grctl

grctl is a graph-based configuration automation tool built on selected core components of the mgmt project.

It focuses on a simplified runtime and a FreeBSD-first environment while reusing the powerful graph engine and MCL language from mgmt.

Goals

• Reuse the mgmt engine, lang, and pgraph components
• Provide a simplified runtime
• Focus on FreeBSD systems
• Use MCL (Mgmt Configuration Language) as the configuration language
• Avoid unnecessary complexity such as embedded etcd

Non-Goals

• Linux feature parity
• Embedded etcd cluster management
• DHCP / BOOTP services
• Puppet compatibility
• YAML graph definitions

Example

grctl apply system.mcl

Example MCL:

file "/etc/motd" { content = "Managed by grctl\n" }

Disclaimer

Work in Progress — Use at Your Own Risk

This project is under active development and should be considered unstable. Breaking changes may occur between any two versions without prior notice or a migration path. Configuration files, CLI flags, and internal APIs are all subject to change at any time.

Use in production environments is strongly discouraged. The authors assume no responsibility for data loss, system misconfiguration, or any other damage caused by the use of this software. You use grctl entirely at your own risk.

Credits

Special thanks to James Shubin and the entire mgmt team and contributors for their outstanding work on the mgmt project, which provides the core components that this tool is built upon.

License

GPLv3

TODO: FreeBSD Resources

The following resources from mgmt have not yet been converted for FreeBSD:

Resource	Notes
augeas	Linux-focused configuration editing
aws_ec2	Cloud integration
bmc	BMC/IPMI management
consul_kv	Consul key-value store
cron	Cron job management
deploy_tar	Tar deployment
dhcp	DHCP server
firewalld	Linux firewall
fwattr	Firewall attributes
gsettings	GNOME settings
gzip	Gzip compression
hetzner_vm	Hetzner cloud VMs
http	HTTP client
http_server	HTTP server
line	Line in file
mount	Mount management
nspawn	Linux containers
panic	Panic resource
pippet	Pipelines
print	Print output
schedule	Scheduling
ssh_authorized_key	SSH keys
sysctl	Sysctl management
tar	Tar archives
test	Testing resource
tftp	TFTP server
value	Value resource
virt	Virtualization

Implemented FreeBSD resources: exec, file, group, hostname, jail, jail_ready, kv, msg, net, noop, password, pkg, pkg_uid, route, svc, sysrc, timer, user, zfs, zpool