www.nico.schottelius.org/software/cdist.mdwn

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[[!toc levels=2]]

## Introduction

cdist is an alternative to other configuration management systems like
[cfengine](http://www.cfengine.org/),
[bcfg2](http://trac.mcs.anl.gov/projects/bcfg2),
[chef](http://wiki.opscode.com/display/chef/)
and [puppet](http://www.puppetlabs.com/).
But cdist ticks differently, here is the feature set that makes it unique: 

[[!table  data="""
Keywords | Description
Simplicity | There is only one type to extend cdist called ***type***
Design | Type and core cleanly seperated
Design | Sticks completly to the KISS (keep it simple and stupid) paradigma
Design | Meaningful error messages - do not lose time debugging error messages
Design | Consistency in behaviour, naming and documentation
Design | No surprise factor: Only do what is obviously clear, no magic
Design | Define target state, do not focus on methods or scripts
Small core | cdist's core is very small - less code, less bugs
Fast development | Focus on straightforwardness of type creation is a main development objective
Requirements, Scalability | No central server needed, cdist operates in push mode and can be run from any computer
Requirements, Scalability, Upgrade | cdist only needs to be updated on the master, not on the target hosts
Requirements, Security | Uses well-know [SSH](http://www.openssh.com/) as transport protocol
Requirements, Simplicity | Requires only shell and SSH server on the target
UNIX | Reuse of existing tools like cat, find, mv, ...
UNIX, familar environment, documentation | Is available as manpages and HTML
UNIX, simplicity, familar environment | cdist is written in POSIX shell
UNIX, simplicity, familar environment | cdist is configured in POSIX shell
"""]]

### Documentation

The cdist documentation is included as manpages in the distribution.
You can [browse the documentation for the latest version online](man) as well.

### OS support

cdist was tested or is know to run on at least

 * [Archlinux](http://www.archlinux.org/)
 * [Debian](http://www.debian.org/)
 * [Fedora](http://fedoraproject.org/)
 * [Gentoo](http://www.gentoo.org/)
 * [Mac OS X](http://www.apple.com/macosx/)
 * [OpenBSD](http://www.openbsd.org)
 * [Redhat](http://www.redhat.com/)
 * [Ubuntu](http://www.ubuntu.com/)


## Requirements

### Server

 * A posix like shell
 * SSH-Client

### Client ("target host")

 * A posix like shell
 * SSH-Server


## Getting cdist

You can clone cdist from git, which gives you the advantage of having
a version control in place for development of your own stuff as well.

### Installation

To install cdist, execute the following commands:

    git clone git://git.schottelius.org/cdist
    cd cdist
    export PATH=$PATH:$(pwd -P)/bin

    # If you want the manpages (requires gmake and asciidoc to be installed)
    ./build.sh man
    export MANPATH=$MANPATH:$(pwd -P)/doc/man


Afterwards you can run ***cdist-quickstart*** to get an impression on
how to use cdist.

### Available versions

There are at least the following branches available:

 * master: the development branch
 * 1.6: New types, cleaned up \_\_package* types, internal cleanup

Old versions:

 * 1.5: Focus on object orientation instead of global stage orientation
 * 1.4: Support for redefiniton of objects (if equal)
 * 1.3: Support for local and remote code execution (current stable)
 * 1.2: Dependencies supported
 * 1.1: \_\_file to \_\_file, \_\_directory, \_\_link migration
 * 1.0: First official release

Other branches may be available for features or bugfixes, but they
may vanish at any point. To select a specific branch use

    # Generic code
    git checkout -b <name> origin/<name>
    
    # Stay on a specific version
    version=1.6
    git checkout -b $version origin/$version

### Mirrors

 * git://github.com/telmich/cdist.git ([github](https://github.com/telmich/cdist))
 * git://git.sans.ethz.ch/cdist ([sans](http://git.sans.ethz.ch/?p=cdist;a=summary))

## Update

To upgrade cdist in the current branch use

    git pull

    # Also update the manpages
    ./build.sh man
    export MANPATH=$MANPATH:$(pwd -P)/doc/man

If you stay on a version branche (i.e. 1.0, 1.1., ...), nothing should break.
The master branch on the other hand is the development branch and may not be
working, break your setup or eat the tree in your garden.

### Upgrading from 1.5 to 1.6

* If you used **\_\_package_apt --preseed**, you need to use the new
  type **\_\_debconf_set_selections** instead.
* The **\_\_package** types accepted either --state deinstalled or
  --state uninstaaled. Starting with 1.6, it was made consistently
  to --state removed.

### Upgrading from 1.3 to 1.5

No incompatiblities.

### Upgrading from 1.2 to 1.3

Rename **gencode** of every type to **gencode-remote**.

### Upgrading from 1.1 to 1.2

No incompatiblities.

### Upgrading from 1.0 to 1.1

In 1.1 the type **\_\_file** was split into **\_\_directory**, **\_\_file** and
**\_\_link**. The parameter **--type** was removed from **\_\_file**. Thus you
need to replace **\_\_file** calls in your manifests:

 * Remove --type from all \_\_file calls
 * If type was symlink, use \_\_link and --type symbolic
 * If type was directory, use \_\_directory


## Support

### IRC

You can join the development ***IRC channel***
[#cLinux on irc.freenode.org](irc://irc.freenode.org/#cLinux).

### Mailing list

Bug reports, questions, patches, etc. should be send to the
[cdist mailing list](http://l.schottelius.org/mailman/listinfo/cdist).

## Commercial support

You can request commercial support for cdist from
[my company](http://firma.schottelius.org/english/).

## Used by

If you're using cdist, feel free to send a report to the mailing list.
Interesting information are for instance

 * Which services do you manage?
 * How many machines do you manage?
 * What are the pros/cons you see in cdist?
 * General comments/critics

### Nico Schottelius, Systems Group ETH Zurich and privately

Yes, I'm actually eating my own dogfood and currently managing

 * [plone](http://plone.org/) (cms)
 * [moinmoin](http://moinmo.in/) (wiki)
 * [apache](http://httpd.apache.org/) (webserver)
 * [kerberos (mit)](http://web.mit.edu/kerberos/) (authentication)
 * [ircd-hybrid](http://www.ircd-hybrid.org/) (chat)
 * [stunnel](http://stunnel.mirt.net/) (SSL tunnel)
 * [mercurial-server](http://www.lshift.net/mercurial-server.html) (version control)
 * [xfce](http://www.xfce.org/) (lightweight desktop environment)
 * [slim](http://slim.berlios.de/) (graphical login manager for X11)

with cdist on a total of **20** production machines of the
[Systems Group](http://www.systems.ethz.ch) at the
[ETH Zurich](http://www.ethz.ch) as well at home.

### Steven Armstrong, CBRG ETH Zurich

The CBRG is managing most of their compute clusters with cdist.