Files in /etc/sysconfig ======================= /etc/sysconfig/clock: deprecated values from earlier releases: CLOCKMODE=GMT indicates that the clock is set to UTC CLOCKMODE=ARC on alpha only indicates the ARC console's 42-year time offset is in effect currently correct values: UTC=true indicates that the clock is set to UTC; anything else indicates that it is set to local time ARC=true on alpha only indicates the ARC console's 42-year time offset is in effect; otherwise the normal Unix epoch is assumed ZONE="filename" indicates the zonefile under /usr/share/zoneinfo that /etc/localtime is a copy of, for example: ZONE="US/Eastern" /etc/sysconfig/desktop: DESKTOP=GNOME|KDE|AnotherLevel This determines the display manager started by /etc/X11/prefdm /etc/sysconfig/init: BOOTUP= BOOTUP=color means new (as of RH6.0) boot display. BOOTUP=verbose means old style display Anything else means new display, but without ANSI-formatting LOGLEVEL= Sets the initial console logging level for the kernel. The default is 7. 8 means everything (including debugging); 1 means nothing except kernel panics. syslogd will override this once it starts. RES_COL= Column of the screen to start status labels at. Defaults to 60 MOVE_TO_COL= A command to move the cursor to $RES_COL. Defaults to nasty ANSI sequences output by echo -e. SETCOLOR_SUCCESS= A command to set the color to a color indicating success. Defaults to nasty ANSI sequences output by echo -e setting the color to green. SETCOLOR_FAILURE= A command to set the color to a color indicating failure. Defaults to nasty ANSI sequences output by echo -e setting the color to red. SETCOLOR_WARNING= A command to set the color to a color indicating warning. Defaults to nasty ANSI sequences output by echo -e setting the color to yellow. SETCOLOR_NORMAL= A command to set the color to 'normal'. Defaults to nasty ANSI sequences output by echo -e. PROMPT=yes|no Set to 'no' to disable the key check for interactive mode. obsoleted values from earlier releases: MAGIC_SYSRQ=yes|no Setting this to 'no' used to disable the magic sysrq key and Stop-A (break on serial console) on SPARC. This setting has been moved into kernel.sysrq and kernel.stop-a settings respectively in /etc/sysctl.conf. Setting either of them there to 0 disables it, setting it to 1 enables it. STOP_A=yes|no Setting this to 'no' used to disable the Stop-A (break on serial console) key on SPARC. This setting has been moved into kernel.stop-a setting in /etc/sysctl.conf. Setting it there to 0 disables it, setting it to 1 enables it. The setting should be present on SPARC only. /etc/sysconfig/keyboard: KEYTABLE= for example: KEYTABLE="/usr/lib/kbd/keytables/us.map" If you dump a keymap (using 'dumpkeys') to /etc/sysconfig/console/default.kmap it will be loaded on bootup before filesystems are mounted/checked. This could be useful if you need to emergency type the root password. This has to be a dumped keymap, as opposed to copying the shipped keymap files, as the shipped files include other maps from the /usr/lib/kbd/keytables directory. KEYBOARDTYPE=sun|pc on SPARC only, sun means a sun keyboard is attached on /dev/kbd, pc means a PS/2 keyboard is on ps/2 port. /etc/sysconfig/mouse: MOUSETYPE=microsoft|mouseman|mousesystems|ps/2|msbm|logibm|atibm| logitech|mmseries|mmhittab XEMU3=yes|no (emulate three buttons with two buttons whenever necessary, most notably in X) In addition, /dev/mouse points to the mouse device. /etc/sysconfig/network: NETWORKING=yes|no HOSTNAME= GATEWAY= GATEWAYDEV= (e.g. eth0) NISDOMAIN= IPX=yes|no IPXAUTOPRIMARY=on|off (note, that MUST be on|off, not yes|no) IPXAUTOFRAME=on|off (again, not yes|no) IPXINTERNALNETNUM= IPXINTERNALNODENUM= NETWORKING_IPV6=yes|no Enable or disable global IPv6 initialiation All the IPX stuff is optional, and should default to off. obsoleted values from earlier releases: FORWARD_IPV4=yes|no This setting has been moved into net.ipv4.ip_forward setting in /etc/sysctl.conf. Setting it to 1 there enables IP forwarding, setting it to 0 disables it (which is the default for RFC compliance). DEFRAG_IPV4=yes|no Setting this to yes used to automatically defragment IPv4 packets. This is a good idea for masquerading, and a bad idea otherwise. This setting was moved into net.ipv4.ip_always_defrag setting in /etc/sysctl.conf. It is no longer valid for 2.4 kernels. /etc/sysconfig/static-routes: Contains lines of the form: host|net may be a device name to have the route brought up and down with the device, or "any" to have the correct devices calculated at run time. For example: eth0 host 192.168.2.2 eth0 adds a host route through eth0 to 192.168.2.2, while any net 192.168.2.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 ppp0 adds a network route to the 192.168.2.0 network through ppp0. /etc/sysconfig/static-routes-ipv6: Contains lines of the form: ipv6network ipv6gateway ipv6network must be a device name to have the route brought up and down with the device For example: eth0 fec0:0:0:2::/64 fec0:0:0:1:0:0:0:20 adds a route for IPv6 network fec0:0:0:2::/64 through fec0:0:0:1:0:0:0:20 eth0 2000::/3 3ffe:400:100:f101::1 eth0 3ffe::/16 3ffe:400:100:f101::1 so called "default" route for clients sit1 2000::/3 sit1 3ffe::/16 adds routes through virtual tunnel sit1 /etc/sysconfig/routed: SILENT=yes|no EXPORT_GATEWAY=yes|no /etc/sysconfig/rawdevices: This is used for setting up raw device to block device mappings. It has the format: For example: /dev/raw/raw1 /dev/sda1 /dev/raw/raw2 8 5 /etc/sysconfig/pcmcia: PCMCIA=yes|no PCIC=i82365|tcic PCIC_OPTS= CORE_OPTS= CARDMGR_OPTS= /etc/sysconfig/amd: ADIR=/.automount (normally never changed) MOUNTPTS='/net /etc/amd.conf' (standard automount stuff) AMDOPTS= (extra options for AMD) /etc/sysconfig/tape: DEV=/dev/nst0 Tape device. Use the non-rewinding one for these scripts. For SCSI tapes this is /dev/nst#, where # is the number of the tape drive you want to use. If you only have one then use nst0. For IDE tapes you use /dev/ht#, where # is the number of the tape drive you want to use (usually ht0). For floppy tape drives use /dev/ftape. ADMIN=root Person to mail to if the backup fails for any reason SLEEP=5 Time to sleep between tape operations. Some drives need a bit more than others, but 5 seems to work for 8mm, 4mm, and DLT BLOCKSIZE=32768 This worked fine for 8mm, then 4mm, and now DLT. An optimal setting is probably however much data your drive writes at one time. SHORTDATE=$(date +%y:%m:%d:%H:%M) A short date string, used in backup log filenames. DAY=$(date +log-%y:%m:%d) This is used for the log file directory. DATE=$(date) Regular date string, used in log files. LOGROOT=/var/log/backup Root of the logging directory LIST=$LOGROOT/incremental-list This is the file name the incremental backup will use to store the incremental list. It will be $LIST-{some number}. DOTCOUNT=$LOGROOT/.count For counting as you go to know which incremental list to use COUNTER=$LOGROOT/counter-file For rewinding when done...might not use. BACKUPTAB=/etc/backuptab The file in which we keep our list of backup(s) we want to make. /etc/sysconfig/sendmail: DAEMON=yes|no yes implies -bd (i.e., listen on port 25 for new mail) QUEUE=1h given to sendmail as -q$QUEUE -q option is not given to sendmail if /etc/sysconfig/sendmail exists and QUEUE is empty or undefined. /etc/sysconfig/i18n LANG= set locale for all categories, can be any two letter ISO language code LC_CTYPE= localedata configuration for classification and conversion of characters LC_COLLATE= localedata configuration for collation (sort order) of strings LC_MESSAGES= localedata configuration for translation of yes and no messages LC_NUMERIC= localedata configuration for non-monetary numeric data LC_MONETARY= localedata configuration for monetary data LC_TIME= localedata configuration for date and time LC_ALL= localedata configuration overriding all of the above LANGUAGE= can be a : separated list of ISO language codes LINGUAS= can be a ' ' separated list of ISO language codes The above variables are used in /etc/profile.d/lang.sh. SYSFONT= any font that is legal when used as /usr/bin/consolechars -f $SYSFONT ... (See console-tools package for consolechars command) UNIMAP= any SFM (screen font map, formerly called Unicode mapping table - see consolechars(8)) /usr/bin/consolechars -f $SYSFONT --sfm $UNIMAP SYSFONTACM= any ACM (application charset map - see consolechars(8)) /usr/bin/consolechars -f $SYSFONT --acm $SYSFONTACM The above is used by the /sbin/setsysfont command (which is run by rc.sysinit at boot time.) /etc/sysconfig/harddisks These options are used to tune (E)IDE hard drives - read the hdparm man page for more information USE_DMA=1 Set this to 1 to enable DMA. This might cause some data corruption on certain chipset / hard drive combinations. USE WITH CAUTION AND BACKUP. This is used with the "-d" option MULTIPLE_IO=16 Multiple sector I/O. a feature of most modern IDE hard drives, permitting the transfer of multiple sectors per I/O interrupt, rather than the usual one sector per interrupt. When this feature is enabled, it typically reduces operating system overhead for disk I/O by 30-50%. On many systems, it also provides increased data throughput of anywhere from 5% to 50%. Some drives, however (most notably the WD Caviar series), seem to run slower with multiple mode enabled. Under rare circumstances, such failures can result in massive filesystem corruption. USE WITH CAUTION AND BACKUP. This is the sector count for multiple sector I/O - the "-m" option EIDE_32BIT=3 (E)IDE 32-bit I/O support (to interface card). USE WITH CAUTION. LOOKAHEAD=1 Enable drive read-lookahead (safe) EXTRA_PARAMS= Add any extra parameters you want to pass to hdparm here. Files in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ ======================================== /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup: /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifdown: Symlinks to /sbin/ifup and /sbin/ifdown, respectively. These are the only two scripts "in" this directory that should be called directly; these two scripts call all the other scripts as needed. These symlinks are here for legacy purposes only -- they'll will probably be removed in future versions, so only /sbin/ifup and /sbin/ifdown should currently be used. These scripts take one argument normally: the name of the device (e.g. eth0). They are called with a second argument of "boot" during the boot sequence so that devices that are not meant to be brought up on boot (ONBOOT=no, see below) can be ignored at that time. /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/network-functions: Not really a public file. Contains functions which the scripts use for bringing interfaces up and down. In particular, it contains most of the code for handling alternative interface configurations and interface change notification through netreport. /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/network-functions-ipv6: Not really a public file. Contains functions which the scripts use for bringing IPv6 on interfaces up and down, like addresses, routes, forwarding handling and static or automatic tunneling. /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg- and /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-:: The first defines an interface, and the second contains only the parts of the definition that are different in a "alias" (or alternative) interface. For example, the network numbers might be different, but everything else might be the same, so only the network numbers would be in the alias file, but all the device information would be in the base ifcfg file. The items that can be defined in an ifcfg file depend on the interface type. The really obvious ones I'm not going to bother to define; you can figure out what "IPADDR" is, I think... :-) Base items: NAME= Most important for PPP. Only used in front ends. DEVICE= IPADDR= NETMASK= GATEWAY= ONBOOT=yes|no USERCTL=yes|no BOOTPROTO=none|bootp|dhcp MTU= PEERDNS=yes|no modify /etc/resolv.conf if peer uses msdns extension (PPP only) or DNS{1,2} are set, or if using pump or dhcpcd. default to "yes". DNS{1,2}= provide DNS addresses that are dropped into the resolv.conf file if PEERDNS is not set to "no". FIREWALL_MODS=yes|no modify firewall to attempt to allow DNS through. Defaults to 'yes'. If BOOTPROTO is not "none", then the only other item that must be set is the DEVICE item; all the rest will be determined by the boot protocol. No "dummy" entries need to be created. Base items being deprecated: NETWORK= BROADCAST= IPv6-only items for real interfaces: IPV6INIT=yes|no enable or disable IPv6 configuration for this interface IPV6FORWARDING=yes|no enable or disable forwarding of incoming IPv6 packes on this interface (perhaps moved to sysctl in the future) IPV6ADDR=/ specify primary static IPv6 address here Example: IPV6ADDR="3ffe:400:100:f101::1/64" IPV6ADDR_SECONDARIES= a list of secondary IPv6 addresses (perhaps useful for virtual hosting) Example: IPV6ADDR_SECONDARIES="3ffe:400:100:f101::10/64 3ffe:400:100:f101::11/64" IPv6-only items for automatic tunnel interface: Virtual interface name: sit0 IPV6INIT=yes|no enable or disable IPv6 configuration for this interface (Perhaps this configuration will be moved to /etc/rc.d/init.d/network in the future) IPv6-only items for static unnumbered tunnel interface: Virtual interface name: sit1.. IPV6INIT=yes|no enable or disable IPv6 configuration for this interface IPV6TUNNELIPV4= specify IPv4 address of a foreign IPv6-in-IPv4 tunnel endpoint Example: IPV6TUNNELIPV4="195.226.187.50" IPV6ADDR=/ [OPTIONAL] local IPv6 address of a numbered tunnel Ethernet-only items: {IPXNETNUM,IPXPRIMARY,IPXACTIVE}_{802_2,802_3,ETHERII,SNAP} configuration matrix for IPX. Only used if IPX is active. Managed from /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup-ipx ARP=yes|no (adds 'arp' flag to ifconfig, for use with the ethertap device) PROMISC=yes|no (enable or disable promiscuous mode) ALLMULTI=yes|no (enable or disable all-multicast mode) PPP/SLIP items: PERSIST=yes|no MODEMPORT= LINESPEED= DEFABORT=yes|no (tells netcfg whether or not to put default abort strings in when creating/editing the chat script and/or dip script for this interface) (meaningless with WVDIALSECT) PPP-specific items WVDIALSECT= If this variable is set, then the chat script (if it exists) is ignored, and wvdial is used to open the PPP connection. DEFROUTE=yes|no (set this interface as default route? yes is default) DEBUG=yes|no (defaults to yes) turns on/off pppd and chat (if used) debugging. ESCAPECHARS=yes|no (simplified interface here doesn't let people specify which characters to escape; almost everyone can use asyncmap 00000000 anyway, and they can set PPPOPTIONS to asyncmap foobar if they want to set options perfectly) HARDFLOWCTL=yes|no (yes imples "modem crtscts" options) PPPOPTIONS= PAPNAME=<"name $PAPNAME" on pppd command line> (note that the "remotename" option is always specified as the logical ppp device name, like "ppp0" (which might perhaps be the physical device ppp1 if some other ppp device was brought up earlier...), which makes it easy to manage pap/chap files -- name/password pairs are associated with the logical ppp device name so that they can be managed together. REMIP= MTU= MRU= DISCONNECTTIMEOUT= (time to wait before re-establishing the connection after a successfully-connected session terminates before attempting to establish a new connection.) RETRYTIMEOUT= (time to wait before re-attempting to establish a connection after a previous attempt fails.) RETRYCONNECT=yes|no (defaults to yes) If this is yes, then we will re-run pppd if it exits with a "connect script failed" status. Otherwise, only one attempt is made to bring up the connection. Note that some connect scripts (for example, wvdial) might do their own retries (such as BUSY or NO DIALTONE conditions). MAXFAIL= If this is set, this will cause ppp-watch to exit after the specified number of attempts. DEMAND=yes|no Switches on demand-dialing mode using pppd's "demand" option. IDLETIMEOUT=600 The amount of time the link needs to be inactive before pppd will bring it down automatically. BOOTTIMEOUT=30 The amount of time to wait at boot before giving up on the connection. /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/chat-: chat script for PPP or SLIP connection intended to establish the connection. For SLIP devices, a DIP script is written from the chat script; for PPP devices, the chat script is used directly. /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/dip- A write-only script created from the chat script by netcfg. Do not modify this. In the future, this file may disappear by default and created on-the-fly from the chat script if it does not exist. /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup-post Called when any network device EXCEPT a SLIP device comes up. Calls /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup-routes to bring up static routes that depend on that device. Calls /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup-aliases to bring up aliases for that device. Sets the hostname if it is not already set and a hostname can be found for the IP for that device. Sends SIGIO to any programs that have requested notification of network events. Could be extended to fix up nameservice configuration, call arbitrary scripts, etc, as needed. /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup-routes Set up static routes for a device. /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup-aliases Bring up aliases for a device. /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifdhcpc-done Called by dhcpcd once dhcp configuration is complete; sets up /etc/resolv.conf from the version dhcpcd dropped in /etc/dhcpc/resolv.conf