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Manifests are used to define which objects to create. Objects are instances of types, like in object orientated programming languages. An object is represented by the combination of type + slash + object name: file/etc/cdist-configured is an object of the type file with the name etc/cdist-configured.
All available types can be found in the conf/type/ directory, use ls conf/type to get the list of available types. If you have setup the MANPATH correctly, you can use man cdist-reference to access the reference with pointers to the manpages.
Types in manifests are used like normal command line tools. Let’s have a look at an example:
# Create object of type __package with the parameter state = removed __package apache2 --state removed # Same with the __directory type __directory /tmp/cdist --state present
These two lines create objects, which will later be used to realise the configuration on the target host.
Manifests are executed locally as a shell script using /bin/sh -e. The resulting objects are stored in an internal database.
The same object can be redefined in multiple different manifests as long as the parameters are exactly the same.
In general, manifests are used to define which types are used depending on given conditions.
Cdist nows about two types of manifests: The initial manifest and type manifests. The initial manifest is used to define, which configurations to apply to which hosts. The type manifests are used to create objects from types. More about manifests in types can be found in cdist-type(7).
The initial manifest is the entry point for cdist to find out, which objects to configure on the selected host. Cdist searches for the initial manifest at conf/manifest/init.
Within this initial manifest, you define, which objects should be created on which host. To distinguish between hosts, you can use the environment variable __target_host. Let’s have a look at a simple example:
__cdistmarker
case "$__target_host" in
localhost)
__directory /home/services/kvm-vm --parents yes
;;
esacThis manifest says: Independent of the host, always use the type __cdistmarker, which creates the file /etc/cdist-configured, with the timestamp as content. The directory /home/services/kvm-vm, including all parent directories, is only created on the host localhost.
As you can see, there is no magic involved, the manifest is simple shell code that utilises cdist types. Every available type can be executed like a normal command.
If you want to split up your initial manifest, you can create other shell scripts in conf/manifest/ and include them in conf/manifest/init. Cdist provides the environment variable __manifest to reference to the directory containing the initial manifest (see cdist-reference(7)).
The following example would include every file with a .sh suffix:
# Include *.sh
for manifest in $__manifest/*.sh; do
# And source scripts into our shell environment
. "$manifest"
doneIf you want to describe that something requires something else, just setup the variable "require" to contain the requirements. Multiple requirements can be added white space seperated.
# No dependency __file /etc/cdist-configured # Require above object require="__file/etc/cdist-configured" __link /tmp/cdist-testfile \ --source /etc/cdist-configured --type symbolic # Require two objects require="__file/etc/cdist-configured __link/tmp/cdist-testfile" \ __file /tmp/cdist-another-testfile
All objects that are created in a type manifest are automatically required from the type that is calling them. This is called "autorequirement" in cdist jargon.
The initial manifest may for instance contain the following code:
# Always create this file, so other sysadmins know cdist is used.
__file /etc/cdist-configured --type file
case "$__target_host" in
my.server.name)
__file /root/bin/ --type directory
__file /etc/issue.net --type file --source "$__manifest/issue.net
;;
esacThe manifest of the type "nologin" may look like this:
__file /etc/nologin --type file --source "$__type/files/default.nologin"