9. cdist(1)¶

9.1. NAME¶

cdist - Usable Configuration Management

9.2. SYNOPSIS¶

cdist [-h] [-q] [-v] [-V] {banner,config,shell,install} ...

cdist banner [-h] [-q] [-v]

cdist config [-h] [-q] [-v] [-b] [-C CACHE_PATH_PATTERN] [-c CONF_DIR]
             [-i MANIFEST] [-j [JOBS]] [-n] [-o OUT_PATH]
             [--remote-copy REMOTE_COPY] [--remote-exec REMOTE_EXEC]
             [-f HOSTFILE] [-p] [-r REMOTE_OUT_PATH] [-s]
             [host [host ...]]

cdist install [-h] [-q] [-v] [-b] [-C CACHE_PATH_PATTERN] [-c CONF_DIR]
              [-i MANIFEST] [-j [JOBS]] [-n] [-o OUT_PATH]
              [--remote-copy REMOTE_COPY] [--remote-exec REMOTE_EXEC]
              [-f HOSTFILE] [-p] [-r REMOTE_OUT_PATH] [-s]
              [host [host ...]]

cdist shell [-h] [-q] [-v] [-s SHELL]

9.3. DESCRIPTION¶

cdist is the frontend executable to the cdist configuration management. It supports different subcommands as explained below.

It is written in Python so it requires python(1) to be installed. It requires a minimal Python version 3.2.

9.4. GENERAL¶

All commands accept the following options:

-h, --help¶: Show the help screen

-q, --quiet¶: Quiet mode: disables logging, including WARNING and ERROR

-v, --verbose¶: Increase the verbosity level. Every instance of -v increments the verbosity level by one. Its default value is 0 which includes ERROR and WARNING levels. The levels, in order from the lowest to the highest, are: ERROR (-1), WARNING (0), INFO (1), VERBOSE (2), DEBUG (3) TRACE (4 or higher).

-V, --version¶: Show version and exit

9.6. CONFIG/INSTALL¶

Configure/install one or more hosts.

-b, --beta¶

Enable beta functionality.

Can also be enabled using CDIST_BETA env var.

-C CACHE_PATH_PATTERN, --cache-path-pattern CACHE_PATH_PATTERN¶: Sepcify custom cache path pattern. It can also be set by CDIST_CACHE_PATH_PATTERN environment variable. If it is not set then default hostdir is used. For more info on format see CACHE PATH PATTERN FORMAT below.

-c CONF_DIR, --conf-dir CONF_DIR¶: Add a configuration directory. Can be specified multiple times. If configuration directories contain conflicting types, explorers or manifests, then the last one found is used. Additionally this can also be configured by setting the CDIST_PATH environment variable to a colon delimited list of config directories. Directories given with the --conf-dir argument have higher precedence over those set through the environment variable.

-f HOSTFILE, --file HOSTFILE¶: Read specified file for a list of additional hosts to operate on or if '-' is given, read stdin (one host per line). If no host or host file is specified then, by default, read hosts from stdin. For the file format see HOSTFILE FORMAT below.

-i MANIFEST, --initial-manifest MANIFEST¶: Path to a cdist manifest or - to read from stdin

-j [JOBS], --jobs [JOBS]¶: Specify the maximum number of parallel jobs. Global explorers, object prepare and object run are supported (currently in beta).

-n, --dry-run¶: Do not execute code

-o OUT_PATH, --out-dir OUT_PATH¶: Directory to save cdist output in

-p, --parallel¶: Operate on multiple hosts in parallel

-r REMOTE_OUT_PATH, --remote-out-dir REMOTE_OUT_PATH¶: Directory to save cdist output in on the target host

-s, --sequential¶: Operate on multiple hosts sequentially (default)

--remote-copy REMOTE_COPY¶: Command to use for remote copy (should behave like scp)

--remote-exec REMOTE_EXEC¶: Command to use for remote execution (should behave like ssh)

9.6.1. HOSTFILE FORMAT¶

The HOSTFILE contains one host per line. A comment is started with '#' and continues to the end of the line. Any leading and trailing whitespace on a line is ignored. Empty lines are ignored/skipped.

The Hostfile lines are processed as follows. First, all comments are removed. Then all leading and trailing whitespace characters are stripped. If such a line results in empty line it is ignored/skipped. Otherwise, host string is used.

9.6.2. CACHE PATH PATTERN FORMAT¶

Cache path pattern specifies path for a cache directory subdirectory. In the path, '%N' will be substituted by the target host, '%h' will be substituted by the calculated host directory, '%P' will be substituted by the current process id. All format codes that python datetime.strftime() function supports, except '%h', are supported. These date/time directives format cdist config/install start time.

If empty pattern is specified then default calculated host directory is used.

Calculated host directory is a hash of a host cdist operates on.

Resulting path is used to specify cache path subdirectory under which current host cache data are saved.

9.7. SHELL¶

This command allows you to spawn a shell that enables access to the types as commands. It can be thought as an "interactive manifest" environment. See below for example usage. Its primary use is for debugging type parameters.

-s SHELL, --shell SHELL¶: Select shell to use, defaults to current shell. Used shell should be POSIX compatible shell.

9.8. FILES¶

~/.cdist: Your personal cdist config directory. If exists it will be automatically used.
cdist/conf: The distribution configuration directory. It contains official types and explorers. This path is relative to cdist installation directory.

9.9. NOTES¶

cdist detects if host is specified by IPv6 address. If so then remote_copy command is executed with host address enclosed in square brackets (see scp(1)).

9.10. EXAMPLES¶

# Configure ikq05.ethz.ch with debug enabled
% cdist config -vvv ikq05.ethz.ch

# Configure hosts in parallel and use a different configuration directory
% cdist config -c ~/p/cdist-nutzung \
    -p ikq02.ethz.ch ikq03.ethz.ch ikq04.ethz.ch

# Use custom remote exec / copy commands
% cdist config --remote-exec /path/to/my/remote/exec \
    --remote-copy /path/to/my/remote/copy \
    -p ikq02.ethz.ch ikq03.ethz.ch ikq04.ethz.ch

# Configure hosts read from file loadbalancers
% cdist config -f loadbalancers

# Configure hosts read from file web.hosts using 16 parallel jobs
# (beta functionality)
% cdist config -b -j 16 -f web.hosts

# Display banner
cdist banner

# Show help
% cdist --help

# Show Version
% cdist --version

# Enter a shell that has access to emulated types
% cdist shell
% __git
usage: __git --source SOURCE [--state STATE] [--branch BRANCH]
             [--group GROUP] [--owner OWNER] [--mode MODE] object_id

# Install ikq05.ethz.ch with debug enabled
% cdist install -vvv ikq05.ethz.ch

9.11. ENVIRONMENT¶

TMPDIR, TEMP, TMP: Setup the base directory for the temporary directory. See http://docs.python.org/py3k/library/tempfile.html for more information. This is rather useful, if the standard directory used does not allow executables.
CDIST_PATH: Colon delimited list of config directories.
CDIST_LOCAL_SHELL: Selects shell for local script execution, defaults to /bin/sh.
CDIST_REMOTE_SHELL: Selects shell for remote script execution, defaults to /bin/sh.
CDIST_OVERRIDE: Allow overwriting type parameters.
CDIST_ORDER_DEPENDENCY: Create dependencies based on the execution order.
CDIST_REMOTE_EXEC: Use this command for remote execution (should behave like ssh).
CDIST_REMOTE_COPY: Use this command for remote copy (should behave like scp).
CDIST_BETA: Enable beta functionality.
CDIST_CACHE_PATH_PATTERN: Custom cache path pattern.

9.12. EXIT STATUS¶

The following exit values shall be returned:

0 Successful completion.

1 One or more host configurations failed.

9.13. AUTHORS¶

Originally written by Nico Schottelius <nico-cdist--@--schottelius.org> and Steven Armstrong <steven-cdist--@--armstrong.cc>.

9.14. CAVEATS¶

When operating in parallel, either by operating in parallel for each host (-p/--parallel) or by parallel jobs within a host (-j/--jobs), and depending on target SSH server and its configuration you may encounter connection drops. This is controlled with sshd MaxStartups configuration options. You may also encounter session open refusal. This happens with ssh multiplexing when you reach maximum number of open sessions permitted per network connection. In this case ssh will disable multiplexing. This limit is controlled with sshd MaxSessions configuration options. For more details refer to sshd_config(5).

When requirements for the same object are defined in different manifests (see example below), for example, in init manifest and in some other type manifest and those requirements differ then dependency resolver cannot detect dependencies correctly. This happens because cdist cannot prepare all objects first and run all objects afterwards. Some object can depend on the result of type explorer(s) and explorers are executed during object run. cdist will detect such case and display a warning message. An example of such a case:

init manifest:
    __a a
    require="__e/e" __b b
    require="__f/f" __c c
    __e e
    __f f
    require="__c/c" __d d
    __g g
    __h h

type __g manifest:
    require="__c/c __d/d" __a a

Warning message:
    WARNING: cdisttesthost: Object __a/a already exists with requirements:
    /usr/home/darko/ungleich/cdist/cdist/test/config/fixtures/manifest/init-deps-resolver /tmp/tmp.cdist.test.ozagkg54/local/759547ff4356de6e3d9e08522b0d0807/data/conf/type/__g/manifest: set()
    /tmp/tmp.cdist.test.ozagkg54/local/759547ff4356de6e3d9e08522b0d0807/data/conf/type/__g/manifest: {'__c/c', '__d/d'}
    Dependency resolver could not handle dependencies as expected.