# Salt 0.8.9 Release Notes

Salt 0.8.9 has finally arrived! Unfortunately this is much later than I had hoped to release 0.8.9, life has been very crazy over the last month. But despite challenges, Salt has moved forward!

This release, as expected, adds few new features and many refinements. One of the most exciting aspect of this release is that the development community for salt has grown a great deal and much of the code is from contributors.

Also, I have filled out the documentation a great deal. So information on States is properly documented, and much of the documentation that was out of date has been filled in.

## Download!

The Salt source can be downloaded from the salt GitHub site:

https://github.com/downloads/saltstack/salt/salt-0.8.9.tar.gz

Or from PyPI:

http://pypi.python.org/packages/source/s/salt/salt-0.8.9.tar.gz

Here s the md5sum:

7d5aca4633bc22f59045f59e82f43b56

For instructions on how to set up Salt please see the Installation instructions.

## New Features

### Salt Run

A big feature is the addition of Salt run, the `salt-run` command allows for master side execution modules to be made that gather specific information or execute custom routines from the master.

Documentation for salt-run can be found here:

http://saltstack.org/ref/runners.html

### Refined Outputters

One problem often complained about in salt was the fact that the output was so messy. Thanks to help from Jeff Schroeder a cleaner interface for the command output for the Salt CLI has been made. This new interface makes adding new printout formats easy and additions to the capabilities of minion modules makes it possible to set the printout mode or `outputter` for functions in minion modules.

### Cross Calling Salt Modules

Salt modules can now call each other, the `__salt__` dict has been added to the predefined references in minion modules. This new feature is documented in the modules documentation:

http://saltstack.org/ref/modules/index.html

### Watch Option Added to Salt State System

Now in Salt states you can set the watch option, this will allow watch enabled states to change based on a change in the other defined states. This is similar to subscribe and notify statements in puppet.

### Root Dir Option

Travis Cline has added the ability to define the option `root_dir` which allows the salt minion to operate in a subdir. This is a strong move in supporting the minion running as an unprivileged user

### Config Files Defined in Variables

Thanks again to Travis Cline, the master and minion configuration file locations can be defined in environment variables now.

## New Modules

Quite a few new modules, states, returners and runners have been made.

### New Minion Modules

#### apt

Support for apt-get has been added, this adds greatly improved Debian and Ubuntu support to Salt!

#### useradd and groupadd

Support for manipulating users and groups on Unix-like systems.

#### moosefs

Initial support for reporting on aspects of the distributed file system, MooseFS. For more information on MooseFS please see: http://moosefs.org

Thanks to Joseph Hall for his work on MooseFS support.

#### mount

Manage mounts and the fstab.

#### puppet

Execute puppet on remote systems.

#### shadow

Manipulate and manage the user password file.

#### ssh

Interact with ssh keys.

### New States

#### user and group

Support for managing users and groups in Salt States.

#### mount

Enforce mounts and the fstab.

### New Returners

#### mongo_return

Send the return information to a MongoDB server.

### New Runners

#### manage

Display minions that are up or down.

Current Salt release: 0.17.1

### Table Of Contents

- Salt 0.8.9 Release Notes
  - Download!
  - New Features
    - Salt Run
    - Refined Outputters
    - Cross Calling Salt Modules
    - Watch Option Added to Salt State System
    - Root Dir Option
    - Config Files Defined in Variables
  - New Modules
    - New Minion Modules
      - apt
      - useradd and groupadd
      - moosefs
      - mount
      - puppet
      - shadow
      - ssh
    - New States
      - user and group
      - mount
    - New Returners
      - mongo_return
    - New Runners
      - manage

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