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cleanup readme

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Signed-off-by: Nico Schottelius <nico@kr.ethz.ch>
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Nico Schottelius 2011-04-02 01:49:52 +02:00
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README
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@ -24,57 +24,34 @@ 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
it ticks differently:
and [puppet](http://www.puppetlabs.com/), but it ticks differently.
Here are some features that makes it unique:
* cdist sticks completly to the KISS (keep it simple and stupid) paradigma
* cdist's core is very small (< 1k lines of code)
* There is only one type to extend cdist called ***type***.
* One main development target: ***It must be incredible easy to add new types.***
* cdist is UNIX
* It reuses existing tools like cat, find, mv, ...
* cdist's documentation is bundled as manpages
* cdist is written in POSIX shell
* No special requirements like high level interpreters needed on server or target
[[!table data="""
Simplicity | There is only one type to extend cdist called ***type***
Design | Type and core cleanly seperated
Design | cdist 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 | cdist requires only SSH and a shell on the target
Requirements |
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.
### Architecture
* Push mode (server pushes configuration)
* User defines configuration in shell scripts (called ***manifests***)
* Generates internal configuration (cconfig style)
* Uses ***types*** to generate code be executed on the target
* And finally executes the code on the target / applies the configuration
### Features
* Elegant code and clean design
* Type and core cleanly seperated
* Small codebase in core
* Good documentation (man pages)
* Consistency in behaviour, naming and documentation
* Meaningful error messages
* Either standard error messages from tools or added description for clearification
* The no surprise factor
* No magic guessing of what the user wants
* Simple and well-known DSL
* Posix shell
* Easy integration into bare metal installations
* requires only ssh + sh
* Easy upgrade
* ***There is no need to update cdist on target hosts!***
* cdist only needs to be updated on the master server(s)
* Very easy to extend
* Can be done via types, which can be stacked on top of others
* Reuse of existing functionality
* sh, ssh, find, rm, mv, ...
* Very easy to debug
* Just add set -x in the scripts
### OS support
cdist was tested or is know to run on at least