Functionality

The notes above give you a rough idea of what cfengine can be used for. Here is a summary of cfengine's capabilities.

• Check and configure the network interface.
• Edit textfiles for the system and for all users.
• Make and maintain symbolic links, including multiple links from a single command.
• Check and set the permissions and ownership of files.
• Tidy (delete) junk files which clutter the system.
• Systematic, automated mounting of NFS filesystems.
• Checking for the presence of important files and filesystems.
• Controlled execution of user scripts and shell commands.
• Cfengine follows a class-based decision structure.
• Process management.

How do you run cfengine? You can run it as a cron job, or you can run it manually. You may run cfengine scripts/programs as often as you like. Each time you run a script, the engine determines whether anything needs to be done -- if nothing needs to be done, nothing is done! If you use it to monitor and configure your entire network from a central file-base, then the natural thing is to run cfengine daily with the help of cron. See section cfwrap, but also, See section cfrun.

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