puppetlabs/puppet · error · ArgumentError

You must provide a :match regex for text lines

Error message

You must provide a :match regex for text lines

What it means

text_line defines a regex-matched record type for a FileParsing provider; the :match option decides whether a line belongs to the type, so it is mandatory. Without it, ArgumentError is raised at definition time.

Source

Thrown at lib/puppet/util/fileparsing.rb:317

  #   the regex will be removed.
  # * <tt>:separator</tt>: The record separator.  Defaults to /\s+/.
  def record_line(name, options, &block)
    raise ArgumentError, _("Must include a list of fields") unless options.include?(:fields)

    record = FileRecord.new(:record, **options, &block)
    record.name = name.intern

    new_line_type(record)
  end

  # Are there any record types defined?
  def records?
    defined?(@record_types) and !@record_types.empty?
  end

  # Define a new type of text record.
  def text_line(name, options, &block)
    raise ArgumentError, _("You must provide a :match regex for text lines") unless options.include?(:match)

    record = FileRecord.new(:text, **options, &block)
    record.name = name.intern

    new_line_type(record)
  end

  # Generate a file from a bunch of hash records.
  def to_file(records)
    text = records.collect { |record| to_line(record) }.join(line_separator)

    text += line_separator if trailing_separator

    text
  end

  # Convert our parsed record into a text record.
  def to_line(details)

View on GitHub (pinned to e227c27540)

Solutions

1. Add match: /pattern/ describing exactly the lines this record owns
2. For delimited columns use record_line with :fields instead
3. A catch-all final record like text_line :catchall, match: /.*/ is the idiomatic way to absorb unmatched lines

Example fix

# before
text_line :comment
# => ArgumentError: You must provide a :match regex for text lines

# after
text_line :comment, match: /\A\s*#/

unless options.key?(:match) && options[:match].is_a?(Regexp)
  raise ArgumentError, ':match regex required'
end
text_line :mytext, **options

When it happens

Trigger: text_line :comment with no options, or with fields: instead of match: — i.e. forgetting the match: /.../ regex, or using text_line for what is really a field-split line.

Common situations: Providers modeling comment or blank lines (as Puppet's own host/port providers do with text_line) where the regex is accidentally dropped during edits.

Understand the failure class

Background: Missing required parameter errors: what 'X is required' and 'the required X param is missing' mean, and how to fix them — this error's family across 27 libraries.

Related errors

• Must include a list of fields
• Cannot have fields named %{name}
• Invalid record type %{record_type}
• Field '%{field}' is required
• Process record type %{record_name} returned non-hash

AI-assisted analysis of puppetlabs/puppet@e227c27540 (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1e47975b88fbe5c0. Report an issue: GitHub.