History

IRC Channel

There are two Puppet-related IRC channels: #puppet and #puppet-dev. The #puppet IRC channel is located on the Freenode IRC network (see the Freenode server list). It is the hang out place for both users of Puppet (though you’ll find most of the developers in there too). The #puppet-dev channel is also on the Freenode IRC network and is generally devoted to Puppet development discussions. If you have a development question please feel free to pop in.

To keep everything humming along nicely, we have a few simple rules:

  • Before you ask on the channels, please search the wiki, mailing list archives, and the web. Answering the same questions over and over can test the patience of even the most dedicated volunteer.
  • Don’t ask if you can ask a question, just ask your question.
  • Please provide us with the search path you followed while searching the documentation, so we can improve the documentation.
  • If you do not get an answer, please try posting on the mailing list instead. There isn’t always someone awake and alert on the channel who can help.
  • If you do get an answer to your question, please update Documentation Start so others don’t have to ask the same question again and again.
  • Be nice.

Pasting configuration files

It is generally considered bad etiquette to paste large amounts of text into an IRC channel, as it takes up all the screen space and breaks the flow of conversation for other users. Instead, please use a “pastie” service such as http://pastie.org/ and just paste the URL to your text into the channel.

To aid in this there is a bot in the #puppet channel called pastie that you can call to get a suitable “pastie” URL. Type pastie: help for more information.

Automated Assistance

There is a bot in the #puppet and #puppet-dev channels, called gepetto (the puppetmaster). It’s purpose is to log the channel, help with routine questions, and whatever else IRC bots usually do. Try asking gepetto for help with “gepetto: help”.

The bot is run by James Turnbull; if there are any problems, please report them to james@lovedthanlost.net.

Linking to Redmine and Trac

The gepetto bot has the ability to dereference Trac and Redmine shortcut links to the full link to the Puppet website. The bot currently understands linking to tickets, wiki pages and Git changesets using

NN, wiki:WikiPage, and changeset:GitSHA respectively.

If you’re talking to somebody (you start the message with their nick and a colon) then gepetto will also talk to them to give the URL. So if you say freddy: Take a look at #93 then gepetto will say freddy: #93 is http://reductivelabs….

Logs

The channels are logged by the channel bot, gepetto, and HTMLized archives of the log messages are available of the #puppet channel at http://pelin.lovedthanlost.net/puppet/ and the #puppet-dev channel at http://pelin.lovedthanlost.net/puppetdev/

Ops

If you need a chanop for some reason, ask for lak or jamesturnbull.