propellor/doc/README.mdwn

This is a configuration management system using Haskell and Git.

[Propellor](https://propellor.branchable.com/) enures that the system it's
run against satisfies a list of properties, taking action as necessary when
a property is not yet met.

Propellor is configured via a git repository, which typically lives
in ~/.propellor/. The git repository contains a config.hs file,
and also the entire source code to propellor.

You typically want to have the repository checked out on a laptop, in order
to make changes and push them out to hosts. Each host will also have a
clone of the repository, and in that clone "make" can be used to build and
run propellor. This can be done by a cron job (which propellor can set up),
or a remote host can be triggered to update by running propellor on your
laptop: propellor --spin $host

Properties are defined using Haskell. Edit config.hs to get started.
For API documentation, see <http://hackage.haskell.org/package/propellor/>

There is no special language as used in puppet, chef, ansible, etc.. just
the full power of Haskell. Hopefully that power can be put to good use in
making declarative properties that are powerful, nicely idempotent, and
easy to adapt to a system's special needs.

## quick start

1. Get propellor installed
     `cabal install propellor`
          or
     `apt-get install propellor`
2. Run propellor for the first time. It will set up a `~/.propellor/` git
   repository for you.
3. `cd ~/.propellor/`; use git to push the repository to a central
   server (github, or your own git server). Configure that central
   server as the origin remote of the repository.
4. If you don't have a gpg private key, generate one: `gpg --gen-key`
5. Run: `propellor --add-key $KEYID`
6. Edit `~/.propellor/config.hs`, and add a host you want to manage.
   You can start by not adding any properties, or only a few.
7. Pick a host and run: `propellor --spin $HOST`
8. Now you have a simple propellor deployment, but it doesn't do
   much to the host yet, besides installing propellor.

   So, edit `~/.propellor/config.hs` to configure the host (maybe
   start with a few simple properties), and re-run step 7.
   Repeat until happy and move on to the next host. :)
9. To move beyond manually running `propellor --spin` against hosts
   when you change their properties, add a property to your hosts
   like: `Cron.runPropellor "30 * * * *"`
   
   Now they'll automatically update every 30 minutes, and you can
   `git commit -S` and `git push` changes that affect any number of
   hosts.
10. Write some neat new properties and send patches to <propellor@joeyh.name>!

## debugging

Set `PROPELLOR_DEBUG=1` to make propellor print out all the commands it runs
and any other debug messages that Properties choose to emit.