4 ms·

At first glance, I don't see that m4 does anything jinja2 (Ansible's templating system) doesn't do better.

e12e 12y ago
If you're going to use shell and not ansible, then why not use shell with m4. I'm not suggesting shell+m4 is better than ansible, or that ansible+m4 (wtf?! right?) would be a good idea. Just why not use a readily available template/macro language along with shell scripts, if you've decided to use shell scripts. I suppose you could use jinja and bash -- but why pull in two full interpreters as a dependency?
23david 12y ago
If we're discussing templating languages, I definitely prefer Mako over Jinja2 and think it's much more appropriate for devops templating. But Jinja2 is the default in a lot of projects, including Saltstack and Ansible, and it's hard to fight the currents all the time.
- mercurial 12y ago
  What do you like more about Mako? I haven't used it in years, but I remember it being fairly similar in capabilities to Jinja2.
  - 23david 12y ago
    Not sure if it's a good idea for me to wade into that particular religious war... :-) Some good comments on both sides here: http://www.quora.com/Python-Web-Frameworks/What-are-the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-using-Mako-vs-Jinja2 http://www.quora.com/Python-Web-Frameworks/What-are-the-adva... http://www.reddit.com/r/Python/comments/ktjm2/jinja2_or_mako_templating/ http://www.reddit.com/r/Python/comments/ktjm2/jinja2_or_mako... http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3435972/mako-or-jinja2 http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3435972/mako-or-jinja2
e12e 12y ago
As I mentioned in another comment, I'm not suggesting using m4 with/in-place of ansible -- rather as a compliment to the shell. I suppose one could use jinja2 stand-alone with the shell -- but then you get the python dependency etc... I meant that m4 might be a better fit to go along with bash/ksh. Eg: dpkg-query --show \ --showformat='${Package;6} ${Installed-Size;4}^L\n' \ m4 python2.7-minimal dash bash mksh ksh \| sort -n -k2 dash 212 m4 382 mksh 878 ksh 3110 bash 3941 python 5456 (Not that you can avoid python-minmal on Debian - but in a chroot you might, etc). As for can and cannot do, consider this "feature" of m4: $ cat <<eof|m4 -Dme=you -Dpredictable=surprise me=predictable eof you=surprise Again, I'm not suggesting m4+dash is a great idea vs ansible -- just clarifying a couple of things...

e12e 12y ago

If you're going to use shell and not ansible, then why not use shell with m4. I'm not suggesting shell+m4 is better than ansible, or that ansible+m4 (wtf?! right?) would be a good idea. Just why not use a readily available template/macro language along with shell scripts, if you've decided to use shell scripts. I suppose you could use jinja and bash -- but why pull in two full interpreters as a dependency?

23david 12y ago

If we're discussing templating languages, I definitely prefer Mako over Jinja2 and think it's much more appropriate for devops templating. But Jinja2 is the default in a lot of projects, including Saltstack and Ansible, and it's hard to fight the currents all the time.

mercurial 12y ago
What do you like more about Mako? I haven't used it in years, but I remember it being fairly similar in capabilities to Jinja2.
- 23david 12y ago
  Not sure if it's a good idea for me to wade into that particular religious war... :-) Some good comments on both sides here: http://www.quora.com/Python-Web-Frameworks/What-are-the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-using-Mako-vs-Jinja2 http://www.quora.com/Python-Web-Frameworks/What-are-the-adva... http://www.reddit.com/r/Python/comments/ktjm2/jinja2_or_mako_templating/ http://www.reddit.com/r/Python/comments/ktjm2/jinja2_or_mako... http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3435972/mako-or-jinja2 http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3435972/mako-or-jinja2

e12e 12y ago

As I mentioned in another comment, I'm not suggesting using m4 with/in-place of ansible -- rather as a compliment to the shell. I suppose one could use jinja2 stand-alone with the shell -- but then you get the python dependency etc... I meant that m4 might be a better fit to go along with bash/ksh. Eg: dpkg-query --show \ --showformat='${Package;6} ${Installed-Size;4}^L\n' \ m4 python2.7-minimal dash bash mksh ksh \| sort -n -k2 dash 212 m4 382 mksh 878 ksh 3110 bash 3941 python 5456 (Not that you can avoid python-minmal on Debian - but in a chroot you might, etc). As for can and cannot do, consider this "feature" of m4: $ cat <<eof|m4 -Dme=you -Dpredictable=surprise me=predictable eof you=surprise Again, I'm not suggesting m4+dash is a great idea vs ansible -- just clarifying a couple of things...