Hi, Because people seem to think this is some obscure corner case, I thought I'd write up a very simple test case to trigger the problem:
First, some setup: crb@chris ~ $ echo testing > testfile crb@chris ~ $ ln -s testfile testlink First test, to create a file that doesn't exist: crb@chris ~ $ puppet resource file $(pwd)/newfile ensure=file links=follow source=$(pwd)/testlink mode=0644 err: /File[/home/crb/newfile]/ensure: change from absent to present failed: Could not rename temporary file /home/crb/newfile.puppettmp_6080 to /home/crb/newfile: File written to disk did not match checksum; discarding changes ( vs {md5}d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e) file { '/home/crb/newfile': ensure => 'absent', } As you can see, the file is not created and Puppet produces an error. Second test, to update the contents of the file if it exists with the wrong content: crb@chris ~ $ echo foobar > newfile crb@chris ~ $ puppet resource file $(pwd)/newfile ensure=file links=follow source=$(pwd)/testlink mode=0644 file { '/home/crb/newfile': ensure => 'file', group => '1000', mode => '644', } crb@chris ~ $ cat newfile foobar This time, Puppet does not produce an error at all, but the contents of the file remains unchanged and un-managed. In this case, this is silent corruption as Puppet fails to enforce the content change on the file. Best regards, Chris -- |Chris Boot |Tiger Computing Ltd |"Linux for Business" | |Tel: 033 0088 1511 |Web: http://www.tiger-computing.co.uk | |Registered in England. Company number: 3389961 |Registered address: Wyastone Business Park, | Wyastone Leys, Monmouth, NP25 3SR -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-rc-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org