puppetlabs/puppet · error · ArgumentError

try_sleep cannot be a negative number

Error message

try_sleep cannot be a negative number

What it means

After parsing try_sleep, the munge block rejects values below zero with 'try_sleep cannot be a negative number'. A negative sleep interval between retries is meaningless, so Numeric values or strings like '-1' / '-0.25' that munge below 0 raise ArgumentError.

Source

Thrown at lib/puppet/type/exec.rb:379

        value
      end

      defaultto 1
    end

    newparam(:try_sleep) do
      desc "The time to sleep in seconds between 'tries'."

      munge do |value|
        if value.is_a?(String)
          unless value =~ /^[-\d.]+$/
            raise ArgumentError, _("try_sleep must be a number")
          end

          value = Float(value)
        end
        raise ArgumentError, _("try_sleep cannot be a negative number") if value < 0

        value
      end

      defaultto 0
    end

    newcheck(:refreshonly) do
      desc <<-'EOT'
        The command should only be run as a
        refresh mechanism for when a dependent object is changed.  It only
        makes sense to use this option when this command depends on some
        other object; it is useful for triggering an action:

            # Pull down the main aliases file
            file { '/etc/aliases':
              source => 'puppet://server/module/aliases',
            }

View on GitHub (pinned to e227c27540)

Solutions

1. Use 0 (the default) or a positive value; omit try_sleep when no delay is wanted.
2. Clamp computed values: `try_sleep => max(0, Float($raw))`.
3. Fix the Hiera/YAML source that supplies the negative number.

Example fix

// before
exec { 'retry_thing':
  command   => '/opt/app/job.sh',
  try_sleep => -1,
}

// after: default is 0; use a positive delay
exec { 'retry_thing':
  command   => '/opt/app/job.sh',
  try_sleep => 1,
}

// Puppet
$ts = $try_sleep
unless $ts =~ Numeric and $ts >= 0 {
  fail("exec: try_sleep cannot be negative, got '${ts}'")
}

def nonnegative_sleep?(v)
  n = v.is_a?(Numeric) ? v : (Float(v) if v.is_a?(String) && v.match?(/\A[-\d.]+\z/)) rescue nil
  !n.nil? && n >= 0
end

When it happens

Trigger: `try_sleep => -1` or `try_sleep => '-0.25'`; Hiera values carrying a leading minus; sign errors when computing the sleep from another variable or lookup.

Common situations: Copy-paste from tries-style configs; trying to express 'no delay' — the default is already 0, so omit the parameter; negative values sneaking in through computed data.

Related errors

• Tries must be an integer >= 1
• try_sleep must be a number
• Command must be a String or Array<String>, got value of clas
• Invalid environment setting '%{value}'
• The umask specification is invalid: %{value}

AI-assisted analysis of puppetlabs/puppet@e227c27540 (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/fcd7e15bd54d4a78. Report an issue: GitHub.