Managing Systems and Applications with pyinfra

Scripted Setup

© Lead Image © Carlos Castilla Jimenez, 123RF.com

© Lead Image © Carlos Castilla Jimenez, 123RF.com

Article from Issue 308/2026
Author(s):

Keeping Linux machines in a known state requires a configuration management system. Discover how pyinfra simplifies this task with Python's full programming power.

When managing a few Linux machines, it's easy to handle them with ad-hoc commands, but this approach becomes inefficient as the number of machines increases. A configuration management tool ensures that all your machines have a consistent setup. Popular tools in this domain are Ansible, Puppet, Chef, SaltStack, and CFEngine. A lesser-known alternative, pyinfra [1], is the subject of this article. Unlike many other configuration management tools, pyinfra doesn't rely on YAML [2] or a domain-specific language. Instead, you configure your systems using Python code.

If you're familiar with Python, you'll find pyinfra easily accessible. Moreover, you can leverage the full Python language, including loops, conditions, functions, and classes to streamline your configuration tasks. You can even import any Python library to meet specific requirements, allowing you to harness the extensive Python ecosystem.

Under the hood, pyinfra translates your Python code into shell commands and executes them on your machines. This means the target machines don't need to have Python or any special dependencies; all that's required is a POSIX-compatible shell. There's no agent running on the target machines. Instead, pyinfra simply logs into machines via SSH to execute its shell commands.

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