Saltstack "Malformed topfile" with GitFS - salt-stack

Question

I'm trying to get Saltstack working with GitFS integration on Debian Squeeze. Salt master and minions are running and GitFS works via GitPython (pip install 'GitPython==0.3.2.RC1').
Issue: I receive the error message Malformed topfile (state declarations not formed as a list) when requesting the top file via salt-call -l debug state.show_top. However, if i clone the repository locally and use fileserver_backend: roots it works fine.
Some debugging code:
root#/# salt-call -l debug state.show_top
[DEBUG ] Reading configuration from /etc/salt/minion
[DEBUG ] Configuration file path: /etc/salt/minion
[DEBUG ] Reading configuration from /etc/salt/minion
[DEBUG ] Decrypting the current master AES key
[DEBUG ] Loaded minion key: /etc/salt/pki/minion/minion.pem
[DEBUG ] Loaded minion key: /etc/salt/pki/minion/minion.pem
[DEBUG ] Mako not available
[DEBUG ] Decrypting the current master AES key
[DEBUG ] Loaded minion key: /etc/salt/pki/minion/minion.pem
[DEBUG ] Reading configuration from /etc/salt/minion
[DEBUG ] Decrypting the current master AES key
[DEBUG ] Loaded minion key: /etc/salt/pki/minion/minion.pem
[DEBUG ] Loaded minion key: /etc/salt/pki/minion/minion.pem
[INFO ] Loading fresh modules for state activity
[DEBUG ] Fetching file from saltenv 'development', ** attempting ** 'salt://top.sls'
[INFO ] Fetching file from saltenv 'base', ** skipped ** latest already in cache 'salt://top.sls'
[DEBUG ] Jinja search path: ['/var/cache/salt/minion/files/base']
[DEBUG ] Rendered data from file: /var/cache/salt/minion/files/base/top.sls:
base:
'*':
- system.test
production:
'N#aws':
- match: compound
- system
'N#aws and G#roles:redis':
- match: compound
- redis.server
# TODO:
'N#aws and G#roles:queue':
- match: compound
- rabbitmq
# TODO:
'N#aws and G#roles:cronmaster':
- match: compound
- php.ng.cli
# TODO:
'N#aws and G#roles:consumer':
- match: compound
- php.ng.cli
'N#aws and G#roles:app_bob':
- match: compound
- app.bob
'N#aws and G#roles:app_alice':
- match: compound
- app.alice
'N#aws and G#roles:mysql':
- match: compound
- mysql
development:
'vagrant':
- devtools
- redis.server
- mysql
- solr
- app.bob
- app.alice
nodegroup:
aws: 'G#provider:aws'
avnet: 'G#provider:avnet'
[DEBUG ] Results of YAML rendering:
OrderedDict([('base', OrderedDict([('*', ['system.test'])])), ('production', OrderedDict([('N#aws', [OrderedDict([('match', 'compound')]), 'system']), ('N#aws and G#roles:redis', [OrderedDict([('match', 'compound')]), 'redis.server']), ('N#aws and G#roles:queue', [OrderedDict([('match', 'compound')]), 'rabbitmq']), ('N#aws and G#roles:cronmaster', [OrderedDict([('match', 'compound')]), 'php.ng.cli']), ('N#aws and G#roles:consumer', [OrderedDict([('match', 'compound')]), 'php.ng.cli']), ('N#aws and G#roles:app_bob', [OrderedDict([('match', 'compound')]), 'app.bob']), ('N#aws and G#roles:app_alice', [OrderedDict([('match', 'compound')]), 'app.alice']), ('N#aws and G#roles:mysql', [OrderedDict([('match', 'compound')]), 'mysql'])])), ('development', OrderedDict([('vagrant', ['devtools', 'redis.server', 'mysql', 'solr', 'app.bob', 'app.alice'])])), ('nodegroup', OrderedDict([('aws', 'G#provider:aws'), ('avnet', 'G#provider:avnet')]))])
[DEBUG ] LazyLoaded .returner
[DEBUG ] Decrypting the current master AES key
[DEBUG ] Loaded minion key: /etc/salt/pki/minion/minion.pem
local:
- Malformed topfile (state declarations not formed as a list)
- Malformed topfile (state declarations not formed as a list)
root#/srv# salt-call --versions-report
Salt: 2014.7.1
Python: 2.6.6 (r266:84292, Dec 26 2010, 22:31:48)
Jinja2: 2.5.5
M2Crypto: 0.20.1
msgpack-python: 0.1.10
msgpack-pure: Not Installed
pycrypto: 2.1.0
libnacl: Not Installed
PyYAML: 3.09
ioflo: Not Installed
PyZMQ: 13.1.0
RAET: Not Installed
ZMQ: 3.2.3
Mako: Not Installed

Answer 1

It appears the issue is related to the nodegroups. After some debugging in the salt source code the following turned up:
[DEBUG ] Loaded minion key: /etc/salt/pki/minion/minion.pem
local:
- G#provider:aws
- Malformed topfile (state declarations not formed as a list)
- G#provider:avnet
- Malformed topfile (state declarations not formed as a list)
After changing the nodegroup to use a list, everything worked fine.