NAME

facter - Gather system information

SYNOPSIS

Collect and display facts about the system.

USAGE

facter [--color] [--config] [--custom-dir DIR] [-d|--debug] [--external-dir DIR] [--help]
  [-j|--json] [--list-block-groups] [--list-cache-groups] [-l|--log-level LEVEL (=warn)]
  [--no-block] [--no-cache] [--no-color] [--no-custom-facts] [--no-external-facts]
  [--trace] [--verbose] [-v|--version] [-y|--yaml] [--strict] [fact] [fact] [...]

DESCRIPTION

Collect and display facts about the current system. The library behind Facter is easy to extend, making Facter an easy way to collect information about a system.

If no queries are given, then all facts will be returned.

Many of the command line options can also be set via the HOCON config file. This file can also be used to block or cache certain fact groups.

OPTIONS

--color Enable color output.
--config A custom location for the config file.
--custom-dir arg A directory to use for custom facts.
-d, [ --debug ] Enable debug output.
--external-dir arg A directory to use for external facts.
--help Print help and usage information.
-j, [ --json ] Output facts in JSON format.
--list-block-groups List the names of all blockable fact groups.
--list-cache-groups List the names of all cacheable fact groups.
--show-legacy Show legacy facts when querying all facts.
-l, [ --log-level ] arg (=warn) Set logging level.
Supported levels are: none, trace, debug,
info, warn, error, and fatal.
--no-block Disable fact blocking.
--no-cache Disable fact caching.
--no-color Disable color output.
--no-custom-fact Disable custom facts.
--no-external-facts Disable external facts.
--no-ruby Disable loading Ruby, facts requiring Ruby, and custom facts.
--trace Enable backtraces for custom facts.
--verbose Enable verbose (info) output.
-v, [ --version ] Print the version and exit.
-y, [ --yaml ] Output facts in YAML format.

FILES

/etc/puppetlabs/facter/facter.conf

A HOCON config file that can be used to specify directories for custom and external facts, set various command line options, and specify facts to block. See example below for details, or visit the GitHub README.

EXAMPLE

Display all facts:

$ facter
disks => {
  sda => {
    model => "Virtual disk",
    size => "8.00 GiB",
    size_bytes => 8589934592,
    vendor => "ExampleVendor"
  }
}
dmi => {
  bios => {
    release_date => "06/23/2013",
    vendor => "Example Vendor",
    version => "6.00"
  }
}
[...]

Display a single structured fact:

$ facter processors
{
  count => 2,
  isa => "x86_64",
  models => [
    "Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2680 v2 @ 2.80GHz",
    "Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2680 v2 @ 2.80GHz"
  ],
  physicalcount => 2
}

Display a single fact nested within a structured fact:

$ facter processors.isa
x86_64

Display a single legacy fact. Note that non-structured facts existing in previous versions of Facter are still available, but are not displayed by default due to redundancy with newer structured facts:

$ facter processorcount
2

Format facts as JSON:

$ facter --json os.name os.release.major processors.isa
{
  "os.name": "Ubuntu",
  "os.release.major": "14.04",
  "processors.isa": "x86_64"
}

An example config file.

# always loaded (CLI and as Ruby module)
global : {
    external-dir : "~/external/facts",
    custom-dir   :  [
       "~/custom/facts",
       "~/custom/facts/more-facts"
    ],
    no-external-facts : false,
    no-custom-facts   : false,
    no-ruby           : false
}
# loaded when running from the command line
cli : {
    debug     : false,
    trace     : true,
    verbose   : false,
    log-level : "info"
}
# always loaded, fact-sepcific configuration
facts : {
    # for valid blocklist entries, use --list-block-groups
    blocklist : [ "file system", "EC2" ],
    # for valid time-to-live entries, use --list-cache-groups
    ttls : [ { "timezone" : 30 days } ]
}

AUTHOR

Luke Kanies