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The base state is the foundation applied to every minion in the WikiOasis fleet. It performs three small but critical bootstrap tasks: setting the system timezone, writing a clean sources.list pointing at the configured Debian mirror, and enforcing a minimal apt configuration that suppresses recommended and suggested package installation. Because these settings are prerequisites for all subsequent states, the base state runs first — before any role-specific configuration.

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Pillar keys

KeyDefaultDescription
timezoneEtc/UTCTimezone string passed to timezone.system
apt:mirrordeb.debian.orgHostname of the Debian apt mirror
Both keys are optional. If absent from the pillar, Salt uses the defaults shown above.

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What it configures

Timezone

Sets the OS timezone using Salt’s timezone.system state, defaulting to Etc/UTC.

Apt sources.list

Writes /etc/apt/sources.list from a Jinja template, enabling main contrib non-free non-free-firmware components across the base, updates, and security suites.

Apt config

Writes /etc/apt/apt.conf to disable installation of recommended and suggested packages system-wide.

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State file

# salt/base/init.sls
{%- set apt_mirror = salt['pillar.get']('apt:mirror', 'deb.debian.org') %}
{%- set codename = grains['oscodename'] %}

set_timezone:
  timezone.system:
    - name: {{ salt['pillar.get']('timezone', 'Etc/UTC') }}

/etc/apt/sources.list:
  file.managed:
    - user: root
    - group: root
    - mode: '0644'
    - contents: |
        deb http://{{ apt_mirror }}/debian {{ codename }} main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
        deb http://{{ apt_mirror }}/debian {{ codename }}-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
        deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security {{ codename }}-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware

apt_update:
  cmd.run:
    - name: apt-get update -qq
    - onchanges:
      - file: /etc/apt/sources.list

/etc/apt/apt.conf:
  file.managed:
    - user: root
    - group: root
    - mode: '0644'
    - contents: |
        APT::Install-Recommends "0";
        APT::Install-Suggests "0";

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Rendered sources.list

The oscodename grain is resolved at apply time from the minion’s OS, so the same state works across all current Debian releases. A typical rendered /etc/apt/sources.list for a Debian 12 (bookworm) host using the default mirror looks like: 
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
To use a local or regional mirror, set apt:mirror in the relevant pillar. For example, to use the UK mirror set apt:mirror: ftp.uk.debian.org.

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Application scope

The base state is assigned to the '*' glob in top.sls, meaning it is applied to every minion on every highstate run. To apply it in isolation: 
salt '*' state.apply base
The apt_update step uses onchanges, so apt-get update only runs when sources.list actually changes — not on every Salt run.

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