Re: problem with size of embedded command in cfengine 2.1.14

[Ed Brown]

On Wed, 2005-06-29 at 04:35, Eric Doutreleau wrote:
...
> is there somebody who successfully wrote a wrapper in oder to be able 
> to install software?
...
> cfengine:d012-15:package install: cfengine:d012-15: Too many arguments
> in embedded script
> cfengine:d012-15:package install:
> cfengine:d012-15:/var/cfengine/inputs/cfsite.cf.fedora-4:Use a wrapper

We're using a wrapper (that is, an external script to install packages
(also with yum), rather than 'action=install') because we needed
something before Phil implemented 'action=install' (and because it
allowed some local site specific functions).  But I wonder what the
limitation actually is here, is there a fixed limit on the number of
packages that can be installed or on the length of the argument string? 
Is it in the 'packages:' code, or at a higher level in cfengine?  Is it
documented; can it be changed?  (Or could the problem be something else,
a parse error, maybe related to the line early on in the cfagent output:
cfengine:d012-15: Nothing scheduled for [packages.mozilla_acroread] (0/1
minutes elapsed)
The formatting of the rpm list in the cfengine output is interesting
too, like maybe newlines are being included?)

Our wrapper relies on definining classes for each needed rpm, which gets
messy fast.  If the problem really is 'too many arguments', i.e. rpms, a
better workaround than to abandon 'action=install' altogether (if it has
been working for you), or than calling an external script, might be to
put some subset of the needed rpms into an shellcommand action,
something like:

classes: 
   OracleClient = ( server1 )
shellcommands:
   OracleClient::
     "/usr/bin/yum install -y yada yada-lib yada-jdbc yada-etc"

Also, I don't see any output from yum in your snippet, so it doesn't
look like it's getting that far, but you might want to test the yum
install of the entire list from the commandline, just to be sure that
there aren't circular or unmet dependency problems being masked by these
other errors.

-Ed