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actor-IaC v2.13.0 Released

· 3 min read
Scivics Lab
Scivics Lab
Development Team

We are pleased to announce the release of actor-IaC v2.13.0.

This release brings WorkflowReporter for execution reports, Java plugin support, and the new AptLockChecker plugin.

WorkflowReporter​

A new feature for automatic workflow execution report generation. WorkflowReporter aggregates lines prefixed with % from the log database and presents them in a "Check Results" summary section.

This is useful for collecting status messages from multiple nodes:

# Output status for WorkflowReporter
- actor: this
  method: executeCommand
  arguments:
    - |
      HOSTNAME=$(hostname -s)
      if [ "$STATUS" = "OK" ]; then
          echo "%$HOSTNAME: [OK] Service running"
      else
          echo "%$HOSTNAME: [FAIL] Service down"
      fi

The % prefix tells WorkflowReporter to collect this line for the final report.

Example Report Output​

[workflow-reporter] === Workflow Execution Report ===
[workflow-reporter] Session #42 | Workflow: main-install-gpu-drivers.yaml | Status: COMPLETED

[workflow-reporter] --- Check Results ---
[workflow-reporter] stonefly513: [OK] nvidia-smi already installed (driver 535.183.01)
[workflow-reporter] stonefly514: [SKIP] No NVIDIA GPU
[workflow-reporter] stonefly521: [SKIP] APT_HUNG (16d) PID=203601

CLI Improvements​

  • describe command: Enhanced workflow description with better formatting
  • list-workflows command: Improved workflow discovery and listing
  • WorkflowScanner: New utility class for scanning workflow directories

Java Plugin Support​

actor-IaC now fully supports Java plugins through the new POJO-actor 2.13.0 features:

# Load plugin JAR
- states: ["0", "1"]
  actions:
    - actor: loader
      method: loadJar
      arguments: ["../plugins/my-plugin.jar"]

# Create plugin actor
- states: ["1", "2"]
  actions:
    - actor: loader
      method: createChild
      arguments: ["this", "myPlugin", "com.example.MyPlugin"]

# Use plugin
- states: ["2", "3"]
  actions:
    - actor: myPlugin
      method: doSomething
      arguments: ["${result}"]

AptLockChecker Plugin (actor-IaC-plugins)​

A new plugin repository has been created: actor-IaC-plugins

The first plugin is AptLockChecker for detecting hung apt processes on Debian/Ubuntu systems.

Problem Solved​

On Ubuntu systems, apt.systemd.daily or unattended-upgrade can sometimes hang for hours, blocking all apt operations. This plugin detects such hung processes before attempting package installations.

How It Works​

  1. Parses output from ps -eo pid,etimes,args
  2. Identifies apt-related processes (/usr/lib/apt/apt.systemd.daily, /usr/bin/unattended-upgrade)
  3. Checks if they've been running longer than the threshold (default: 1 hour)
  4. Returns human-readable status: OK or HUNG:pid:age

Example Workflow​

name: install-nvidia-driver

steps:
  # Load plugin
  - states: ["0", "1"]
    actions:
      - actor: loader
        method: loadJar
        arguments: ["../actor-IaC-plugins/target/actor-IaC-plugins-1.0.0.jar"]

  - states: ["1", "2"]
    actions:
      - actor: loader
        method: createChild
        arguments: ["this", "aptChecker", "com.scivicslab.actoriac.plugins.aptcheck.AptLockChecker"]

  # Get process list
  - states: ["2", "3"]
    actions:
      - actor: this
        method: executeCommand
        arguments: ["ps -eo pid,etimes,args 2>/dev/null"]

  # Check for hung apt processes
  - states: ["3", "4"]
    actions:
      - actor: aptChecker
        method: check
        arguments:
          psOutput: "${result}"
          hostname: "${json.hostname}"
          threshold: 3600  # 1 hour in seconds

  # Store result and skip if hung
  - states: ["4", "5"]
    actions:
      - actor: this
        method: executeCommand
        arguments:
          - |
            RESULT='${result}'
            if echo "$RESULT" | grep -q "^HUNG:"; then
                echo "SKIP_REASON=APT_HUNG"
            else
                echo "SKIP_REASON=none"
            fi

This pattern allows workflows to gracefully skip nodes with hung apt processes instead of waiting indefinitely.

Upgrade​

Update your pom.xml:

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.scivicslab</groupId>
    <artifactId>actor-IaC</artifactId>
    <version>2.13.0</version>
</dependency>

References​