13. Configuration¶

13.1. Description¶

cdist obtains configuration data from the following sources in the following order:

command-line options

configuration file specified at command-line using -g command line option

configuration file specified in CDIST_CONFIG_FILE environment variable

environment variables

user's configuration file (first one found of ~/.cdist.cfg, $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/cdist/cdist.cfg, in specified order)

in-distribution configuration file (cdist/conf/cdist.cfg)

system-wide configuration file (/etc/cdist.cfg)

if one exists.

Configuration source with lower ordering number from above has a higher precedence. Configuration option value read from source with higher precedence will overwrite option value, if exists, read from source with lower precedence. That means that command-line option wins them all.

Users can decide on the local conifguration file location. It can be either ~/.cdist.cfg or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/cdist/cdist.cfg. Note that, if both exist, then ~/.cdist.cfg is used.

For a per-project configuration, particular environment variables or better, CDIST_CONFIG_FILE environment variable or -g CONFIG_FILE command line option, can be used.

13.2. Config file format¶

cdist configuration file is in the INI file format. Currently it supports only [GLOBAL] section. The possible keywords and their meanings are as follows:

archiving: Use specified archiving. Valid values include: 'none', 'tar', 'tgz', 'tbz2' and 'txz'.
beta: Enable beta functionality. It recognizes boolean values from 'yes'/'no', 'on'/'off', 'true'/'false' and '1'/'0'.
cache_path_pattern: Specify cache path pattern.
conf_dir: List of configuration directories separated with the character conventionally used by the operating system to separate search path components (as in PATH), such as ':' for POSIX or ';' for Windows. If also specified at command line then values from command line are appended to this value.
init_manifest: Specify default initial manifest.
inventory_dir: Specify inventory directory.
jobs: Specify number of jobs for parallel processing. If -1 then the default, number of CPU's in the system is used. If 0 then parallel processing in jobs is disabled. If set to positive number then specified maximum number of processes will be used.
local_shell: Shell command used for local execution.
out_path: Directory to save cdist output in.
parallel: Process hosts in parallel. If -1 then the default, number of CPU's in the system is used. If 0 then parallel processing of hosts is disabled. If set to positive number then specified maximum number of processes will be used.
remote_copy: Command to use for remote copy (should behave like scp).
remote_exec: Command to use for remote execution (should behave like ssh).
remote_out_path: Directory to save cdist output in on the target host.
remote_shell: Shell command at remote host used for remote execution.
save_output_streams: Enable/disable saving output streams (enabled by default). It recognizes boolean values from 'yes'/'no', 'on'/'off', 'true'/'false' and '1'/'0'.
timestamp: Timestamp log messages with the current local date and time in the format: YYYYMMDDHHMMSS.us.
verbosity: Set verbosity level. Valid values are: 'ERROR', 'WARNING', 'INFO', 'VERBOSE', 'DEBUG', 'TRACE' and 'OFF'.