Mar 26, 2012 · 1 minute read · Comments
booknewsphotospurdue
I'm visiting Purdue University today to give a talk and to visit old friends and colleagues. And the first box of books arrived here! It's incredible to have the physical book in my hand.
This is the building where I spent most of my grad school years.
Mar 26, 2012 · 1 minute read · Comments
booknewsnewzealandtui
A lot of people have asked me about the bird on the cover of the book, and I had to admit I didn't know. Unfortunately, the book (even in the print version) does not include a description of the cover in the Colophon, like most other O'Reilly books. But today I got the information directly from Karen Montgomery at O'Reilly, who designed the cover:
The bird is a
Tui, a kind of bird that leaves in New Zealand, also known as a Parson Bird. Here's a photo of a real Tui bird:
Mar 24, 2012 · 1 minute read · Comments
announcementschicagopurduetalkswestlafayette
I will be giving three CFEngine related talks this week. I would love to see you at any one of them!
March 26th - Purdue University, Lawson CS Building 3102, West Lafayette, IN, 1:30PM
"CFEngine 3: Empowering the Next-Generation SysAdmin"
"CFEngine 3: Empowering the Next-Generation SysAdmin"
"Achieving IT Infrastructure and Operational Excellence"
Mar 23, 2012 · 1 minute read · Comments
announcementsbooknews
I am ecstatic to announce that the book is now officially released! You can get it here:
http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920022022.do. If you purchased the Early Release version, you should automatically be able to download the final version from your "Your products" page at
oreilly.com.
It's been an incredible ride, and it's an incredible feeling to see it come to this big milestone (I won't say "the end", because I know this book will keep evolving).
There have been so many people who helped me through this process, including my editor (Andy Oram), all the staff at O'Reilly, who have been so professional and helpful, my very competent tech reviewers (Mark Burgess and Jesse Becker), all my colleagues at CFEngine AS, all the readers of intermediate and partial versions of the book, all the people who purchased the Early Release, and of course, my lovely wife and my two beautiful daughters, who were so patient while I worked on "the book". Everyone gave me encouragement, incredible feedback, and tons of guidance and support. Thank you everyone!
Mar 16, 2012 · 1 minute read · Comments
announcementsbooknews
I am very happy! I got the notification today that the final book draft has been produced and sent to the printer. This means that over the next few days the final version will be available for purchase, both as e-book and in print form. I will of course let you know when this happens.
For now, time to enjoy a relaxing weekend, the first with no book-related work in a long time :)
Mar 16, 2012 · 1 minute read · Comments
booknews
The electronic versions of the book contain full syntax highlighting and other useful features. I'm biased of course, but I think it is both functional and beautiful. Here's a sample from Chapter 4:
The syntax highlighting in my opinion greatly helps in reading the code. Additionally, each one of those numbered callouts in the code are in-document links that take you to the paragraph where that part of the code is described. Conversely, the callouts in the text take you back to the corresponding line in the code. And finally, most CFEngine keywords and concepts are links to the corresponding description in the CFEngine Reference Manual. In the PDF, clicking on that blue "files:" in the last paragraph will take you to
http://cf-learn.info/ref/files
Mar 5, 2012 · 1 minute read · Comments
I am visiting the Bay Area this week, and we took the opportunity to organize a
CFEngine community event on Thursday, March 8th, at 6:30 PM. Come by, meet the CFEngine team, hear about some of the exciting things we are working on, and give us your feedback for the future.
Hope to see you there! If you plan to attend please don't forget to
register.
Feb 29, 2012 · 1 minute read · Comments
announcementsbooknews
Some people have asked me what the status of the book is, so I thought I would post it here. The book is currently in the "production stage", which means that the draft has been finalized content-wise, and is now being prepared for publication by O'Reilly. They have a specialized group of people for this, who work on preparing nice final versions of the figures, making sure the layout of the book is correct, and doing a few thorough proofreading and editing passes.
This means that it's now really close to publication. I cannot make any promises about the specific date, but it should be before the end of March.
Thank you for your interest!
Feb 2, 2012 · 2 minute read · Comments
cfenginedocumentationsearchtools
The CFEngine Reference Manual is extremely useful, and is the ultimate guide to everything about CFEngine. However, it is not always the easiest to find what you are looking for.
To help in this respect, I have created a cross-referenced index of all the section headings in the manual. You can search it using the second search box on the right of any page of this site. For example, try searching for "ifvarclass", and you will be redirected to the section of the manual that described that attribute. If your search term matches more than one section (for example, try searching for "root"), you will be shown a disambiguation page where you can select which one you want.
You can also search the index directly by going to http://cf-learn.info/ref/keyword, replacing "keyword" with your search term. Without a search term (http://cf-learn.info/ref/), it will redirect you to the top of the manual. Here are a few examples to get you started:
In the electronic versions of the book, all CFEngine keywords in the text will be linked to this index, to provide you easy access to the reference documentation about that concept.
But the real power, in my opinion, comes from using these links as browser "search keywords". Most modern browsers allow you to define search keywords or search engines. If you define a keyword whose search URL is as shown above (using whatever mechanism necessary to put the search term in the place of "keyword", then you will be able to easily search the CFEngine docs. For example, using Safari Omnibar, I have defined a new "search provider" as follows:
So now I can simply type "cf keyword" in my Safari URL bar and it will do a search for that keyword.
Enjoy!
Jan 28, 2012 · 1 minute read · Comments
A couple of days ago I finished writing all the material that was planned for the book, so it is now content-complete! I am now going through all the comments that came back from the tech reviewers, and from many readers that sent me feedback while reading the early release. After that it goes to the production department at O'Reilly for putting it in its final form, and then it will be ready for publication!
Thank you to everyone who has given me feedback and encouragement so far!
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