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. This option is overridden by FILE if supplied
              as argument.

       --help, -h
              Print the help message

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

       --log-level, -g value
              Specify how detailed logs should  be.  Possible  values:  'error',  'warning',  'notice',  'info',
              'verbose', 'debug'

       --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

       --ignore-preferred-augments, -
              Ignore def_preferred.json file in favor of def.json

       --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

       --show-evaluated-classes, - value
              Show *final* evaluated classes, including those defined in common bundles  in  policy.  Optionally
              can take a regular expression.

       --show-evaluated-vars, - value
              Show  *final*  evaluated  variables,  including  those  defined without dependency to user-defined
              classes in policy. Optionally can take a regular expression.

       --skip-bootstrap-policy-run, -
              Do not run policy as the last step of the bootstrap process

       --skip-db-check, - value
              Do not run database integrity checks and repairs at startup

       --simulate, - value
              Run in simulate mode, either 'manifest', 'manifest-full' or 'diff'

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 https://docs.cfengine.com/.

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 https://cfengine.com/download/.
       The source code is available at https://github.com/cfengine/

BUGS

       Please see the public bug-tracker at https://tracker.mender.io/projects/CFE/.
       GitHub pull-requests may be submitted to https://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 Northern.tech AS