Fact file was parsed but returned an empty data set - ruby

Question

For my current module, I need to check if php version 5 or 7 is installed and created a fact for this. The fact file is stored in the modules directory in facts.d/packageversion.rb and has the following content:
#!/usr/bin/ruby
require 'facter'
Facter.add(:php_version) do
setcode do
if File.directory? '/etc/php5'
5
else
if File.directory? '/etc/php7'
7
else
0
end
end
end
end
But I can't use it in my module. In Puppet agent log, i get this error:
Fact file /var/lib/puppet/facts.d/packageversion.rb was parsed but
returned an empty data set
How can I solve this?

Answer 1

facts.d is the module directory for external facts. You could place this file into the external facts directory, but the expected output would need to be key-value pairs. This is not happening, so Puppet is not finding a data set for the fact. https://docs.puppet.com/facter/3.6/custom_facts.html#executable-facts-----unix
You have written this fact as a custom fact and not an external fact. Therefore, it needs to be placed inside the lib/facter directory in your module instead. Then it will function correctly. I notice this important information seems to have been removed from the latest Facter documentation, which probably lends to your confusion.
Also, consider using an elsif in your code for clarity and optimization:
if File.directory? '/etc/php5'
5
elsif File.directory? '/etc/php7'
7
else
0
end

Answer 2

What Matt Schuchard said.
Also, you might consider that the Approved Vox Populi Puppet module uses this code for PHP version:
Facter.add(:phpversion) do
setcode do
output = Facter::Util::Resolution.exec('php -v')
unless output.nil?
output.split("\n").first.split(' ').
select { |x| x =~ %r{^(?:(\d+)\.)(?:(\d+)\.)?(\*|\d+)} }.first
end
end
end
Note that Facter::Util::Resolution.exec is deprecated in favour of Facter::Core::Execution.exec.
Aside from that, you might consider this a better way of getting the PHP version.