change from 'notrun' to ['0'] failed: undefined method `close!' for nil:NilClass (corrective)

[michaelday008]

I hope this is the correct place to post this question. I have a puppet module and I can't figure out why it is failing.

Here is the relevant code that is failing. There is a bunch of other code that runs successfully before this, but I've excluded it for brevity. If I comment out the below lines, the rest of the module completes successfully:

exec { 'Sysmon':
    command => 'c:\installers\sysmon\Sysmon64.exe -accepteula -i c:\installers\sysmon\sysmonconfig-export.xml'
  }

The output I get is

C:\installers\sysmon>puppet agent -t
Info: Using environment 'production'
Info: Retrieving pluginfacts
Info: Retrieving plugin
Info: Loading facts
Notice: Requesting catalog from puppet:8140
Notice: Catalog compiled by puppet-01-dc1.prod.mydomain.ca
Info: Caching catalog for win-ad01.prod.mydomain.ca
Info: Applying configuration version '1715966702'
Error: undefined method `close!' for nil:NilClass
Error: /Stage[main]/Windows_splunk/Exec[Sysmon]/returns: change from 'notrun' to ['0'] failed: undefined method `close!' for nil:NilClass (corrective)
Notice: Applied catalog in 2.97 seconds

I know the file is there, because if I change the file path to something that doesn't exist (to troubleshoot), I get a different error:

Error: Could not find command 'c:\installers\system\Sysmon64.exe'
Error: /Stage[main]/Windows_splunk/Exec[Sysmon]/returns: change from 'notrun' to ['0'] failed: Could not find command 'c:\installers\system\Sysmon64.exe'

PDK passes with no errors:

[root@puppet-01-dc1 windows_splunk]# pdk validate
pdk (INFO): Using Ruby 3.2.3
pdk (INFO): Using Puppet 8.6.0
pdk (INFO): Running all available validators...
pdk (INFO): Validator 'puppet-plan-syntax' skipped for '/etc/puppetlabs/code/environments/production/modules/windows_splunk'. No files matching '["plans/**/*.pp"]' found to validate.
pdk (INFO): Validator 'puppet-epp' skipped for '/etc/puppetlabs/code/environments/production/modules/windows_splunk'. No files matching '["**/*.epp"]' found to validate.
pdk (INFO): Validator 'task-name' skipped for '/etc/puppetlabs/code/environments/production/modules/windows_splunk'. No files matching '["tasks/**/*"]' found to validate.
pdk (INFO): Validator 'task-metadata-lint' skipped for '/etc/puppetlabs/code/environments/production/modules/windows_splunk'. No files matching '["tasks/*.json"]' found to validate.
┌ [✔] Running metadata validators ...
├── [✔] Checking metadata syntax (metadata.json tasks/*.json).
└── [✔] Checking module metadata style (metadata.json).
┌ [✔] Running puppet validators ...
├── [✔] Checking Puppet manifest syntax (**/*.pp).
└── [✔] Checking Puppet manifest style (**/*.pp).
┌ [✔] Running ruby validators ...
└── [✔] Checking Ruby code style (**/**.rb).
┌ [✔] Running tasks validators ...
├── [✔] Checking task names (tasks/**/*).
└── [✔] Checking task metadata style (tasks/*.json).
┌ [✔] Running yaml validators ...
└── [✔] Checking YAML syntax (**/*.yaml **/*.yml).
pdk (WARNING): puppet-lint: class not documented (manifests/init.pp:1:1)
pdk (WARNING): puppet-lint: missing trailing comma after last element (manifests/init.pp:21:141)

If I run the command manually from the command line, it succeeds:

C:\installers\sysmon>c:\installers\sysmon\Sysmon64.exe -accepteula -i c:\installers\sysmon\sysmonconfig-export.xml

System Monitor v15.14 - System activity monitor
By Mark Russinovich and Thomas Garnier
Copyright (C) 2014-2024 Microsoft Corporation
Using libxml2. libxml2 is Copyright (C) 1998-2012 Daniel Veillard. All Rights Reserved.
Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com

Loading configuration file with schema version 4.50
Sysmon schema version: 4.90
Configuration file validated.
The service Sysmon64 is already registered. Uninstall Sysmon before reinstalling.

Puppet Version:

C:\installers\sysmon>puppet --version
8.4.0

In short, I'm completely stumped because pdk validates the syntax as good syntax, but the puppet run still fails and the error message is entirely unhelpful.

[elfranne]

You might need to escape blackslash:
exec { 'Sysmon': command => 'c:\\installers\sysmon\\Sysmon64.exe -accepteula -i c:\\installers\\sysmon\\sysmonconfig-export.xml' }

[michaelday008]

This was a bug in puppet. It was fixed in puppetlabs/puppet#9385