puppetlabs/puppet · error · ArgumentError

Password maximum age must be provided as a number.

Error message

Password maximum age must be provided as a number.

What it means

The user type's `password_max_age` property (days before a password must be changed; maps to chage -M) validates its value's string form against /^-?\d+$/ (lib/puppet/type/user.rb:316), mirroring password_min_age. Non-numeric, decimal, or empty values raise ArgumentError.

Source

Thrown at lib/puppet/type/user.rb:316

        end
      end
    end

    newproperty(:password_max_age, :required_features => :manages_password_age) do
      desc "The maximum number of days a password may be used before it must be changed."

      munge do |value|
        case value
        when String
          Integer(value)
        else
          value
        end
      end

      validate do |value|
        if value.to_s !~ /^-?\d+$/
          raise ArgumentError, _("Password maximum age must be provided as a number.")
        end
      end
    end

    newproperty(:password_warn_days, :required_features => :manages_password_age) do
      desc "The number of days before a password is going to expire (see the maximum password age) during which the user should be warned."

      munge do |value|
        case value
        when String
          Integer(value)
        else
          value
        end
      end

      validate do |value|
        if value.to_s !~ /^-?\d+$/

View on GitHub (pinned to e227c27540)

Solutions

1. Pass an integer or integer string, e.g. password_max_age => 90
2. Strip units and cast in the wrapper (e.g. Integer(regsubst($v, '^.*(\d+).*$', '
   ')))
3. Use undef instead of '' when no maximum applies

Example fix

# before
user { 'alice':
  ensure           => present,
  password_max_age => '90 days',
}

# after
user { 'alice':
  ensure           => present,
  password_max_age => 90,
}

if $password_max_age != undef and "$password_max_age" !~ /^-?\d+$/ {
  fail('password_max_age must be an integer (days)')
}

def valid_age?(v)
  v.is_a?(Integer) || (v.is_a?(String) && v =~ /\A-?\d+\z/)
end

begin
  Puppet::Type.type(:user).new(name: 'a', password_max_age: '90 days')
rescue ArgumentError => e
  raise unless e.message.include?('maximum age')
  # cast days to Integer and rebuild
end

When it happens

Trigger: `password_max_age => '90 days'`; `=> 89.5`; `=> ''`; values pulled from a policy API as 'N days' strings.

Common situations: Password-policy data expressed with units; float ages; empty-string defaults from ENC data.

Related errors

• Password minimum age must be provided as a number.
• Invalid value %{value}
• Invalid value %{value}.
• Invalid hold value %{value}. %{doc}
• Repeat must be a number

AI-assisted analysis of puppetlabs/puppet@e227c27540 (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d8b948903e73cd09. Report an issue: GitHub.