38 lines
1.2 KiB
Markdown
38 lines
1.2 KiB
Markdown
[[!meta title="Why should I use cdist?"]]
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There are several motivations to use cdist, these
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are probably the most popular ones.
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## Known language
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Cdist is being configured in
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[shell script](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_script).
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Shell script is used by UNIX system engineers for decades.
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So when cdist is introduced, your staff does not need to learn a new
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[DSL](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain-specific_language)
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or programming language.
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## Powerful language
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Not only is shell scripting widely known by system engineers,
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but it is also a very powerful language. Here are some features
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which make daily work easy:
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* Configuration can react dynamicly on explored values
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* High level string manipulation (using sed, awk, grep)
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* Conditional support (**if, case**)
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* Loop support (**for, while**)
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* Support for dependencies between cdist types
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## More than shell scripting
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If you compare regular shell scripting with cdist, there is one major
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difference: When using cdist types,
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the results are
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[idempotent](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idempotence).
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In practise, that means it does not matter in which order you
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call cdist types, the result is always the same.
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[[!tag cdist unix]]
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