Variables

The following Variables do exist in FAI (example values included):

Please do not edit that much, without contacting Mrfai. Currently it's my private list of variable and comments.

type: int = internal use only; CS used in config space (often defined by *.var)

Which variables are needed inside the nfsroot, so the install clients can use them? (maybe write them into fai-client.var or nfsroot.var). Then do not copy fai.conf into the nfsroot any more.

name	type	example value	created by	used by	comments
--
FAI_CONFIG_SRC		nfs://faiserver/srv/fai/config	fai-make-nfsroot	get-config-dir	m-f-n writes its value to $NFSROOT/etc/fai/fai.conf
FAI_ACTION		install, sysinfo, softupdate	fai-chboot via kernel command line	save_log_local() save_log_remote_shell() save_log_remote() get_bootp_info() task_action(), fai-savelog-ftp, updatebase
FAI_SENDID		mac	kernel command line, fai-chboot	task_confidir	ID which is sent to fai monitor: host, mac or pxe
--
FAI		/var/lib/fai/config	fai.conf	almost every function	location of the CS on the client
LOGUSER		fai	fai.conf	fai-setup, fai-savelog, fai-savelog-ftp,task_chboot()	empty LOGUSER will disable logging
NFSROOT		/srv/fai/nfsroot/	nfsroot.conf	fai-setup, fai-make-nfsroot, fai-cd, fai-mirror, make-fai-bootfloppy	not needed in $NFSROOT, only needed on the install server
TFTPROOT		/srv/tftp/fai	nfsroot.conf	fai-make-nfsroot, fai-chboot	not needed in $NFSROOT, only needed on the install server
FAI_CONFIGDIR		/srv/fai/config	nfsroot.conf	*.postinst, fai-setup, fai-cd, fai-mirror, fai-make-nfsroot	configs space on the server
FAI_ALLOW_UNSIGNED	CS	1	class/*.var	prepareapt	allow installation of packages from unsigned repositories
FAI_BASEFILEURL	CS	http://faiserver/basefiles.	class/*.var	task extrbase	download base.tgz using a class name via HTTP or FTP
LOGDIR		/tmp/fai	fai	very often	mostly set to /var/log/fai/$HOSTNAME/....
LOGPASSWD	CS		class/*.var	fai-savelog-ftp	moved from fai.conf to CS
LOGREMOTEDIR	CS	upload	class/*.var	fai-savelog, fai-savelog-ftp	moved from fai.conf to CS
LOGSERVER	CS		class/*.var	fai-savelog, fai-savelog-ftp	default: LOGSERVER=$SERVER, moved from fai.conf to CS
MNTPOINT		/media/mirror		fai-make-nfsroot, fai-mirror, task_mirror()	influences entries in sources.list, may become a fixed path
STOP_ON_ERROR		99999	class/*.var	task_error()	errors greater STOP_ON_ERROR will cause fai to stop the installation
SERVERINTERFACE		eth0	nfsroot.conf	fai-setup	used to specify interface when building exportfs line, only needed when install server has multiple interfaces
FAI_DEBMIRROR		$mirrorhost:/srv/debmirror	fai.conf		move to nfsroot.conf, but needed in $NFSROOT/../fai.conf
monserver		kueppers	task_confdir	sendmon()	name of host where faimond is running. default: monserver=$SERVER, but must be set before CS is available (e.g in fai.conf, kernel command line)
FAI_MONITOR_PORT		4711	task_confdir	sendmon()	port of the fai-monitor, must be set before CS is available (e.g in fai.conf inside the nfsroot or on the kernel command line)
--
target		/target			same as $FAI_ROOT
ROOTCMD		'chroot /tmp/target'		almost every script
CONSOLEFONT	CS		class/*.var
KEYMAP	CS	de	class/*.var
BOOT_PARTITION	CS	/dev/sda1	setup-storage	grub/menu.lst/postinst
ROOT_PARTITION	CS	/dev/sda1	setup-storage	LILO/20-create-liloconf
UTC	CS	yes	class/*.var	example/simple/scripts
TIMEZONE	CS	Europe/Berlin	class/*.var	example/simple/scripts
liloappend	CS		class/*.var	20-create-liloconf
MODULESLIST	CS	psmouse	class/*.var	scripts/FAIBASE/10-misc
MAXPACKAGES	CS	300		fai-mirror, install_packages	limit the number of packages installed in one run
FAI_BACKUPDIR	CS		class/*.var	fcopy	directory used by fcopy for backup files
FAI_RAMDISKS	CS	$target/var/lib/dpkg	class/*.var	mkramdisk	a space-separated list of a directories that gets a ramdisks, use NONE to disable this feature
--
FAI_ETC_DIR	int	/etc/fai	fai -c	fai-make-nfsroot, fai-mirror, fai-cd, task_prepareapt, fai_init()
FAI_ROOT	const	/target	bin/fai	almost every script	directory where the new system will be installed to, $target has the same value
fai_rundate	int	20060123_163824	task_setup()	fai-savelog
FAI_VERSION	const	FAI 3.2		fai, prcopyleft()
HOST		demohost	given on kernel command line		can redefine host name
cfclasses	int	DEFAULT.LINUX.LAST	task_defclass()	cfagent scripts
classes	int	DEFAULT LINUX LAST	task_defclass()	almost every script
disklist	int	sda	set_disk_info()	setup-storage, fai-mount-disk
faimond	int	0			determines if faimond is running
ip	int	dhcp	fai-chboot via kernel append parameter	get-boot-info
HOSTNAME		demohost		very often	may the hostname change during installtion? Is the hostname FQDN in some cases? numeric hostname if host-decl-name off in dhcpd.conf
HOSTTYPE	int	x86_64	bash variable	prcopyleft
netdevices	int	eth0	get-boot-info	get-boot-info, task_sysinfo, dhclient-fai-script
netdevices_all	int	eth0 eth1	get-boot-info	get-boot-info, task_sysinfo
netdevices_up	int	eth0	get-boot-info	get-boot-info, task_sysinfo
nfsroot	int	/srv/fai/nfsroot/	fai-chboot via kernel append parameter	kernel	may contain server's IP address, may contain nfs parameters like: v2,rsize=32768,wsize=32768
renewclass	int	boolean		task_defclass()	on softupdate recalculate the list of classes, unset after use
romountopt	int	-o async,noatime,ro			unset after use
sendhostname	int		task_confdir()	sendmon()	client's hostname, do not replace with $HOSTNAME, since HOSTNAME may change during installation
flag_sshd	int	boolean	define_fai_flags()
flag_createvt	int	boolean	define_fai_flags()
task_error	int	integer		every task can set it	formerly $terror
stamp	int	..._IN_PROGRESS
DEBIAN_FRONTEND	int	noninteractive		dpkg -i
do_init_tasks	int	boolean		fai, task_confdir(), prcopyleft()	1 if doing net or CD installations
--
BROADCAST		192.168.0.127	get-boot-info	scripts/FAIBASE/30-interface
DNSSRVS		192.168.1.16	get-boot-info	create_resolv_conf
DNSSRVS_1		192.168.1.16	get-boot-info		first element of DNSSRV
DOMAIN		workgroup.de	get-boot-info	task_setup() task_prepareapt()
NETMASK		255.255.255.128	get-boot-info
NETWORK		192.168.0.0	get-boot-info
IPADDR		192.168.0.14	get-boot-info
GATEWAYS		192.168.0.1	get-boot-info
GATEWAYS_1		192.168.0.1	get-boot-info
SERVER		kueppers	get-boot-info

Variables that are unused since 3.x versions of FAI:

name	type	example value	created by	used by	comments
FAI_REMOTECP		scp	fai.conf	fai-savelog	replaced by FAI_LOGPROTO
FAI_REMOTESH		ssh	fai.conf	fai-savelog, task_chboot()	replaced by FAI_LOGPROTO
FAI_LOCATION		faiserver:/srv/fai/config	fai-make-nfsroot	get_bootp_info() get_fai_dir() get_fai_cvs()	replaced by FAI_CONFIG_SRC
FAI_LOGPROTO		ftp	fai.conf	fai-setup, save_log_remote()	replaces FAI_REMOTECP and FAI_REMOTESH, may be removed from fai.conf, should be defined in class/*.var, but fai-setup needs this too, maybe add option to fai-setup that determines if ssh/rsh should be set up
diskvar	int	$LOGDIR/disk_var.sh			removed, replace with "$LOGDIR/diskvar"
lpipe	int	/tmp/fai/logfifo			variable removed, try to remove the ugly hack using it
FAI_BOOT		dhcp bootp		fai-make-nfsroot	removed
DNSDOMAIN		workgroup.de	task_setup()		removed
installserver		kueppers	fai.conf	only for building FAI_LOCATION	removed
mirrorhost		192.168.0.8	fai.conf	nfsroot.conf, $FAI_DEBOOTSTRAP, $FAI_DEBMIRROR, NFSROOT_ETC_HOSTS	removed
fstab	int	fstab		was used for solaris, fstab -> vfstab	removed
VIDEODRIVER	CS	mga	20-hwdetect.source	scripts/DEMO/10-misc	removed with Xorg

Variables that are unused since 4.0 versions of FAI:

name	type	example value	created by	used by	comments
FAI_NORAMDISK	CS		class/*.var	mkramdisk	if set to 1, no ramdisk will be created
USE_SETUP_STORAGE	CS	1	class/*.var		when set to 1, FAI will use the new partition tool setup-storage

Useful oneliners

find all files not under a ".svn" directory and replace the string '$diskvar' with '$LOGDIR/diskvar'

Test:

find -name '.svn' -prune -o -type f -exec perl -n -e 's/\$diskvar/\$LOGDIR\/diskvar/g && print' {} \;

find -name '.svn' -prune -o -type f -exec perl -p -e 's/\$diskvar/\$LOGDIR\/diskvar/g' {} \; | less

Really replace: ( same, but "i" added )

find -name '.svn' -prune -o -type f -exec perl -pi -e 's/\$diskvar/\$LOGDIR\/diskvar/g' {} \; 

See also

• "Re: How to use task_error ? (Writing pretty hooks)" (discussion on linux-fai mailing list, 04-Feb-2010)