On Mon, 15 Apr 2024 20:27:23 +0000, Luis Mendes wrote:
> Another tool that I'm beginning to explore is at the other extreme:
> kermit.

It was many years since I used kermit, back then on DOS/Windows. I don't
even remember the name of the program I replaced it with, but it was
slightly easier to use to dial up BBSes with a modem. Today, I usually
use minicom in Linux whenever I have some kind of need for serial
communication. There is also seyon, but I haven't used that in many years.

regards Henrik

Hi Henrik,

On Tue, 16 Apr 2024 05:49:14 -0000 (UTC), Henrik Carlqvist wrote:

> On Mon, 15 Apr 2024 20:27:23 +0000, Luis Mendes wrote:
>> Another tool that I'm beginning to explore is at the other extreme:
>> kermit.
>
> It was many years since I used kermit, back then on DOS/Windows. I don't
> even remember the name of the program I replaced it with, but it was
> slightly easier to use to dial up BBSes with a modem. Today, I usually
> use minicom in Linux whenever I have some kind of need for serial
> communication. There is also seyon, but I haven't used that in many
> years.
Didn't know about seyon. It seems to be only for modem related
communications.

Kermit has evolved and has networking support via ssh.

Regards,

Luís

On 2024-04-15, Luis Mendes wrote:

> I don't know cfengine, but took a look and it seems another complex
> software architecture, well suited for corporations.

On the one hand, I have to agree that it isn't for the faint of heart.
There is a rather steep learning curve, which makes it largely
impractical for environments with few computers, but once you have
your head wrapped around it, it really does what it promises.

--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sylvain Robitaille syl@therockgarden.ca
----------------------------------------------------------------------

On 4/19/24 5:18 AM, Sylvain Robitaille wrote:
> On 2024-04-15, Luis Mendes wrote:
>
>> I don't know cfengine, but took a look and it seems another complex
>> software architecture, well suited for corporations.
>
> On the one hand, I have to agree that it isn't for the faint of heart.
> There is a rather steep learning curve, which makes it largely
> impractical for environments with few computers, but once you have
> your head wrapped around it, it really does what it promises.

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?

--
Cheers, Bev
Nothing is so stupid that you can't find somebody who
did it at least once if you look hard enough.

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.

--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sylvain Robitaille syl@therockgarden.ca
----------------------------------------------------------------------

On 4/21/24 7:34 AM, Sylvain Robitaille wrote:
> 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.

Very much so, thank you!

--
Cheers, Bev
"Not everyone can be above average so why
shouldn't we be the ones to suck?"
--Anonymous School Board Member