rancid(1)

🎀 rancid(1) — Cisco configuration filter 🎀

okay so hi bestie 💖 this is the rancid(1) page from the General Commands Manual, and we're about to make it make sense. no cap.

🌸 NAME 🌸

rancid — Cisco configuration filter

🧚 SYNOPSIS 🧚

rancid [-dlCV] [-t device_type] (-f filename | hostname)

rancid [-dhlCV] -t device_type (-f filename | hostname)

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

okay so rancid is a collection of perl(1) scripts which use the login scripts (see clogin(1)) to login to a device, execute commands to display the configuration, etc, then filters the output for formatting, security, and so forth. rancid's product is a file with the name of its last argument plus the suffix .new — for example, hostname.new 💅

rancid is a perl(1) script that operates much like the vendor-specific rancid script of pre-3.0 releases, but is generic and will eventually obsolete the vendor-specific rancid scripts. It uses the device_type specified with the -t option to look-up a device description (see rancid.types.conf(5)) that defines what it does to collect and process device information. it's giving generic-iconic, fr fr 🦋

There are scripts complementary to rancid for other platforms and/or manufacturers that are supported by rancid(1). Briefly, these are:

• agmrancid — Cisco Anomaly Guard Module (AGM)
• arancid — Alteon WebOS switches
• brancid — Bay Networks (nortel)
• cat5rancid — Cisco catalyst switches
• cssrancid — Cisco content services switches
• erancid — ADC-kentrox EZ-T3 mux
• f5rancid — F5 BigIPs
• rancid — The generic rancid script; supporting Allied Telesis AW+ devices, Arbor Networks Appliances, Arista EOS, Ciena Waverserver, Cisco IOS, Cisco IOS-XR, Cisco NX-OS, Cisco WLC, (some) Dell switches, Extreme switches, Fortinet firewalls, Force10 (aka Dell NOS9), Foundry (aka some Brocade) devices, FRR Routing S/W (formerly Quagga or Zebra), Juniper JunOS and JunOS EVO, Nokia (Alcatel-Lucent) SR OS, and UBNT Edgemax and EdgeRouter, and SMC (some Dell switches). It uses the device O/S modules for parsing routines as determined by the rancid.types.conf(5) file(s). Also see rancid(3) for details.
• hrancid — HP Procurve Switches
• htranicd — Hitachi Routers
• jerancid — Juniper Networks E-series
• mrancid — MRTd
• nrancid — Netscreen firewalls
• nsrancid — Netscaler
• rivrancid — Riverstone
• rrancid — Redback
• trancid — Netopia sDSL/T1 routers
• xirancid — Xirrus arrays

If rancid is run for a device type whose script, as defined in rancid.types.base or rancid.types.conf, is not rancid, then that script will be exec(2)'d 👑

🛠️ OPTIONS 🛠️

okay so the command-line options are as follows, bestie:

• -C — Prints the login command that would be used to collect data from the device.
• -V — Prints package name and version strings.
• -d — Display debugging information.
• -h — Display a usage line and exit.
• -l — Display somewhat less debugging information.
• -t — Device type, of the given host or file, that is defined in rancid.types.base or rancid.types.conf.
• -f — rancid should interpret the next argument as a filename which contains the output it would normally collect from the device (hostname) with clogin(1).

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

go peek at these too, bestie: control_rancid(1), clogin(1), rancid.conf(5), rancid.types.conf(5), and rancid(3).

💀 CAVEATS 💀

okay, caveat time — listen up because these are important. Cisco IOS offers a DHCP server that maintains a text database which can be stored remotely or on local storage. If stored locally, the file changes constantly and causes constant diffs from rancid. If this file's name (ip dhcp database) matches the regex dhcp_[^[:space:].].txt, it will be filtered. no cap, that regex is doing the most.

For Catalyst switches running CatOS, type cat5, the prompt must end with >. clogin(1) looks for > to determine when a login is successful. For example:

                 cat5k>
                 cat5k> enable
                 Password:
                 cat5k> (enable)

rancid works on Cisco Catalyst 1900 series switches that are running Enterprise Edition software. This software provides a menu at connection time that allows a command line interface to be used by entering K at the prompt.

xoxo 💖 this rancid(1) page is dated 22 April 2020 — footer tea delivered, periodt ✨