arc.conf(5)

💖 arc.conf(5) — ARC services configuration 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the arc.conf(5) manual page — this is the one about the ARC services configuration file. grab a snack, we're going in 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

arc.conf — ARC services configuration

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so here's the tea: ARC has two separate configuration files — one for client tools and another one for services. this man page is all about the services config file. if you're looking for the client side of things, please see the "ARC Clients User Manual" at http://www.nordugrid.org/documents/arc-ui.pdf ✨

no cap, this man page is NOT the ultimate source of information about arc.conf. the reference documentation containing <em>all</em> configuration option descriptions is the arc.conf.reference file that can be found in /usr/share/arc/doc. periodt 💅

to get inline help about a particular configuration option, use the arcctl (1) tool 🎀

for example, to get the description of the sessiondir option in the [arex] block, run:

# arcctl config describe arex sessiondir

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🦋 BASIC STRUCTURE 🦋

a block configures an ARC service, a service interface, a utility or a subsystem. enabling (turning on) a functionality, a service or an interface requires the presence of the appropriate configuration block. to disable a service or an interface, simply delete or comment out the related arc.conf block — you may need to rerun the corresponding startup script 🙈

a block is identified by its block header. a block header may consist of keywords and optionally block identifiers. keywords may be separated by / and used to label subblocks (e.g. [arex/jura]), while block identifiers are separated by : from keywords.

for example, in the [queue:short] block header, queue is a keyword while short is an identifier — e.g. the name of the queue. block headers must be UNIQUE 👑

a block starts with a unique [keyword:identifier] blockheader and ends where the next block starts, that is at the next [blockheader] directive.

a block may have sub-blocks — e.g. the various interfaces of the AREX service are configured via sub-blocks (e.g. [arex/ws]). when a sub-block is enabled then the corresponding parent block MUST also appear in the arc.conf file. no skipping generations, bestie 😭

configuration blocks contain (config option, config value) pairs following the syntax: config_option=value element [optional value element] in single line.

each of the configuration options has a well-defined default that is specified in this reference file. the default can take either a pre-set value, a special substitution or the keyword undefined. configuration options within an enabled block take their default values in case they are missing (or commented out). configuration parameters with undefined defaults take no values. furthermore, configuration options within disabled blocks take no values either. slay, consistency ✨

🚨 authorization blocks are ORDER-DEPENDENT! the authorization blocks [authgroup:name] MUST be defined before being used in the other blocks. and on top of that, the order of the authorization blocks <em>itself</em> may have influence over authorization decisions! main character energy, honestly 💅

note that quotes around the configuration value(s) must NOT be used any longer.

note that the arc.conf is CASE-SENSITIVE! 💀

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🎀 FILES 🎀

• /etc/arc.conf
• ${ARC_LOCATION}/etc/arc.conf

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🔥 REPORTING BUGS 🔥

report bugs to http://bugzilla.nordugrid.org/ — we love a good bug report, fr fr 🫶

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👑 COPYRIGHT 👑

APACHE LICENSE Version 2.0

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🌈 AUTHOR 🌈

ARC software is developed by the NorduGrid Collaboration (http://www.nordugrid.org) — please consult the AUTHORS file distributed with ARC. please report bugs and feature requests to http://bugzilla.nordugrid.org 💜

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⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

• arcctl(1)

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and that's the whole page, bestie! this was NorduGrid ARC 7.2.0, dated 2026-09-01 — go forth and configure your services, you absolute icon 🧚💖✨