cdist(1)

Nico Schottelius

<nico-cdist--@--schottelius.org>

Table of Contents

1. NAME
2. SYNOPSIS
3. DESCRIPTION
4. GENERAL
5. BANNER
6. CONFIG
7. SHELL
8. EXAMPLES
9. ENVIRONMENT
10. EXIT STATUS
11. SEE ALSO
12. COPYING

1. NAME

cdist - Usable Configuration Management

2. SYNOPSIS

cdist [-h] [-d] [-v] [-V] {banner,config,shell} …

cdist banner [-h] [-d] [-v]

cdist config [-h] [-d] [-V] [-c CONF_DIR] [-i MANIFEST] [-p] [-s] host [host …]

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

3. DESCRIPTION

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

4. GENERAL

All commands except the following options:

-d, --debug: Set log level to debug
-h, --help: Show the help screen

-v, --verbose: Set log level to info, be more verbose

-V, --version: Show version and exit

5. BANNER

Displays the cdist banner. Useful for printing cdist posters - a must have for every office.

6. CONFIG

Configure one or more hosts

-h, --help: Show the help screen
-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.
-i MANIFEST, --initial-manifest MANIFEST: Path to a cdist manifest or - to read from stdin
-p, --parallel: Operate on multiple hosts in parallel
-s, --sequential: Operate on multiple hosts sequentially

--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)

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: Select shell to use, defaults to current shell

8. EXAMPLES

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

# 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

9. 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.

10. EXIT STATUS

The following exit values shall be returned:

0: Successful completion
1: One or more host configurations failed

11. SEE ALSO

cdist(7)
cdist-reference(7)