• Index
• Introduction
• Jumpstart Server
• Installation
• Installation (2)
• Directory Layout
• Guidelines
• Boot Server
• sysidcfg
• Client Overview
• rules
• rules (2)
• Custom Profile
• Custom Scripts
• Adding a Client
• Adding a Client (2)
• Booting the Client
• Conclusion
• Additional Resources

The rules file is a text configuration file used to associate a machine profile and pre- and post-install scripts with a particular machine to perform an unattended installation. The rules file consists of at least one line containing five entries of the following type: keywords, values, a machine profile and begin/finish scripts. All entries must be present or have a specified marker in their place. The format for a line as is follows:

	[!] keyword value [&& [!] keyword value ] \
	[begin_script]  [profile]   [finish_script]

• The keyword(s) and value(s) are matched to the client. Multiple keyword/value pairs may be specified for a single rule. Once a match is made, no further processing of the rules file is done.

• Logical operations for keyword/value paris are allowed.

• Lines beginning with # are treated as comments.

• The pre- and post-install scripts are Bourne shell scripts, run before and after the installation, respectively, which can be used to save and restore files, install additional packages and perform site-specific customization.

• The profile is a configuration file for the installation containing information about the disk layout, the installation type and the packages to be installed.

• The pre-install script, profile and post-install script names are given relative to the directory containing the rules file.

• The begin script, profile and finish script are all optional, but must be replaced with a hyphen if there is no value.