I've got a file that notifies the puppet agent. In the network module, the proxy settings are included in the .gemrc file like this: file { "/root/.gemrc": content => "http_proxy: $http_proxy\n", notify => Service['puppet'], } The problem is that puppet stops and does not restart. Aug 31 12:05:13 snch7log01 puppet-agent[1117]: (/Stage[main]/Network/File[/root/.gemrc]/content) content changed '{md5}2b00042f7481c7b056c4b410d28f33cf' to '{md5}60b725f10c9c85c70d97880dfe8191b3' Aug 31 12:05:13 snch7log01 puppet-agent[1117]: Caught TERM; calling stop I assume the code does something like /etc/init.d/puppet stop && /etc/init.d/puppet start Since puppet is not running, it cannot start itself... it kind of makes sense. How to make puppet restart itself when this file changes? Note that this file may not exist as well.