Comment 2 for bug 1768864

# id puppet
uid=112(puppet) gid=119(puppet) groups=119(puppet)

$ puppet resource -e user danisch

user { 'danisch':
  ensure => present,
  uid => '1015',
  gid => '119',
  comment => 'Hadmut Danisch',
  shell => '/bin/bash',
  home => '/home/danisch'
}

When saving that on a bionic tree I get:
# puppet resource -e user danisch
Notice: Compiled catalog for b.lxd in environment production in 0.03 seconds
Info: Applying configuration version '1525418020'
Notice: /Stage[main]/Main/User[danisch]/ensure: created
Notice: Applied catalog in 0.13 seconds

Entries in passwd is
danisch:x:1015:119:Hadmut Danisch:/home/danisch:/bin/bash

Shouldn't that run the same backend code, but it works just fine?

What kind of configuration do you use exactly, could it be that upstream changed to no more support an old format?

Can you reduce your config to try just the user management and then check what the differences are to my example above?

Ubuntu makes no delta to upstream puppet in regard to the functionality discussed here which is why I assume it is due to the newer version, but maybe we can find the difference and resolve this for you.