. The default when producing a value is yaml and the default when producing an explanation is s.