mgmt/docs/release-notes/0.0.22

I've just released version 0.0.22 of mgmt!

> 579 files changed, 17984 insertions(+), 3136 deletions(-)

Compared to the last release, this is a monster. Previously:

> 178 files changed, 4351 insertions(+), 829 deletions(-)

I apologize for not doing a release earlier, but to be quite honest,
I've been busy, the people who are playing with mgmt are doing their
own builds anyways, and there are still some unimplemented, pre-
production features missing.

Also, I started a new job. News on my blog and how (if at all) it
affects mgmt is there.

This is still an incredibly important release, so let's cover some of
the points!

* This is the last release before we switch to go.mod
* IRC channel moved to #mgmtconfig on libera.chat after Freenode died
* New resources including tftp, dhcp, and http (all as servers, wow!)
* New string interpolation implementation with many tests
* Resource fields can accept complex structs and other types now
* Improved type unification solver and new invariants like generator
* A new polymorphic function API interface

And much more...

DOWNLOAD

Prebuilt binaries are NOT available here for this release:
https://github.com/purpleidea/mgmt/releases/tag/0.0.22

NEWS

* The file resource supports building files from other "fragments".
This is magic and automatic and real-time. Docs and examples are in the
repo.

* The file resource (and others) have a new trait and queryable API to
make decisions based on what other resources are in the graph.

* The file resource has a "purge" option to remove unmanaged files from
a managed directory.

* A lot of built-in functions are auto-generated from the stdlib. Most
things you would want are now present, particularly if they're pure
functions.

* There's a new consul KV resource.

* File resources support symbolic modes now!

* New tftp related resources are now present. They're great and I use
them to provision things!

* A docker image resource was added.

* First-class constants now exist. So you can do
$const.res.file.state.exists instead of typing "exists" which is prone
to typos. This is more verbose, but it's safer if that's your priority.

* We found a bug with fuzzing! Cool, thanks Patrick!

* We have dhcp server related resources. This is pretty cool when
combined with the tftp resource and you can provision a lot of stuff
from your laptop and one binary now.

* We also have http server resources. Combined with the tftp and dhcp
resources mgmt starts to look like a powerful tool to greenfield a new
datacentre and then take over and manage it continuous. All from a
single, type-safe, code base. Of course you can do other things with
this, and I'm looking forward to seeing the ideas that I haven't
thought of yet! PS: An http:ui has been partially implemented too. Ping
if you want to know more.

* Resource fields couldn't previously accept anonymous structs as types
because of how golang built its reflect library. Joe found an elegant
workaround, thanks!

* The type unification solver was improved to support some new
invariants. This makes a lot of new things possible, and was done to
support new complex functions including the eventual addition of map,
reduce, and filter. One of the new invariants is a "generator"
invariant, so that unification can take into account the entire
relevant parts of the AST. It's not a textbook CS implementation, but
it's based on sound theory I think, and it seems to work great. If you
find an edge case, please let us know.

* The polymorphic function interface was changed to use the new
unification logic. This makes a lot more sense. All the functions have
been ported to the new interface.

* 42

* We're looking for help writing Amazon, Google, DigitalOcean, etc
resources if anyone is interested, reach out to us. Particularly if
there is support from those organizations as well.

* Many other bug fixes, changes, etc...

* See the git log for more NEWS, and for anything notable I left out!

BUGS

* Function values as args don't work yet. This is blocking us from
implementing functions like map/reduce/filter, because they'd want to
receive a function as input. TBH, I'm a bit tunnel-visioned on this,
because I'm not the compilers genius that you are. If you can help,
please let me know. I'll be posting a bunch of test cases that show
what's needed shortly.

(This is the exact message I wrote last time. I've made a lot of
progress since then, but motivation here has been low. Reach out if you
can help.)

TALKS

Hopefully CfgMgmtCamp in 2022 will be back on. If we're lucky and safe,
maybe I can travel there. TBD... Feel to ping me if you'd like to hack,
talk, whatever if I'm in Europe.

MISC

We're still looking for new contributors, and there are easy, medium
and hard issues available! You're also welcome to suggest your own!
Please join us in #mgmtconfig on Libera IRC, or ping this list if
you'd like help getting started! For details please see:

https://github.com/purpleidea/mgmt/blob/master/docs/faq.md#how-do-i-con
tribute-to-the-project-if-i-dont-know-golang

Many tagged #mgmtlove issues exist:
https://github.com/purpleidea/mgmt/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%
3Amgmtlove

Although asking in IRC is the best way to find something to work on.

MENTORING

We offer mentoring for new golang/mgmt hackers who want to get
involved. This is fun and friendly! You get to improve your skills,
and we get some patches in return. Ping me off-list for details.

THANKS

Thanks (alphabetically) to everyone who contributed to the latest
release:
Adam Sigal, Ahmed Al-Hulaibi, David Randall, Derek Buckley, Donald
Bakong, Felix Frank, Francois Rompre-Lanctot, Ivan Pejić, James Shubin,
Jean-Philippe Evrard, Jimmy Tang, Joe Groocock, Jonathan Gold, Julien
Pivotto, Kenneth Hoste, Matthew Lesko-Krleza, Patrick Meyer, viq, Yohan
Belval
We had 19 unique committers since 0.0.21, and have had 82 overall.
run 'git log 0.0.21..0.0.22' to see what has changed since 0.0.21

Happy hacking,
James
@purpleidea