puppetlabs/puppet · error · Puppet::Error

You must specify a package source or configure an installpat

Error message

You must specify a package source or configure an installpath in /etc/pkg.conf

What it means

openbsd.rb:147 (parse_pkgconf): the stricter sibling of the 'no valid installpath' error — it fires when the resource has no source and /etc/pkg.conf does not exist at all. Without either a per-resource source or an installpath file, pkg_add has no idea where to fetch packages from, so the provider refuses with Puppet::Error.

Source

Thrown at lib/puppet/provider/package/openbsd.rb:147

            @resource[:source] = matchdata[1]
          else
            matchdata = line.match(/^installpath\s*\+=\s*(.+)\s*$/i)
            if matchdata
              if @resource[:source].nil?
                @resource[:source] = matchdata[1]
              else
                @resource[:source] += ":" + matchdata[1]
              end
            end
          end
        end

        unless @resource[:source]
          raise Puppet::Error,
                _("No valid installpath found in /etc/pkg.conf and no source was set")
        end
      else
        raise Puppet::Error,
              _("You must specify a package source or configure an installpath in /etc/pkg.conf")
      end
    end
  end

  def install(latest = false)
    cmd = []

    parse_pkgconf

    if @resource[:source][-1, 1] == ::File::SEPARATOR
      e_vars = { 'PKG_PATH' => @resource[:source] }
      full_name = get_full_name(latest)
    else
      e_vars = {}
      full_name = @resource[:source]
    end

View on GitHub (pinned to e227c27540)

Solutions

Create /etc/pkg.conf with an installpath line (via a file resource that runs before packages).
Alternatively set source per package (directory URL ending in '/' so the code sets PKG_PATH), e.g. source => 'https://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/7.4/packages/amd64/'.
Order the pkg.conf creation explicitly with before/require so parse_pkgconf finds the file on the first run.

Example fix

# before
package { 'rsync--': ensure => installed }  # /etc/pkg.conf missing

# after
file { '/etc/pkg.conf': ensure => file, content => 'installpath = https://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/7.4/packages/%a\n', before => Package['rsync--'] }
package { 'rsync--': ensure => installed }

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

# no source and no pkg.conf -> will raise; check first
has_conf = Puppet::FileSystem.exist?('/etc/pkg.conf')
raise 'OpenBSD needs package source or /etc/pkg.conf installpath' if resource[:source].nil? && !has_conf

Try / catch

begin
  provider.send(:parse_pkgconf)
rescue Puppet::Error => e
  raise unless e.message.include?('installpath in /etc/pkg.conf')
  # first run: create pkg.conf then retry
  write_default_pkgconf; retry
end

Prevention

Include pkg.conf creation in base OpenBSD profiles with before => Package <| |>.
Never prune /etc/pkg.conf in image hardening without also setting per-package sources.
Smoke-test package installs in your OpenBSD image build.

When it happens

Trigger: ensure => installed package resource with no source on an OpenBSD node where /etc/pkg.conf has been deleted or never created (Puppet::FileSystem.exist? fails).

Common situations: Minimal/hardened OpenBSD images that prune /etc; chroots and build jails without a base etc set; first runs before any configuration management of pkg.conf.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of puppetlabs/puppet@e227c27540 (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/114bf4b04f6d1598. Report an issue: GitHub.