Hi,
I don't understand the benefits of using cfengine instead of bash scripts in debian-edu-config. I believe that all the needed configurations can be done with bash scripts.
I am not familiar with cfengine, but I assume that it is similar to ansible, which I am familiar with a little bit. They are made to automate the installation (and configuration) of hundreds of servers from a single place. But when there is only one server to configure and maintain, bash scripts are much better.
Some of the advantages of bash scripts would be:
- They are more powerful and flexible.
- Bash is ubiquitous (it is available everywhere), no need for extra dependencies.
- Bash scripts are much more popular than cfengine (or ansible). The number of people who can understand, customize and contribute to bash scripts is much higher than those who can do the same thing with cfengine.
Have you ever thought about converting the cfengine scripts to bash scripts? If this seems like an improvement, I can have a look at it (when I find time). I do have some good experience with using bash scripts for server configuration.
Kind regards,
Dashamir