This question was covered in The Agent is In, Episode 27 CFEngine Q&A: Policy Questions. Given the following JSON, how can I get a list containing just the values of name?

Today, we are pleased to announce the release of CFEngine 3.22.0! The focus of this new version has been coordination. This is a non-LTS (non-supported) release, where we introduce new features for users to test and give feedback on, allowing us to polish before the next LTS.(CFEngine 3.24 LTS is scheduled to release summer 2024).

Traditionally, CFEngine policy sets are managed as a whole. When upgrading the Masterfiles Policy Framework (MPF)1 users must download the new version of the policy framework and integrate it into the existing policy set, carefully diffing the vendored policy files against their currently integrated policy. Updates to policy authored by others must be sought out and similarly integrated.

Having a list of software that is allowed to be installed on a host is a strategy to prevent and fix security gaps and maintain compliance with operational guidelines. This zero-trust methodology ensures that only explicitly permitted applications are allowed to be present on a host unlike package block-listing which enumerates an explicit list of software that is not allowed to be present. In fact, with a software allow-list, you are essentially block-listing everything except the software you allow.

Opening and reading files may cause your program to block indefinitely, which is a major problem for configuration management tools like CFEngine. What if we make a program that can check if these file operations would block indefinitely, before using them? Unfortunately our good friend Alan Turing proved that such programs are not theoretically possible.