puppet: force service restart after configuration file was modified

An alternative to notify is subscribe:

file { "/etc/sshd_config":
    source => "....",
}

service { sshd:
    ensure => running,
    subscribe => File["/etc/sshd_config"],
}

The difference being that the relationship is described from the other end. For example, you might make apache subscribe to /etc/apache/httpd.conf, but you'd make a vhost file notify apache, as your apache class won't know about every vhost you have.

A similar dual-ended situation applies to require and before. It's just a matter of which makes more sense in the particular situation.

As Chad mentioned, if you find puppet constantly trying to start your service, then you need to add a pattern parameter, which is a regex to apply against the list of processes. By default puppet will do a stop and start to restart a service. If you add "hasrestart => true", then it will use the command specified in the "restart" parameter to restart the service.

it seems i've found something:

file { "/etc/sshd_config":
    source => "....",
    notify => Service[sshd]
}

service { sshd:
    ensure => running
}

we'll see how that will work. anyway your thoughts on the subject are welcome.

(I know this is a super old question, but just thought I'd put in my two cents with an (in my opinion) much easier way to do it)

Feel free to use arrow notation as well:

file { "/etc/sshd_config":
  source => "....",
} ~>
service { sshd:
  ensure => running
}

or

File['/etc/sshd_config'] ~> Service['sshd']