puppetlabs/puppet · error · Puppet::Error

Cannot set the #{setter_method} value of '#{value}' for user

Error message

Cannot set the #{setter_method} value of '#{value}' for user #{@resource.name} due to the following error: #{e.inspect}

What it means

Error "Cannot set the #{setter_method} value of '#{value}' for user #{@resource.name} due to the following error: #{e.inspect}" thrown in puppetlabs/puppet.

Source

Thrown at lib/puppet/provider/user/directoryservice.rb:461

  # the new value. Because we're prefetching instances of the provider, it's
  # possible that the value determined at the start of the run may be stale
  # (i.e. someone changed the value by hand during a Puppet run) - if that's
  # the case we rescue the error from dscl and alert the user.
  #
  # In the event that the user doesn't HAVE a value for the attribute, the
  # provider should use the -create option with dscl to add the attribute value
  # for the user record
  %w[home uid gid comment shell].each do |setter_method|
    define_method("#{setter_method}=") do |value|
      if @property_hash[setter_method.intern]
        if %w[home uid].include?(setter_method)
          raise Puppet::Error, "OS X version #{self.class.get_os_version} does not allow changing #{setter_method} using puppet"
        end

        begin
          dscl '.', '-change', "/Users/#{resource.name}", self.class.ns_to_ds_attribute_map[setter_method.intern], @property_hash[setter_method.intern], value
        rescue Puppet::ExecutionFailure => e
          raise Puppet::Error, "Cannot set the #{setter_method} value of '#{value}' for user " \
                               "#{@resource.name} due to the following error: #{e.inspect}", e.backtrace
        end
      else
        begin
          dscl '.', '-create', "/Users/#{resource.name}", self.class.ns_to_ds_attribute_map[setter_method.intern], value
        rescue Puppet::ExecutionFailure => e
          raise Puppet::Error, "Cannot set the #{setter_method} value of '#{value}' for user " \
                               "#{@resource.name} due to the following error: #{e.inspect}", e.backtrace
        end
      end
    end
  end

  ##                ##
  ## Helper Methods ##
  ##                ##

  def assert_full_pbkdf2_password

View on GitHub (pinned to e227c27540)

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at lib/puppet/provider/user/directoryservice.rb:461 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of puppetlabs/puppet@e227c27540 (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/febc4bea84ad1b3a. Report an issue: GitHub.