New features have been added to the CFEngine development tree, both Community Edition and CFEngine Nova, for list manipulation. The grep() function takes a list and extracts elements that match a given regular expression, returning a sublist. The join() function, which complements splitstring() function, takes a list and returns a scalar string with elements separated by a delimiter. These functions provide Perl-like operations that reduce the dependence on external scripting. List manipulation is a key enhancement in CFEngine 3, and forms a core paradigm for reducing configuration complexity.
Upgrade path
A cfengine2 to cfengine3 conversion codebook was promised today for community users. The book should be available before Christmas 2009 and will constitute a cookbook of recipes for translating code into the new form. CFEngine Nova supported customers can look forward to a program to assist in the conversion of old CFEngine policies into the superior CFEngine 3 language, speeding things up further. No direct conversion of policies is possible to users, since there are new features in the cfengine 3 language, including auto-documention of the CFEngine code that must be added by CFEngine engineers. The comments and dependency data enhance reporting of error and log messages and allow reports to be added in the commercial version. These annotations document the intentions behind policy and form the basis of the CFEngine Nova Knowledge Map. Also on front page…
Partnering with industry
CFEngine is now partnering with key industry re-sellers to bring professional support to users of the commercial and community editions. By supporting a complete datacentre package through leading industry suppliers, we are working to simplify CFEngine datacentre deployments for new and existing users. The future of CFEngine’s world-spanning footprint depends on our two-pronged approach: constant simplification of the solution, and scaling up of support around the world. Today, we are bridging services across 3 continents to help users as effectively as we can.
Virtually complete, CFEngine Nova
CFEngine is deployed in the world’s largest datacentres, the homes of basic Internet services, Cloud Computing and Application Service Providers. Now efforts are underway to better support the key virtualization technologies that are making inroads into hosting centres, to allow better utilization of servers, with the popular technologies including Red-Hat KVM, VMware, and Xen. Investigate the features in the CFEngine 3 Community Edition, or learn about our simplified BDMA framework of CFEngine Nova.
