Re: "admit:" with cfrun-operated client ; update.conf syntax error ; non-terminating shellcommands

[Mark . Burgess]

> Hi,
> 
> Two questions.
> 
> ------------------------
> Question #1
> 
> If I only use cfengine to push changes via "cfrun" from a central 
> computer, do the clients I am pushing onto need to have the admit: 
> section filled out in cfservd.conf ? Or can I put a "$(policyhost)::" 
> class reference within "admit:" and have nothing other than that?

Yes, since they are the ones receiving the cfrun instruction.


> -------------------------
> Question #2
> 
> I'm using cfengine in a situation where I want to use it on the main 
> server (the policy host) that it is executed from itself.
> 
> I would like to insert into update.conf a way so that the server I run 
> cfrun from does not copy any files, but all other computers that run 
> cfagent will copy them. Now I can insert a "!server::" to specify that 
> all hosts except "server" should perform the file copies following it. 
> This works fine and dandy.
> 
> If I use "!$(policyhost)::" instead, this barfs and says "Copy attribute 
> with no value...Illegal copy attribute", referencing that line number.
> 
> What gives!


Mixing up variables with classes. Two different things. You can't use a variable
inside a class like this. But you could define policyhost in "classes/groups".

> In _general_, how can I reference it such that I want all hosts _except_ 
> the policy host (given that it's defined as $(policyhost) )?

same - with class


> 
> ------------------------------
> Another question.
> 
> Is cfengine at all possible at operating shellcommands that do not 
> return (except upon ^C), such as "tail -f"? cfengine seems to wait until 
> program termination before printing the program output. Is there a way 
> with cfengine around this?

Don't know what you want to do....but you could use a timeout??
 
> Would it at all be possible to use SSH (either using Kerberos or RSA key 
> authentication) and then run cfagent? Another way of asking this is, 
> that is it cfagent that prints output upon program termination, or is it 
> cfrun?
> 
> I personally don't mind using a secure password-less SSH, I simply want 
> to use the cfengine-style way of performing tasks (by defining classes 
> via -D).

I don't understand what you mean here.

M


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