---
name: "mknfsroot"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "nfsroot"
version: "0.5"
release: "Debian 1.3 (Bo)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/mknfsroot"
---

# mknfsroot(8)

create a /tftpboot/$IP directory.

## NAME

mknfsroot - create a /tftpboot/$IP directory.

## SYNOPSIS

**mknfsroot hostname \[hostname\]**

## DESCRIPTION

Mknfsroot creates entries in /tftpboot/$IP for diskless clients, (or clients that boot with one floppy disk and a "nfsroot" kernel).

It is usually called from  **nrprobenet** whenever it found a new host on the local subnet.

mknfsroot tries to minimize disk-storage, and most files in the /tftpboot/$IP directories have only one phisical copy on the harddisk.

In short, it works like this:

- *Essential binaries*

  copy really essential binaries (NEED\_BINS in /etc/nfsroot/def) to /tftpboot/store, and make hard-links from /tftpboot/$IP/dir/filename to /tftpboot/store.

- *Config stuff in /etc*

  Some of the files in /etc must be writable, and secure servers don't want to export /etc rw. Still, /etc can be about 3M in size, so we don't want to copy it for every client. Thus, mknfsroot creates symlinks from /tftpboot/$ip/etc/\[subdirs/\]files to /remote\_etc, later mounting the server's /etc/ on /remote\_etc.

- */etc/nfsroot/{default,$IP}*

  If mknfsroot finds files in /etc/nfsroot/{default,$IP}, it will create links to /remote\_etc/nfsroot/{default,$IP} instead of /remote\_etc.

## FILES/DIRECTORIES

- */etc/nfsroot/ignorehosts*

  What hosts to ignore (don't ping them). This file contains regular expressions; any hostname that matches any regular expression in this file will be ignored.

- */etc/nfsroot/default*

  The directory structure under this directory is the default for every new client. If you want every client to have a "/var/lib/mystuff" dir, with the file "myfile" in it, put this file in /etc/nfsroot/default/var/lib/mystuff/myfile. File permissions and modes are preserved.

- */etc/nfsroot/$IP*

  If this directory exists for the hosts mknfsroot is to make a /tftpboot/$IP directory for, files in /etc/nfsroot/$IP overrule the files in the /etc/nfsroot/default directory.

- */etc/nfsroot/ignorefiles*

  If there's no default file in /etc/nfsroot/{default,$IP}, then the template used is /etc, unless the files match any of the regular expressions in /etc/nfsroot/ignorefiles

- */etc/nfsroot/def*

  Tells configuration stuff (like what the server IP is (is used to copy the default /etc/nfsroot/default/etc/fstab and friends files), and other stuff.

## BUGS

Hosts listed in /etc/nfsroot/ignorehosts are not ignored. Really, this file is for nrprobenet that reads this file, and doesn't call mknfsroot on hosts matching regexps in this file.

## DISTRIBUTION

Distribution is subject to the GNU public license.

## AUTHOR

Joost Witteveen \<joostje@debian.org\>, \<joostje@cistron.nl\>

## SEE ALSO

**nrprobenet**