I gave a talk earlier tonight at the local Python usergroup on Fabric, a Python library for “application deployment.” I’ve mentioned Fabric before on here, documenting how to create dynamic Fabric commands.The presentation went well, but I was most interested in the reception of the talk and how I targeted the talk.

I gave a talk earlier tonight at the local Python usergroup on Fabric, a Python library for “application deployment.”

From the Fabric docs, Fabric targets itself as a sys-admin and deployment tool. Many in the crowd had that impression as well, trying to compare it to Chef, Puppet, or Capistrano. My comparison has always been to Rake or Make, although not so much Make, in terms of working with local file dependancies and source code compilation. It’s easier to start out with than Chef/Puppet, but doesn’t get as complex as either program.

I view Fabric as a great automation library, for local and remote tasks. For not just automating deployment, but automating doc generation, running tests, or any Python or Bash command that you find yourself running repeatedly, remote or locally. It’s applicable to any project with repeatable tasks, not just for Python projects. I will try to improve on this presentation and hopefully be able to better sell Fabric next time.