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)