Get information about issues with facts using Facter debug options in Puppet Enterprise

Facter collects and displays facts about the current system. By using options with Facter you can get more information about issues with facts. Use these flags when writing custom facts or installing new facts to see debug messages and how long it’s taking facts to resolve.

Version and installation information

PE version: 2021.1 and later

Solution

To use options with facter, run the following on your primary server on the command line. Make sure to include the -p option to load Puppet libraries, allowing Facter to load Puppet-specific facts:

facter -p <ADDITIONAL OPTIONS>

For example, to enable backtrace for custom facts, run:

facter -p --trace

These are the Facter options that our team finds most helpful:

• -p, --puppet: Load Puppet libraries, allowing Facter to load Puppet-specific facts.

• -d, --debug: Enable debug output.

• -t, --timing: Show how much time it took to resolve each fact.

• --trace: Enable backtraces for custom facts.

Learn more about Facter options.