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Sparrow

Sparrow is a Raku based automation framework. It's written on Raku and has Raku API.

Who might want to use Sparrow? People dealing with daily tasks varying from servers software installations/configurations to cloud resources creation.

Sparrow could be thought as an alternative to existing configuration management and provisioning tools like Ansible or Chef, however Sparrow is much broader and not limited to configuration management only.

It could be seen as a generic automation framework enabling an end user quick and effective script development easing some typical challenges along the road - such as scripts configurations, code reuse and testing.

Sparrow Essential Features

• Sparrow is a language friendly framework. A user write underlying code on a language of their choice (see supported languages), and Sparrow glues all the code using Raku API within high level Sparrow scenarios.

• Sparrow has a command line API. A user can run scripts using command line API, at this point to use Sparrow one does not need to know any programming language at all.

• Sparrow is a script oriented framework. Basic low level building blocks in Sparrow are old good scripts. That makes Sparrow extremely effective when working with existing codebase written on many well known languages.

• Sparrow is a function oriented framework. Though users write underlying code as scripts, those scripts are called as Raku functions within high level scenarios.

• Sparrow has a repository of ready to use scripts or Sparrow plugins as they called in Sparrow. No need to code at all, just find a proper plugin and start using it. Sparrow repository could be easily deployed as public or private instances using just an Nginx web server.

Install

zef install Sparrow6

Supported languages

You can write underlying Sparrow tasks using following languages:

• Raku
• Perl5
• Ruby
• Python
• Bash
• Powershell
• Golang

All the languages have a unified Sparrow API easing script development, see Sparrow development guide.

Documentation

Sparrow Development Guide

Check out documentation/development guide on how to develop Sparrow tasks using Sparrow compatible languages.

Raku API

Sparrow Raku API allows to run Sparrow tasks as Raku functions. One can use task-run function to run arbitrary Sparrow plugins or tasks. Or choose Sparrow DSL to call a subset of Raku functions designed for most popular automation tasks.

Task Run

Sparrow provides Raku API to run Sparrow tasks as functions:

task-run "run my build", "vsts-build", %(
  definition => "JavaApp"
);

Read more about Sparrow task runner at documentation/taskrunner.

Sparrow DSL

Sparrow DSL allows one to run Sparrow tasks using even better Raku functions shortcuts. In comparison with task-run function, DSL provides input parameters validation and dedicated function names. DSL is limited to a certain subset of Sparrow plugins:

#!raku

package-install "nginx";

service-restart "nginx";

bash "echo Hello World";

See a full list of DSL functions here - documentation/dsl.

Plugins

Sparrow plugins are distributable scripts written on Sparrow compatible languages.

One could run plugins as Raku functions using Raku API or as command line utilities.

Check out documentation/plugins for details.

Repositories

Sparrow repositories store distributable Sparrow tasks packaged as plugins.

See documentation/repository.

Cli API

Sparrow provides a handy command line interface to run Sparrow tasks as command line.

Enter s6 - Sparrow command line client and plugin manager.

You use s6 to install, configure and run tasks as well as uploading tasks to repositories.

Check documentation/s6 for details.

Sparrow modules

Sparrow modules allow to write portable Sparrow scenarios distributed as Raku modules, read more about it in documentation/modules.

Testing API

Sparrow provides it's way to write tests for tasks, making it is easy not only create scripts, but write tests for your script codebase.

Task checks

Task checks is regexp based DSL to verify structured and unstructured text.

It allows to write embedded tests for user scripts verifying scripts output.

With task checks it's easy to develop scripts in TDD way or create black box testing test suites. See, for example, Tomty framework.

Read more about task checks at documentation/taskchecks.

M10

METEN - is a Minimalist Embedded Testing Engine. You can "embed" test into task source code and conditionally run them.

The method is not of much use in favor of task checks approach.

Check out documentation/m10 for details.

Environment variables

Sparrow is configurable though some environment variables.

Check out documentation/envvars documentation.

Sparrow eco system

Sparrow eco system encompasses various tools and subsystems. Choose the one you need. All the tools are powered by Sparrow engine.

Sparrowdo

Sparrow based configuration management tool.

Visit Sparrowdo GH project for details.

Tomtit

Task runner and workflow management tool.

Visit Tomtit GH project for details.

Tomty

Tomty is a Sparrow based test framework.

Visit Tomty GH project for details.

Sparky

Run Sparrow tasks in asynchronously and remotely.

Visit Sparky GH project for details.

Internal APIs

This section contains links to some internal APIs, which are mostly of interest for Sparrow developers:

• Sparrow6::Task::Repository API - documentation/internal/repo-and-plugins-api

Roadmap

Sparrow is not yet (fully) implemented, see Roadmap to check a status.

Examples

See .tomty/ folder.

Author

Alexey Melezhik

Thanks to

God Who inspires me in my life!