imperative configuration
also: procedural configuration, imperative infrastructure
A configuration approach where you explicitly run commands and scripts to set up system state, rather than declaring the desired state. The system administrator actively performs each step needed to reach the target configuration.
Imperative configuration means actively issuing commands to change the system step-by-step. You manually run scripts, package managers, and tools to install software, edit files, and adjust settings. The focus is on how to reach the goal, not what the final state should be.
For example, to set up a web server imperatively, you might manually run: apt-get install nginx, then systemctl start nginx, then edit /etc/nginx/nginx.conf, then run systemctl restart nginx. Each command performs an action in sequence.
This contrasts with declarative configuration (using tools like Ansible, Terraform, or Puppet), where you describe the desired final state and let the tool figure out what commands to execute. Imperative approaches are simpler for one-off changes but become harder to maintain and reproduce across multiple systems.