Config templates

We have here TT files that may generate configuration files for:

• Apache in various circumstances
• nginx
• Many Logstash inputs, outputs and filters.
• PerfSONAR
• Some basic udev rules
• named
• ...

And a tiny Perl script that fills them from a JSON file, if it has the correct structure.

Ongoing work

We are in preparation of moving the legacy hpcugent files to a properly structured and tested repository, that at some day should be moved to the quattor project at https://github.com/quattor.

The new structure consists of the following files/directories

• the metaconfig directory holds all services, each with their TT files, pan schema and unittest data
• the scripts directory holds useful standalone scripts, in particular the json2tt.pl script
• test directory with the (Python) unittest code
• setup.py is a distultils packaging file for the new code (and only the new code)
• NOTICE (file as per the Apache License)

Read the principles behind the structure of the metaconfig directory

• #40
• #41

Requirements

For installation/usage:

• perl Template::Toolkit (TT) version 2.25 or later (use CPAN or for src rpms on el5, el6 and el7, contact @stdweird)
• perl JSON::XS
• perl Config::Genral
• perl quattor modules CAF, LC

For unit-testing/development

• recent pan-compiler (10.1 or later), with panc in $PATH
• python vsc-base (easy_install vsc-base (use --user on recent systems for local install), or build your own via https://github.com/hpcugent/vsc-base)
• a local checkout of the template-library-core repository (https://github.com/quattor/template-library-core); by default in the same directory as the checkout of this repository, but can be changed via the --core option of the unittest suite (or the SUITE_CORE environment variable)

Running the tests

From the base of the repository, run

python test/suite.py

to run all tests of all services.

To run all unittests of the example service use

python test/suite.py --service example

And to run only 2 (of possibly many others) unittests of the example service use

python test/suite.py --service example --tests config,simple

Other options

• print the generated JSON profile for each unittest using the --showjson option
• print the generated TT output for each unittest using the --showtt option
• export the pan schema and possible other files from the metaconfig/$service/pan directory to a directory using the --exportpan option

Development example

Start with forking the upstream repository https://github.com/hpcugent/config-templates, and clone your personal fork in your workspace. (replace stdweird with your own github username). Also add the upstream repository (using https protocol).

git clone git@github.com:stdweird/config-templates.git
cd config-templates
git remote add upstream https://github.com/hpcugent/config-templates

Check your environment by running the unittests. No tests should fail when the environment is setup properly. (Open an issue on github in case there is a problem you can't resolve.)

python test/suite.py

Add new service

Pick a good and relevant name for the service (in this case we will add the non-existing example service), and set the variable service in your shell (it is used in further command-line examples).

service=example

Target

Our example service requires a text config file in /etc/example/exampled.conf and has following structure

name = {
    hosts = server1,server2
    port = 800
    master = FALSE
    description = "My example"
}

where following fields are mandatory:

• hosts: a comma separated list of hostnames
• port: an integer
• master: boolean with possible values TRUE or FALSE
• description: a quoted string

The service has also an optional fields option, also a quoted string.

Upon changes of the config file, the exampled service needs to be restarted.

This type of configuration is ideally suited for metaconfig and TT.

Prepare

Make a new branch where you will work in and that you will use to create the pull-request (PR) when finished

git checkout -b ${service}_service

Create the initial directory structure.

cd metaconfig
mkdir -p $service/tests/{profiles,regexps} $service/pan

Add some typical files (some of the files are not mandatory, but are simply best practice).

cd $service

echo -e "declaration template metaconfig/$service/schema;\n" > pan/schema.pan
echo -e "unique template metaconfig/$service/config;\n\ninclude 'metaconfig/$service/schema';" > pan/config.pan

echo -e "object template config;\n\ninclude 'metaconfig/$service/config';\n" > tests/profiles/config.pan
mkdir tests/regexps/config
echo -e 'Base test for config\n---\nmultiline\n---\n$wontmatch^\n' > tests/regexps/config/base

Commit this initial structure

git add ./
git commit -a -m "initial structure for service $service"

Create the schema

The schema needs to be created in the pan subdirectory of the service directory metaconfig/$service. The file should be called schema.pan.

declaration template metaconfig/example/schema;

include 'pan/types';

type example_service = {
    'hosts' :  type_hostname[]
    'port' : long(0..)
    'master' : boolean
    'description' : string
    'option' ? string
};

• long, boolean and string are pan builtin types (see the panbook for more info)
• type_hostname is a type that is available from the main pan/types template as part of the core template library.
• the template namespace metaconfig/example does not match the location of the file, but this is intentional and is resolved by the suite.py test.

Create config template for metaconfig component (optional)

A reference config file can now also be created, with e.g. the type binding to the correct path and configuration of the restart action and the TT module to load. The file config.pan should be created in the same pan directory as schema.pan.

unique template metaconfig/example/config;

include 'metaconfig/example/schema';

bind "/software/components/metaconfig/services/{/etc/example/exampled.conf}/contents" = example_service;

prefix "/software/components/metaconfig/services/{/etc/example/exampled.conf}";
"daemon" = "exampled";
"module" = "example/main";

This will expect the TT module with relative filename example/main.tt.

Make TT file to match desired output

Create the main.tt file with content in the metaconfig/$service directory

name = {
[% FILTER indent -%]
hosts = [% hosts.join(',') %]
port = [% port %]
master = [% master ? "TRUE" : "FALSE" %]
description = "[% description %]"
[%     IF option.defined -%]
option = "[% option %]"
[%     END -%]
[% END -%]
}

• FILTER indent creates the indentation
• TT is known for newline issues, so be careful if the config files are sensitive to this.

Add unittests

Each unittest consists of 2 parts:

• an object template that will generate the profile
• one or more files that contain regular expressions that will be tested against the output produced by the TT module and the profile.

The object template is compiled and outputted in JSON format using the pan-compiler. Then the json2tt.pl script is used to generate the output from the JSON and the TT module.

The testsuite takes care of the actual compilation and generation of the output, and the running of the tests.

Only templates with .pan extension and that are either unique, structure or object templates are considered, all other will get an (non-fatal) error message. Subdirectories will not be checked for object templates.

Flags

simple unittest

The easiest example is a single object template with a single regexp file.

profile

By default, the expected pan path is under /metaconfig.

Create the profile tests/profiles/simple.pan as follows:

object template simple;

"/metaconfig/module" = "example/main";
prefix "/metaconfig/contents";
"hosts" = list("server1", "server2");
"port" = 800;
"master" = false;
"description" = "My example";

• the schema is not validated in this simple template, but it can easily be done by adding

include 'metaconfig/example/schema';
bind "/metaconfig/example/contents" = example_service;

But the preferred way is to create a proper config.pan file and use that as described below.

regular expression

Make a 3 block text file tests/regexps/simple, with --- as block separator as follows

Simple test
---
---
name
hosts
port
master
description

This will search the output for the words name, hosts, port, master and description.

This is good for illustrating the principle, but is a lousy unittest. Check the config unittest below for proper testing.

The filename simple has to match the object template you want to test with (in this case the simple.pan template).

verify

You can verify this single unittest for the example service using

python ../../test/suite.py --service example --tests simple

config based unittest

It is better to use a full blown template as will be used in the actual profiles. The added advantage here is the config.pan and schema.pan from the pan directory are tested as well.

profile

The profile tests/profiles/config.pan is similar to the simple one (it are the same values after all we want to set), but by targetting metaconfig usage, a different prefix is required.

object template config;

include 'metaconfig/example/config';

prefix "/software/components/metaconfig/services/{/etc/example/exampled.conf}/contents";
"hosts" = list("server1", "server2");
"port" = 800;
"master" = false;
"description" = "My example";

The type binding and definition of the TT module are part of the pan/config.pan template, and this usage is very close to actual usage in actual machine templates.

regular expressions

We will now make several regular expression tests, each in their own file and grouped in a directory called config (also matching the object profile name). The filenames in the directory are not relevant (but no addiditional directory structure is allowed).

We need to set the metaconfigservice= flag to point the test infrastructure which metaconfig-controlled file this is supposed to test. It is implied for each flag that starts with a / (seen as absolute path to the metaconfig-controlled file).

In principle only one of the regexp tests should set this flag (and if multiple ones are set, they all have to be equal). You cannot test different metaconfig file paths from the same profile.

Lets start with a regexp test identical to the simple test above, tests/regexps/config/base:

Simple base test
---
/etc/example/exampled.conf
---
name
hosts
port
master
description

The tag /etc/example/exampled.conf is the equivalent of metaconfigservice=/etc/example/exampled.conf.

A 2nd better regexp test tests/regexps/config/not_so_simple uses the multiline flag, where the regular expressions are all interpreted as multiline regular expressions.

Basic multiline test
---
/etc/example/exampled.conf
multiline
---
^name
^\s{4}hosts
^\s{4}port
^\s{4}master
^\s{4}description
= ### COUNT 5

This test also uses the special directive ### COUNT X (mind the leading space; X is number, can be 0 or more), where this regular expression is expected to occur exactly X times (in this case, we expect 5 = characters).

A 3rd regexp test tests/regexps/config/neg checks if certain regular expression do not match using the negate flag.

Basic negate test
---
/etc/example/exampled.conf
multiline
negate
---
^hosts
^port
^master
^description

This tests that the expected fields can't start at the beginning of the line, whitespace must be inserted before. (The FILTER indent TT inserts 4 spaces, as tested with the \s{4} in the multiline regexp above.)

If one only needs to check that a single regular expression does not occur, one can also use ### COUNT 0, without having to make a separate regexp test with the negate flag.

A 4th regexp test tests/regexps/config/value uses full value checks, which is interesting to have, but harder to maintain and review.

Basic value test
---
/etc/example/exampled.conf
multiline
---
^name\s=\s\{
^\s{4}hosts\s=\sserver1,server2$
^\s{4}port\s=\s800$
^\s{4}master\s=\sFALSE$
^\s{4}description\s=\s"My example"$
^}$

Mind that the order of occurrence is not tested.

verify

You can verify this single unittest for the example service using

python ../../test/suite.py --service example --tests config

(this will run all 4 regexps files)

other possible tests

• a test for the optional option field: a new test profile is required that has the optional field configured, and it also requires one or more regexp tests to verify at least the option field in the output, and possibly also the quoted value.

Result filestructure

Generating all files as discussed above generates following file tree in the metaconfig/example directory

main.tt
pan/config.pan
pan/schema.pan
tests/regexps/simple
tests/regexps/config/base
tests/regexps/config/not_so_simple
tests/regexps/config/value
tests/regexps/config/neg
tests/profiles/config.pan
tests/profiles/simple.pan

Also see #50

Usage with ncm-metaconfig

Unittest suite help

python test/suite.py -h

Usage: suite.py [options]


  Usage: "python -m test.suite" or "python test/suite.py"

  @author: Stijn De Weirdt (Ghent University)

Options:
  -h              show short help message and exit
  -H              show full help message and exit

  Main options (configfile section MAIN):
    -C CORE       Path to clone of template-library-core repo (def /home/stdweird/.git/github.ugent/template-library-core)
    -E EXPORTPAN  Export all services pan files in proper namespace (def /tmp/exportpan_2TpwtB)
    -j JSON2TT    Path to json2tt.pl script (def /home/stdweird/.git/github.ugent/config-templates/scripts/json2tt.pl)
    -s SERVICE    Select one service to test (when not specified, run all services)
    -J            Show the generated profile JSON
    -T            Show the generated TT output for each profile
    -t TESTS      Select specific test for given service (when not specified, run all tests) (type comma-separated list)

  Debug and logging options (configfile section MAIN):
    -d            Enable debug log mode (def False)

Boolean options support disable prefix to do the inverse of the action, e.g. option --someopt also supports --disable-someopt.

All long option names can be passed as environment variables. Variable name is SUITE_<LONGNAME> eg. --some-opt is same as setting SUITE_SOME_OPT in
the environment.

• try --help for long option names
• the defaults for CORE and JSON2TT are generated at runtime, so the output might be different on your system.

Suported flags

Query the supported flags of the regexps files via the --showflags option

python test/suite.py --showflags

gives

supported flags: I, M, caseinsensitive, metaconfigservice=, multiline, negate
    I: alias for "caseinsensitive"
    M: shorthand for "multiline"
    caseinsensitive: Perform case-insensitive matches
    metaconfigservice=: Look for module/contents in the expected metaconfig component path for the service
    multiline: Treat all regexps as multiline regexps
    negate: Negate all regexps (none of the regexps can match) (not applicable when COUNT is set for individual regexp)

TODO

See https://github.com/hpcugent/config-templates/issues, in particular

• make the rpm without egg-info #52