puppetlabs/puppet · error · Puppet::Error

No input to parse given on command line or stdin

Error message

No input to parse given on command line or stdin

What it means

Raised by the `dump` action of `puppet epp` when there is no input to parse: no `-e` inline source, no template file arguments, and STDIN is an interactive TTY (the `!STDIN.tty?` check exists because a piped stdin would be read instead). The face API is all-or-nothing, so it refuses to block on an interactive stdin and aborts.

Source

Thrown at lib/puppet/face/epp.rb:180

      # pass a dummy node, as facts are not needed for dump
      options[:node] = Puppet::Node.new("testnode", :facts => Puppet::Node::Facts.new("facts", {}))
      options[:header] = options[:header].nil? ? true : options[:header]
      options[:validate] = options[:validate].nil? ? true : options[:validate]

      compiler = create_compiler(options)

      # Print to a buffer since the face needs to return the resulting string
      # and the face API is "all or nothing"
      #
      buffer = StringIO.new

      if options[:e]
        buffer.print dump_parse(options[:e], 'command-line-string', options, false)
      elsif args.empty?
        if !STDIN.tty?
          buffer.print dump_parse(STDIN.read, 'stdin', options, false)
        else
          raise Puppet::Error, _("No input to parse given on command line or stdin")
        end
      else
        templates, missing_files = args.each_with_object([[], []]) do |file, memo|
          template_file = effective_template(file, compiler.environment)
          if template_file.nil?
            memo[1] << file
          else
            memo[0] << template_file
          end
        end

        show_filename = templates.count > 1
        templates.each do |file|
          buffer.print dump_parse(Puppet::FileSystem.read(file, :encoding => 'utf-8'), file, options, show_filename)
        end

        unless missing_files.empty?
          raise Puppet::Error, _("One or more file(s) specified did not exist:\n%{missing_files_list}") %

View on GitHub (pinned to e227c27540)

Solutions

1. Pass an inline source: `puppet epp dump -e '<%= $x %>'`
2. Pass template file(s): `puppet epp dump template.epp`
3. Pipe input: `cat t.epp | puppet epp dump` (non-TTY stdin is read automatically)

Example fix

# before
puppet epp dump                 # interactive, no stdin
# after
puppet epp dump -e '<%= $facts["hostname"] %>'
# or
cat template.epp | puppet epp dump

abort 'no input: pass -e, template files, or pipe stdin' if ARGV.empty? && $stdin.tty? && !options[:e]

When it happens

Trigger: Plain `puppet epp dump` in an interactive shell; wrappers that sometimes pipe input but invoke the command unconditionally; containers/CI where the caller assumed a file argument would be present.

Common situations: Interactive exploration expecting a prompt; scripts where an unquoted empty variable collapses to zero arguments; CI jobs configured without wiring stdin.

Related errors

• No input to process given on command line or stdin
• No input to parse given on command line or stdin
• Only .yaml or .pp can be used as a --values_file
• --values option must evaluate to a Hash or undef, got: '%{va
• Error parsing arguments

AI-assisted analysis of puppetlabs/puppet@e227c27540 (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/9b50acae095f9792. Report an issue: GitHub.