Re: Executing a file only on later passes

[Chip Seraphine]

Mark.Burgess@iu.hio.no wrote:

> If you want to control the order of things (which should not be
> necessary if you just trust the agent) then reorganize the
> input files.

Unfortunately, that doesn't always do the trick as *all* the contents of 
the files are looked at in both passes, leaving me no practical means of 
ensuring that a given action is only executed after some other action.

> But who cares what the order is if it gets done?

I do, some of the time.  Actions set classes that then trigger activity 
in a hunk of cfengine code later on; if said code hunk executes before 
the classes are set, I get befuddled.

To wit: I have a an action A that sets a class C.  The final import from 
my top-level file is 'cf.finish', which generates notifications to 
appropriate places if certain classes (including C) are set.  I am 
finding that C is indeed set by A, but cf.finish doesn't respond to it 
because the class is not set until the later run.

Had I some sort of 'laterpasses' thingie, I could ensure that cf.finish 
always executed last.  I agree that this could cause some danger in that 
the contents of cf.finish would not benefit from a multiple-pass 
approach, but that should be a risk that the user should be willing to 
shoulder if he goes out of his way to do so.  I.e., it is my foot so it 
is my own fault if I shoot it on purpose; cfengine should only be 
worried about preventing me from shooting it accidentally :-)

Hmm.  Is it just me, or is all this talk of ordering starting tomake me 
sound like Steve Traugott? :-)

-Chip