Language Concepts

There is only one grammatical form for statements in the language:

    bundle bundle_type name
    {
    promise_type:

      classes::

        "promiser" -> { "promisee1", "promisee2", ... }

            attribute_1 => value_1,
            attribute_2 => value_2,
            ...
            attribute_n => value_n;
    }

You can recognize everything in CFEngine from just those few concepts.

• Promise

A declaration about the state we desire to maintain (e.g., the permissions or contents of a file, the availability or absence of a service, the (de)installation of a package).

• Bundles

A collection of promises.

• Bodies

A part of a promise which details and constrains its nature, possibly in separate and re-usable parts.

• Classes

CFEngine's boolean classifiers that describe context.

• Variables and Datatypes

An association of the form "LVALUE represents RVALUE", where RVALUE may be a scalar value or a list of scalar values: a string, integer or real number.

This documentation about the language concepts introduces in addition

• normal ordering,
• loops,
• pattern matching and referencing, and
• namespaces

See the reference documentation for more information about Syntax, identifiers and names.