Package definition

package:
    name: <string>|<list>          # The package name(s)
    ensure: installed|removed      # Action
    packagemanager: <string>       # Backend
    after: <string>|<list>

Name

You can specify one or more packages in this field:

package:
    name: vim
    ensure: installed
---
package:
    name:
        - apache2
        - php5
        - mysql-server
    ensure: installed

The names will be expanded just before the parse stage so they are treated ass seperate definitions. This means you can do after: package::php5 and it will depend only on that package

ensure

The ensure parameter defines what needs to be done with the package.

installed

Make sure the package is installed.

removed

Remove the package if it exists.

Packagemanager

This defines what backend will be used when installing or removing the packages.

autodetect

This is the default value. It will use the primary package manager for the current Linux distribution to install the package. This will mean apt for debian like operating systems and pacman for Archlinux etc.

apt

Use apt-get to install the packages. TinyCM will always specify the --no-install-recommends option for apt to prevent extra packages to get installed (for example the complete xorg display server in some extreme cases)

pacman

Use pacman to install the packages.