Puppet

If you remove a parameter from a cron object, it should change the cron job to have * in that field. However, puppet does not change it unless you specify “*”.

# cat /tmp/1.pp
cron { "test":
  command => "/bin/echo test",
  hour    => "4",
  minute  => "3",
}

# puppet -v /tmp/1.pp
notice: //Cron[test]/ensure: created

# cat /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE - edit the master and reinstall.
# (- installed on Sun Jul 27 23:45:24 2008)
# (Cron version -- $Id: crontab.c,v 2.13 1994/01/17 03:20:37 vixie Exp $)
# HEADER: This file was autogenerated at Sun Jul 27 23:45:24 +0300 2008 by puppet.
# HEADER: While it can still be managed manually, it is definitely not recommended.
# HEADER: Note particularly that the comments starting with 'Puppet Name' should# HEADER: not be deleted, as doing so could cause duplicate cron jobs.
# Puppet Name: test
3 4 * * * /bin/echo test

# cat /tmp/2.pp
cron { "test":
  command => "/bin/echo test",
  minute  => "5",
}

# puppet -v /tmp/2.pp
notice: //Cron[test]/minute: minute changed '3' to '5'

# cat /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE - edit the master and reinstall.
# (- installed on Sun Jul 27 23:51:11 2008)
# (Cron version -- $Id: crontab.c,v 2.13 1994/01/17 03:20:37 vixie Exp $)
# HEADER: This file was autogenerated at Sun Jul 27 23:51:11 +0300 2008 by puppet.
# HEADER: While it can still be managed manually, it is definitely not recommended.
# HEADER: Note particularly that the comments starting with 'Puppet Name' should# HEADER: not be deleted, as doing so could cause duplicate cron jobs.
# Puppet Name: test
5 4 * * * /bin/echo test

Notice that hour is still set to 4, not *!