NAME
slack - Sysadmin’s lazy autoconfiguration kit
SYNOPSIS
slack [option ...] [role ...]
DESCRIPTION
slack is a master command which coordinates the activities of its
backends, which variously:
· determine the list of roles to be installed on this server
· create a local cached copy of the role files from the central
repository
· merge file trees from subroles into a single, unified tree
· install files onto the local filesystem
· run scripts before and after installation
Options you give to slack will be generally passed along to the
backends where relevant.
OPTIONS
-h, --help
Print a usage statement.
--version
Print the version and exit.
-v, --verbose
Increase verbosity. Can be specified multiple times.
--quiet
Don’t be verbose (Overrides previous uses of --verbose).
-C, --config FILE
Use the specfied FILE for configuration instead of the default,
/etc/slack.conf.
-s, --source DIR
Source directory for slack files
-e, --rsh COMMAND
Remote shell for rsync
-c, --cache DIR
Local cache directory for slack files
-t, --stage DIR
Local staging directory for slack files
-r, --root DIR
Root destination for slack files
--no-sync
Skip the slack-sync step (useful if you’re pushing stuff into
the CACHE outside slack).
--no-files
Don’t install any files in ROOT, but tell rsync to print what it
would do.
--no-scripts
Don’t run scripts
-n, --dry-run
Same as --no-files --no-scripts (CACHE, STAGE will still be
updated)
--role-list
Role list for slack-getroles(8).
-b, --backup
Make backups of existing files in ROOT that are overwritten.
This option defaults to on if it is not set to 0 in a config
file or disabled with --nobackup on the command line.
--backup-dir
Put backups from the --backup option into this directory.
-H, --hostname HOST
Pretend to be running on HOST, instead of the name given by
gethostname(2).
--preview MODE
Do a diff of scripts and files before running them. MODE can be
one of ’simple’ or ’prompt’ (See PREVIEW MODES, below).
--diff PROG
Use this diff program for previews.
--sleep TIME
Randomly sleep between 1 and TIME seconds before starting
operations. Useful in crontabs.
PREVIEW MODES
Preview functionality is new in slack 0.14.0. I haven’t quite worked
out how things will work, so this usage is somewhat subject to change
in future versions. I thought I would try it this way and see how
people like it.
In ’simple’ mode, after syncing and staging the files directory, slack
will present a diff of the files and scripts. In this mode, slack will
not run the preinstall or fixfiles scripts, and because of this, it may
provide some false output about permissions changes to files.
In ’prompt’ mode, after syncing and staging the files directory, slack
will diff the script directory. If there are differences, slack will
present them to you and ask you if you want to continue. If you say
no, it will exit. If you say yes, it will stage the scripts directory,
run the preinstall and fixfiles scripts, and then diff the files in the
stage with those in the root. If there are differences, slack will
present them to you and ask you if you want to continue. If you say
no, it will exit. If you say yes, it will install the files and run
the postinstall script.
So, the ’simple’ mode is easy to use, and will be accurate if you don’t
use fixfiles. The ’prompt’ mode will be accurate if you use fixfiles,
but requires some interaction.
Why can’t we just have one mode that works with fixfiles and requires
no interaction? Well, that would require slack to understand what your
free-form fixfiles executable was going to do, which would either
require some kind of universe simulator or would require you to write
your fixfiles in a less free-form way, which would make slack less like
slack.
EXAMPLES
To install all the roles configured in the role list for a server:
slack
To install a specific role:
slack rolename
To test a new role before checking in the changes:
slack --source user@workstation:/home/user/.../slack rolename
To avoid killing your master server when calling from cron:
slack --sleep 3600
FILES
/etc/slack.conf
SEE ALSO
slack.conf(5), rsync(1)