This document is a brainstorming document, on how to integrate providers. Providers had been "type" in previous discussion. Proposed/discussed structures: 1) 2010-11-02 $basedir/$type/ properties/ name/ required # required | optional choices # \n liste meta/ default (shell script) providers/ pukman/ 2) 2010-11-09 How to write my own type named "coffee": Create the directory /etc/cdist/types/coffee/ Create the file /etc/cdist/types/coffee/README containing a description of the type. If your type supports attributes, create the directory /etc/cdist/types/coffee/ attributes. For each attribute, create the file /etc/cdist/types/coffee/attributes/$attribute_name which contains a short description on the first line then a blank line then a long description (probably over several lines) If you think your type may be useful for others, submit it for inclusion into cdist at cdist -- at -- l.schottelius.org. Create /etc/cdist/types/coffee/init which reads $configinput (either via cconfig or via environment) and outputs a block of shell code suitable for running on the client. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- provider layout: / config # binary that is called to adjust cconfig tree change # binary that is called on the remote host? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- cdist view on providers: How providers are integrated/run: First stage: - If cdist encounters provider in manifest, a wrapper script is run, that creates a new entry in the cconfig database and adds attribute values. This defines a cconfig tree, that may look as follows: ///: myhost/__file/cdist_bin/source myhost/__file/cdist_bin/destination ... - In this stage, no conflicts may occur, as no provider code has been called (i.e. only manifests, which map config to hosts is applied). Second stage: - The "manifest" script of every used provider (i.e. the manifests created at least one object) is called, which again is able to call other providers. All created objects may also be modified by the provider. For instance a "httpd" provider may call the "webroot" provider with --path / ... # FIND CASE WHERE SENSEFUL => look through current puppet config - The newly created objects are merged back into the existing tree. No conflicts may occur during the merge, because this would implicit that the provider conflicts with other providers. The idea of this that a provider may expand another provider with functionality, but may need to adjust ("overwrite") settings from the original provider.