state.highstate

Apply all states from top.zy to targeted peels. This evaluates the state top file, resolves all matching state references, and executes them as a single DAG.

Synopsis

zester '<target>' state.highstate [flags]

Resolves the target expression to a set of peel IDs, creates a job, and dispatches it through the master's job manager. Each targeted peel evaluates /data/states/top.zy against its own facts, loads all matching states (expanding includes and applying extends), builds a DAG, and executes it.

Results are streamed back as each peel completes.

Target type auto-detection:

Expression	Detected Type
`web*`	Glob
`E@web-\d+`	Regex
`G@os:ubuntu`	Fact
`L@web-01,web-02`	List
`web* and G@os:ubuntu`	Compound

See the Targeting section for full details on each target type.

Flags

Flag	Type	Default	Description
`--timeout`	`duration`	`10m`	Maximum time to wait for the job to complete
`--direct`	`bool`	`false`	Bypass master job system; send directly to peels
`--test`	`bool`	`false`	Dry run: compile and check all states without applying (Salt `test=True`)

This command also accepts global flags.

Examples

Apply highstate to all peels

zester '*' state.highstate

Targeting 5 peel(s): [api-01 db-01 web-01 web-02 web-03]
Job 2hPx4RmTXpU8AnYsVb6SMuEhPlC dispatched
web-01:
    pkg.installed:install_nginx:
        changed: false
        duration: 120ms
    file.managed:nginx_config:
        changed: true
        duration: 4.2ms
    cmd.run:reload_nginx:
        changed: true
        duration: 52ms
web-02:
    ...

Apply highstate to web servers only

zester 'web*' state.highstate

Apply highstate with fact-based targeting

zester 'G@role:webserver' state.highstate

Apply highstate with extended timeout

zester '*' state.highstate --timeout 30m

Dry run (test mode)

Compile and check all states without applying. --test and test=True are equivalent:

zester '*' state.highstate --test
zester '*' state.highstate test=True

In test mode each state's Check phase runs but nothing is applied: changed: true in the output means the state would change, and diff shows the pending change.

Direct mode (bypass master)

zester 'web-01' state.highstate --direct

No states matched

zester 'monitoring-01' state.highstate

Targeting 1 peel(s): [monitoring-01]
Job 2hPx5SnUYqV9BoZtWc7TNvFiQmD dispatched
monitoring-01:
    ERROR: highstate: no states matched in top.zy

No states is an error

When the top file resolves to zero states for a peel, the peel returns this as an error via respondError. The peel does NOT silently succeed.

No peels matched

zester 'nonexistent*' state.highstate

In job mode (default), the CLI prints to stderr:

No peels matched the target expression.

In direct mode (--direct), the CLI returns an error:

Error: no peels matched target "nonexistent*"