FAQ: General

What does Bcfg2 stand for?

Initially, Bcfg stood for the bundle configuration system. Bcfg2 is the second major revision. At this point, the acronym is meaningless, but the name has stuck. Luckily, Bcfg2 googles better than Bcfg does. No, seriously. Try it. All I know is that I have no interest in a billion cubic feet of gas.

What architectures does Bcfg2 support?

Bcfg2 should run on any POSIX compatible operating system, however direct support for an operating system’s package and service formats are limited by the currently available Client Tool Drivers (although new client tools are pretty easy to add). The following is an incomplete but more exact list of platforms on which Bcfg2 works.

• GNU/Linux deb based distros
• GNU/Linux rpm based distros
• Solaris pkg based
• Gentoo portage based
• OSX (POSIX/launchd support)

What pre-requisites are needed to run Bcfg2?

Please visit the Prerequisites section in the manual.

Why won’t bcfg2-server start?

If your server doesn’t seem to be starting and you see no error messages in your server logs, try running it in the foreground to see why.

Why am I getting a traceback?

If you get a traceback, please let us know. You can file a ticket, send the traceback to the Mailing List, or hop on the IRC Channel and let us know.

Where are the server log messages?

The bcfg2-server process logs to syslog facility LOG_DAEMON. The server produces a series of messages upon a variety of events and errors.

Is there a way to check if all repository XML files conform to schemas?

Bcfg2 comes with XML schemas describing all of the XML formats used in the server repository. A validation command bcfg2-lint is included with the source distribution and all packages. bcfg2-lint can also performs lots of other checks for common mistakes.