16. Messaging

16.1. Description

cdist has a simple but powerful way of allowing communication between the initial manifest and types as well as types and types.

Whenever execution is passed from cdist to one of the scripts described below, cdist generate 2 new temporary files and exports the environment variables __messages_in and __messages_out to point to them.

Before handing over the control, the content of the global message file is copied into the file referenced by $__messages_in.

After cdist gained control back, the content of the file referenced by $__messages_out is appended to the global message file.

This way overwriting any of the two files by accident does not interfere with other types.

The order of execution is not defined unless you create dependencies between the different objects (see cdist manifest) and thus you can only react reliably on messages by objects that you depend on.

16.2. Availability

Messaging is possible between all local scripts:

• initial manifest
• type/manifest
• type/gencode-local
• type/gencode-remote

16.3. Examples

When you want to emit a message use:

echo "something" >> "$__messages_out"

When you want to react on a message use:

if grep -q "^__your_type/object/id:something" "$__messages_in"; then
    echo "I do something else"
fi

Some real life examples:

# Reacting on changes from block for keepalive
if grep -q "^__block/keepalive-vrrp" "$__messages_in"; then
    echo /etc/init.d/keepalived restart
fi

# Reacting on changes of configuration files
if grep -q "^__file/etc/one" $__messages_in; then
    echo 'for init in /etc/init.d/opennebula*; do $init restart; done'
fi

Restart sshd on changes

os="$(cat "$__global/explorer/os")"

case "$os" in
    centos|redhat|suse)
        restart="/etc/init.d/sshd restart"
    ;;
    debian|ubuntu)
        restart="/etc/init.d/ssh restart"
    ;;
    *)
        cat << eof >&2
Unsupported os $os.
If you would like to have this type running on $os,
you can either develop the changes and send a pull
request or ask for a quote at www.ungleich.ch
eof
        exit 1
    ;;
esac

if grep -q "^__key_value/PermitRootLogin" "$__messages_in"; then
    echo $restart
fi