CFEngine - a Configuration Engine

While Cfengine has, by itself, little to do with T2 Linux it is worth paying attention to in a post-installation context.

T2 users update early and often and therefore find themselves doing repetitious configuration work (system administrators make a full-time job of it). Cfengine, created by Mark Burgess, is a medicine against repetition.

You can set your system(s) up in such a way that you install T2 Linux on a fresh partition, mount the Cfengine scripts and reconfigure your machine(s) like before. Without manual intervention. Interesting?

That is especially interesting when you have to administer several machines.

This following subsection just give a quick overview. For more information read the extensive information that comes with the package (directory /opt/cfengine/share/cfengine/).

Cfengine doesn't use if-then-else constructs. Logically functionality is grouped in classes (e.g. lanserver, workstation, laptop).

Install

Cfengine comes as a T2 Linux extension package. Download and build it:

scripts/Emerge-Pkg cfengine

Cfengine Configuration

Run

Run Cfengine:

cfengine -f /etc/cfengine/cfengine.conf -v -n

The -n option tells cfengine just to test the water. Important in this testing phase!

Cron

Once you are convinced your Cfengine configuration is sane you can run it hourly using cron.