RE: Executing a file only on later passes

[Wheeler, John]

I guess I'm just not creative enough, or smart enough to figure out how
to utilize this feature (kinda why I asked for examples of someone who
relies on this). The "clutter" I was speaking of is simply when I debug
a script I seem to always get pages and pages of "pass 2" stuff where
nothing gets executed. I use cfengine for all of our deploys to the web
and app tier, so some scripts (or kinda functions as I've written them)
will never have/need/require/utilze a second pass. I have specifically
write them to be executed in one pass. Maybe that is less elegant, more
brute force, but its much easier for the simple admin follow

shellcommands.stoptomcat.registerDeploy
copy.registerDeploy
tidy.registerDeploy
links.registerDeploy
shellcommands.starttomcat.registerDeploy

Than to rely on some activated class that will be picked up in a second
pass.


Finally, I'm not advocating any change (though I do like chip's idea).
I'm just suggesting to one individual how he might "disable" multiple
passes as I have. Are you suggesting this change will fundamentally
break cfengine?


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark.Burgess@iu.hio.no [mailto:Mark.Burgess@iu.hio.no]
> Sent: Monday, November 03, 2003 12:04 PM
> To: chip@trdlnk.com
> Cc: Wheeler, John; Help-cfengine@gnu.org
> Subject: Re: Executing a file only on later passes
> 
> Chip, John,
> 
> The second pass is just like the next invocation of cfagent.
> Nothing will change by eliminating it except that the system will
> not be completely configured in a single iteration. The ordering
> of events is nothing to do with this. It just speeds up convergence
> for 90% of cases with hidden dependencies.
> 
> > OK.  It does cause things to sometimes (rarely) be executed in an
> > unexpected order, however.  Life might be made easier if we made
this a
> > bit more user-accessible; for example, define a 'laterpass' class
(or
> > something similar) after the first pass is done.  This would aid in
> > debugging (add a !laterpass condition and see if the problem
persists
> > and the like) and allow for some clever hacks.
> 
> The second pass is only used if there are classes defined that have
> restricted the first pass, leaving some potentially unexecuted actions
> that would not be possible to evaluate.
> 
> If you want to control the order of things (which should not be
> necessary if you just trust the agent) then reorganize the
> input files. But who cares what the order is if it gets done?
> 
> > This isn't a major problem, but it can be frustrating.  No doubt
this
> > frustration is exacerbated by a lack of grokking on my own part.
> >
> 
> Yup. Whern things get complex they are hard to understand.
> M
> 
> 
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