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NAME

       fai-class - define classes using files and scripts.

SYNOPSIS

       fai-class [OPTION] DIRECTORY CLASSFILE

DESCRIPTION

       fai-class  executes scripts in DIRECTORY to define classes. All classes
       are written to CLASSFILE, each class on a separate line.  Use  absolute
       paths   for   both  arguments.  All  scripts  or  executables  matching
       "[0-9][0-9]*" are executed  in  alphabetical  order.  They  can  define
       classes  by  writing the names of the classes to stdout. Classes can be
       separated by spaces or written one on a line. All lines that start with
       a "#" are comment lines and are ignored.

       Shell  scripts that end in ".source" are sourced and can define classes
       by setting the variable $newclasses. This is useful for  scripts  where
       you  can't  control stdout. Variables that are defined in these scripts
       are available to other scripts in DIRECTORY, but they are not  exported
       to  the  shell that calls fai-class. Those scripts can define variables
       by writing definitions to the file $LOGDIR/additional.var,  which  will
       be sourced in the following task.

       All scripts can define additional classes by writing the classes to the
       file $LOGDIR/additional-classes. These classes are  defined  after  all
       scripts are executed. This temporary file will be removed after use.

       The  order  of the classes is important because it defines the priority
       of the classes from low to high. First, the class DEFAULT  is  defined.
       Then  all  scripts  are  executed  to  define  classes. After that, the
       classes from the file $LOGDIR/additional-classes are added.  Then,  all
       classes  in  the file with the hostname are added. Then classes defined
       by the variable ADDCLASSES are used. This  variable  must  be  a  comma
       separated  list  of classes. You can define this variable on the kernel
       command line.

       Finally, the class with the hostname and LAST are defined.

       It's important that each line in a file containg a class name ends with
       a  newline.  If the newline is missing on the last line of a file, this
       class can't be added.

       The exit code of every script is written  to  the  file  status.log  in
       LOGDIR.

OPTIONS

       -d     Create debugging output.

       -h     Show help, version and summary of options.

       -T     Test  if  classes  in CLASSFILE are defined multiple times. This
              should never happen. The test is executed after the classes  are
              defined.

       -t tmpdir
              The  file  additional-classes is read from the directory tmpdir.
              Default value is /tmp/fai/.

       -v     Create verbose output.

EXAMPLES

       In FAI, fai-class is used in the following way:

          # fai-class /fai/class /tmp/fai/FAI_CLASSES

       Then a list of all classes is defined  in  a  shell  script  using  the
       following command:

           classes=`cat /tmp/fai/FAI_CLASSES`

EXAMPLES FOR SCRIPTS

       This is the script 01alias:

       #! /bin/sh

       catnc() { # cat but no comment lines
           grep -v "^#" $1
       }
       # echo architecture in upper case
       dpkg --print-installation-architecture | tr /a-z/ /A-Z/
       uname -s | tr /a-z/ /A-Z/

       # all hosts named ant?? use the classes in file anthill
       case $HOSTNAME in
           ant??) catnc anthill ;;
       esac

       # a Beowulf cluster; all nodes except the master node
       # use classes from file class/atoms
       case $HOSTNAME in
           atom00) echo BEOWULF_MASTER ;;
           atom??) catnc atoms ;;
       esac

       # if host belongs to class C subnet 123.45.6.0 use class NET_6
       case $IPADDR in
           123.45.6.*) echo NET_6 ;;
       esac

       Another EXAMPLE:

       The script 24nis:

       #! /bin/sh

       # add NIS and the NIS domain name if YPDOMAIN is defined

       if [ -n "$YPDOMAIN" ];then
          echo "NIS $YPDOMAIN" | tr /.a-z-/ /_A-Z_/
       else
          echo NONIS
       fi

       You  can  define classes on the kernel command line by appening this to
       the kernel:

          ADDCLASSES=CLASS1,CLASSX,CLASS3

NOTES

       All class names should be written  in  uppercase  letters  (execpt  the
       class  of  the  hostname).  Do  not use a dash, use an underscore. Only
       executable scripts in DIRECTORY are used. CLASSFILE is  removed  before
       writing  to  it. Scripts should not directly write to CLASSFILE. LOGDIR
       should not be writable for everybody.

SEE ALSO

       This program is part of FAI (Fully  Automatic  Installation).  The  FAI
       homepage is http://www.informatik.uni-koeln.de/fai.

AUTHOR

       Written by Thomas Lange <lange@informatik.uni-koeln.de>