fingertip

This program/library aims to be a way to:

• fire up VMs and containers in mere seconds using live VM snapshots
• uniformly control machines from Python by writing small and neat functions transforming them
• compose and transparently cache the results of these functions
• build cool apps that exploit live VM snapshots and checkpoints
• control other types of machines that are not local VMs

All while striving to be intentionally underengineered and imposing as few limits as possible. If you look at it and think that it does nothing in the laziest way possible, that's it.

It's currently in alpha stage.

Teaser

Some examples of executing it from your shell:

$ fingertip os.fedora + ssh  # install Fedora and SSH into it
$ fingertip os.alpine + console  # install Alpine, access serial console
$ fingertip os.alpine + ansible package --state=present --name=patch + ssh
$ fingertip backend.podman-criu + os.alpine + console  # containers!

An example of Python usage and writing your own steps:

import fingertip

def main(m=None, alias='itself'):
    m = m or fingertip.build('os.fedora')
    m = m.apply('ansible', 'lineinfile', path='/etc/hosts',
                line=f'127.0.0.1 {alias}')
    with m:
        assert '1 received' in m(f'ping -c1 {alias}').out
    return m

Put in fingertip/plugins/demo.py, this can be now be used in pipelines:

$ fingertip demo
$ fingertip os.fedora + demo me
$ fingertip os.alpine + demo --alias=myself + ssh

Installation

Refer to INSTALL.md.

Shell usage

If you have installed fingertip, invoke it as fingertip.

If you're running from a checkout, use python3 <path to checkout> instead or make an alias.

If you're using a containerized version, invoke fingertip-containerized (and hope for the best).

So,

$ fingertip os.fedora + ssh

You should observe Fedora installation starting up, then shutting down, compressing an image, booting up again and, finally, giving you interactive control over the machine over SSH.

Invoke the same command again, and it should do nearly nothing, as the downloads and the installation are already cached in ~/.cache/fingertip. Enjoy fresh clean VMs brought up in mere seconds. Feel like they're already at your fingertips. Control them from console or from Python.

Python usage

Let's see how manipulating machines can look like (fingertip/plugins/self_test/greeting.py):

def make_greeting(m, greeting='Hello!'):                      # take a machine
    with m:                                                   # start if needed
        m.console.sendline(f"echo '{greeting}' > .greeting")  # type a command
        m.console.expect_exact(m.prompt)                      # wait for prompt
    return m                                                  # cache result


@fingertip.transient                                          # don't lock/save
def main(m, greeting='Hello!'):                               # take a machine
    m = m.apply(make_greeting, greeting=greeting)             # use cached step
    with m:                                                   # start if needed
        assert m('cat .greeting').out.strip() == greeting     # execute command
                                                              # do not save

These are regular Python functions, nothing fancy. Even this @fingertip.transient thing is an optimization-only hint. You can just pass them fingertip.build('fedora') and that'll work.

Here's what can happen inside such a function:

• It accepts a machine as the first argument (which may be already spun up or not, you don't know).
• It inspects it and applies more functions if it wants to, (extra steps applied through .apply are cached / reused if it's possible).
• Should any custom steps or changes be applied, the machine must be first spun up using a with block (with m as m). All modifications to the machine must happen inside that block, or risk being silently undone!
• Return the machine if the result should be cached and used for the next steps. Not returning one can and usually will undo all the changes you've made. If you don't intend to save the result, don't return m; additionally, decorate the function with @fingertip.transient or at least use .transient() with with, so that fingertip can apply performance optimizations and be even faster.

The first function in the chain (or the one used in fingertip.build) will not get a machine as the first argument. To write a universal function, just use:

def func(m=None):
    m = m or fingertip.build('fedora')
    ...

Disclaimer

Due to what exactly I cache and the early stage of development, empty your ~/.cache/fingertip/machines often, at least after each update.

$ fingertip cleanup machines all

Some days the whole ~/.cache/fingertip has to go.

$ fingertip cleanup all