KAFS-CHECK-CONFIG(8)

💖 KAFS-CHECK-CONFIG(8) — the kafs-client girlies' guide 💖

okay bestie, sit down, hydrate, because we're about to vibe check your AFS config and honestly? it's giving main character. this lil tool lives in the kafs-client manual, section 8, and it's here to make sure your in-kernel AFS situation is immaculate. ✨

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🎀 NAME 🎀

kafs-check-config — the AFS configuration check tool. no cap, that's literally its whole job.

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

kafs-check-config [-46PDvv] [-c <conffile>]* [-N <restriction>]
[<cellname>]*

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so like, this program checks the configuration for the in-kernel AFS filesystem (kAFS). and why do we care? because when systemd mounts that filesystem, it uses this exact config to load up the cell database and to create cell automounts inside the /afs directory. iconic behaviour honestly. 👑

the config also gets used by the kernel name resolver upcall, which uses it to hand out static configuration for some cells, and to specify overrides and limits on DNS lookups. so yeah, it's kind of a big deal. 💅

and if you hand it a list of cellname arguments? it dumps those cells for you, and it even shows you where the Volume Location records and address records came from. receipts. 🧾✨

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

• -4 — only show IPv4 addresses in the dump. v4 girlies only. 💙
• -6 — only show IPv6 addresses in the dump. v6 supremacy, as you were. 💜
• -P — dump the parse tree of the configuration file(s). it's giving tree. 🌳
• -D — dump the cell database that got extracted from the configuration. 📚
• -v — increase the verbosity of the output. you can say it multiple times, and yes, stacking it is encouraged (iykyk). 🗣️
• -c <conffile> — specify a configuration file to read instead of the system default. you can pass this multiple times, and the config files get read and applied in order. so the order matters, bestie, don't play. 📄
• -N <restriction> — apply a restriction to the lookup that's performed for the listed cells (if you listed any). valid restrictions include:
  • vl-srv — don't use SRV records to find Volume Location servers. 🚫
  • vl-afsdb — don't use AFSDB records to find Volume Location servers. 🚫
  • vl-all — don't use SRV or AFSDB records to find Volume Location servers. that's both of them, gone. 💀
  • vl-host — don't look the cell name up as a hostname to find a Volume Location server. 🙈
  • vl-dns — don't do any lookups at all to find Volume Location servers. use only the static configuration, periodt. 🛑

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🌈 ARGUMENT 🌈

• <cellname> — the AFS cell name to display. you can specify multiple cells, go off. but if you specify no cell name at all, it displays the default cell specified in /proc/net/afs/rootcell. the default default, if you will. 🫶

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⭐ EXIT STATUS ⭐

• 0 — if the check is okay and any dumping succeeded. slay. ✅
• 1 — if an error occurs during processing. 😭
• 2 — if a command line error occurs. bestie. what did you type. 💀

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🔥 EXAMPLES 🔥

to display the configuration for the default cell:

# kafs-check-config

=== Found cell some-cell.org ===
  - use-dns=no
  - show-cell=no
  - status: no-lookup, from config
  - VLSERVER shelter-4.some-cell.org [good; nss]
    - address 10.0.0.48
  - VLSERVER shelter-5.some-cell.org [good; nss]
    - address 10.0.0.54

to display two specific cells:

# kafs-check-config ir.stanford.edu grand.central.org

=== Found cell ir.stanford.edu ===
  - show-cell=no
  - status: good, from SRV
  - VLSERVER afsdb3.stanford.edu [good; nss]
    - udp
    - port 7003, pref 0, weight 0
    - address 171.64.7.246
  - VLSERVER afsdb2.stanford.edu [good; nss]
    - udp
    - port 7003, pref 0, weight 0
    - address 171.64.7.234
  - VLSERVER afsdb1.stanford.edu [good; nss]
    - udp
    - port 7003, pref 0, weight 0
    - address 171.64.7.222

=== Found cell grand.central.org ===
  - show-cell=no
  - status: good, from SRV
  - VLSERVER grand.mit.edu [good; nss]
    - udp
    - port 7003, pref 0, weight 0
    - address 18.9.48.14
  - VLSERVER grand-old-opry.central.org [good; nss]
    - udp
    - port 7003, pref 0, weight 0
    - address 128.2.13.219

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🧚 SEE ALSO 🧚

kafs(7), kafs-client.conf(5), kafs-preload(8)

go read your siblings, they're all valid. 💖

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👑 COPYRIGHT 👑

Copyright (C) 2019 Red Hat, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Written by David Howells (dhowells@redhat.com)

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

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ngl, legal text stays legal text — I'm not touching a license, that's not the vibe. everything above it though? fully mine. 💅

and that's the whole page bestie!! version 0.9, dated 2026-08-27, shipped in the kafs-client era of time. now go check those configs and be the main character of your own /afs directory. 🦋💖✨