New packages promises in EFL

Good news everyone. CFEngine 3.7 has revamped packages promises making them simpler and more reliable. These new promises are now used in EFL with the bundle efl_packages_new. The bundle's parameter file looks like this:

Call the bundle (but using efl_main is recommended).

"my packages"
   usebunnde => efl_packages_new(
      '${sys.inputdir}/efl_data/bundle_params/packages.csv' );

In csv format.

# class ;; policy  ;; package ;; version ;; arch  ;; promisee
any     ;; absent  ;; nano    ;; 0       ;; amd64 ;; efl development
any     ;; present ;; e3      ;; 0       ;; amd64 ;; efl development

These parameters are almost identical to the efl_packages and efl_packages_via_cmd. You need only alter the policy and the version. The policy now has only two forms: absent and present. The previous forms: delete, add, update, and patch have been depreciated. The version has two forms, 0 means use the latest version the package manager can find. Otherwise you must specify the precise version string. The new packages promises do not permit more complex version comparison at this time.

Note: You must enable the packages_module in promises.cf's common body control:

package_inventory => { $(package_module_knowledge.platform_default) };

Modules are the new interface between CFEngine and package managers. Currently only yum and apt-get are supported. See here for the gory details.

Don't like the pseudo CSV files? Then you can use JSON format. EFL even comes with a conversion tool, eflconvert. I converted the above csv file like this:

eflconvert -b efl_packages -i csv -o json < 01_packages.csv

In JSON format.

[
   {
      "package_name" : "nano",
      "class" : "any",
      "promisee" : "efl development",
      "package_version" : "0",
      "package_policy" : "absent",
      "architecture" : "amd64"
   },
   {
      "package_policy" : "present",
      "architecture" : "amd64",
      "promisee" : "efl development",
      "package_version" : "0",
      "package_name" : "e3",
      "class" : "any"
   }
]

Coming soon YAML format!

eflconvert -b efl_packages -i json -o yaml < 01_packages.json

In YAML format

---
- architecture: amd64
  class: any
  package_name: nano
  package_policy: absent
  package_version: 0
  promisee: efl development
- architecture: amd64
  class: any
  package_name: e3
  package_policy: present
  package_version: 0
  promisee: efl development