Changes

The mace is a tool to ma<strike>c</strike>ke final configuration using source templates. Mace is supposed to help with configuration of services on Server based school servers.

The mace is a tool to ma<strike>c</strike>ke final configuration using source templates. Mace is supposed to help with configuration of services on Server based school servers.

These are the core differences compared with tools like Puppet or Cfengine:

These are the core differences compared with tools like Puppet or Cfengine that makes mace a different niche project:

* mace doesn't provide new metaphors, people need to follow the same configuration syntax for particular services;

* mace is not intended to be a unified system like Puppet or Cfenginei, it supports only a limited set of services (what Server based solution provides), but does it well, e.g., for iptables, just write rules, and the rest will be done by mace;

* mace doesn't provide new metaphors; people need to follow the standard configuration syntax for any particular service;

* mace doesn't function like a daemon, it just converts configuration sources to the final configuration on the final server, e.g., as a post procedure after installing packages;

* mace is not intended to be a unified system like Puppet or Cfengine; it supports only a limited set of services (of those that the Server based solution provides), but does it well, e.g., for iptables, just write rules, and the rest will be done by mace;

* mace is designed to support intermediate customizing, i.e., the original configuration, provided by an upstream project, might be supplemented (not patched) in the downstream product before deploying to the final users.

* mace doesn't function like a daemon; it just converts configuration sources to the final configuration on the final server, e.g., as a post procedure after installing packages;

* mace is designed to ease support of intermediate customizing, i.e., the original configuration, provided by an upstream project, might be supplemented (not patched) in the downstream product before deploying it to the final users.

* within the [[Sugar Server Kit]] initiative, mace is intended to support, mostly, only the [[Sugar_Server_Kit/Architecture#Dumb_school_servers|Dumb school servers]] functional model.

== Configuration sources ==

== Configuration sources ==

Sources for {{Code|mace}} are stored in GNU/Linux distribution agnostic manner in form of:

Sources for {{Code|mace}} are stored in a GNU/Linux distribution agnostic manner, in this form:

  [<arbitrary-path>]/<service-name>.d/[<service-confile>]/<configuration-file>.conf

  [<arbitrary-path>]/<service-name>.d/[<service-confile>]/<configuration-file>.conf

In addition to configuration files, Mace can process files with a {{Code|.env}} suffix. These files contain variable declarations in Bash syntax. The values of these variables might be entered in configuration files in the form of {{Code|@VARIABLE@}}, in which case they will be expanded to real values while applying the configuration.

In addition to configuration files, Mace can process files with a {{Code|.env}} suffix. These files contain variable declarations in Bash syntax. The values of these variables might be entered in configuration files in the form of {{Code|@VARIABLE@}}, in which case they will be expanded to real values while applying the configuration.

=== Keywords ===

=== Keywords ===

  [''keyword'']

  [''keyword'']

that will say Mace that this source file can be processed only if this particular keyword is enabled in Mace by mentioning keyword name in {{Code|--keywords}} command-line argument.

which will tell Mace that this source file can be processed only if this particular keyword is enabled in Mace by mentioning the keyword name in the {{Code|--keywords}} command-line argument.

By default, Mace contain these keywords enabled:

By default, Mace has these keywords enabled:

* ''production''

* ''production''

For example if there is a sources tree:

For example, if there is a sources tree,

  <dir>      +squid.d

  <dir>      +squid.d

  <config>  | +020.log[test].conf

  <config>  | +020.log[test].conf

The final configuration tree will be:

the final configuration tree will be as follows:

  <dir>      +squid.d

  <dir>      +squid.d

To start the applying process:

To start the applying process:

  sudo mace apply -v

  sudo mace apply

If the sources path is not the default, {{Code|/etc/sugar-server}}, use the {{Code|--input}} argument to specify the right one.

If the sources path is not the default, {{Code|/etc/mace}}, use the {{Code|--input}} argument to specify the right one.

== Providers ==

== Providers ==

== Templates ==

== Templates ==

The project [[The_Server/sugar-server-templates|sugar-server-templates]] is intended to provide most of basic configurations that might be useful for schools servers. After installing it from packages, the final configuration might be composed by symlinking templates from {{Code|/usr/share/sugar-server}} directory to the directory where Mace will find it, by default in {{Code|/etc/sugar-server}}.

The project [[Sugar Server Kit/sugar-server-templates|sugar-server-templates]] is intended to provide most of basic configurations that might be useful for schools servers. After installing it from packages, the final configuration might be composed by symlinking templates from {{Code|/usr/share/sugar-server-templates}} directory to the directory where Mace will find it, by default in {{Code|/etc/mace}}.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

* By default, if mace can't start configuring services with new configuration, it falls back to the old configuration. It might be not very useful in case of investigating new configuration errors. To prevent such behavior use {{Code|-R}} command-line argument and try to start affected service manually (with new configuration):

 

/etc/init.d/<SERVICE> start

== Testing routines ==

== Testing routines ==

== Getting involved ==

== Getting involved ==

Please read [http://api.sugarlabs.org/mace/pages/HACKING.html HACKING] file.

* Read the [http://api.sugarlabs.org/mace/pages/HACKING.html HACKING] file to know how to contribute with code.

== Resources ==

== Resources ==