Using RANCID for *NIX

['john heasley']

Wed, Oct 10, 2001 at 07:53:01AM -0400, Jason Lewis:
> Anything scripted you want to share?
> 
> 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?
> 
> A few of the files I am looking to monitor
> crontabs
> 
> /etc/hosts
> /etc/passwd
> /etc/resolv.conf
> /etc/mnttab
> /etc/aliases
> /etc/group
> /etc/ftpusers
> /etc/default/*

what i had in mind was a device type "unix" and an additional field

file foo/router.db:
	foo.unix.net:unix:up:netbsd

specifying the type (or uname -s, but the former seem more flexible)
referring to a per-type configuration file within which file pathnames
and/or commands could be listed along with filtering functions

file netbsd:
	file::/etc/hosts
	cmd:FilterIfconfig:/sbin/ifconfig -a

to keep the file heirarchy and ordering of diff entries sane, unix hosts
could be represented as directories

	foo/configs/somerouter.unix.net
	foo/configs/foo.unix.net/etc.hosts
	foo/configs/foo.unix.net/sbin.ifconfig

as for the user, it doesnt (shouldnt) matter to rancid what user you use,
as long as it can read/run the file/command.  its just a .cloginrc entry.

> <snip>
> i have started, but have some other pressing issues that should pass soon.
> welcome any comments on what folks would like to see in such an addition.
>