NAME

       slack - Sysadmin's lazy autoconfiguration kit

SYNOPSIS

       slack [option ...] [role ...]

DESCRIPTION

       slack is a master command which coordinates the activities of its backends, which variously:

       •      determine the list of roles to be installed on this server

       •      create a local cached copy of the role files from the central repository

       •      merge file trees from subroles into a single, unified tree

       •      install files onto the local filesystem

       •      run scripts before and after installation

       Options you give to slack will be generally passed along to the backends where relevant.

OPTIONS

       -h, --help
              Print a usage statement.

       --version
              Print the version and exit.

       -v, --verbose
              Increase verbosity.  Can be specified multiple times.

       --quiet
              Don't be verbose (Overrides previous uses of --verbose).

       -C, --config FILE
              Use the specfied FILE for configuration instead of the default, /etc/slack.conf.

       -s, --source DIR
              Source directory for slack files

       -e, --rsh COMMAND
              Remote shell for rsync

       -c, --cache DIR
              Local cache directory for slack files

       -t, --stage DIR
              Local staging directory for slack files

       -r, --root DIR
              Root destination for slack files

       --no-sync
              Skip the slack-sync step (useful if you're pushing stuff into the CACHE outside slack).

       --no-files
              Don't install any files in ROOT, but tell rsync to print what it would do.

       --no-scripts
              Don't run scripts

       -n, --dry-run
              Same as --no-files --no-scripts  (CACHE, STAGE will still be updated)

       --role-list
              Role list for slack-getroles(8).

       -b, --backup
              Make  backups of existing files in ROOT that are overwritten.  This option defaults to on if it is
              not set to 0 in a config file or disabled with --nobackup on the command line.

       --backup-dir
              Put backups from the --backup option into this directory.

       -H, --hostname HOST
              Pretend to be running on HOST, instead of the name given by gethostname(2).

       --preview MODE
              Do a diff of scripts and files before running them.  MODE can be one of 'simple' or 'prompt'  (See
              PREVIEW MODES, below).

       --diff PROG
              Use this diff program for previews.

       --sleep TIME
              Randomly sleep between 1 and TIME seconds before starting operations.  Useful in crontabs.

PREVIEW MODES

       Preview  functionality  is new in slack 0.14.0.  I haven't quite worked out how things will work, so this
       usage is somewhat subject to change in future versions.  I thought I would try it this way  and  see  how
       people like it.

       In  'simple'  mode, after syncing and staging the files directory, slack will present a diff of the files
       and scripts.  In this mode, slack will not run the preinstall or fixfiles scripts, and because  of  this,
       it may provide some false output about permissions changes to files.

       In  'prompt'  mode,  after syncing and staging the files directory, slack will diff the script directory.
       If there are differences, slack will present them to you and ask you if you want to continue.  If you say
       no,  it  will exit.  If you say yes, it will stage the scripts directory, run the preinstall and fixfiles
       scripts, and then diff the files in the stage with those in the root.  If there  are  differences,  slack
       will  present  them to you and ask you if you want to continue.  If you say no, it will exit.  If you say
       yes, it will install the files and run the postinstall script.

       So, the 'simple' mode is easy to use, and will be accurate if you don't use fixfiles.  The 'prompt'  mode
       will be accurate if you use fixfiles, but requires some interaction.

       Why  can't  we just have one mode that works with fixfiles and requires no interaction?  Well, that would
       require slack to understand what your free-form fixfiles executable was going to do, which  would  either
       require  some  kind of universe simulator or would require you to write your fixfiles in a less free-form
       way, which would make slack less like slack.

EXAMPLES

       To install all the roles configured in the role list for a server:
              slack

       To install a specific role:
              slack rolename

       To test a new role before checking in the changes:
              slack --source user@workstation:/home/user/.../slack rolename

       To avoid killing your master server when calling from cron:
              slack --sleep 3600

FILES

       /etc/slack.conf

SEE ALSO

       slack.conf(5), rsync(1)