1IMPORTANT NOTE:
2
3As of Feb. 11, 2002 (and indeed, for quite some time before that),
4the /etc/rc.diskless{1,2} scripts support a slightly different
5diskless boot process than the one documented in the rest of
6this file (which is 3 years old).
7
8I am not deleting the information below because it contains some
9useful background information on diskless operation, but for the
10actual details you should look at /etc/rc.diskless1, /etc/rc.diskless2,
11and the /usr/share/examples/diskless/clone_root script which can
12be useful to set up clients and server for diskless boot.
13
14--- $FreeBSD$ ---
15------------------------------------------------------------------------
16
17When templating, /conf/ME is typically a softlink to
18/conf/<appropriate-machine>.  When doing a diskless boot, /conf/ME is
19retargeted by /etc/rc.diskless1 from pointing to the server to pointing
20to the client's directory, /conf/<ip-address-of-client>.  The retargeting
21is accomplished through an MFS -o union mount.
22
23When templating, this softlink should be different for each machine.
24When doing a diskless boot, this softlink is typically part of the / NFS
25mount from the server and points to the server's conf directory, but gets
26retargeted during the /etc/rc.diskless1 phase.
27
28System-wide configuration files must generally be targeted through /conf/ME.
29For example, your /etc/rc.conf.local should become a softlink to
30/conf/ME/rc.conf.local and your real rc.conf.local should go into the 
31appropriate /conf/<appropriate-machine> directory.  This is also true of
32/etc/rc.local, /etc/fstab, /etc/syslog.conf, /etc/ccd.conf, /etc/ipfw.conf,
33/etc/motd, /etc/resolv.conf, and possibly even /etc/ttys ( if you want
34to start an X session up on boot on certain of your machines ).
35
36When templating, you duplicate your / and /usr partitions on each machine's
37local disk from a single master ( assuming /var and /home reside elsewhere ),
38EXCEPT for the /conf/ME softlink.  The /conf/ME softlink is the only thing
39on / that should be different for each machine.
40
41There are often categories of configuration files.  For example, all of your
42shell machines may use one resolv.conf while all of your mail proxies may
43use another.  Configuration files can be categorized fairly easily through
44/conf/HT.<category> directories.  You put the actual configuration file in
45/conf/HT.<category> and make a softlink from
46/conf/ME/<appropriate-machines>/config-file to "../HT.<category/config-file".
47This means that access to these files tends to run through more then one
48softlink.  The advantage is that for all the complexity of your /conf
49directory hierarchy, most of your common config files exist in only one place
50in reality.
51
52
53