CF-PROMISES

NAME

cf-promises - validate and analyze CFEngine policy code

SYNOPSIS

cf-promises [OPTION]... [FILE]

DESCRIPTION

cf-promises is a tool for checking CFEngine policy code. It operates by first parsing policy code checing for syntax errors. Second, it validates the integrity of policy consisting of multiple files. Third, it checks for semantic errors, e.g. specific attribute set rules. Finally, cf-promises attempts to expose errors by partially evaluating the policy, resolving as many variable and classes promise statements as possible. At no point does cf-promises make any changes to the system.

OPTIONS

--workdir, -w value

Override the work directory for testing (same as setting CFENGINE_TEST_OVERRIDE_WORKDIR)

--eval-functions, - value

Evaluate functions during syntax checking (may catch more run-time errors). Possible values: ’yes’, ’no’. Default is ’yes’

--show-classes, -

... value

Show discovered classes, including those defined in common bundles in policy. Optionally can take a regular expression.

--show-vars, - value

Show discovered variables, including those defined without dependency to user-defined classes in policy. Optionally can take a regular expression.

--help, -h

Print the help message

--bundlesequence, -b value

Use the specified bundlesequence for verification

--debug, -d

Enable debugging output

--verbose, -v

Output verbose information about the behaviour of cf-promises

--log-level, -g value

Specify how detailed logs should be. Possible values: ’error’, ’warning’, ’notice’, ’info’, ’verbose’, ’debug’

--dry-run, -n

All talk and no action mode - make no changes, only inform of promises not kept

--version, -V

Output the version of the software

--file, -f value

Specify an alternative input file than the default. This option is overridden by FILE if supplied as argument.

--define, -D value

Define a list of comma separated classes to be defined at the start of execution

--negate, -N value

Define a list of comma separated classes to be undefined at the start of execution

--inform, -I

Print basic information about changes made to the system, i.e. promises repaired

--diagnostic, -x

Activate internal diagnostics (developers only)

--policy-output-format, -p value

Output the parsed policy. Possible values: ’none’, ’cf’, ’json’ (this file only), ’cf-full’, ’json-full’ (all parsed promises). Default is ’none’. (experimental)

--syntax-description, -s value

Output a document describing the available syntax elements of CFEngine. Possible values: ’none’, ’json’. Default is ’none’.

--full-check, -c

Ensure full policy integrity checks

--warn, -W value

Pass comma-separated <warnings>|all to enable non-default warnings, or error=<warnings>|all

--color, -C value

Enable colorized output. Possible values: ’always’, ’auto’, ’never’. If option is used, the default value is ’auto’

--tag-release, -T value

Tag a directory with promises.cf with cf_promises_validated and cf_promises_release_id

--timestamp, -l

Log timestamps on each line of log output

--ignore-preferred-augments, -

Ignore def_preferred.json file in favor of def.json

--log-modules, - value

Enable even more detailed debug logging for specific areas of the implementation. Use together with ’-d’. Use --log-modules=help for a list of available modules

CFENGINE

CFEngine provides automated configuration management of large-scale computer systems. A system administrator describes the desired state of a system using CFEngine policy code. The program cf-agent reads policy code and attempts to bring the current system state to the desired state described. Policy code is downloaded by cf-agent from a cf-serverd daemon. The daemon cf-execd is responsible for running cf-agent periodically.
Documentation for CFEngine is available at https://docs.cfengine.com/.

PROMISE THEORY

CFEngine is built on principles from promise theory, proposed by Mark Burgess in 2004. Promise theory is a model of voluntary cooperation between individual, autonomous actors or agents who publish their intentions to one another in the form of promises. A promise is a declaration of intent whose purpose is to increase the recipient’s certainty about a claim of past, present or future behaviour. For a promise to increase certainty, the recipient needs to trust the promiser, but trust can also be built on the verification that previous promises have been kept, thus trust plays a symbiotic relationship with promises.
For an introduction to promise theory, please see http://arxiv.org/abs/0810.3294/

AVAILABILITY

cf-promises is part of CFEngine.
Binary packages may be downloaded from https://cfengine.com/download/.
The source code is available at https://github.com/cfengine/

BUGS

Please see the public bug-tracker at https://tracker.mender.io/projects/CFE/.
GitHub pull-requests may be submitted to https://github.com/cfengine/core/.

SEE ALSO

cf-promises(8), cf-agent(8), cf-serverd(8), cf-execd(8), cf-monitord(8), cf-runagent(8), cf-key(8)

AUTHOR

Mark Burgess and Northern.tech AS