This puppet module provides you with a define called ‘directory’ that allows your to recrusively create directories and ensure they all exist without having to manually do it. For example, If you want to create “/some/multi/level/path”, normally you would have to create four individual file resources like this:

file { “/some”:
ensure = directory
}
file { “/some/multi”:
ensure = directory,
require = File[“/some”]
}
file { “/some/multi/level”:
ensure = directory,
require = File[“/some/multi”],
}
file { “/some/multi/level/path”:
ensure = directory,
require = File[“/some/multi/level”],
owner = puppet,
group = puppet,
mode = 0700,
}

My god that is painful! With this module installed, the headache is gone. The same behavior is provided like this:
directory { “/some/multi/level/path”:
owner = puppet,
group = puppet,
mode = 0700,
recurse = true, }

You can also utilize the option ‘inherit = true’. This will propagate the owner, group, and mode up the tree (but it WILL NOT EVER touch “/”).