1rancid.conf(5) File Formats Manual rancid.conf(5)
2
6 rancid.conf - rancid environment configuration file
7
9 rancid.conf contains environment configuration information for rancid-
10 run(1) and rancid-cvs(1), including shell PATH, list of rancid groups,
11 etc. It is read by several scripts at run-time and others inherit the
12 configration from a parent process which has read it.
13 The syntax of rancid.conf is that of sh(1). rancid.conf is used to set
15 environment variables used by other rancid scripts to effect their run-
16 time behavior or to enable them to find their resources.
17
19 The following variables are used (listed alphabetically):
20 ACLSORT
22 Permits disabling of access-list sorting, which could alter
23 statement order that had been cleverly crafted by the
24 administrator for optimal performance, thus making recovery and
25 comparsion more difficult.
26 Default: YES
28 BASEDIR
30 BASEDIR is the directory where rancid-run's log directory, the
31 revision control system's repository, and rancid group
32 directories will be placed.
33 Its value is configure's localstatedir and should be modified if
35 rancid is moved to a new location in the file system without re-
36 installing from the distribution.
37 Default: /var
39 CVSROOT
41 cvs(1) and rancid-cvs(1) use this environment variable to locate
42 the CVS repository. In some cases, and for Subversion, it is
43 used as an argument to commands. It should not be necessary to
44 alter it.
45 Default: $BASEDIR/CVS
47 FILTER_PWDS
49 Determines which passwords will be filtered from configs. The
50 value may be "NO", "YES", or "ALL" to filter none of the
51 passwords, only those which are reversable or plain-text, or all
52 (plus ssh keys, etc), respectively.
53 Default: YES
55 Note: a value of "NO" could be a security issue since diffs are
57 sent via e-mail. A value of "ALL" is encouraged.
58 Note: FILTER_PWDS does not affect the handling of SNMP community
60 strings. see NOCOMMSTR below.
61 Note: passwords whose value cycles and would produce erroneous
63 diffs are always filtered (e.g.: Alteon passwords).
64 LIST_OF_GROUPS
66 Defines a list of group names of routers separated by white-
67 space. These names become the directory names in $BASEDIR which
68 contain the data for that set of devices. rancid-run(1) also
69 uses this variable to determine which device groups it should
70 collect. Choose these names to be descriptive of the set of
71 devices and do not use spaces, unprintable characters, etc.
72 Example: LIST_OF_GROUPS="UofO USFS"
74 Two groups are defined; UofO (University of Oregon) and USFS (US
76 Forest Service). Each will have a directory created (see
77 rancid-cvs(1)) $BASEDIR/UofO and $BASEDIR/USFS respectively,
78 which will contain their data.
79 Each group must also have aliases for the administrative and
81 diff recipients set-up in /etc/aliases. For example:
82 rancid-uofo: frank
84 rancid-admin-uofo: joe,bob
85 rancid-usfs: frank
86 rancid-admin-usfs: joe,bob
87 LOCKTIME
90 Defines the number of hours a group's lock file may age before
91 rancid starts to complain about a hung collection. The default
92 is 4 hours.
93 LOGDIR Directory where rancid-run places log files.
95 Default: $BASEDIR/logs
97 MAILDOMAIN
99 Define the domain part of addresses for administrative and diff
100 e-mail. The value of this variable is simply appended to the
101 normal mail addresses. For example rancid-usfs@example.com, if
102 MAILDOMAIN had been set to "@example.com".
103 MAILHEADERS
105 Define additional mail headers to be added to rancid mail, such
106 as Precedence or X- style headers. Individual headers must be
107 separated by a \n (new line).
108 Default: Precedence: bulk
110 Example: Precedence: bulk\nX-clamation: beef cake
112 MAX_ROUNDS
114 Defines how many times rancid should retry collection of devices
115 that fail. The minimum is 1.
116 Default: 4.
118 NOCOMMSTR
120 If set, rancid(1) will filter SNMP community strings from
121 configs. Otherwise, they will be retained and may appear in
122 clear-text in e-mail diffs. By default, this is not set.
123 NOPIPE If set, rancid(1) will use temporary files to save the output
125 from the router and then read these to build the file which will
126 be saved in CVS (or Subversion). Otherwise, an IPC pipe will be
127 used. We have found that the buffering mechanisms used in perl
128 and expect are heinous. Using temporary files may result in a
129 noticeable improvement in speed. By default, this is not set.
130 OLDTIME
132 Specified as a number of hours, OLDTIME defines how many hours
133 should pass since a successful collection of a device's
134 configuration and when control_rancid(1) should start
135 complaining about failures. The value should be greater than
136 the number of hours between rancid-run cron runs.
137 Default: 24
139 PAR_COUNT
141 Defines the number of rancid processes that par(1) will start
142 simultaneously as control_rancid(1) attempts to perform
143 collections. Raising this value will decrease the amount of
144 time necessary for a complete collection of a (or all) rancid
145 groups at the expense of system load. The default is relatively
146 cautious. If collections are not completing quickly enough for
147 users, use trial and error of speed versus system load to find a
148 suitable value.
149 Default: 5
151 PATH Is a colon separate list of directory pathnames in the the file
153 system where rancid's sh(1) and perl(1) scripts should look for
154 the programs that it needs, such as telnet(1). Its value is set
155 by configure. Should it be necessary to modify PATH, note that
156 it must include /usr/libexec/rancid.
157 RCSSYS Sets which revision control system is in use. Valid values are
159 cvs for CVS or svn for Subversion.
160 Default: cvs
162 TERM Some Unix utilities require TERM, the terminal type, to be set
164 to a sane value. Some clients, such as telnet(1) and ssh(1),
165 communicate this to the server (i.e.: the remote device), thus
166 this can affect the behavior of login sessions on a device. The
167 default should suffice.
168 Default: network
170 TMPDIR Some Unix utilities recognize TMPDIR as a directory where
172 temporary files can be stored. In some cases, rancid utilizes
173 this directory for lock files and other temporary files.
174 Default: /tmp
176 Each of these are simply environment variables. In order for them to
178 be present in the environment of child processes, each must be
179 exported. See sh(1) for more information on the built-in command
180 export.
181
183 rancid.conf is interpreted directly by sh(1), so its syntax follows
184 that of the bourne shell. Errors may produce quite unexpected results.
185
187 /etc/rancid/rancid.conf
188 Configuration file described here.
189
191 control_rancid(1), rancid(1), rancid-cvs(1), rancid-run(1)
192
194 In RANCID releases prior to 2.3, rancid.conf was named env and located
195 in the bin directory. This was changed to be more consistent with
196 common file location practices.
197 18 December 2007 rancid.conf(5)