Distributing and merging directory trees

As we saw in the previous chapter, the file resource has a recurse parameter, which allows Puppet to transfer entire directory trees. We used this parameter to copy an admin user's dotfiles into their home directory. In this section, we'll show how to use recurse and another parameter sourceselect to extend our previous example.

How to do it...

Modify our admin user example as follows:

1. Remove the $dotfiles parameter, remove the condition based on $dotfiles. Add a second source to the home directory file resource:

   define admin_user ($key, $keytype) { 
     $username = $name
     user { $username:
       ensure     => present,
     }
     file { "/home/${username}/.ssh":
       ensure  => directory,
       mode    => '0700',
       owner   => $username,
       group   => $username,
       require => File["/home/${username}"],
     }
     ssh_authorized_key { "${username}_key":
       key     => $key,
       type    => "$keytype",
       user    => $username,
       require...