Re: No reliable outputs in 2.1.15 ?

[Tim Nelson]

On Tue, 11 Oct 2005, David Masterson wrote:

> I've begun setting up a CFEngine environment here.  I've installed cfengine
> from RPMs off of Dag Wieers site and that got cfservd, cfenvd, and cfexecd
> running on the systems at bootup.  I've configured a simple update.conf to
> copy cfagent.conf and update.conf from the remote master directory to the
> local "inputs" directory.  I have "force=true" in the copy and I see the copy
> happening at hourly intervals (the timestamps on the files are updated and
> ..cfsaved files are created).  However, *most* of the time, I do not see a log
> file being created in the "outputs" directory.  So, my questions are:
>
> *       What is the "previous" link in the "outputs" directory?

        A link to the output of the most recent run of cfengine.

> What creates it?

        Probably cfexecd (although I'm uncertain).

> For what reason?
> Why would it be removed or *not* created?

	Apart from confirming that it isn't always there, I have no 
information.

> *       Assuming copies are happening, shouldn't output be created in the
> "outputs" directory?

	Not necessarily.  cfengine subscribes to the Unix philosophy that 
"no news is good news".  So you won't see anything normally.

	If you run "cfagent -q" at the command line, that'll show you what 
the output should be.  If you want to actually see what's going on, you 
need to run eg. "cfagent -q -vv".

> Is the daemons running incorrectly?

        I don't have enough information to be able to say.

> *       Should I abandon the RPMs and build cfengine from scratch?

        I use the DAG RPMs myself, and they work fine.

> Is there reasons for building on a system from scratch?

        Only the usual which apply to any software.

> *       Where in the documentation is the "outputs" directory discussed and
> when output is created?

        I'd suggest searching for "outputs" in the reference manual.

> What about email to sysadm?

        Look under cfexecd.


--
Kind Regards,
 
Tim Nelson
Server Administrator
 
P: 03 9934 0888
F: 03 9934 0899
E: tim.nelson@webalive.biz
W: www.webalive.biz
 
WebAlive Technologies
Level 1, Innovation Building
Digital Harbour
1010 La Trobe Street
Docklands Melbourne VIC 3008

This email (including all attachments) is intended solely for the named 
addressee. It is confidential and may contain legally privileged information. If
you receive it in error, please let us know by reply email, delete it from your 
system and destroy any copies. This email is also subject to copyright. No
part of it should be reproduced, adapted or transmitted without the written 
consent of the copyright owner.

Emails may be interfered with, may contain computer viruses or other defects 
and may not be successfully replicated on other systems. We give no
warranties in relation to these matters. If you have any doubts about the 
authenticity of an email purportedly sent by us, please contact us immediately.