Puppet strings

Puppet Strings generates documentation for Puppet code and extensions written in Puppet and Ruby. Strings processes code and YARD-style code comments to create documentation in HTML, Markdown, or JSON formats.

Installing Puppet Strings

Requirements

• Ruby 2.5.0 or newer
• Puppet 6.0.0 or newer

Install Puppet Strings

Installation instructions vary slightly depending on how you have installed Puppet:

Installing Puppet Strings with puppet-agent package

Install the puppet-strings gem into the puppet-agent environment:

sudo /opt/puppetlabs/puppet/bin/gem install puppet-strings

Installing Puppet Strings with standalone puppet gem

Install the puppet-strings gem into the same Ruby installation where you have installed the puppet gem:

gem install puppet-strings

Configure Puppet Strings (Optional)

To use YARD options with Puppet Strings, specify a .yardopts file in the same directory in which you run puppet strings.

Puppet Strings supports the Markdown format and automatically sets the YARD markup option to markdown.

To see a list of available YARD options, run yard help doc.

For details about YARD options configuration, see the YARD docs.

Generating documentation with Puppet Strings

By default, Puppet Strings outputs documentation as HTML, or you can specify JSON or Markdown output instead.

Strings generates reference documentation based on the code and Strings code comments in all Puppet and Ruby source files under the ./manifests/, ./functions/, ./lib/, ./types/, and ./tasks/ directories.

Strings outputs HTML of the reference information and the module README to the module's ./doc/ directory. This output can be rendered in any browser.

JSON and Markdown output include the reference documentation only. Strings sends JSON output to either STDOUT or to a file. Markdown output is written to a REFERENCE.md file in the module's main directory.

See the Puppet Strings documentation for complete instructions for generating documentation with Strings.

For code comment style guidelines and examples, see the Puppet Strings style guide.

Additional Resources

Here are a few other good resources for getting started with documentation:

• Module README Template
• YARD Getting Started Guide
• YARD Tags Overview

Developing and Contributing

We love contributions from the community!

If you'd like to contribute to puppet-strings, check out CONTRIBUTING.md to get information on the contribution process.

Running Specs

If you plan on developing features or fixing bugs in Puppet Strings, it is essential that you run specs before opening a pull request.

To run specs, run the spec rake task:

bundle install --path .bundle/gems
bundle exec rake spec

Running Acceptance Tests

Acceptance tests can be executed with puppet_litmus.

An example of running the acceptance tests locally with Docker:

1. Ensure Docker is installed and running.

2. Install Ruby gems. This step can be skipped if you have already followed the Running Specs instructions.

   bundle install --path .bundle/gems

3. Provision a docker container, in this case CentOS 7

   bundle exec rake 'litmus:provision[docker, centos:7]'

4. Install test items; Puppet Agent, our test module, and the puppet-strings gem built from this source code

   bundle exec rake 'litmus:install_agent[puppet6]'
   bundle exec rake 'litmus:install_modules_from_directory[./spec/fixtures/acceptance/modules]'
   bundle exec rake litmus:install_gems

5. Run the acceptance tests. These tests can be run more than once without the need to run the provisioning steps again

   bundle exec rake litmus:acceptance:parallel

6. Remove any test containers

   bundle exec rake litmus:tear_down

The Litmus Wiki contains more indepth information about Litmus.

There is also a tutorial on using Litmus with an example Puppet Module

Support

Please log issues in GitHub issues. Check out CONTRIBUTING.md for tips on writing the best issues.

A mailing list is available for asking questions and getting help from others.

There is also an active community on the Puppet community Slack in the #forge-modules channel.

We use semantic version numbers for our releases and recommend that users upgrade to patch releases and minor releases as they become available.

Bug fixes and ongoing development will occur in minor releases for the current major version.