Hack puppet to do stuff over ssh.

output

snack(~) % ruby puppet-package-over-ssh.rb snack apache2.2-common latest
Package[apache2.2-common] ensure => latest status: {:status=>"installed", :provider=>:apt, :error=>"ok", :desired=>"install", :name=>"apache2.2-common", :ensure=>"2.2.14-5ubuntu8.3"}

snack(~) % ruby puppet-package-over-ssh.rb snack sl latest
Package[sl] ensure => latest status: {:status=>"installed", :provider=>:apt, :error=>"ok", :desired=>"install", :name=>"sl", :ensure=>"3.03-16"}


# There's a bug where 'latest' seems to be ignored. If you try to use 'absent' it still installs anyway. I'm not familiar with puppet internals so this bug should be easy to fix.
snack(~) % ruby puppet-package-over-ssh.rb snack sl absent 
Package[sl] ensure => absent status: {:status=>"installed", :provider=>:apt, :error=>"ok", :desired=>"install", :name=>"sl", :ensure=>"3.03-16"}

puppet-package-over-ssh.rb

require "rubygems"
require "puppet"

$host = ARGV.shift
name = ARGV.shift
ensurevalue = ARGV.shift
  
 
ARGV.length > 0 ? hasstatus = true : hasstatus = false

# Monkeypatch so our executed commands get sent over ssh.
module Puppet::Util
  alias original_execute execute

  def execute(command, *args)
    # Shell escapings
    newcommand = command.collect { |arg| arg.to_s.gsub(/["$\\]/) { "\\#{$&}" } } \
                        .collect { |arg| "\"#{arg}\"" }

    # ssh to our host, run sudo.
    newcommand = ["ssh", $host, "sudo", *newcommand]
    original_execute(newcommand, *args)
  end
end
 
begin
  package = Puppet::Type.type(:package).new(:name => name, :ensure => ensurevalue)
  provider = package.provider
  provider.update

  puts("#{package} ensure => #{ensurevalue} status: #{provider.properties.inspect}")
rescue Exception => e
  puts("Could not ensure => #{ensurevalue} package #{package}: #{e}")
end

sudo logs from the run

# apache2.2-common => latest
Oct 29 10:54:41 snack sudo:      jls : TTY=unknown ; PWD=/home/jls ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/rpm --version
Oct 29 10:54:41 snack sudo:      jls : TTY=unknown ; PWD=/home/jls ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/rpm -ql rpm
Oct 29 10:54:42 snack sudo:      jls : TTY=unknown ; PWD=/home/jls ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/rpm --version
Oct 29 10:54:43 snack sudo:      jls : TTY=unknown ; PWD=/home/jls ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/rpm -ql rpm
Oct 29 10:54:44 snack sudo:      jls : TTY=unknown ; PWD=/home/jls ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/dpkg-query -W --showformat ${Status} ${Package} ${Version}\n apache2.2-common