Release theme for CFEngine 3.9: Logging

Posted by: Eystein Maloy Stenberg

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UPDATE, 2016-02-22: After feedback from CFEngine users and several discussions around a variable expansion performance issue, we decided to put this expansion issue higher on the priority list for 3.9. We still plan to address some high-impact logging issues for 3.9, most notably adding a line-level email-filtering feature.

With CFEngine 3.8 released on target in December, and we’ve entered 2016 it’s time to look ahead to CFEngine 3.9!

According to the CFEngine release schedule, 3.9 will be a non-LTS release and is due for June 2016. If you’re considering to contribute a major change or feature to CFEngine (thank you!) and would like to see it in 3.9, please note that we have a beta period for one month, so your pull request should be ready (i.e. reviewed and any adjustments made) in early April in order to make it.

We’d also like to share that logging will be the release theme for 3.9!

Provide your feedback on logging!

As a theme is more abstract than features and CFEngine releases are now time-driven, there is no exhaustive list of logging features or improvements that will be included in 3.9.

Rather, the goal is to find the most valuable features and ideas to work on based on input from CFEngine users, so please make sure to make your voice heard if you have ideas (the CFEngine Google Group is a good place to start a discussion)!

There is an issue in the bucktracker discussing some ideas for client-side log filtering and destinations (console, syslog, files). If you think CFEngine is too verbose or not verbose enough in certain circumstances, this is a good issue to watch and participate in. It also has several related issues with ideas relevant to logging.

What this means for you

The obvious answer is that you will see improvements in logging for 3.9.

However, if you are interested in contributing to CFEngine, we would like to encourage to also think about any logging-related contributions you might be interested in. Also please note the early April 2016 cutoff for being able to process pull requests for 3.9.

Of course, we will still maintain and improve the stability of CFEngine, so any bugs will continue to be addressed.

The logging theme is driven by user input, for example there has been several logging-related discussions in the community lately. We therefore hope you feel this is relevant to you and look forward to incorporating your input in the issues above, or in the CFEngine Google Group!