random time feature with ranges (random between 1am and 5 am: 1..5)

lib/puppet/parser/functions/assert_empty_hash.rb

@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+module Puppet::Parser::Functions
+newfunction(:assert_empty_hash, :type => :rvalue, :doc => <<-EOS
+This function checks an input struct for undefined hashes in key => hash and assigns {}. This is only a helper function to make a hash.each work if one of the values is undefined
+EOS
+)do |args|
+   fail "Must receive one argument." if args.empty?
+   args.each do |arg|
+     h = Hash.new
+     arg.each_pair do |host, hash|
+       unless hash.is_a? Hash
+         hash = {}
+       end
+       h[host] = hash
+     end
+     return h
+   end
+ end
+end

lib/puppet/parser/functions/rand_from_array.rb

@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+module Puppet::Parser::Functions
+newfunction(:rand_from_array, :type => :rvalue, :doc => <<-EOS
+This function takes either an int or an array as input and returns the int or a
+random element from the array
+EOS
+)do |args|
+  fail "Must receive two argument." if args.empty?
+#++ this works if the input is an array
+  #  return args.sample
+# +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+#  args.flatten!
+  params = []
+  params << args[0]
+  params.flatten!
+  arr = []
+  salt = args[1].sum % 60
+  rnd = Random.new(salt)
+#  rnd = Random.new()
+  params.each do |key|
+    if key.is_a?(String) and key =~ /\d\.\.\d/
+      k = key.split('..')
+      r = Range.new(k[0],k[1]).to_a
+      arr << r
+      arr.flatten!
+    elsif key.is_a?(String)
+      arr << key
+      arr.flatten!
+    elsif key.is_a?(Integer)
+      arr << key.to_s
+      arr.flatten!
+    end
+  end
+  last_i = arr.length - 1
+  return arr[rnd.rand(0..last_i)]
+
+end
+end