4. How to install cdist

4.1. Requirements

4.1.1. Source Host

This is the machine you use to configure the target hosts.

  • /bin/sh: A posix like shell (for instance bash, dash, zsh)
  • Python >= 3.2
  • SSH client
  • sphinx (for building html docs and/or the man pages)

4.1.2. Target Hosts

  • /bin/sh: A posix like shell (for instance bash, dash, zsh)
  • SSH server

4.2. Install cdist

You can install cdist either from git or as a python package.

4.2.1. From git

Cloning cdist from git gives you the advantage of having a version control in place for development of your own stuff immediately.

To install cdist, execute the following commands:

git clone https://github.com/ungleich/cdist.git
cd cdist
export PATH=$PATH:$(pwd -P)/bin

4.2.1.1. Available versions in git

  • The active development takes place in the master branch
  • The released versions can be found in the tags

Other branches may be available for features or bugfixes, but they may vanish at any point. To select a specific branch use

# Generic code
git checkout -b <localbranchname> origin/<branchname>

So for instance if you want to use and stay with version 4.1, you can use

git checkout -b 4.1 origin/4.1

4.2.1.2. Git mirrors

If the main site is down, you can acquire cdist from one of the following sites:

  • git://github.com/telmich/cdist.git github
  • git://git.code.sf.net/p/cdist/code sourceforge

4.2.1.3. Building and using documentation (man and html)

If you want to build and use the documentation, run:

make docs

Documentation comes in two formats, man pages and full HTML documentation. Documentation is built into distribution’s docs/dist directory. man pages are in docs/dist/man and HTML documentation in docs/dist/html.

If you want to use man pages, run:

export MANPATH=$MANPATH:$(pwd -P)/docs/dist/man

Or you can move man pages from docs/dist/man directory to some other directory and add it to MANPATH.

Full HTML documentation can be accessed at docs/dist/html/index.html.

You can also build only man pages or only html documentation, for only man pages run:

make man

for only html documentation run:

make html

You can also build man pages for types in your ~/.cdist directory:

make dotman

Built man pages are now in docs/dist/man directory. If you have some other custom .cdist directory, e.g. /opt/cdist then use:

DOT_CDIST_PATH=/opt/cdist make dotman

4.2.2. Python package

Cdist is available as a python package at PyPi. You can install it using

pip install cdist