rancid.conf(5)                                                  rancid.conf(5)



NAME
       rancid.conf - rancid environment configuration file

DESCRIPTION
       rancid.conf contains environment configuration information for rancid-
       run(1) and rancid-cvs(1), including shell PATH, list of rancid groups,
       etc.  It is read by several scripts at run-time and others inherit the
       configration from a parent process which has read it.

       The syntax of rancid.conf is that of sh(1).  rancid.conf is used to set
       environment variables used by other rancid scripts to effect their run-
       time behavior or to enable them to find their resources.

VARIABLES
       The following variables are used (listed alphabetically):

       ACLSORT
              Permits disabling of access-list sorting, which could alter
              statement order that had been cleverly crafted by the
              administrator for optimal performance, thus making recovery and
              comparsion more difficult.

              Default: YES

       BASEDIR
              BASEDIR is the directory where rancid-run's log directory, the
              revision control system's repository, and rancid group
              directories will be placed.

              Its value is configure's localstatedir and should be modified if
              rancid is moved to a new location in the file system without re-
              installing from the distribution.

              Default: /var/rancid

       CVSROOT
              cvs(1) and rancid-cvs(1) use this environment variable to locate
              the CVS repository.  In some cases, and for Subversion, it is
              used as an argument to commands.  It should not be necessary to
              alter it.

              Default: $BASEDIR/CVS

       FILTER_PWDS
              Determines which passwords will be filtered from configs.  The
              value may be "NO", "YES", or "ALL" to filter none of the
              passwords, only those which are reversable or plain-text, or all
              (plus ssh keys, etc), respectively.

              Default: YES

              Note: a value of "NO" could be a security issue since diffs are
              sent via e-mail.  A value of "ALL" is encouraged.

              Note: FILTER_PWDS does not affect the handling of SNMP community
              strings.  see NOCOMMSTR below.

              Note: passwords whose value cycles and would produce erroneous
              diffs are always filtered (e.g.: Alteon passwords).

       LIST_OF_GROUPS
              Defines a list of group names of routers separated by white-
              space.  These names become the directory names in $BASEDIR which
              contain the data for that set of devices.  rancid-run(1) also
              uses this variable to determine which device groups it should
              collect.  Choose these names to be descriptive of the set of
              devices and do not use spaces, unprintable characters, etc.

              Example: LIST_OF_GROUPS="UofO USFS"

              Two groups are defined; UofO (University of Oregon) and USFS (US
              Forest Service).  Each will have a directory created (see
              rancid-cvs(1)) $BASEDIR/UofO and $BASEDIR/USFS respectively,
              which will contain their data.

              Each group must also have aliases for the administrative and
              diff recipients set-up in /etc/aliases.  For example:

                        rancid-uofo:            frank
                        rancid-admin-uofo:      joe,bob
                        rancid-usfs:            frank
                        rancid-admin-usfs:      joe,bob


       LOCKTIME
              Defines the number of hours a group's lock file may age before
              rancid starts to complain about a hung collection.  The default
              is 4 hours.

       LOGDIR Directory where rancid-run places log files.

              Default: $BASEDIR/logs

       MAILDOMAIN
              Define the domain part of addresses for administrative and diff
              e-mail.  The value of this variable is simply appended to the
              normal mail addresses.  For example rancid-usfs@example.com, if
              MAILDOMAIN had been set to "@example.com".

       MAILHEADERS
              Define additional mail headers to be added to rancid mail, such
              as Precedence or X- style headers.  Individual headers must be
              separated by a \n (new line).

              Default: Precedence: bulk

              Example: Precedence: bulk\nX-clamation: beef cake

       MAX_ROUNDS
              Defines how many times rancid should retry collection of devices
              that fail.  The minimum is 1.

              Default: 4.

       NOCOMMSTR
              If set, rancid(1) will filter SNMP community strings from
              configs.  Otherwise, they will be retained and may appear in
              clear-text in e-mail diffs.  By default, this is not set.

       NOPIPE If set, rancid(1) will use temporary files to save the output
              from the router and then read these to build the file which will
              be saved in CVS (or Subversion).  Otherwise, an IPC pipe will be
              used.  We have found that the buffering mechanisms used in perl
              and expect are heinous.  Using temporary files may result in a
              noticeable improvement in speed.  By default, this is not set.

       OLDTIME
              Specified as a number of hours, OLDTIME defines how many hours
              should pass since a successful collection of a device's
              configuration and when control_rancid(1) should start
              complaining about failures.  The value should be greater than
              the number of hours between rancid-run cron runs.

              Default: 24

       PAR_COUNT
              Defines the number of rancid processes that par(1) will start
              simultaneously as control_rancid(1) attempts to perform
              collections.  Raising this value will decrease the amount of
              time necessary for a complete collection of a (or all) rancid
              groups at the expense of system load.  The default is relatively
              cautious.  If collections are not completing quickly enough for
              users, use trial and error of speed versus system load to find a
              suitable value.

              Default: 5

       PATH   Is a colon separate list of directory pathnames in the the file
              system where rancid's sh(1) and perl(1) scripts should look for
              the programs that it needs, such as telnet(1).  Its value is set
              by configure.  Should it be necessary to modify PATH, note that
              it must include /usr/local/bin.

       RCSSYS Sets which revision control system is in use.  Valid values are
              cvs for CVS or svn for Subversion.

              Default: cvs

       TERM   Some Unix utilities require TERM, the terminal type, to be set
              to a sane value.  Some clients, such as telnet(1) and ssh(1),
              communicate this to the server (i.e.: the remote device), thus
              this can affect the behavior of login sessions on a device.  The
              default should suffice.

              Default: network

       TMPDIR Some Unix utilities recognize TMPDIR as a directory where
              temporary files can be stored.  In some cases, rancid utilizes
              this directory for lock files and other temporary files.

              Default: /tmp

       Each of these are simply environment variables.  In order for them to
       be present in the environment of child processes, each must be
       exported.  See sh(1) for more information on the built-in command
       export.

ERRORS
       rancid.conf is interpreted directly by sh(1), so its syntax follows
       that of the bourne shell.  Errors may produce quite unexpected results.

FILES
       /etc/rancid.conf
              Configuration file described here.

SEE ALSO
       control_rancid(1), rancid(1), rancid-cvs(1), rancid-run(1)

HISTORY
       In RANCID releases prior to 2.3, rancid.conf was named env and located
       in the bin directory.  This was changed to be more consistent with
       common file location practices.



                               18 December 2007                 rancid.conf(5)
