Synctool

Synctool is an open source configuration management system, written by Walter de Jong, systems expert at SURFsara. Synctool aims to be easy to understand, learn and use. It is built in Python and makes use of SSH (with host or key based authentication) and rsync. It has the following characteristics:

• A host can be part of logical groups.
• Groups can be nested.
• Files are designated a group by means of filename extension.
• The 'overlay' directory tree contains the files and directories that should be copied (or 'synced') to the target host.
• No specific language is used; scripts can be added in any scripting language.
• Scripts can be linked to files to perform actions after a file update.
• The 'tasks' directory contains scripts that are not linked to specific files but to host or host groups; these tasks can be used for instance for software package management. Synctool by itself offers limited package management tools.

See also

• Comparison of open-source configuration management software