propellor/doc/usage.mdwn

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# NAME
propellor - property-based host configuration management in haskell
# SYNOPSIS
propellor [options]
# DESCRIPTION
`propellor` is a property-based host configuration management program written
and configured in haskell.
# MODES OF OPERATION
* propellor
The first time you run `propellor`, without any options,
it will set up a `~/.propellor/` repository. Edit `~/.propellor/config.hs`
to configure it.
Once propellor is configured, running it without any options will take
action as needed to satisfy the configured properties of the local host.
If there's a central git repository, it will first fetch from the
repository, check the gpg signature and merge, and rebuild propellor,
so that any configuration changes will immediately take effect.
If propellor is run by a non-root user without any options, this is
the same as running propellor --spin with the hostname of the local
host.
* propellor --spin targethost [targethost ...] [--via relayhost]
Causes propellor to automatically install itself on the specified target
host, or if it's already installed there, push any updates. Propellor is
then run on the target host, to satisfy its configured properties.
A signed git commit is made by --spin, so that any changes you have made
get propigated to the target host.
Multiple target hosts can be specified; propellor will run on each of
them in sequence.
When run with --via, propellor sshes to the relay host and runs
`propellor --spin hostname` from there. This can be useful when
propellor is installing itself, since most of the data transfer
is done between relay host and target host. Note that propellor
uses ssh agent forwarding to make this work, and the relay host
sees any privdata belonging to the target host.
* propellor --add-key keyid
Adds a gpg key, which is used to encrypt the privdata.
If the gpg secret key is present, git is configured to sign commits
using this key. Propellor requires signed commits when pulling from
a central git repository.
* propellor --list-fields
Lists all privdata fields that are used by your propellor configuration.
The first 2 columns are the field name and context, and are followed by
a list of the hosts that use that privdata value.
* propellor --set field context
Sets a field of privdata. The content is read in from stdin.
* propellor --dump field context
Outputs the privdata value to stdout.
* propellor --edit field context
Opens $EDITOR on the privdata value.
* propellor --merge
Combine multiple --spin commits into a single, more useful commit.
When using propellor, you may find yourself repeatedly running
`propellor --spin` until you get things working the way you like.
This results in a lot of git commits being made, with incremental
changes.
To clean that up to a single commit, use `propellor --merge`. A normal
interactive git commit will then be made, consisting of all changes
that have been previously committed by --spin, since the last time a
normal git commit was made.
(This will result in a trapezoid pattern in gitk.)
* propellor hostname
When run with a hostname and no other options, propellor will
provision the local host with the configuration of that hostname.
This is useful when the local host doesn't yet have its hostname set
correctly.
# ENVIRONMENT
Set `PROPELLOR_DEBUG=1` to make propellor output each command it runs and
other debugging information.
# GIT CONFIGURATION
`git config propellor.debug 1` will configure propellor to output debugging
information.
The usual git configuration controls which centralized repository (if any)
propellor pushes and pulls from.
Additionally, the url of a remote named "deploy", if it exists
in your ~/.propellor/ repository, is used as the origin url for
the other repositories.
# SH AUTHOR
Joey Hess <id@joeyh.name>
<https://propellor.branchable.com/>
Warning: Automatically converted into a man page by mdwn2man. Edit with care.