Author claims all 90% of the time all they need is a single shell script. Then shows an example directory structure that mostly reminds me of Ansible.
How is Welder different from Ansible, except bash vs python?
Show HN: Welder – set up your Linux server with plain shell scripts
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Re: Show HN: Welder – set up your Linux server with plain shell scripts
#22Author claims all 90% of the time all they need is a single shell script. Then shows an example directory structure that mostly reminds me of Ansible. How is Welder different from Ansible, except bash vs python?
My experience with Ansible is that I have to write a dozen lines of yaml just to ensure permissions on a bunch of files. (But Puppet and Chef scare me even more.)
The tools in this space feel like very thick abstractions on top of commands and configs you have to understand any way, to get the results you want. The console output Ansible produces is also truly horrible.
Instead, I now maintain a single shell script for our servers. It's maybe a couple hundred lines, half of it heredocs containing small config snippets.
I will definitely be looking at this tool later.
Re: Show HN: Welder – set up your Linux server with plain shell scripts
#23I created something similar for Arch Linux:
https://github.com/CyberShadow/aconfmgr
It has a few crucial differences from typical configuration managers, though, as it allows transcribing the system state back into your configuration.
Re: Show HN: Welder – set up your Linux server with plain shell scripts
#24Author claims all 90% of the time all they need is a single shell script. Then shows an example directory structure that mostly reminds me of Ansible. How is Welder different from Ansible, except bash vs python?
It also depends on Ruby and liquid templates. I am not sure how he can still claim it is "plain shell scripts"
Re: Show HN: Welder – set up your Linux server with plain shell scripts
#25Hm I've always just used pssh for this type of administration. I guess this saves a step not having to pscp.pssh the script onto the nodes.
Re: Show HN: Welder – set up your Linux server with plain shell scripts
#26If you don't like all the directories that Ansible playbooks require you can use the simple style of a single YAML file that describes the actions to take. Check out https://serversforhackers.com/an-ansible-tutorial, the first introduction walks you through setting up just 2 files.
Re: Show HN: Welder – set up your Linux server with plain shell scripts
#27Here is a declarative bash DSL I ran across a few months ago:
https://github.com/mattly/bork
and here is an example from their README:
ok brew # presence and updatedness of Homebrew
ok brew git # presence and updatedness of Homebrew git package
ok directory $HOME/code # presence of the ~/code directory
ok github $HOME/code/dotfiles mattly/dotfiles # presence, drift of git repository in ~/code/dotfiles
cd $HOME
for file in $HOME/code/dotfiles/configs/*
do # for each file in ~/code/dotfiles/configs,
ok symlink ".$(basename $file)" $file # presense of a symlink to file in ~ with a leading dot
doneRe: Show HN: Welder – set up your Linux server with plain shell scripts
#28Yet another Ruby-based solution?!
Re: Show HN: Welder – set up your Linux server with plain shell scripts
#29Could you explain what this line of code does? ssh -t user@example.com "$(
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Re: Show HN: Welder – set up your Linux server with plain shell scripts
#30Could you explain what this line of code does? ssh -t user@example.com "$(
It's a weird way of writing
ssh -t user@example.com /bin/bash