Using RANCID for *NIX

[David Williamson]

On Wed, Oct 10, 2001 at 07:53:01AM -0400, Jason Lewis wrote:
> I was also thinking it would be easy to have a text file that contained all
> the files that the user wanted to diff.  Then I could modify the base list
> to add scripts etc that I have written.  Some issues that might come up.
> Root can only connect from the console on my servers, maybe an account on
> each box for RANCID?

That would fit the current model.  I don't think I'd use it if it required
root access.  A special user is just fine, but otherwise..forget it!

I'll add that a file containing a list of files would be helpful.
Otherwise, rancid will have to know an awful lot about all the various
unixes.  I do a lot of solaris, so things like /etc/vfstab would be
nice to keep an eye on, although other systems call it something else.
Some folks use sudo, others don't.  Should /etc/sudoers be included?
Maybe.  The list goes on and on ad naseum.

With a unix version of rancid, you'd almost need a directory per host,
rather than a single config file per host.  It's just so much more
complicated.

I'm looking forward to it, but it's a hell of a challenge.  Good luck
to everyone who's coding on this project!

-David