Odd Behaviour (FAQs?)

[David Douthitt]

I like cfengine, and am trying to implement it.
However, it seems to be continually surprising me in how
it does things.

I checked the archives, and I can't find any decent
descriptions of why things like this seem to fail:

# Either one of these should change all /etc/*.conf files

files:
    /etc mode=og-w,a-x include=*.conf owner=root group=root action=fixplain
    /etc/*.conf mode=og-w,a-x owner=root group=root action=fixplain

# This one finally worked:

    /etc mode=og-w,a-x include=*.conf owner=root group=root \
         action=fixplain recurse=1

Do I have to recurse just to modify multiple files in a directory?

Also, in the Cfagent Reference (Chapter 3), p. 67, it
lists the syntax starting with a....

    /file-object [...]

then in the first descriptive entry below it says:

    /directory  This is the only obligatory part of a file action.

(!)

Can someone explain in full detail just exactly what goes first into
the files entries?