Puppet command fails with a “Could not parse” error in Puppet Enterprise

If puppet.conf includes a syntax or formatting error, you get an error message running a Puppet command in Puppet Enterprise.

Error message

You get this error message running a Puppet command in PE:

Error: Could not parse /etc/puppetlabs/puppet/puppet.conf: Could not match line <LINE CONTENTS> 

(file: /etc/puppetlabs/puppet/puppet.conf, line: <LINE NUMBER>)

Version and installation information

PE version: All supported

Solution

To find syntax and formatting errors in the puppet.conf file and correct them, follow these steps:

1. Find the line number in the error message.
2. Go to the line # in puppet.conf file.
3. Look for issues in the file, such as extra characters and missing brackets.
4. If you can’t find an issue in the line number, create a hex dump to look for extra characters in the file.
5. Correct the issue and save the file.
6. Rerun the Puppet command.

If you get a parsing error, repeat steps 1-6.

Tips for preventing puppet.conf parsing errors

To inspect and change configuration options in a node’s puppet.conf file, we recommend using the puppet config print and puppet config set commands or the puppet_conf task. The puppet_conf task comes from the puppetlabs-puppet_conf module. You don’t have to install the puppet_conf module separately because it comes with PE.