NAME

       cf-agent - evaluate CFEngine policy code and actuate change to the system.

SYNOPSIS

       cf-agent [OPTION]...  [FILE]

DESCRIPTION

       cf-agent evaluates policy code and makes changes to the system. Policy bundles are evaluated in the order
       of  the provided bundlesequence (this is normally specified in the common control body). For each bundle,
       cf-agent groups promise statements according to their type. Promise types are then evaluated in a  preset
       order to ensure fast system convergence to policy.

OPTIONS

       --bootstrap, -B value
              Bootstrap CFEngine to the given policy server IP, hostname or :avahi (automatic detection)

       --bundlesequence, -b value
              Set or override bundlesequence from command line

       --workdir, -w value
              Override   the   default   /var/cfengine   work   directory   for   testing   (same   as   setting
              CFENGINE_TEST_OVERRIDE_WORKDIR)

       --debug, -d
              Enable debugging output

       --define, -D value
              Define a list of comma separated classes to be defined at the start of execution

       --self-diagnostics, -x value
              Run checks to diagnose a CFEngine agent installation

       --dry-run, -n
              All talk and no action mode - make no changes, only inform of promises not kept

       --file, -f value
              Specify an alternative input file than the default

       --help, -h
              Print the help message

       --inform, -I
              Print basic information about changes made to the system, i.e. promises repaired

       --negate, -N value
              Define a list of comma separated classes to be undefined at the start of execution

       --no-lock, -K
              Ignore locking constraints during execution (ifelapsed/expireafter) if "too soon" to run

       --verbose, -v
              Output verbose information about the behaviour of the agent

       --version, -V
              Output the version of the software

       --timing-output, -t
              Output timing information on console when in verbose mode

       --trust-server, -T value
              Possible values: 'yes' (default, trust the server  when  bootstrapping),  'no'  (server  key  must
              already be trusted)

       --color, -C value
              Enable  colorized  output.  Possible  values:  'always',  'auto',  'never'. If option is used, the
              default value is 'auto'

       --no-extensions, -E
              Disable extension loading (used while upgrading)

       --timestamp, -l
              Log timestamps on each line of log output

       --log-modules, - value
              Enable even more detailed debug logging for specific areas of  the  implementation.  Use  together
              with '-d'. Use --log-modules=help for a list of available modules

CFENGINE

       CFEngine   provides  automated  configuration  management  of  large-scale  computer  systems.  A  system
       administrator describes the desired state of a system using CFEngine policy code.  The  program  cf-agent
       reads  policy  code and attempts to bring the current system state to the desired state described. Policy
       code is downloaded by cf-agent from a cf-serverd daemon. The daemon cf-execd is responsible  for  running
       cf-agent periodically.
       Documentation for CFEngine is available at http://cfengine.com/documentation/.

PROMISE THEORY

       CFEngine  is built on principles from promise theory, proposed by Mark Burgess in 2004. Promise theory is
       a model of voluntary cooperation between individual,  autonomous  actors  or  agents  who  publish  their
       intentions  to one another in the form of promises. A promise is a declaration of intent whose purpose is
       to increase the recipient's certainty about a claim of past, present or future behaviour. For  a  promise
       to  increase  certainty,  the  recipient  needs to trust the promiser, but trust can also be built on the
       verification that previous promises have been kept,  thus  trust  plays  a  symbiotic  relationship  with
       promises.
       For an introduction to promise theory, please see http://arxiv.org/abs/0810.3294/

AVAILABILITY

       cf-agent is part of CFEngine.
       Binary packages may be downloaded from http://cfengine.com/downloads/.
       The source code is available at http://github.com/cfengine/

BUGS

       Please see the public bug-tracker at http://bug.cfengine.com/.
       GitHub pull-requests may be submitted to http://github.com/cfengine/core/.

SEE ALSO

       cf-promises(8), cf-agent(8), cf-serverd(8), cf-execd(8), cf-monitord(8), cf-runagent(8), cf-key(8)

AUTHOR

       Mark Burgess and CFEngine AS

System Administration                               CFEngine                                         CF-AGENT(8)