From: syl@therockgarden.ca   
      
   On 2024-04-19, The Real Bev wrote:   
      
   > After reading the Wikipedia page I am curious about how CFengine could   
   > manage upward of a million stations running numerous operating   
   > systems.  Can you give me any hint how this is done without millions   
   > of if statements?   
      
   The control "language" (for lack of a better term) consists of   
   different "stanzas", which are selected by variables set, in some cases   
   by the agent running on the client system ("this host runs linux"   
   or "this host runs solaris", etc.), and in others by the sysadmin,   
   typically by triggering a check of some kind (content of a file,   
   for example, to say that this host is in "lab A", or that the system   
   has some particular function).  And then in each stanza, you define   
   a particular intended state (permissions on some file, existence   
   of some software package, setting yet another variable to be acted   
   on at a later stage, etc.) and for some operations, how to achieve   
   that state if the system lacks it.  (file operations, for example   
   are already built into cfengine, but package installation isn't).   
      
   This is a (hopefully) simplified explanation, but as you can imagine,   
   if you organize the stanzas in some way that is intuitive for your   
   environment, it all becomes relatively easy to manage.  It may take   
   more than one pass through to organize things in a way that makes   
   sense.   
      
   I hope that I've helped.   
      
   --   
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   Sylvain Robitaille                                syl@therockgarden.ca   
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