Puppet

In the current implementation of interfaces, in order to pass an option to an interface action, one must set the option on the interface object itself, either like this:

interface = Puppet::Interface.interface(:<interface_name>)
interface.options = <options_hash>
interface.<action>(<args>)

Or like this:

Puppet::Interface::<Interface_name>.options = <options_hash>
Puppet::Interface::<Interface_name>.<action>(<args>)

In addition to being clumsy, this places the options in a location that is effectively global, so it carries all the disadvantages of global variables. For example, if the implementation of action 1 calls action 2, and the implementation of action 2 changes the options and calls action 3, then there is a danger that the implementor of action 2 will forget to restore the options back to the initial state before returning to action 1.

Also, all kinds of havoc is likely to ensue if this mechanism is ever used in a multithreaded context.

It would be far better if we passed the options to the action using the conventional Ruby options hash mechanism:

Puppet::Interface::<Interface_name>.<action>(<args>, <options_hash>)