Are you familiar with CFEngine’s special variables? Probably you are familiar with sys variables like sys.fqhost (the fully qualified host name) and sys.policy_hub (the IP address of the machine the host is bootstrapped to) but I want to highlight a few other special variables you may not be …
Did you know that CFEngine has namespaces? Let’s see how they can facilitate policy sharing while avoiding “duplicate definitions of bundle” errors. Most of the Masterfiles Policy Framework (MPF) and policy examples for CFEngine use the default namespace. However, body file control …
Found a bug, asking for help? Use cf-support to collect info quickly. cf-support was born from interactions supporting Enterprise customers to streamline data collection and was introduced in late 2022 with the release of 3.18.31 and 3.21.02. Furthermore, it was featured on The Agent is In3 episode …
Did you know you can include one policy file from another? Traditionally you specify the files you want to make up a policy set using inputs in body common control found in your policy entry (promises.cf by default). body common control { # Paths are relative to $(sys.policy_entry_dirname) if not # …
Ever want to run just a one or a few select bundles from your policy? While developing policy it’s common to run cf-agent -KI so that you can quickly iterate on changes and then run the policy without locks. But if you are focused on select bundles you may not need the full policy to run, you …
Ever wanted to make sure a promise only runs if some other promise has succeeded? Consider this contrived example with two reports type promises, It's Friday! and I love CFEngine Feature Friday. Per normal ordering1, these two promises will be emitted in the written order. /tmp/feature-friday-7.cf …
Will your policy work? cf-promises can check the CFEngine policy for syntax errors and give you an overview of the host’s context. It’s always a good idea to check your policy for syntax errors. Consider this policy file: /tmp/feature-friday-6.cf bundle agent feature_friday { reports: …
Do you maintain multiple policy sets? Do you leverage policy written by others? Ever wished for an easier way to upgrade your policy framework? cfbs can help to improve all of these cases. cfbs is a command line tool that aims to help simplify managing a policy set and working with CFEngine Build, a …
What’s the easiest way to install cfengine? Have you heard of cf-remote? cf-remote was born out of a developer’s itch for an easy way to get CFEngine installed on some host for testing. We have featured cf-remote in several posts1 since it was first released in 2019, but today is Friday, …
When you want to inspect both the return code and output from a command execresult_as_data() might be the function you are searching for. Most CFEngine policy writers have used execresult() and returnszero(). They are useful when you want to do something based on the output of a command or based on …
Sign up for CFEngine Enterprise and connect up to 25 hosts for free. No credit card required. Get started in minutes.
Try enterprise for free
