Puppet users - Oct 2010 - Accessing Facter in other languages than Ruby?

Hi all,

We''re writing a few scripts at the moment that could really make use of
Facter, however the vast majority of them team (including my self!) are not 
proficient in Ruby, however they are highly proficient in other languages such 
as (dare I say it!) Python.

Is there (or are there any plans to!) release bindings for other languages to 
enable facts to be used in scripts other than puppet.

Kind regards,

Matt

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On Fri, Oct 22, 2010 at 8:41 AM, Matt Wallace
<lists@truthisfreedom.org.uk>wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> We''re writing a few scripts at the moment that could really make
use of
> Facter, however the vast majority of them team (including my self!) are not
> proficient in Ruby, however they are highly proficient in other languages
> such
> as (dare I say it!) Python.
>
> Is there (or are there any plans to!) release bindings for other languages
> to
> enable facts to be used in scripts other than puppet.
>
This is on the Facter roadmap, but I don''t have a rough date for you.

http://projects.puppetlabs.com/issues/2157 is the bug you should watch if
you want to help out or just keep up to date on progress.

Feedback in that bug log more than appreciated.

>
> Kind regards,
>
> Matt
>
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> We''re writing a few scripts at the moment that could really make
use of
> Facter, however the vast majority of them team (including my self!) are not
> proficient in Ruby, however they are highly proficient in other languages
such
> as (dare I say it!) Python.
Many of the facts already fork so wiring in the command-line facter
tool might not be a bad idea and is certainly possible right now.

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* Richard Crowley <r at rcrowley.org> [2010/10/22
08:57]:
> > We''re writing a few scripts at the moment that could really
make
> > use of Facter, however the vast majority of them team (including
> > my self!) are not proficient in Ruby, however they are highly
> > proficient in other languages such as (dare I say it!) Python.
> 
> Many of the facts already fork so wiring in the command-line
> facter tool might not be a bad idea and is certainly possible
> right now.
I was thinking that, too:

  import os

  facts = {}
  for fact in os.popen("facter").readlines():
      n, v = fact.split(" => ")
      facts[ n ] = v.rstrip()


That gives you the facts as a dictionary.

-- 
If not for coffee, I''d have no use for water at all.

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On Fri, 2010-10-22 at 08:54 -0700, Nigel Kersten wrote:
> 
> 
> On Fri, Oct 22, 2010 at 8:41 AM, Matt Wallace
> <lists@truthisfreedom.org.uk> wrote:
>         Hi all,
>         
>         We''re writing a few scripts at the moment that could
really
>         make use of
>         Facter, however the vast majority of them team (including my
>         self!) are not
>         proficient in Ruby, however they are highly proficient in
>         other languages such
>         as (dare I say it!) Python.
>         
>         Is there (or are there any plans to!) release bindings for
>         other languages to
>         enable facts to be used in scripts other than puppet.
> 
> 
> This is on the Facter roadmap, but I don''t have a rough date for
you.
> 
> 
> http://projects.puppetlabs.com/issues/2157 is the bug you should watch
> if you want to help out or just keep up to date on progress.
> 
> 
> Feedback in that bug log more than appreciated.
Hi Nigel,

I''m not sure I''ve explained myself fully here, so apologies
for that.

I''m after a way to access the facts in a language other that Ruby, not
create them.

For example a python script that went something along the lines of:

===================import facter

proc1 = facter.facts[''processor_0'']

print u''The first processor in this system is %s'' % proc1
==================
That''s a vary basic example, however as I''ve already got a
script that
creates custom 
facts from the metadata in our provisioning system, I''m not worried
about creating the 
facts, I just want to be able to access this incredible wealth of
information across my 
various scripts (most of which are/will be in python) regardless of
language.

I love ruby, and I''m trying to learn it, but the truth is that me and
my
team don''t 
really have time to learn another language on top of our day jobs!

Thanks in advance,

Matt



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On Fri, 2010-10-22 at 12:22 -0400, Darren Chamberlain
wrote:
> * Richard Crowley <r at rcrowley.org> [2010/10/22 08:57]:
> > > We''re writing a few scripts at the moment that could
really make
> > > use of Facter, however the vast majority of them team (including
> > > my self!) are not proficient in Ruby, however they are highly
> > > proficient in other languages such as (dare I say it!) Python.
> > 
> > Many of the facts already fork so wiring in the command-line
> > facter tool might not be a bad idea and is certainly possible
> > right now.
> 
> I was thinking that, too:
> 
>   import os
> 
>   facts = {}
>   for fact in os.popen("facter").readlines():
>       n, v = fact.split(" => ")
>       facts[ n ] = v.rstrip()
> 
> 
> That gives you the facts as a dictionary.
I was afraid someone would suggest that... ;) :P

I''m really looking for bindings that are built into the language (in
the
same way that I can do a "require ''facter''" for my
mcollective agents!)
but for Python etc.

If all else fails, I guess I could write a wrapper around the above to
create a "facts" class, but if it was a native pypi module or egg,
that
would be ace!

I''ll take a look at the sourcecode for Facter and see how easy it would
be to translate it into Python.

M.

Thanks in advance,

Matt

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Any reason you can''t use facter the command line?
E.g. call in python commands.getstatusoutput("facter")



On Oct 24, 2010, at 12:41 AM, Matthew Macdonald-Wallace wrote:
> On Fri, 2010-10-22 at 08:54 -0700, Nigel Kersten wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> On Fri, Oct 22, 2010 at 8:41 AM, Matt Wallace
>> <lists@truthisfreedom.org.uk> wrote:
>>        Hi all,
>> 
>>        We''re writing a few scripts at the moment that could
really
>>        make use of
>>        Facter, however the vast majority of them team (including my
>>        self!) are not
>>        proficient in Ruby, however they are highly proficient in
>>        other languages such
>>        as (dare I say it!) Python.
>> 
>>        Is there (or are there any plans to!) release bindings for
>>        other languages to
>>        enable facts to be used in scripts other than puppet.
>> 
>> 
>> This is on the Facter roadmap, but I don''t have a rough date
for you.
>> 
>> 
>> http://projects.puppetlabs.com/issues/2157 is the bug you should watch
>> if you want to help out or just keep up to date on progress.
>> 
>> 
>> Feedback in that bug log more than appreciated.
> 
> Hi Nigel,
> 
> I''m not sure I''ve explained myself fully here, so
apologies for that.
> 
> I''m after a way to access the facts in a language other that Ruby,
not
> create them.
> 
> For example a python script that went something along the lines of:
> 
> ===================> import facter
> 
> proc1 = facter.facts[''processor_0'']
> 
> print u''The first processor in this system is %s'' % proc1
> ==================> 
> That''s a vary basic example, however as I''ve already got
a script that
> creates custom 
> facts from the metadata in our provisioning system, I''m not
worried
> about creating the 
> facts, I just want to be able to access this incredible wealth of
> information across my 
> various scripts (most of which are/will be in python) regardless of
> language.
> 
> I love ruby, and I''m trying to learn it, but the truth is that me
and my
> team don''t 
> really have time to learn another language on top of our day jobs!
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> 
> Matt
> 
> 
> 
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On Sun, 2010-10-24 at 00:44 -0700, Yushu Yao wrote:
> Any reason you can''t use facter the command line?
> E.g. call in python commands.getstatusoutput("facter")
Because it''s a dirty hack? ;)

We''ve inherited a system where loads of stuff that could be done with
shared libraries in various languages (PHP and python mainly) is done
using using the appropriate "Shell out to the command line and run this
program", that I''m desperately trying to make sure that all our
new
scripts don''t do this.

I realise that the vast majority of libraries are actually "wrappers"
around this kind of ''shell out'' process, however it strikes me
(and
admittedly I''m incredibly paranoid!) that if you''re shelling
out to the
command line, all it takes is an attacker to send the correct string to
the script and they''ve immediately got access to a lot more on the
system.

Kind regards,

Matt

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Matthew Macdonald-Wallace <lists@truthisfreedom.org.uk>
writes:
> On Sun, 2010-10-24 at 00:44 -0700, Yushu Yao wrote:
>
>> Any reason you can''t use facter the command line?
>> E.g. call in python commands.getstatusoutput("facter")
>
> Because it''s a dirty hack? ;)
Internally facter does a lot of the same, FWIW. ;)

I think what you probably want is ''facter --yaml'', which emits
the data in a
format easily consumed by other applications.  Wrap, or cache, or process that
from your Python library and you have a nice, language independent way to get
that data.

Which is essentially what you want, right?

        Daniel
-- 
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               ♽ made with 100 percent post-consumer electrons

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On Sun, Oct 24, 2010 at 5:23 AM, Daniel Pittman <daniel@rimspace.net>
wrote:
> Matthew Macdonald-Wallace <lists@truthisfreedom.org.uk> writes:
>> On Sun, 2010-10-24 at 00:44 -0700, Yushu Yao wrote:
>>
>>> Any reason you can''t use facter the command line?
>>> E.g. call in python commands.getstatusoutput("facter")
>>
>> Because it''s a dirty hack? ;)
>
> Internally facter does a lot of the same, FWIW. ;)
Honestly, the vast majority of Facter facts are just shelling out
underneath as Daniel said.

I can imagine a magical land where we have native Ruby bindings for
everything we currently shell out for, but it''s not here yet...

I do like the idea of community maintained wrappers around Facter to
at least make coding against Facter in other languages easier, as it
really won''t be that much work.
> I think what you probably want is ''facter --yaml'', which
emits the data in a
> format easily consumed by other applications.  Wrap, or cache, or process
that
> from your Python library and you have a nice, language independent way to
get
> that data.
>
> Which is essentially what you want, right?
I think so. You''ll want to work out how to simulate the
''-p/--puppet''
option, but otherwise it''s all just going to be yaml parsing.

I see Matthew''s concerns about security, but I''d argue you
simply
wouldn''t take input that gets used in actual commands. Facter
doesn''t
do this, and a wrapper script wouldn''t either.

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On Sun, Oct 24, 2010 at 9:44 AM, Nigel Kersten
<nigel@explanatorygap.net>wrote:
> On Sun, Oct 24, 2010 at 5:23 AM, Daniel Pittman <daniel@rimspace.net>
> wrote:
> > Matthew Macdonald-Wallace <lists@truthisfreedom.org.uk> writes:
> >> On Sun, 2010-10-24 at 00:44 -0700, Yushu Yao wrote:
> >>
> >>> Any reason you can''t use facter the command line?
> >>> E.g. call in python
commands.getstatusoutput("facter")
> >>
> >> Because it''s a dirty hack? ;)
> >
> > Internally facter does a lot of the same, FWIW. ;)
>
> Honestly, the vast majority of Facter facts are just shelling out
> underneath as Daniel said.
>
> I can imagine a magical land where we have native Ruby bindings for
> everything we currently shell out for, but it''s not here yet...
>
> I do like the idea of community maintained wrappers around Facter to
> at least make coding against Facter in other languages easier, as it
> really won''t be that much work.
>
http://projects.puppetlabs.com/issues/5093 filed, please watch if
you''re
interested, and feel free to start sending patches around.

I see this as something the community should be able to contribute and we
ship as part of the source tarball.

I''m happy to work with anyone on Python support.


>
> > I think what you probably want is ''facter --yaml'',
which emits the data
> in a
> > format easily consumed by other applications.  Wrap, or cache, or
process
> that
> > from your Python library and you have a nice, language independent way
to
> get
> > that data.
> >
> > Which is essentially what you want, right?
>
> I think so. You''ll want to work out how to simulate the
''-p/--puppet''
> option, but otherwise it''s all just going to be yaml parsing.
>
> I see Matthew''s concerns about security, but I''d argue
you simply
> wouldn''t take input that gets used in actual commands. Facter
doesn''t
> do this, and a wrapper script wouldn''t either.
>
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Nigel Kersten <nigel@explanatorygap.net> writes:
> On Sun, Oct 24, 2010 at 5:23 AM, Daniel Pittman <daniel@rimspace.net>
wrote:
>> Matthew Macdonald-Wallace <lists@truthisfreedom.org.uk> writes:
>>> On Sun, 2010-10-24 at 00:44 -0700, Yushu Yao wrote:
[...]
>> I think what you probably want is ''facter --yaml'',
which emits the data in
>> a format easily consumed by other applications.  Wrap, or cache, or
process
>> that from your Python library and you have a nice, language independent
way
>> to get that data.
>>
>> Which is essentially what you want, right?
>
> I think so. You''ll want to work out how to simulate the
''-p/--puppet''
> option, but otherwise it''s all just going to be yaml parsing.
>
> I see Matthew''s concerns about security, but I''d argue
you simply wouldn''t
> take input that gets used in actual commands. Facter doesn''t do
this, and a
> wrapper script wouldn''t either.
For my site I would probably deploy this as /etc/cron.d/get-facts:
*/15 * * * *  root  /usr/bin/facter --puppet --yaml > /var/tmp/facts.yaml

Then you could parse that YAML file as whatever user at whatever time, without
having to worry about root access to collect them or whatever.

(...or just use mcollective :)

        Daniel
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On Oct 25, 2:36 am, Daniel Pittman <dan...@rimspace.net> wrote:
> > I see Matthew''s concerns about security, but I''d
argue you simply wouldn''t
> > take input that gets used in actual commands. Facter doesn''t
do this, and a
> > wrapper script wouldn''t either.
That''s a good point and has started me thinking about how I could
implement this... :)
> For my site I would probably deploy this as /etc/cron.d/get-facts:
> */15 * * * *  root  /usr/bin/facter --puppet --yaml >
/var/tmp/facts.yaml
>
> Then you could parse that YAML file as whatever user at whatever time,
without
> having to worry about root access to collect them or whatever.
Hmmm, I''m currently thinking along the lines of:

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-import os
import yaml

cmd = "facter --puppet --yaml"

facts_dict  = yaml.load(cmd)

# Do "x" with facts
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
> (...or just use mcollective :)
LOL, we''re already using MCollective, this is for a project
I''m
working on that will (eventually) enable us to interface MCollective
with other languages from a client-basis, not just an agent.

Cheers,

M.

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----- "macwall" <mattmacwall@gmail.com> wrote:
> LOL, we''re already using MCollective, this is for a project
I''m
> working on that will (eventually) enable us to interface MCollective
> with other languages from a client-basis, not just an agent.
would you mind elaborating on this?  Other language support is on my list
of things to do, would be good to get peoples wishes captured for when I 
start down that route

-- 
R.I.Pienaar

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Quoting "R.I.Pienaar" <rip@devco.net>:
>
> ----- "macwall" <mattmacwall@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> LOL, we''re already using MCollective, this is for a project
I''m
>> working on that will (eventually) enable us to interface MCollective
>> with other languages from a client-basis, not just an agent.
>
> would you mind elaborating on this?  Other language support is on my list
> of things to do, would be good to get peoples wishes captured for when I
> start down that route
Sure.

We have a team of system administrators within our organisation who love the
look and power of MCollective but are currently "unable" to utilise it
fully
as they don''t know ruby (for some reason Python is the language of
choice
here!).

I''m writing a new web interface for our change management system that
will be
written in DJango, it would be really nice to be able to trigger mcollective
actions as part of a change request, but without Python bindings we need to
run the SIMPLERPC sinatra client (and we need to make adjustments to it!) so
we can use a web interface to send a request to a second API that is running
on the same server as the original web interface (more on this at a later date
as I''m also planning on releasing it under a BSD-style license).

As I''m currently the only SysAd that has even a vague idea about Ruby
within
my organisation (and my idea of Ruby is very vague as those of you who have
seen my code will know!) I''m also the only person who can extend
MCollective
and write new agents.  I''m also therefore the only one who can write
new
clients for our support teams to use, where as if I could write clients in
another language, I could hand out the work across the team - infact, some of
our support guys could even write their own tools!


Let me know if you would like any more on the above, I''m only to happy
to help
- Mcollective and puppet are amazing tools and it really is about time I
started giving back to the community! ;)

Cheers,

M.

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On Oct 25, 2010, at 10:45 AM, lists@truthisfreedom.org.uk wrote:
> We have a team of system administrators within our organisation who love
the
> look and power of MCollective but are currently "unable" to
utilise it fully
> as they don''t know ruby (for some reason Python is the language of
choice
> here!).
Oh, cry me a river. :) We use Python as well (and by “we” I mean “me”), but I
would love for one of my co-workers to argue for Ruby if only to demonstrate
that they''d heard of it and care about such things. One of the
sysadmins I work with prefers to keep track of his servers *in a Word document*.
I wish I was kidding. (I put everything in an LDAP database, but he plugs his
ears and says “la la la” when that comes up.)

-- 
Rob McBroom
<http://www.skurfer.com/>

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