[chef] Re: Augeas support

[Noah Kantrowitz < >]

On Feb 15, 2013, at 2:00 AM, 
<
 >
 wrote:

> 
> Working with chef the last few days, I have run into situations where augeas
> seems like the right answer, but it's not supported currently.
> 
> Augeas lets you modify config files in-place without over-writing the whole
> thing.
> 
> The reason it seems preferable, is that if I am facing time constraints and 
> I
> am writing recipes quickly, the chef-way of doing things would require me to
> clobber the whole config file and manage the whole config file.      The
> problem with that, is I really want to understand what I am doing before I 
> take
> such a major step as to manage an entire file.           It is somehow 
> safer and more
> minimalistic to say "I will tweak one little setting with augeas, and leave 
> the
> rest of the file as it is, at least for the time being."   Maybe eventually 
> I
> can go back and manage the whole file, on multiple linux distros, but that
> requires more research and time, to be sure I have the right file, all the
> right settings, across all platforms.
> 
> Maybe I still need to be indoctrinated into the chef way of doing things, 
> and
> why its preferable.  I could be converted.    In the mean time, I wish there
> was Augeas.   Can someone please add it.  :-)

There are Ruby bindings, just make yourself a little LWRP and go nuts. As for 
why this is bad, expressing desired state as a series of deltas instead of 
absolute values leads to drift over time, the usual end result being that the 
set of recipes that worked over time on a bunch of hosts all of a sudden 
can't be used to provision from scratch or vice versa. For example, if you 
are depending on deltas from the standard Debian/RHEL config files and they 
make a change in a point release, you are then screwed (possibly).

--Noah

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