Softener extends the Fabric API with several useful POSIX shell commands. The list of curently implemented shell commands include:
- link (ln): useful for creating literal and symbolic linkages
- unlink (rm):deletes a file, directory, or contents of a directory
- copy (cp): copies a file or a directory
- mkdir: creates a new directory. Supports creating parent directories if they do not exist
- untar: Unpack a tarball archive. Supports decompressing gzipped tarballs also
- restart: Restarts a service registered with the init system (/etc/init or /etc/init.d)
Additionally, softener provides a layer or indirection that allows multiple shells to be supported. Currently, Softener supports both a traditional POSIX shell and a Cygwin shell for Linux and Windows systems respectively.
Softener is intended to be used with Fabric. To leverage Softener in Fabric, simply clone the Fabric repository and add your fabfile.
At some point, I plan to package this as a standalone module that can be included in your fabfile