2 files changed, 5 insertions, 2 deletions
diff --git a/lib/puppet/application/resource.rb b/lib/puppet/application/resource.rb
index f55caa58a..bc4faf5e4 100644
--- a/lib/puppet/application/resource.rb
+++ b/lib/puppet/application/resource.rb
@@ -81,6 +81,9 @@ class Puppet::Application::Resource < Puppet::Application
         [ Puppet::Resource.new( type, name, :parameters => params ).save( key ) ]
       end
     else
+      if type == "file"
+        raise "Listing all file instances is not supported.  Please specify a file or directory, e.g. puppet resource file /etc"
+      end
       Puppet::Resource.search( key, {} )
     end.map(&format).join("\n")
 
diff --git a/lib/puppet/type/file.rb b/lib/puppet/type/file.rb
index 630ebe5de..e91929cf8 100644
--- a/lib/puppet/type/file.rb
+++ b/lib/puppet/type/file.rb
@@ -310,8 +310,8 @@ Puppet::Type.newtype(:file) do
     super(path.gsub(/\/+/, '/').sub(/\/$/, ''))
   end
 
-  def self.instances(base = '/')
-    return self.new(:name => base, :recurse => true, :recurselimit => 1, :audit => :all).recurse_local.values
+  def self.instances
+    return []
   end
 
   @depthfirst = false