How does one set alternative entry back to 'auto' mode?

[felipe1982]

When I first set up the alternative_entry, mode is set to 'auto' by default. Any subsequent change of the path forced mode to be manual. only deleting and recreating the entry (absent && present) makes it auto again.

Is there a better way?

[igalic]

imo, there should be an ensure => auto

[jyaworski]

Looking in the file type, it appears as if we can handle alternative 'ensure' values in the type itself.

https://github.com/puppetlabs/puppet/blob/master/lib/puppet/type/file.rb

Overriding 'present' to be some sane default may be useful as well. The type module inspects $name to see if it's a file or a directory.