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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 W

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?

kosinus 9y ago
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.
- jdc0589 9y ago
  > 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. It does, thats kind of the point in my mind. All I have to learn is the reasonably thin configuration management on top of normal stuff.
pavanky 9y ago
It also depends on Ruby and liquid templates. I am not sure how he can still claim it is "plain shell scripts"
- hdoomsday 9y ago
  Also, I'm a little bit surprised by the title/description, and then the examples. As opposite, I was looking at something like https://github.com/JonathanHuot/needrun/ https://github.com/JonathanHuot/needrun/ which is EXACTLY a "plain shell script".
- tmzt 9y ago
  Bash has it's own substitution system built in, though I would usually use sed for this task. http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/string-manipulation.html http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/string-manipulation.html See the section under Substring Replacement.
  - kasabali 9y ago
    Even M4 macros may work. It would be still more in the shell spirit than ruby gems.

kosinus 9y ago

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.

jdc0589 9y ago
> 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. It does, thats kind of the point in my mind. All I have to learn is the reasonably thin configuration management on top of normal stuff.

pavanky 9y ago

It also depends on Ruby and liquid templates. I am not sure how he can still claim it is "plain shell scripts"

hdoomsday 9y ago
Also, I'm a little bit surprised by the title/description, and then the examples. As opposite, I was looking at something like https://github.com/JonathanHuot/needrun/ https://github.com/JonathanHuot/needrun/ which is EXACTLY a "plain shell script".
tmzt 9y ago
Bash has it's own substitution system built in, though I would usually use sed for this task. http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/string-manipulation.html http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/string-manipulation.html See the section under Substring Replacement.
- kasabali 9y ago
  Even M4 macros may work. It would be still more in the shell spirit than ruby gems.