Could not find class, and yet it is there

Question

When doing a puppet agent call from a new image, I'm getting a err: Could not find class custommod error. The module itself is in /etc/puppet/modules/custommod same as all of the other modules we're calling, but this one is obstinante.

[site.pp]

node /clunod-wk\d+\.sub\.example\.local/ {
      include base
      include curl
      include custommod
      class{ "custommod::apps": frontend => "false}
      [...]
}

When the puppetmaster is run with debug output, it clearly finding the information for base and curl:

debug: importing '/etc/puppet/modules/base/manifests/init.pp' in environment production
debug: Automatically imported base from base into production
debug: importing '/etc/puppet/modules/curl/manifests/init.pp' in environment production
debug: Automatically imported curl from curl into production
err: Could not find class custommod for clunod-wk0130.sub.example.local at /etc/puppet/manifests/site.pp:84 on node clunod-wk0130.sub.example.local

Line 84 is include custommod

An abbreviated directory and file structure:

/etc/puppet
   |- manifests
   |     |- site.pp
   |
   |- modules
         |- base
         |    |- manifests
         |          |- init.pp
         |
         |- curl
         |    |- manifests
         |          |- init.pp
         |   
         |- custommod
              |- files 
              |     |- apps
              |         |- [...]
              |
              |- manifests
                    |- init.pp
                    |- apps.pp

I did check spelling :}

The content of init.pp in the custommod directory is completely unremarkable:

class custommod {
}

The intent is to create an empty class for the apps.pp file, which is where the meat is.

class custommod::apps {

    [lots of stuff]
}

Only, it's never getting to the apps file. If I comment out the include custommod, the above error is generated on the class{ "custommod::apps": frontend => "false} line instead.

What am I missing in my hunt to find out how this error is being generated? I need to note that this repo works just fine if it is run locally via puppet apply.

Answer 1

So... this is a bit embarrassing, but...

Environments.

Right there in my /etc/puppet.conf file is this:

[master]
  manifest=$confdir/manifests/site.pp
  modulepath=$confdir/environments/$environment/modules:$confdir/modules

After throwing strace at it to figure out where it was hunting for files, I noticed something. It was looking for custommod under /etc/puppet/environments/production/modules, and since there was a directory there (empty), it did not then go check /etc/puppet/modules. Apparently when importing a module it checks for directory-presence, rather than file-presence (init.pp).

Remove that empty directory, things start working.

Run the puppet agent using a different environment, things start working.

Moral of the story:

Puppet Environment paths do not act like bash $PATH.