What is one reason to use a custom function in Puppet?

Utilizing a custom function in Puppet is largely about enhancing the clarity and maintainability of your code. By moving complex logic into custom functions, manifests remain succinct and focused on configuration management rather than intricate scripting or data processing. This separation allows for better readability, easier debugging, and the ability to reuse functions across different manifests, aiding in the overall organization of your Puppet codebase.

Additionally, while it is not the primary purpose, employing custom functions does not inherently increase compilation time; rather, they can streamline the compilation process by abstracting complicated logic away from the main manifests. Therefore, the essence of using custom functions lies in maintaining clean and manageable manifests, which helps teams to collaborate more effectively and reduces potential errors during configuration management.