The latest release of cfbs (4.4.0 released April 4th, 2025) introduces the analyze command.
Last time I used this (Show notes: The agent is in - Episode 47 - Preview of cfbs analyze) I had installed it from a git clone, now I want to go back to regular install
command pipx uninstall cfbs pipx install cfbs output uninstalled cfbs! ✨ 🌟 ✨ installed package cfbs 4.4.0, installed using Python 3.12.3 These apps are now globally available - cfbs Now, cfbs help should have our new cfbs analyze option:
Is your CFEngine policy set a Frankensteinian monster of outdated files and custom tweaks? Take a look at tooling we have in development (cfbs analyze) to help shed light on the makeup of your policy set.
In this episode the team showcases a new tool for analyzing CFEngine policy sets. Learn how to identify modifications, missing files, and stale policies from old MPF versions and hear about additional features we can look forward to when it’s fully released.
For the final post in the Feature Friday series I am here to tell you about something I use nearly hourly, ob-cfengine3 which extends Emacs Org Babel for executing CFEngine policy.
ob-cfengine3 has been around for a little over seven years now and it has saved me countless hours, seconds at a time. At it’s core it let’s you type a snippet of policy and execute it directly in your document, sort of like Jupyter.
Looking for a tool to help you format your CFEngine policy? Have you heard of cffmt?
You might recall that we had a chat with the author, Miek Gieben in The agent is in - Episode 24.1 In case you missed it, cffmt is a command line tool for formatting CFEngine policy files, like gofmt for .cf files.2 Let’s take a look.
Consistent formatting can really ease reading of policy, but sometimes editors are configured differently and you can end up with inconsistently formatted policy. For example, here is a contrived policy file with some irregular formatting:
Ever want a custom CFEngine Agent logo? Check out agentsvg.
You can find agentsvg in core/contrib/ it’s a python script that can generate CFEngine agent logos.
python3 ./agentsvg.py > agent.svg python3 ./agentsvg.py --body="#f5821f" --head="#052569" > agent-body-head-colors.svg In addition to customizing the head and body colors you can customize the arm positions to be up, down, out or angled and the legs can be straight or out
python3 ./agentsvg.py --arms angled --legs out > agent-arms-legs.svg Happy Friday! 🎉
You have probably heard of cowsay, but have you heard of agentsay?
Just in case you haven’t seen the greatness of cowsay, here is an example:
command cowsay "Gee, I wish I was a cf-agent!" output _______________________________ < Gee, I wish I was a cf-agent! > ------------------------------- \ ^__^ \ (oo)\_______ (__)\ )\/\ ||----w | || || If you look in core/contrib you will find agentsay among other goodies.
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 21 Troubleshooting with cf-support. It gathers various details about the system and creates an archive that you can attach to your ticket. While its inception was geared towards Enterprise customers, it’s still both useful and available for community users as well.
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: "$(this.promise_filename)" printfile => cat( "$(this.promise_filename)" ) } Can you spot the error? Let’s see if cf-promises can help:
command cf-promises -f /tmp/feature-friday-6.cf output /tmp/feature-friday-6.cf:6:2: error: syntax error } ^ /tmp/feature-friday-6.cf:6:2: error: Check previous line, Expected ';', got '}' } ^ error: There are syntax errors in policy files The output tells us that there is a syntax error near line 6, column 2. A semicolon (;) was expected but instead, a closing curly brace (}) was found. We are missing the semicolon that terminates the promise for bundle feature_friday_6 which is called as a methods promise.
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 website for finding and sharing modules. A policy set usually - but not always - builds on top of some base, like the Masterfiles Policy Framework (MPF). Custom policy is added on top, and you’re off to the races. When a new version of CFEngine is released, the best practice is to upgrade the MPF (assuming you are using it) as the first step in the upgrade process. If you have not modified the MPF, re-integrating the custom policy on top of the new MPF is a relatively straightforward process. If you have modified the MPF it’s 1) something you need to know that you did and 2) a process of managing your diffs against the newer version of the MPF.
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, so let’s review its features.
Overview cf-remote (available via the Python Package Index) primarily targets installing CFEngine on a remote host, but it also provides some related conveniences including:
