Provider does not validate that the live value was successfully applied

[rybal06]

When something fails to apply, module does not provide an error, instead keeps trying to apply the same setting on subsequent puppet agent runs.

Here is an example, setting the kernel.shmall to a value larger than is supported by the kernel:
Sysctl[kernel.shmall]/value: changed live value from '18446744073692774399' to '999999999999999999999999'

This reports success, but in checking the kernel value, it was not changed:
# sysctl -A | grep kernel.shmall kernel.shmall = 18446744073692774399

When attempting to change the setting directly, the kernel reports an error message as expected:
# sysctl -w kernel.shmall=999999999999999999999999
sysctl: setting key "kernel.shmall": Invalid argument
kernel.shmall = 999999999999999999999999
It would be helpful for the module to report an error rather than continually reporting that it changed the live value on each puppet run (becoming non-idempotent).

[raphink]

Are you maybe using the silent => true option? Otherwise, it is supposed to fail.

[rybal06]

It is being called from inside a define using these parameters, silent is not being passed:

  sysctl { $title:
    ensure => present,
    value  => $value,
    target => $_sysctl_file,
  }

[raphink]

And you're not setting silent => true by default somewhere?