MSI Package Provider and Install_options

[jbrown]

Hello,

I'm trying to install a few MSI packages on Windows, and I'm having trouble specifying options.

Here is what I want to execute

C:\packages\my_problematic_package.msi \quiet \passive

As you can see, I'm trying to specify two arguments to the package, but I can't figure out how to use the Puppet package resource to accomplish this. Install_options being a hash is causing me confusion.

Here's my attempt at a resource definition:

      package { "my_problematic_package.msi":

        ensure => installed,

        provider => 'msi',

        source => "C:/packages/my_problematic_package.msi",

        install_options => '/quiet /passive',

        # Previous try as a hash

        # install_options => { " " => '/quiet /passive' },

        require => File["C:/packages/my_problematic_package.msi"],

      }

When I run this on the a Windows host, I get a help popup (same thing without any install_options defined) that is the same as running '\?'. Then, I get an error that says "the semaphore cannot be set again." Thinking that Puppet may think the package is installed, I re-ran it with "ensure => absent," which succeeded, but subsequent install attempts failed with the same error.

The MSI is obviously executing because the help popup appears. It just seems to be running with the incorrect options.

Could anyone help?

I'm using http://docs.puppetlabs.com/windows/writing.html#packagepackage for documentation and running Puppet 2.7.19.

Thanks,

Justin

[Nan Liu]

Looking at the code it's expecting an array (of string or hash). I'm
not sure why the docs on the website shows just a hash, since the type
is not doing munging.

install_options => ['\quiet', '\passive'],

Might be a recent change, anyhow take a look at the inline
documentation in the source code:
https://github.com/puppetlabs/puppet/blob/master/lib/puppet/type/package.rb#L301

Thanks,

Nan

[Justin Brown]

Nan,

Thanks for the reply. That's certainly what the code and doc string indicate. However, I think that I may have encountered a Puppet bug, but I don't know enough Ruby to troubleshoot much.

Here's my new resource:

      package { "my_problematic_package.msi":

        ensure => present,

        provider => 'msi',

        install_options => ['/quiet', '/passive'],

        source => "C:/packages/my_problematic_package.msi",

        require => File["C:/packages/my_problematic_package.msi"],

      }

err: /Stage[main]/Sia/Package[my_problematic_package.msi]/ensure: change from absent to present failed: Could not set 'present on ensure: undefined method `include?' for nil:NilClass at /etc/puppet/modules/sia/manifests/init.pp:71

The close brace for the package resource is at line 71.

I seems to be that the bug has to be at line 129 or 149 in package.rb, but I ran added some debug statements, and neither "include?" statement is run.

I'm not sure where to go from here. I suppose that using exec will be the most expedient, but I'd also like some help on troubleshooting this problem, so I can properly report it.

Thanks,

J

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[Josh Cooper]

Hi Justing,

The `install_options` package parameter in 2.7.x was intended to be
used for specifying MSI public properties. For example, from the
reference documentation for install_options[1]:

package { 'mysql':

ensure => installed,
provider => 'msi',

source => 'N:/packages/mysql-5.5.16-winx64.msi',
install_options => { 'INSTALLDIR' => 'C:\mysql-5.5' },
}

The msi package provider will transform the hash pair into
INSTALLDIR='c:\mysql-5.5' on the command line, and will automatically
quote either the key or value if it contains spaces -- to handle
things like INSTALLDIR='c:\Program Files\Vendor\Application'

In 3.0 the `install_options` parameter has been extended to allow
single valued arguments. So you can specify things like:

package { 'mysql':
ensure => installed,
source => 'N:/packages/mysql-5.5.16-winx64.msi',
install_options => [ '/S', { 'INSTALLDIR' => 'C:\mysql-5.5' } ],
}

Note the array, which contains a single string followed by a hash
pair. This will become `/S INSTALLDIR='C:\mysql-5.5'` on the command
line.

I recommend giving the 3.0rc7 release a try[2]. It supports both MSI
and executable installers on Windows, and you can specify
uninstall_options for Windows package resources (in the same format as
install_options).

Josh

[1] http://docs.puppetlabs.com/references/2.7.19/type.html#package
[2] https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/puppet-users/BCyRtDcqeBY

--
Josh Cooper
Developer, Puppet Labs

[Justin Brown]

Josh,

Thanks so much for the reply. I'll definitely give that a try. 

I'm constantly impressed with the pace of Puppet development. I suppose that's what I get for trying to wade through master on Git.

Cheers,

Justin