NBDBTOOL(8)

📦 version 0.10.2, in nixos 26.05, nixpkgs unstable

💅 nbdbtool(8): netboot database management tool 💅

Hii bestie, welcome to the nbdbtool page from the System Manager's Manual, section 8. Pull up a chair, because this little utility is here to help you peek at and clean up entries in the netboot systems database. 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

nbdbtool — the netboot database management tool. Lowkey iconic, highkey useful.

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

nbdbtool [OPTIONS]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

nbdbtool is a simple program for viewing and deleting entries in the netboot systems database. Every utility program in the netboot package can write its parameters into this database, and this tool is your bestie for working with those entries: you can show a list of the database entries, print one individual database entry, or delete an entry. Periodt. 💖

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

  • -C, --config-file FILE — sets the pathname of the configuration file. If you don't pass this option, the value of the NETBOOT_CONFIG environment variable or a compiled-in default gets used instead.
  • -c, --clone FILE|DBSPEC — this action clones all records from a database file or database specification into the systems database.
  • -D, --database FILE|DBSPEC — the pathname of the database file (or database specification) that the program should act on. If you don't pass this option, the value of the NETBOOT_DATABASE environment variable or a compiled-in default gets used instead. Wanna know all the different ways to specify a database? The netboot(5) man page has the full explanation. 👑
  • -d, --delete NAME — name of the database entry to delete.
  • -F, --logfile — name of the log file to write debugging output to. The default is to print all verbose output to stdout.
  • -f, --filter FILTER — prints a list of database entries based on a filter string. This filter string can contain wildcard characters: a * character matches any number of characters in the database entry name, and a ? character matches exactly one character in the database entry name. If the filter string contains any of these wildcard characters, the whole string has to be enclosed in single quotes on a standard UNIX shell so the wildcard characters don't get interpreted by the shell. The database record list gets printed onto standard output.
  • -H, --home-dir — specifies the home directory. If this command line option is not given, either the homedir configuration file parameter or the current user's home directory will be used.
  • -h, --help — prints short usage information.
  • -L, --libdir DIR — pathname of the non-shared-data directory. If this option is not given, the value of the NETBOOT_LIB environment variable or a compiled-in default will be used.
  • -l, --list — prints all record names contained within the systems database onto standard output.
  • -N, --datadir DIR — pathname of the shared-data directory. If this option is not given, the value of the NETBOOT_DATA environment variable or a compiled-in default will be used.
  • -o, --outfile FILE — this option prints the output of the --print or --list action into a file rather than on stdout.
  • -p, --print NAME — prints the contents of a specific database record. This prints all values contained in this record onto standard output.
  • -q, --quiet — don't print any error messages. If an error occurred, you can find out about the cause of the error by inspecting the error code returned by nbdbtool.
  • -r, --raw — with the print action, this option prints all parameters as they appear in the database, even if they are duplicate or empty.
  • -v, --version — prints version information.
  • -x, --verbose — verbose output to let you know what nbdbtool is doing. Each -x increases the verbosity level.

🌈 DATABASE RECORD NAMES 🌈

The systems database can contain various records, with each record giving definitions for a specific netboot program and client system. The record names are constructed like this: <program name>:<system name>.

The same record name can appear multiple times in a database. Usually, when a netboot program uses such a record name, it scans all entries and uses the last one found within the database. This is also the way the --print option works. However, the --delete option will delete all records for a given record name. So yeah: print picks the last one, delete clears out every matching record. 💀

🧚 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES 🧚

See the netboot(5) man page for a description of all environment variables used by nbdbtool.

Yes bestie, that's the whole section. The details live in netboot(5). Go check it. 💜

💀 BUGS 💀

None known yet.

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

👑 AUTHOR 👑

nbdbtool was written by Gero Kuhlmann <gero@gkminix.han.de>.

Cute little sign-off: the source/version + date situation is NBDBTOOL(8) and 07 Sep 2006. Mwah. 💖✨

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