Not sure if this is nuts, bad practice or just insane, but today I found myself in need to load the provider for a resource I was dependent on, in a custom provider.

Take the following example:

provision {'worker':
  provider  => 'puppet',
  provision => 'worker.pp'
  require   => Chroot['worker'],
  chroot    => Chroot['worker']
}

Let me give you some context: Puppet is running puppet inside a debootstrap lvm-snapshot schroot. I know, mental.

I needed the instance of the chroot provider (in this case, the schroot provider), inside my “provision” provider so I can run the puppet apply in the right schroot source.

Anyway, here’s how I’ve done it:

def provision
  resource.catalog.resource('chroot', resource[:chroot].title).provider.source_exec(puppet_apply_cmd)
end

Is there a nicer way of doing this?