salt-stack: capture group for regex include_pat [closed]

Question

is it possible to have a capture group with include_pat when copying files ?

I would like to do something like that:

copy_template:
    file.recurse:
    - name: '{{ service_path }}\$1'
    - template: jinja
    - include_pat: E@^(.*)\.template$
    - source: {{ pillar['locations']['systemtoolsfolder'] }}\

Answer 1

A capture group is a type of backreference. Saltstack, being python based, uses the re.match object to do regular expression matching, which appears to support backreferences, so these backreferences are allowed.

However, you be unable to pass the value of the backreference \1 in the - include_pat field back to - name because the - name field is never processed by the re.match object. Even if it were, variable scope would prevent you from sharing the backreference between re.match calls.

Instead, you will need to do one of the following:

• Rename all the files in - source from myfile.conf.template to myfile.conf

• Use cmd.run to do a batch file rename after your file.recurse and add to your file.recurse an onchanges pointed to a previous event in order to defeat the idempotency (that is, to prevent it from writing out the .template files every time salt runs). You will also be sure to use a require and onchanges in your cmd.run that references copy_template

  This will have the unfortunate side-effect that you will never be able to update your jinja templates. You will only be able to deploy them the first time - at least not without first deleting what is there, and then re-writing and re-copying from the source.

• Use file.managed for every template file.

For example:

copy_template1:
  file.managed:
    - name: '{{ service_path }}\template1.conf'
    - template: jinja
    - source: {{ pillar['locations']['systemtoolsfolder'] }}\template1.conf.template
copy_template2:
  file.managed:
    - name: '{{ service_path }}\template2.conf'
    - template: jinja
    - source: {{ pillar['locations']['systemtoolsfolder'] }}\template2.conf.template
...
and so forth