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3.4 Invoking cfengine

Cfengine may be invoked in a number of ways. Here are some examples:

     

host% cfengine host% cfengine --file myfile host% cfengine -f myfile -v -n host% cfengine --help

The first of these (the default command, with no arguments) causes cfengine to look for a file called cfengine.conf in the current directory and execute it silently. The second command reads the file myfile and works silently. The third works in verbose mode and the -n option means that no actions should actually be carried out, only warnings should be printed. The final example causes cfengine to print out a list of its command line options. The complete list of options is listed in the summary at the beginning of this manual, or you can see it by giving the -h option, (see the reference manual). In addition to running cfengine with a filename, you can also treat cfengine files as scripts by starting your cfengine program with the standard shell line:

     #!/local/gnu/bin/cfengine -f
     #
     # My config script
     #

Here we assume that you have installed cfengine under the directory /local/gnu/bin. By adding a header like this to the first line of your program and making the file executable with the chmod shell command, you can execute the program just by typing its name—i.e. without mentioning cfengine explicitly at all.

As a novice to cfengine, it is advisable to check all programs with the -n option before trusting them to your system, at least until you are familiar with the behaviour of cfengine. This `safe' option allows you to see what cfengine wants to do, without actually committing yourself to doing it.