Language Reference¶

The Inmanta language is a declarative language to model the configuration of an infrastructure.

The evaluation order of statements is determined by their dependencies on other statements and not based on the lexical order. i.e. The code is not necessarily executed top to bottom.

Modules¶

The source is organized in modules. Each module is a git repository with the following structure:

module/
+-- files/
+-- model/
|  +-- _init.cf
+-- plugins/
+-- templates/
+-- module.yml

Note

The module format described here is the v1 module format. For more details see Understanding Modules.

The module.yml file, the model directory and the model/_init.cf are required.

For example:

test/
+-- files/
+-- model/
|  +-- _init.cf
|  +-- services.cf
|  +-- policy
|  |  +-- _init.cf
|  |  +-- other.cf
+-- plugins/
+-- templates/
+-- module.yml

The model code is in the .cf files. Each file forms a namespace. The namespaces for the files are the following.

File	Namespace
test/model/_init.cf	test
test/model/services.cf	test::services
test/model/policy/_init.cf	test::policy
test/model/policy/other.cf	test::policy::other

Modules are only loaded when they are imported by a loaded module or the main.cf file of the project.

To access members from another namespace, it must be imported into the current namespace.:

import test::services

Imports can also define an alias, to shorten long names:

import test::services as services

Comments¶

The Inmanta language uses # to define comments. Everything after the # symbol is treated as a comment.

# This is a comment
import test::services # This is also a comment

Variables¶

Variables can be defined in any lexical scope. They are visible in their defining scope and its children. A lexical scope is either a namespaces or a code block (area between : and end).

Variable names must start with a lower case character and can consist of the characters: a-zA-Z_0-9-

A value can be assigned to a variable exactly once. The type of the variable is the type of the value. Assigning a value to the same variable twice will produce a compiler error, unless the values are identical.

Variables from other modules can be referenced by prefixing them with the module name (or alias)

import redhat
os = redhat::fedora23
import ubuntu as ubnt
os2 = ubnt::ubuntu1204

Literals values¶

Literal values can be assigned to variables

var1 = 1 # assign an integer, var1 contains now a number
var2 = 3.14 # assign a float, var2 also contains a number
var3 = "This is a string" # var3 contains a string
var4 = r"This is a raw string" # var4 contains a raw string

# var 5 and 6 are both booleans
var5 = true
var6 = false

# var7 is a list of values
var7 = ["fedora", "ubuntu", "rhel"]

# a dictionary with string keys and any type of values is also a primitive
var8 = { "foo":"bar", "baz": 1}

# var9 contains the same value as var2
var9 = var2

# next assignment will not return an error because var1 already contains this value
var1 = 1

# next assignment would return an error because var1 already has a different value
#var1 = "test"

#ref to a variable from another namespace
import ip::services
sshservice = ip::services::ssh

Arithmetic operations¶

The following arithmetic operations are supported:

Addition (+)

Substraction (-)

Multiplication (*)

Division (/)

Exponentiation (**)

Modulo (%)

Example:

var = 3 + 5
var = 10 - 2
var = 4 * 2
var = int(16 / 2)
var = 2 ** 3
var = 18 % 10

Note that the result of the division operation is cast to the type int. This is done because a division always results in a value of type float.

Primitive types¶

The basic primitive types are string, float, int or bool. These basic types also support type casts:

Note

To initialize or assign a float, the value should either include a decimal point or be explicitly converted to a float type.

assert = true
assert = int("1") == 1
assert = float("1.2") == 1.2
assert = int(true) == 1
assert = bool(1.2) == true
assert = bool(0) == false
assert = bool(null) == false
assert = bool("x") == true
# like in Python, only empty strings are considered false
assert = bool("false") == true
assert = bool("") == false
assert = string(true) == "true"

Constrained primitive types can be derived from the basic primitive type with a typedef statement. Constrained primitive types add additional constraints to the basic primitive type with either a Python regex or a logical condition. The name of the constrained primitive type must not collide with the name of a variable or type in the same lexical scope.

A regex matches a given string when zero or more characters at the beginning of that string match the regular expression. A dollar sign should be used at the end of the regex if a full string match is required.

typedef : 'typedef' ID 'as' PRIMITIVE 'matching' condition|regex;

For example

typedef tcp_port as int matching self > 0 and self < 65535
typedef mac_addr as string matching /([0-9a-fA-F]{2})(:[0-9a-fA-F]{2}){5}$/

Lists of primitive types are also primitive types: string[], float[], bool[] or mac_addr[]

dict is the primitive type that represents a dictionary, with string keys. Dict values can be accessed using the [] operator. All members of a dict have to be set when the dict is constructed. e.g.

#correct
a = {"key":"value", "number":7}
value = a["key"]
# value = "value"
# incorrect, can't assign to dict after construction
# a["otherkey"] = "othervalue"

Strings¶

There are four kinds of strings in the Inmanta language:

regular strings

regular_string_1 = "This is...\n...a basic string."

# Output when displayed:
# This is...
# ...a basic string.


regular_string_2 = 'This one too.'

# Output when displayed:
# This one too.

multi-line strings

It is possible to make a string span multiple lines by triple quoting it e.g.:

multi_line_string = """This
string
spans
multiple
lines"""

# Output when displayed:
# This
# string
# spans
# multiple
# lines

Note

Unlike python’s multi-line strings, only double quotes are supported to define a multi-line string i.e. """ is valid, but ''' is not.

raw strings

Raw strings are similar to python’s raw strings in that they treat backslashes as regular characters. On the other hand, in regular and multi-line strings, escape characters (e.g. \n, \t…) are interpreted and therefore backslashes need to be escaped in order to be displayed. In addition, no variable expansion is performed in raw strings.

raw_string = r"This is...\n...a raw string."

# Output when displayed:
# This is...\n...a raw string.

hostname = "serv1.example.org"
raw_motd = r"Welcome to {hostname}"

# Output when displayed:
# Welcome to {hostname}

f-strings

An alternative syntax similar to python’s f-strings can be used for string formatting.

hostname = "serv1.example.org"
motd = f"Welcome to {hostname}"

# Output when displayed:
# Welcome to serv1.example.org

Python’s format specification mini-language can be used for fine-grained formatting:

width = 10
precision = 2
arg = 12.34567

std::print(f"result: {arg:{width}.{precision}f}")

# Output:
# result:      12.35

Note

The '=' character specifier added in python 3.8 is not supported yet in the Inmanta language.

Note

Unlike in python, raw and format string cannot be used together in the same string e.g. raw_and_format = rf"Both specifiers" is not allowed.

String interpolation¶

An alternative syntax to f-strings is string interpolation. It allows variables to be included as parameters inside a regular or multi-line string. The included variables are resolved in the lexical scope of the string they are included in:

hostname = "serv1.example.org"
motd = "Welcome to {{hostname}}"

# Output when displayed:
# Welcome to serv1.example.org

String concatenation¶

Strings can be concatenated with the + operator.

hello_world = "hello " + "world"

Conditions¶

Conditions can be used in typedef, implements and if statements. A condition is an expression that evaluates to a boolean value. It can have the following forms

condition : '(' condition ')'
    | condition 'or' condition
    | condition 'and' condition
    | 'not' condition
    | value
    | value ('>' | '>=' | '<' | '<=' | '==' | '!=') value
    | value 'in' value
    | value 'not in' value
    | functioncall
    | value 'is' 'defined'
    ;

The in and not in operators can be used to check if a value is present in a list:

myfiles = ["/a/b/c", "/c/d/e", "x/y/z/u/v/w"]

condition1 = "/a/b/c" in myfiles # evaluates to True
condition2 = "/f/g/h" in myfiles # evaluates to False

condition3 = "/a/b/c" not in myfiles # evaluates to False
condition4 = "/f/g/h" not in myfiles # evaluates to True

condition5 = not "/a/b/c" in myfiles # evaluates to False
condition6 = not "/f/g/h" in myfiles # evaluates to True

The is defined keyword checks if a value was assigned to an attribute or a relation of a certain entity. The following example sets the monitoring configuration on a certain host when it has a monitoring server associated:

entity Host:

end

entity MonitoringServer:

end

Host.monitoring_server [0:1] -- MonitoringServer

implement Host using monitoringConfig when monitoring_server is defined

implementation monitoringConfig for Host:
    # Set monitoring config
end

Empty lists are considered to be unset.

Function calls / Plugins¶

Each module can define plugins. Plugins can contribute functions to the module’s namespace. The function call syntax is

functioncall : moduleref '.' ID '(' arglist? ')';
arglist : arg
        | arglist ',' arg
        ;
arg : value
    | key '=' value
    | '**' value
    ;

For example

std::familyof(host.os, "rhel")
a = param::one("region", "demo::forms::AWSForm")

hello_world = "Hello World!"
hi_world = std::replace(hello_world, new = "Hi", old = "Hello")
dct = {
    "new": "Hi",
    "old": "Hello",
}
hi_world = std::replace(hello_world, **dct)

Entities¶

Entities model configuration concepts. They are like classes in other object oriented languages: they can be instantiated and they define the structure of their instances.

Entity names must start with an upper case character and can consist of the characters: a-zA-Z_0-9-

Entities can have a number of attributes and relations to other entities. Entity attributes have primitive types, with an optional default value. An attribute has to have a value unless the nulable variant of the primitive type is used. An attribute that can be null uses a primitive type with a ? such as string?. A value can also be assigned only once to an attribute that can be null. To indicate that no value will be assigned, the literal null is available. null can also be the default value of an attribute.

Entities can inherit from multiple other entities. Entities inherits attributes and relations from parent entities. All entities inherit from std::Entity.

It is not possible to override or rename attributes or relations. However, it is possible to override defaults. Default values for attributes defined in the class take precedence over those in the parent classes. When a class has multiple parents, the left parent takes precedence over the others. A default value can be removed by setting its value to undef.

The syntax for defining entities is:

entity: 'entity' ID ('extends' classlist)? ':' attribute* 'end';

classlist: class
          | class ',' classlist;

attribute: primitve_type ID ('=' literal)?;

Defining entities in a configuration model

entity File:
   string path
   string content
   int mode = 640
   string[] list = []
   dict things = {}
end

Relations¶

A Relation is a unidirectional or bidirectional relation between two entities. The consistency of a bidirectional double binding is maintained by the compiler: assignment to one side of the relation is an implicit assignment of the reverse relation.

Relations are defined by specifying each end of the relation together with the multiplicity of each relation end. Each end of the relation is named and is maintained as a double binding by the compiler.

Defining relations between entities in the domain model

relation: class '.' ID multi '--' class '.' ID multi
        | class '.' ID multi annotation_list class '.' ID multi ;
annotation_list: value
        | annotation_list ',' value

For example a bidirectional relation:

File.service [1] -- Service.file [1:]

Or a unidirectional relation

uni_relation : class '.' ID multi '--' class
       | class '.' ID multi annotation_list class;

For example

Service.file [1:] -- File

Relation multiplicities are enforced by the compiler. If they are violated a compilation error is issued.

Instantiation¶

Instances of an entity are created with a constructor statement

File(path="/etc/motd")

A constructor can assign values to any of the properties (attributes or relations) of the entity. It can also leave the properties unassigned. For attributes with default values, the constructor is the only place where the defaults can be overridden.

Values can be assigned to the remaining properties as if they are variables. To relations with a higher arity, multiple values can be assigned. Additionally, null can be assigned to relations with a lower arity of 0 to indicate explicitly that the model will not assign any values to the relation attribute.

Host.files [0:] -- File.host [1]

h1 = Host("test")
f1 = File(host=h1, path="/opt/1")
f2 = File(host=h1, path="/opt/2")
f3 = File(host=h1, path="/opt/3")

# h1.files equals [f1, f2, f3]

FileSet.files [0:] -- File.set [1]

s1 = FileSet()
s1.files = [f1,f2]
s1.files = f3

# s1.files equals [f1, f2, f3]

s1.files = f3
# adding a value twice does not affect the relation,
# s1.files still equals [f1, f2, f3]

In addition, attributes can be assigned in a constructor using keyword arguments by using **dct where dct is a dictionary that contains attribute names as keys and the desired values as values. For example:

Host.files [0:] -- File.host [1]
h1 = Host("test")

file1_config = {"path": "/opt/1"}
f1 = File(host=h1, **file1_config)

It is also possible to add elements to a relation with the += operator:

Host.files [0:] -- File.host [1]

h1 = Host("test")
h1.files += f1
h1.files += f2
h1.files += f3

# h1.files equals [f1, f2, f3]

Note

This syntax is only defined for relations. The += operator can not be used on variables, which are immutable.

Referring to instances¶

When referring to entities in the same module, a parent model or std, short names can be used

Following code blocks are equivalent and both valid

std::Host("test")

Host("test")

When constructing entities from other modules, the fully qualified name must be used

import srlinux
import srlinux::interface

interface = srlinux::Interface(
     subinterface = srlinux::interface::Subinterface(
     )
 )

When nesting constructors, short names can be used for the nested constructors, because their types can be inferred

import srlinux
import srlinux::interface

interface = srlinux::Interface( # This type is qualified
     subinterface = Subinterface( # This type is inferred
     )
 )

However, when relying on type inference:

avoid creating sibling types with the same name, but different fully qualified name, as they may become indistinguishable, breaking the inference on existing models.
1. if multiple types exist with the same name, and one is in scope, that one is selected (i.e. it is defined in this module, a parent module or std)
2. if multiple types exist that are all out of scope, inference fails
make sure the type you want to infer is imported somewhere in the model. Otherwise the compiler will not find it.

Indexes and queries¶

Index definitions make sure that an entity is unique. An index definition defines a list of properties that uniquely identify an instance of an entity. If a second instance is constructed with the same identifying properties, the first instance is returned instead.

All identifying properties must be set in the constructor.

Indices are inherited. i.e. all identifying properties of all parent types must be set in the constructor.

Defining an index

entity Host:
    string  name
end

index Host(name)

Explicit index lookup is performed with a query statement

testhost = Host[name="test"]

For indices on relations (instead of attributes) an alternative syntax can be used

entity File:
    string path
end

Host.files [0:] -- File.host [1]

index File(host, path)

a = File[host=vm1, path="/etc/passwd"]  # normal index lookup
b = vm1.files[path="/etc/passwd"]  # selector style index lookup
# a == b

Note

The use of float (or number) as part of index properties is generally discouraged. This is due to the reliance of index matching on precise equality, while floating-point numbers are represented with an inherent imprecision. If floating-point attributes are used in an index, it is crucial to handle arithmetic operations with caution to ensure the accuracy of the attribute values for index operations.

For loop¶

To iterate over the items of a list, a for loop can be used

for i in std::sequence(size, 1):
    app_vm = Host(name="app{{i}}")
end

The syntax is:

for: 'for' ID 'in' value ':' statement* 'end';

If statement¶

An if statement allows to branch on a condition.

if nodecount > 1:
    self.cluster_mode = "multi"
elif node == 1:
    self.cluster_mode = "single"
else:
    self.cluster_mode = "off"
end

The syntax is:

if : 'if' condition ':' statement* ('elif' condition ':' statement*)* ('else' ':' statement*)? 'end';

The Conditions section describes allowed forms for the condition.

Conditional expressions¶

A conditional expression is an expression that evaluates to one of two subexpressions depending on its condition.

x = n > 0 ? n : 0

Which evaluates to n if n > 0 or to 0 otherwise.

The syntax is:

conditional_expression : condition '?' expression ':' expression;

The Conditions section describes allowed forms for the condition.

List comprehensions¶

A list comprehension constructs a list (either a primitive list or a relation) by mapping over another list, optionally filtering some values.

myfiles = ["/a/b/c", "/c/d/e", "x/y/z/u/v/w"]
# create File instance for each file in myfiles shorter than 10 characters
host.files = [File(path=path) for path in myfiles if std::length(path) < 10]

The syntax is the following.

list_comprehension : '[' expression ('for' ID 'in' expression)+ ('if' expression)* ']'

It shows that the list comprehension allows for multiple for expressions and multiple if guards. The top for is always executed first, as if it were the outer for in a conventional for loop. Here’s an example:

all_short_files = [
    file
    for host in all_hosts
    for file in host.files  # we can refer to the upper loop variable `host`
    if host.name != "exclude_this_host"
    if std::length(file.path) < 10
]

While the inmanta language does not make any guarantees about statement execution order, it does provide some guarantees regarding data ordering for list comprehensions. In the context of relations even data order doesn’t matter, but in the context of a literal list it might. In such a context the list comprehension promises to keep the order of the list in the for expression.

my_ordered_numbers = std::sequence(10)
my_ordered_pairs = ["{{i}}-{{i}}" for i in my_ordered_numbers]
# order is kept => ["0-0", "1-1", "2-2", ...]

Transformations¶

At the lowest level of abstraction the configuration of an infrastructure often consists of configuration files. To construct configuration files, templates and string interpolation can be used.

Templates¶

Inmanta integrates the Jinja2 template engine. A template is evaluated in the lexical scope where the std::template function is called. This function accepts as an argument the path of a template file. The first part of the path is the module that contains the template and the remainder of the path is the path within the template directory of the module.

The integrated Jinja2 engine supports to the entire Jinja feature set, except for subtemplates. During execution Jinja2 has access to all variables and plug-ins that are available in the scope where the template is evaluated. However, the :: in paths needs to be replaced with a .. The result of the template is returned by the template function.

Using a template to transform variables to a configuration file

hostname = "wwwserv1.example.com"
admin = "joe@example.com"
motd_content = std::template("motd/message.tmpl")

The template used in the previous listing

Welcome to {{ hostname }}
This machine is maintainted by {{ admin }}

Plug-ins¶

For more complex operations, python plugins can be used. Plugins are exposed in the Inmanta language as function calls, such as the template function call. A template accepts parameters and returns a value that it computed out of the variables. Each module that is included can also provide plug-ins. These plug-ins are accessible within the namespace of the module. The Developing Plugins section of the module guide provides more details about how to write a plugin.

Language Reference¶

Modules¶

Comments¶

Variables¶

Literals values¶

Arithmetic operations¶

Primitive types¶

Strings¶

String interpolation¶

String concatenation¶

Conditions¶

Function calls / Plugins¶

Entities¶

Relations¶

Instantiation¶

Referring to instances¶

Refinements¶

Indexes and queries¶

For loop¶

If statement¶

Conditional expressions¶

List comprehensions¶

Transformations¶

Templates¶

Plug-ins¶