provider supports prefetch, but puppet resource sysctl does not show any values

[tuxmea]

When using puppet resource sysctl no values are shown.
Even when specifying the sysctlk setting no values are shown:

puppet resource sysctl net.ipv4.ip_forward
sysctl { 'net.ipv4.ip_forward':
  ensure => present,
}

[tuxmea]

@SimonHoenscheid : fyi

[raphink]

Tbh I never really understood how to make all params/properties show there. The values are stored properly in the @property_hash but they're not showing in the output…

[tuxmea]

Analysis:
The resources hash is built properly:

{:name=>"vm.zone_reclaim_mode", :ensure=>:present, :value=>"0", :apply=>:true, :persist=>:false}

At the end of instances method we build the result:

@resource_cache = resources.map{|x| x = new(x)}

But resource_hash is set to (provider=augeas) only.

What does the new method do?
I always thought that it sets available parameters of the type to their values.

@raphink any clue?
@DavidS
@dev_el_ops

[alexjfisher]

Ok... So I had a little look at this.

instances does correctly set everything in @property hash. In most providers, mk_resource_methods would be used to create 'getters' and 'setters' for each property based on @property_hash. In this provider, that isn't the case. attr_aug_accessor (from the parent provider) is used for val/value (comment is slightly different again).

So the getter than gets called has a completely different implementation to fetching values than was used in instances. (augeas only vs a mix of augeas and sysctl -a)

[alexjfisher]

Maybe @domcleal could shed some light on the current implementation ;) I assume there was a good reason for the current strategy, and attempting to 'fix' it, might be complicated/unwise.

[alexjfisher]

Actually I think @trevor-vaughan might know more. Before #15 instances didn't look at all settings and there wasn't any caching in that method either.

[trevor-vaughan]

So, what seems to be going on is that the current provider is missing a couple of features.

1. It needs to merge all items in every file that is managed
2. It needs to add a parameter that is the target file. This will need to be deconflicted with the entire stack but will allow for retrieval and comparison of all live and stored items.