The existence of certain files can compromise the integrity of your system and you may wish to ensure that they do not exist. For example, some manufacturers sell their workstations with a `+' symbol in the file `/etc/hosts.equiv'. This means that anyone in your NIS domain has password free access to the system!! Since this is probably not a good idea, you will want to disable this file by renaming it, or simply deleting it.
disable:
/etc/hosts.equiv
Other files compromise the system because they grow so large that they fill an entire disk partition. This is typically true of log files such as the system 5 files `/var/adm/wtmpx' and `/var/lp/logs/lpsched'. Other files like /var/adm/messages get "rotated" by the system so that they do not grow so large as to fill the disk. You can make cfengine rotate these files too, by writing
disable:
Sunday::
/var/lp/logs/lpsched rotate=3
Now, when cfengine is run, it renamed the file `lpsched' to
a file called `lpsched.1'. It also renames `lpsched.1'
as `lpsched.2' and so on, until a maximum of 3 files are
kept. After passing 3, the files `fall off the end' and
are deleted permanently. This procedure prevents any log files
from growing too large. If you are not interested in keeping
back-logs, then you may write rotate=empty and cfengine
will simply empty the log file.
When ever cfengine disables a file (disable or links with
the `!' operator), or saves a new file on top of an old one
(copy or editfiles), it makes a backup of the
original. Usually disabled files are renamed by appending the string
`.cfdisabled' the the filename; copied files are saved by appending
the string `.cfsaved'.
It is possible to switch off backup file
generation in the copy feature by setting the variable
backup=false, but a better way of managing disabled and backed-up
files is to use a directory in which you collect all such files for the
whole system. This directory is called the file repository and is set in
the control part of the program, as follows:
control:
repository = ( directory-name )
If this variable is defined, cfengine collects all backup and disabled files (except for rotated files) in this directory, using a unique pathname. You can then inspect these files in the repository and arrange to tidy the repository for old files which are no longer interesting.
Go to the first, previous, next, last section, table of contents.