Introduction
The Windows Package Manager provides a software repository and a package manager
similar to what is provided by yum and apt on Linux. This tool enables
the installation of software on remote Windows systems.
The repository contains a collection of software definition files. A software
definition file is a YAML/JINJA file with an .sls file extension. It
contains all the information Salt needs to install a software package on a
Windows system, including the download location of the installer, required
command-line switches for silent install, etc.
Software definition files can be hosted in one or more Git repositories. The
default repository is hosted on GitHub by SaltStack. It is maintained by
SaltStack and the Salt community and contains software definition files for many
common Windows packages. Anyone is welcome to submit a pull request to this
repo to add new software definitions. The default github repository is:
The Windows Package Manager is used the same way as other package managers Salt
is aware of. For example:
High level differences to yum and apt are:
The repository metadata (SLS files) can be managed through either Salt or git
Packages can be downloaded from within the Salt repository, a git repository
or from HTTP(S) or FTP URLs
No dependencies are managed. Dependencies between packages need to be managed
manually
Requirements
If using the a software definition files hosted on a Git repo, the following
libraries are required:
Usage
After completing the configuration and initialization steps, you are ready to
manage software on your Windows minions.
Note
The following example commands can be run from the master using salt or
on a masterless minion using salt-call
List Installed Packages
You can get a list of packages installed on the system using
pkg.list_pkgs.
# From the master
salt -G 'os:windows' pkg.list_pkgs
# From the minion in masterless mode
salt-call --local pkg.list_pkgs
This will return all software installed on the system whether it is managed by
Salt or not as shown below:
local:
----------
Frhed 1.6.0:
1.6.0
GNU Privacy Guard:
2.2.16
Gpg4win (3.1.9):
3.1.9
git:
2.17.1.2
nsis:
3.03
python3_x64:
3.7.4150.0
salt-minion-py3:
2019.2.3
You can tell by how the software name is displayed which software is managed by
Salt and which software is not. When Salt finds a match in the winrepo database
it displays the short name as defined in the software definition file. It is
usually a single-word, lower-case name. All other software names will be
displayed with the full name as they are shown in Add/Remove Programs. So, in
the return above, you can see that Git (git), Nullsoft Installer (nsis), Python
3.7 (python3_x64) and Salt (salt-minion-py3) all have a corresponding software
definition file. The others do not.
List Available Versions
You can query the available version of a package using
pkg.list_available and passing the
name of the software:
# From the master
salt winminion pkg.list_available firefox_x64
# From the minion in masterless mode
salt-call --local pkg.list_available firefox_x64
The above command will return the following:
winminion:
- 69.0
- 69.0.1
- 69.0.2
- 69.0.3
- 70.0
- 70.0.1
- 71.0
- 72.0
- 72.0.1
- 72.0.2
- 73.0
- 73.0.1
- 74.0
As you can see, there are many versions of Firefox available for installation.
You can refer to a software package by its name or its full_name
surrounded by quotes.
Note
From a Linux master it is OK to use single-quotes. However, the cmd
shell on Windows requires you to use double-quotes when wrapping strings
that may contain spaces. Powershell seems to accept either one.
Install a Package
You can install a package using pkg.install:
# From the master
salt winminion pkg.install 'firefox_x64'
# From the minion in masterless mode
salt-call --local pkg.install "firefox_x64"
The above will install the latest version of Firefox.
# From the master
salt winminion pkg.install 'firefox_x64' version=74.0
# From the minion in masterless mode
salt-call --local pkg.install "firefox_x64" version=74.0
The above will install version 74.0 of Firefox.
If a different version of the package is already installed it will be replaced
with the version in the winrepo (only if the package itself supports live
updating).
You can also specify the full name:
# From the master
salt winminion pkg.install 'Mozilla Firefox 17.0.1 (x86 en-US)'
# From the minion in masterless mode
salt-call --local pkg.install "Mozilla Firefox 17.0.1 (x86 en-US)"
Remove a Package
You can uninstall a package using pkg.remove:
# From the master
salt winminion pkg.remove firefox_x64
# From the minion in masterless mode
salt-call --local pkg.remove firefox_x64
Software Definition Files
A software definition file is a YAML/JINJA2 file that contains all the
information needed to install a piece of software using Salt. It defines
information about the package to include version, full name, flags required for
the installer and uninstaller, whether or not to use the Windows task scheduler
to install the package, where to download the installation package, etc.
Directory Structure and Naming
The files are stored in the location designated by the winrepo_dir_ng
setting. All files in this directory that have a .sls file extension are
considered software definition files. The files are evaluated to create the
metadata file on the minion.
You can maintain standalone software definition files that point to software on
other servers or on the internet. In this case the file name would be the short
name of the software with the .sls extension, ie firefox.sls.
You can also store the binaries for your software together with their software
definition files in their own directory. In this scenario, the directory name
would be the short name for the software and the software definition file would
be inside that directory and named init.sls.
Look at the following example directory structure on a Linux master assuming
default config settings:
srv/
|---salt/
| |---win/
| | |---repo-ng/
| | | |---custom_defs/
| | | | |---ms_office_2013_x64/
| | | | | |---access.en-us/
| | | | | |---excel.en-us/
| | | | | |---outlook.en-us/
| | | | | |---powerpoint.en-us/
| | | | | |---word.en-us/
| | | | | |---init.sls
| | | | | |---setup.dll
| | | | | |---setup.exe
| | | | |---openssl.sls
| | | | |---zoom.sls
| | | |---salt-winrepo-ng/
| | | | |---auditbeat/
| | | | | |---init.sls
| | | | | |---install.cmd
| | | | | |---install.ps1
| | | | | |---remove.cmd
| | | | |---gpg4win/
| | | | | |---init.sls
| | | | | |---silent.ini
| | | | |---7zip.sls
| | | | |---adobereader.sls
| | | | |---audacity.sls
| | | | |---ccleaner.sls
| | | | |---chrome.sls
| | | | |---firefox.sls
In the above directory structure, the user has created the custom_defs
directory in which to store their custom software definition files. In that
directory you see a folder for MS Office 2013 that contains all the installer
files along with a software definition file named init.sls. The user has
also created two more standalone software definition files; openssl.sls and
zoom.sls.
The salt-winrepo-ng directory is created by the winrepo.update_git_repos
command. This folder contains the clone of the git repo designated by the
winrepo_remotes_ng config setting.
Warning
It is recommended that the user not modify the files in the
salt-winrepo-ng directory as it will break future runs of
winrepo.update_git_repos.
Warning
It is recommended that the user not place any custom software definition
files in the salt-winrepo-ng directory. The winrepo.update_git_repos
command wipes out the contents of the salt-winrepo-ng directory each
time it is run. Any extra files stored there will be lost.
Writing Software Definition Files
A basic software definition file is really easy to write if you already know
some basic things about your software:
The full name as shown in Add/Remove Programs
The exact version number as shown in Add/Remove Programs
How to install your software silently from the command line
The software definition file itself is just a data structure written in YAML.
The top level item is a short name that Salt will use to reference the software.
There can be only one short name in the file and it must be unique across all
software definition files in the repo. This is the name that will be used to
install/remove the software. It is also the name that will appear when Salt
finds a match in the repo when running pkg.list_pkgs.
The next indentation level is the version number. There can be many of these,
but they must be unique within the file. This is also displayed in
pkg.list_pkgs.
The last indentation level contains the information Salt needs to actually
install the software. Available parameters are:
full_name : The full name as displayed in Add/Remove Programs
installer : The location of the installer binary
install_flags : The flags required to install silently
uninstaller : The location of the uninstaller binary
uninstall_flags : The flags required to uninstall silently
msiexec : Use msiexec to install this package
allusers : If this is an MSI, install to all users
cache_dir : Cache the entire directory in the installer URL if it starts with salt://
cache_file : Cache a single file in the installer URL if it starts with salt://
use_scheduler : Launch the installer using the task scheduler
source_hash : The hash sum for the installer
Usage of these parameters is demonstrated in the following examples and
discussed in more detail below. To understand these examples you'll need a basic
understanding of Jinja. The following links have some basic tips and best
practices for working with Jinja in Salt:
Understanding Jinja
Jinja
Example: Basic
Take a look at this basic, pure YAML example for a software definition file for
Firefox:
firefox_x64:
'74.0':
full_name: Mozilla Firefox 74.0 (x64 en-US)
installer: 'https://download-installer.cdn.mozilla.net/pub/firefox/releases/74.0/win64/en-US/Firefox%20Setup%2074.0.exe'
install_flags: '/S'
uninstaller: '%ProgramFiles(x86)%/Mozilla Firefox/uninstall/helper.exe'
uninstall_flags: '/S'
'73.0.1':
full_name: Mozilla Firefox 73.0.1 (x64 en-US)
installer: 'https://download-installer.cdn.mozilla.net/pub/firefox/releases/73.0.1/win64/en-US/Firefox%20Setup%2073.0.1.exe'
install_flags: '/S'
uninstaller: '%ProgramFiles(x86)%/Mozilla Firefox/uninstall/helper.exe'
uninstall_flags: '/S'
You can see the first item is the short name for the software, in this case
firefox_x64. It is the first line in the definition. The next line is
indented two spaces and contains the software version. The lines following
the version are indented two more spaces and contain all the information
needed to install the Firefox package.
Important
The package name must be unique to all other packages in the software
repository. The full_name combined with the version must also be unique.
They must also match exactly what is shown in Add/Remove Programs
(appwiz.cpl).
Important
The version number must be enclosed in quotes, otherwise the YAML parser
will remove trailing zeros. For example, 74.0 will just become 74.
As you can see in the example above, a software definition file can define
multiple versions for the same piece of software. These are denoted by putting
the next version number at the same indentation level as the first with its
software definition information indented below it.
Example: Jinja
When there are tens or hundreds of versions available for a piece of software
definition file can become quite large. This is a scenario where Jinja can be
helpful. Consider the following software definition file for Firefox using
Jinja:
{%- set lang = salt['config.get']('firefox:pkg:lang', 'en-US') %}
firefox_x64:
{% for version in ['74.0',
'73.0.1', '73.0',
'72.0.2', '72.0.1', '72.0',
'71.0', '70.0.1', '70.0',
'69.0.3', '69.0.2', '69.0.1'] %}
'{{ version }}':
full_name: 'Mozilla Firefox {{ version }} (x64 {{ lang }})'
installer: 'https://download-installer.cdn.mozilla.net/pub/firefox/releases/{{ version }}/win64/{{ lang }}/Firefox%20Setup%20{{ version }}.exe'
install_flags: '/S'
uninstaller: '%ProgramFiles%\Mozilla Firefox\uninstall\helper.exe'
uninstall_flags: '/S'
{% endfor %}
In this example we are able to generate a software definition file that defines
how to install 12 versions of Firefox. We use Jinja to create a list of
available versions. That list is in a for loop where each version is placed
in the version variable. The version is inserted everywhere there is a
{{ version }} marker inside the for loop.
You'll notice that there is a single variable (lang) defined at the top of
the software definition. Because these files are going through the Salt renderer
many Salt modules are exposed via the salt keyword. In this case it is
calling the config.get function to get a language setting that can be placed
in the minion config. If it is not there, it defaults to en-US.
Example: Latest
There are some software vendors that do not provide access to all versions of
their software. Instead they provide a single URL to what is always the latest
version. In some cases the software keeps itself up to date. One example of this
is the Google Chrome web browser.
Chrome
To handle situations such as these, set the version to latest. Here's an
example:
chrome:
latest:
full_name: 'Google Chrome'
installer: 'https://dl.google.com/edgedl/chrome/install/GoogleChromeStandaloneEnterprise.msi'
install_flags: '/qn /norestart'
uninstaller: 'https://dl.google.com/edgedl/chrome/install/GoogleChromeStandaloneEnterprise.msi'
uninstall_flags: '/qn /norestart'
msiexec: True
The above example shows us two things. First it demonstrates the usage of
latest as the version. In this case Salt will install the version of Chrome
at the URL and report that version.
The second thing to note is that this is installing software using an MSI. You
can see that msiexec is set to True.
Example: MSI Patch
When the msiexec parameter is set to True it uses the /i option for
installs and the /x option for uninstalls. This is problematic when trying
to install an MSI patch which requires the /p option. You can't combine the
/i and /p options. So how do you apply a patch to installed software in
winrepo using an .msp file?
One wiley contributor came up with the following solution to this problem by
using the %cd% environment variable. Consider the following software
definition file:
MyApp:
'1.0':
full_name: MyApp
installer: 'salt://win/repo-ng/MyApp/MyApp.1.0.msi'
install_flags: '/qn /norestart'
uninstaller: '{B5B5868F-23BA-297A-917D-0DF345TF5764}'
uninstall_flags: '/qn /norestart'
msiexec: True
'1.1':
full_name: MyApp
installer: 'salt://win/repo-ng/MyApp/MyApp.1.0.msi'
install_flags: '/qn /norestart /update "%cd%\\MyApp.1.1.msp" '
uninstaller: '{B5B5868F-23BA-297A-917D-0DF345TF5764}'
uninstall_flags: '/qn /norestart'
msiexec: True
cache_file: salt://win/repo/MyApp/MyApp.1.1.msp
There are a few things to note about this software definition file. First, is
the solution we are trying to solve, that of applying a patch. Version 1.0
just installs the application using the 1.0 MSI defined in the installer
parameter. There is nothing special in the install_flags and nothing is
cached.
Version 1.1 uses the same installer, but uses the cache_file option to
specify a single file to cache. In order for this to work the MSP file needs to
be in the same directory as the MSI file on the file_roots.
The final step to getting this to work is to add the additional /update flag
to the install_flags parameter. Add the path to the MSP file using the
%cd% environment variable. %cd% resolves to the current working
directory which is the location in the minion cache where the installer file is
cached.
See issue #32780 for more
details.
This same approach could be used for applying MST files for MSIs and answer
files for other types of .exe based installers.
Parameters
These are the parameters that can be used to generate a software definition
file. These parameters are all placed under the version in the software
definition file:
Example usage can be found on the github repo
full_name (str)
This is the full name for the software as shown in "Programs and Features" in
the control panel. You can also get this information by installing the package
manually and then running pkg.list_pkgs. Here's an example of the output
from pkg.list_pkgs:
salt 'test-2008' pkg.list_pkgs
test-2008
----------
7-Zip 9.20 (x64 edition):
9.20.00.0
Mozilla Firefox 74.0 (x64 en-US)
74.0
Mozilla Maintenance Service:
74.0
salt-minion-py3:
3001
Notice the Full Name for Firefox: Mozilla Firefox 74.0 (x64 en-US). That's
exactly what should be in the full_name parameter in the software definition
file.
If any of the software installed on the machine matches the full name defined in
one of the software definition files in the repository the package name will be
returned. The example below shows the pkg.list_pkgs for a machine that has
Mozilla Firefox 74.0 installed and a software definition for that version of
Firefox.
test-2008:
----------
7zip:
9.20.00.0
Mozilla Maintenance Service:
74.0
firefox_x64:
74.0
salt-minion-py3:
3001
Important
The version number and full_name need to match the output from
pkg.list_pkgs exactly so that the installation status can be verified
by the state system.
Note
It is still possible to successfully install packages using pkg.install,
even if the full_name or the version number don't match exactly. The
module will complete successfully, but continue to display the full name
in pkg.list_pkgs. If this is happening, verify that the full_name
and the version match exactly what is displayed in Add/Remove
Programs.
Tip
To force Salt to display the full name when there's already an existing
package definition file on the system, you can pass a bogus saltenv
parameter to the command like so: pkg.list_pkgs saltenv=NotARealEnv
Tip
It's important use pkg.refresh_db
to check for errors and ensure the latest package definition is on any
minion you're testing new definitions on.
installer (str)
This is the path to the binary (.exe, .msi) that will install the
package. This can be a local path or a URL. If it is a URL or a Salt path
(salt://), the package will be cached locally and then executed. If it is a
path to a file on disk or a file share, it will be executed directly.
Note
When storing software in the same location as the winrepo it is usually best
practice to place each installer in its own directory rather than in the
root of winrepo.
Best practice is to create a sub folder named after the package. That folder
will contain the software definition file named init.sls. The binary
installer should be stored in that directory as well if you're hosting those
files on the file_roots.
pkg.refresh_db will process all .sls files in all sub directories
in the winrepo_dir_ng directory.
install_flags (str)
This setting contains any flags that need to be passed to the installer to make
it perform a silent install. These can often be found by adding /? or /h
when running the installer from the command-line. A great resource for finding
these silent install flags is the WPKG project wiki:
Warning
Salt will appear to hang if the installer is expecting user input. So it is
imperative that the software have the ability to install silently.
uninstaller (str)
This is the path to the program used to uninstall this software. This can be the
path to the same exe or msi used to install the software. Exe
uninstallers are pretty straight forward. MSIs, on the other hand, can be
handled a couple different ways. You can use the GUID for the software to
uninstall or you can use the same MSI used to install the software.
You can usually find uninstall information in the registry:
Here's an example using the GUID to uninstall software.
7zip:
'9.20.00.0':
full_name: 7-Zip 9.20 (x64 edition)
installer: salt://win/repo-ng/7zip/7z920-x64.msi
install_flags: '/qn /norestart'
uninstaller: '{23170F69-40C1-2702-0920-000001000000}'
uninstall_flags: '/qn /norestart'
msiexec: True
Here's an example using the same MSI used to install the software:
7zip:
'9.20.00.0':
full_name: 7-Zip 9.20 (x64 edition)
installer: salt://win/repo-ng/7zip/7z920-x64.msi
install_flags: '/qn /norestart'
uninstaller: salt://win/repo-ng/7zip/7z920-x64.msi
uninstall_flags: '/qn /norestart'
msiexec: True
uninstall_flags (str)
This setting contains any flags that need to be passed to the uninstaller to
make it perform a silent uninstall. These can often be found by adding /? or
/h when running the uninstaller from the command-line. A great resource for
finding these silent install flags the WPKG project wiki:
Warning
Salt will appear to hang if the uninstaller is expecting user input. So it
is imperative that the software have the ability to uninstall silently.
msiexec (bool, str)
This tells Salt to use msiexec /i to install the package and msiexec /x
to uninstall. This is for .msi installations only.
Possible options are:
7zip:
'9.20.00.0':
full_name: 7-Zip 9.20 (x64 edition)
installer: salt://win/repo/7zip/7z920-x64.msi
install_flags: '/qn /norestart'
uninstaller: salt://win/repo/7zip/7z920-x64.msi
uninstall_flags: '/qn /norestart'
msiexec: 'C:\Windows\System32\msiexec.exe'
allusers (bool)
This parameter is specific to .msi installations. It tells msiexec to
install the software for all users. The default is True.
cache_dir (bool)
This setting requires the software to be stored on the file_roots and only
applies to URLs that begin with salt://. If True the entire directory
where the installer resides will be recursively cached. This is useful for
installers that depend on other files in the same directory for installation.
Warning
Be aware that all files and directories in the same location as the
installer file will be copied down to the minion. If you place your
software definition file in the root of winrepo (/srv/salt/win/repo-ng)
and it contains cache_dir: True the entire contents of winrepo will be
cached to the minion. Therefore, it is best practice to place your installer
files in a subdirectory if they are to be stored in winrepo.
Here's an example using cache_dir:
sqlexpress:
'12.0.2000.8':
full_name: Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Setup (English)
installer: 'salt://win/repo/sqlexpress/setup.exe'
install_flags: '/ACTION=install /IACCEPTSQLSERVERLICENSETERMS /Q'
cache_dir: True
cache_file (str)
This setting requires the file to be stored on the file_roots and only
applies to URLs that begin with salt://. It indicates a single file to copy
down for use with the installer. It is copied to the same location as the
installer. Use this over cache_dir if there are many files in the directory
and you only need a specific file and don't want to cache additional files that
may reside in the installer directory.
use_scheduler (bool)
If set to True, Windows will use the task scheduler to run the installation.
A one-time task will be created in the task scheduler and launched. The return
to the minion will be that the task was launched successfully, not that the
software was installed successfully.
Note
This is used by the software definition for Salt itself. The first thing the
Salt installer does is kill the Salt service, which then kills all child
processes. If the Salt installer is launched via Salt, then the installer
itself is killed leaving Salt on the machine but not running. Use of the
task scheduler allows an external process to launch the Salt installation so
its processes aren't killed when the Salt service is stopped.
source_hash (str)
This tells Salt to compare a hash sum of the installer to the provided hash sum
before execution. The value can be formatted as <hash_algorithm>=<hash_sum>,
or it can be a URI to a file containing the hash sum.
For a list of supported algorithms, see the hashlib documentation.
Here's an example using source_hash:
messageanalyzer:
'4.0.7551.0':
full_name: 'Microsoft Message Analyzer'
installer: 'salt://win/repo/messageanalyzer/MessageAnalyzer64.msi'
install_flags: '/quiet /norestart'
uninstaller: '{1CC02C23-8FCD-487E-860C-311EC0A0C933}'
uninstall_flags: '/quiet /norestart'
msiexec: True
source_hash: 'sha1=62875ff451f13b10a8ff988f2943e76a4735d3d4'
Not Implemented
The following parameters are often seen in the software definition files hosted
on the Git repo. However, they are not implemented and have no effect on the
installation process.
- param bool reboot:
Not implemented
- param str locale:
Not implemented
pygit2/GitPython Support for Maintaining Git Repos
The winrepo.update_git_repos
runner now makes use of the same underlying code used by the Git Fileserver Backend
and Git External Pillar to maintain and update
its local clones of git repositories. If a compatible version of either pygit2
(0.20.3 and later) or GitPython (0.3.0 or later) is installed, Salt will use it
instead of the old method (which invokes the git.latest
state).
Maintaining Git Repos
A clean argument has been added to the
winrepo.update_git_repos
runner. When clean is True it will tell the runner to dispose of
directories under the winrepo_dir_ng/winrepo_dir_ng
which are not explicitly configured. This prevents the need to manually remove
these directories when a repo is removed from the config file. To clean these
old directories, just pass clean=True:
salt-run winrepo.update_git_repos clean=True
If a mix of git and non-git Windows Repo definition files are being used, then
this should not be used, as it will remove the directories containing non-git
definitions.
Legacy Minions
The Windows Package Manager was upgraded with breaking changes starting with
Salt 2015.8.0. To maintain backwards compatibility Salt continues to support
older minions.
The breaking change was to generate the winrepo database on the minion instead
of the master. This allowed for the use of Jinja in the software definition
files. It enabled the use of pillar, grains, execution modules, etc. during
compile time. To support this new functionality, a next-generation (ng) repo was
created.
See the Changes in Version 2015.8.0 for
details.
On prior versions of Salt, or legacy minions, the winrepo database was
generated on the master and pushed down to the minions. Any grains exposed at
compile time would have been those of the master and not the minion.
The repository for legacy minions is named salt-winrepo and is located at:
Legacy Configuration
Winrepo settings were changed with the introduction of the Next Generation (ng)
of winrepo.
Legacy Master Config Options
There were three options available for a legacy master to configure winrepo.
Unless you're running a legacy master as well, you shouldn't need to configure
any of these.
win_gitrepos
win_repo
win_repo_mastercachefile
win_gitrepos: (list)
A list of URLs to github repos. Default is a list with a single URL:
win_repo: (str)
The location on the master to store the winrepo. The default is
/srv/salt/win/repo.
win_repo_mastercachefile: (str)
The location on the master to generate the winrepo database file. The default is
/srv/salt/win/repo/winrep.p
Legacy Minion Config Options
There is only one option available to configure a legacy minion for winrepo.
win_repo_cachefile: (str)
The location on the Salt file server to obtain the winrepo database file. The
default is salt://win/repo/winrepo.p
Note
If the location of the winrepo.p file is not in the default location on
the master, the win_repo_cachefile setting will need to be
updated to reflect the proper location on each minion.
Legacy Quick Start
You can get up and running with winrepo pretty quickly just using the defaults.
Assuming no changes to the default configuration (ie, file_roots) run the
following commands on the master:
salt-run winrepo.update_git_repos
salt-run winrepo.genrepo
salt * pkg.refresh_db
salt * pkg.install firefox
These commands clone the default winrepo from github, generate the metadata
file, push the metadata file down to the legacy minion, and install the latest
version of Firefox.
Legacy Initialization
Initializing the winrepo for a legacy minion is similar to that for a newer
minion. There is an added step in that the metadata file needs to be generated
on the master prior to refreshing the database on the minion.
Populate the Local Repository
The SLS files used to install Windows packages are not distributed by default
with Salt. So, the first step is to clone the repo to the master. Use the
winrepo.update_git_repos
runner initialize the repository in the location specified by winrepo_dir
in the master config. This will pull the software definition files down from the
git repository.
salt-run winrepo.update_git_repos
Update the Minion Database
Run pkg.refresh_db on each of your
Windows minions to copy the metadata file down to the minion.
# From the master
salt -G 'os:windows' pkg.refresh_db
Changes in Version 2015.8.0+
Git repository management for the Windows Software Repository changed in version
2015.8.0, and several master/minion config parameters were renamed for
consistency.
For a complete list of the new winrepo config options, see
here for master config options, and
here for configuration options for masterless Windows
minions.
On the master, the
winrepo.update_git_repos
runner was updated to use either pygit2 or GitPython to checkout the git
repositories containing repo data. If pygit2 or GitPython is installed,
existing winrepo git checkouts should be removed after upgrading to 2015.8.0.
Then they should be cloned again by running
winrepo.update_git_repos.
If neither GitPython nor pygit2 are installed, Salt will fall back to
pre-existing behavior for
winrepo.update_git_repos, and a
warning will be logged in the master log.
Note
Standalone Windows minions do not support the new GitPython/pygit2
functionality, and will instead use the
git.latest state to keep repositories
up-to-date. More information on how to use the Windows Software Repo on a
standalone minion can be found here.
Config Parameters Renamed
Many of the legacy winrepo configuration parameters changed in version 2015.8.0
to make them more consistent. Below are the parameters which changed for
version 2015.8.0:
Master Config
Note
The winrepo_dir_ng and winrepo_remotes_ng settings were introduced
in 2015.8.0 for working with the next generation repo.
See here for detailed information on all
master config options for the Windows Repo.
Minion Config
Note
The winrepo_dir_ng and winrepo_remotes_ng settings were introduced
in 2015.8.0 for working with the next generation repo.
See here for detailed information on all
minion config options for the Windows Repo.
