4 novaboot - Boots a locally compiled operating system on a remote
11 B<novaboot> [option]... [--] script...
13 B<./script> [option]...
17 Novaboot makes booting of a locally compiled operating system (OS)
18 (e.g. NOVA or Linux) on remote targets as simple as running a program
19 locally. It automates things like copying OS images to a TFTP server,
20 generation of bootloader configuration files, resetting of target
21 hardware or redirection of target's serial line to stdin/out. Novaboot
22 is highly configurable and makes it easy to boot a single image on
23 different targets or different images on a single target.
25 Novaboot operation is controlled by configuration files, command line
26 options and by a so called novaboot script, which can be thought as a
27 generalization of bootloader configuration files (see L</"NOVABOOT
28 SCRIPT SYNTAX">). Typical way of using novaboot is to make the
29 novaboot script executable and set its first line to I<#!/usr/bin/env
30 novaboot>. Then, booting a particular OS configuration becomes the
31 same as executing a local program – the novaboot script.
33 Novaboot uses configuration files to, among other things, define
34 command line options needed for different targets. Users typically use
35 only the B<-t>/B<--target> command line option to select the target.
36 Internally, this option expands to the pre-configured options.
37 Configuration files are searched at multiple places, which allows to
38 have per-system, per-user or per-project configurations. Configuration
39 file syntax is described in section L</"CONFIGURATION FILES">.
41 Simple examples of using C<novaboot>:
47 Run an OS in Qemu. This is can be specified with the B<--qemu> option.
52 (or C<./myos --qemu> as described above) will run Qemu and make it
53 boot the configuration specified in the F<myos> script.
57 Create a bootloader configuration file (currently supported
58 bootloaders are GRUB, GRUB2, ISOLINUX, Pulsar and U-Boot) and copy it
59 with all other files needed for booting to a remote boot server. Then
60 use a TCP/IP-controlled relay/serial-to-TCP converter to reset the
61 target and receive its serial output.
63 ./myos --grub2 --server=192.168.1.1:/tftp --iprelay=192.168.1.2
65 Alternatively, you can put these switches to the configuration file
68 ./myos --target mytarget
72 Run DHCP and TFTP server on developer's machine to boot the target
77 This is useful when no network infrastructure is in place and
78 the target is connected directly to developer's box.
82 Create bootable ISO image.
84 novaboot --iso -- script1 script2
86 The created ISO image will have ISOLINUX bootloader installed on it
87 and the boot menu will allow selecting between I<script1> and
88 I<script2> configurations.
92 =head1 PHASES AND OPTIONS
94 Novaboot performs its work in several phases. Each phase can be
95 influenced by several command line options, certain phases can be
96 skipped. The list of phases (in the execution order) is as follows.
100 =item 1. L<Configuration reading|/Configuration reading phase>
102 =item 2. L<Command line processing|/Command line processing phase>
104 =item 3. L<Script preprocessing|/Script preprocessing phase>
106 =item 4. L<File generation|/File generation phase>
108 =item 5. L<Target connection|/Target connection check>
110 =item 6. L<File deployment|/File deployment phase>
112 =item 7. L<Target power-on and reset|/Target power-on and reset phase>
114 =item 8. L<Interaction with the bootloader|/Interaction with the bootloader on the target>
116 =item 9. L<Target interaction|/Target interaction phase>
120 Each phase is described in the following sections together with the
121 command line options that control it.
123 =head2 Configuration reading phase
125 After starting, novaboot reads configuration files. Their content is
126 described in section L</"CONFIGURATION FILES">. By default,
127 configuration is read from multiple locations. First from the system
128 configuration directory (F</etc/novaboot.d/>), second from the user
129 configuration file (F<~/.config/novaboot>) and third from F<.novaboot>
130 files along the path to the current directory. Alternatively, a single
131 configuration file specified with the B<-c> switch or with the
132 C<NOVABOOT_CONFIG> environment variable is read. The latter read files
133 override settings from the former ones.
135 The system configuration directory is determined by the content of
136 NOVABOOT_CONFIG_DIR environment variable and defaults to
137 F</etc/novaboot.d>. Files in this directory with names consisting
138 solely of English letters, numbers, dashes '-' and underscores '_'
139 (note that dot '.' is not included) are read in alphabetical order.
141 Then, the user configuration file is read from
142 F<$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/novaboot>. If C<$XDG_CONFIG_HOME> environemnt
143 variable is not set F<~/.config/novaboot> is read instead.
145 Finally, novaboot searches for files named F<.novaboot> starting from the
146 directory of the novaboot script (or working directory, see bellow)
147 and continuing upwards up to the root directory. The found
148 configuration files are then read in the opposite order (i.e. from the
149 root directory downwards). This allows to have, for example, a project
150 specific configuration in F<~/project/.novaboot>.
152 Note the difference between F<~/.config/novaboot> and F<~/.novaboot>.
153 The former one is read always, whereas the latter only when novaboot
154 script or working directory is under the C<$HOME> directory.
156 In certain cases, the location of the novaboot script cannot be
157 determined in this early phase. This happens either when the script is
158 read from the standard input or when novaboot is invoked explicitly as
159 in the example L</"4."> above. In this case the current working
160 directory is used as a starting point for configuration file search
161 instead of the novaboot script directory.
165 =item -c, --config=I<filename>
167 Use the specified configuration file instead of the default one(s).
171 =head2 Command line processing phase
177 Dump the current configuration to stdout end exit. Useful as an
178 initial template for a configuration file.
182 Print short (B<-h>) or long (B<--help>) help.
184 =item -t, --target=I<target>
186 This option serves as a user configurable shortcut for other novaboot
187 options. The effect of this option is the same as specifying the
188 options stored in the C<%targets> configuration variable under key
189 I<target>. See also L</"CONFIGURATION FILES">.
191 When this option is not given, novaboot tries to determine the target
192 to use from either B<NOVABOOT_TARGET> environment variable or from
193 B<$default_target> configuration file variable.
197 =head2 Script preprocessing phase
199 This phases allows to modify the parsed novaboot script before it is
200 used in the later phases.
204 =item -a, --append=I<parameters>
206 Append a string to the first C<load> line in the novaboot script. This
207 can be used to append parameters to the kernel's or root task's
208 command line. This option can appear multiple times.
212 Use F<bender> chainloader. Bender scans the PCI bus for PCI serial
213 ports and stores the information about them in the BIOS data area for
216 =item --chainloader=I<chainloader>
218 Specifies a chainloader that is loaded before the kernel and other
219 files specified in the novaboot script. E.g. 'bin/boot/bender
224 Print the modules to boot and their parameters after this phase
225 finishes. Then exit. This is useful for seeing the effect of other
226 options in this section.
228 =item -k, --kernel=F<file>
230 Replace the first word on the first C<load> line in the novaboot
233 =item --scriptmod=I<perl expression>
235 When novaboot script is read, I<perl expression> is executed for every
236 line (in $_ variable). For example, C<novaboot
237 --scriptmod=s/sigma0/omega6/g> replaces every occurrence of I<sigma0>
238 in the script with I<omega6>.
240 When this option is present, it overrides I<$script_modifier> variable
241 from the configuration file, which has the same effect. If this option
242 is given multiple times all expressions are evaluated in the command
247 =head2 File generation phase
249 In this phase, files needed for booting are generated in a so called
250 I<build directory> (see L</--build-dir>). In most cases configuration
251 for a bootloader is generated automatically by novaboot. It is also
252 possible to generate other files using I<heredoc> or I<"<"> syntax in
253 novaboot scripts. Finally, binaries can be generated in this phases by
254 running C<scons> or C<make>.
258 =item --build-dir=I<directory>
260 Overrides the default build directory location.
262 The default build directory location is determined as follows: If the
263 configuration file defines the C<$builddir> variable, its value is
264 used. Otherwise, it is the directory that contains the first processed
267 See also L</BUILDDIR> variable.
269 =item -g, --grub[=I<filename>]
271 Generates grub bootloader menu file. If the I<filename> is not
272 specified, F<menu.lst> is used. The I<filename> is relative to the
273 build directory (see B<--build-dir>).
275 =item --grub-preamble=I<prefix>
277 Specifies the I<preable> that is at the beginning of the generated
278 GRUB or GRUB2 config files. This is useful for specifying GRUB's
281 =item --prefix=I<prefix>
283 Specifies I<prefix> (e.g. F</srv/tftp>) that is put in front of every
284 file name in generated bootloader configuration files (or in U-Boot
287 If the I<prefix> contains string $NAME, it will be replaced with the
288 name of the novaboot script (see also B<--name>).
290 If the I<prefix> contains string $BUILDDIR, it will be replaced with
291 the build directory (see also B<--build-dir>).
295 Alias for B<--prefix>.
297 =item --grub2[=I<filename>]
299 Generate GRUB2 menu entry in I<filename>. If I<filename> is not
300 specified F<grub.cfg> is used. The content of the menu entry can be
301 customized with B<--grub-preamble>, B<--grub2-prolog> or
302 B<--grub_prefix> options.
304 In order to use the the generated menu entry on your development
305 machine that uses GRUB2, append the following snippet to
306 F</etc/grub.d/40_custom> file and regenerate your grub configuration,
307 i.e. run update-grub on Debian/Ubuntu.
309 if [ -f /path/to/nul/build/grub.cfg ]; then
310 source /path/to/nul/build/grub.cfg
313 =item --grub2-prolog=I<prolog>
315 Specifies text that is put at the beginning of the GRUB2 menu entry.
317 =item -m, --make[=make command]
319 Runs C<make> to build files that are not generated by novaboot itself.
321 =item --name=I<string>
323 Use the name I<string> instead of the name of the novaboot script.
324 This name is used for things like a title of grub menu or for the
325 server directory where the boot files are copied to.
329 Do not run external commands to generate files (i.e. "<" syntax and
330 C<run> keyword). This switch does not influence generation of files
331 specified with "<<WORD" syntax.
333 =item -p, --pulsar[=mac]
335 Generates pulsar bootloader configuration file named F<config-I<mac>>
336 The I<mac> string is typically a MAC address and defaults to
339 =item --scons[=scons command]
341 Runs C<scons> to build files that are not generated by novaboot
346 Strip I<rom://> prefix from command lines and generated config files.
347 The I<rom://> prefix is used by NUL. For NRE, it has to be stripped.
351 Exit novaboot after file generation phase.
355 =head2 Target connection check
357 If supported by the target, the connection to it is made and it is
358 checked whether the target is not occupied by another novaboot
363 =item --amt=I<"[user[:password]@]host[:port]>
365 Use Intel AMT technology to control the target machine. WS management
366 is used to powercycle it and Serial-Over-Lan (SOL) for input/output.
367 The hostname or (IP address) is given by the I<host> parameter. If
368 I<password> is not specified, environment variable AMT_PASSWORD is
369 used. The I<port> specifies a TCP port for SOL. If not specified, the
370 default is 16992. Default I<user> is admin.
372 =item --iprelay=I<addr[:port]>
374 Use TCP/IP relay and serial port to access the target's serial port
375 and powercycle it. The IP address of the relay is given by I<addr>
376 parameter. If I<port> is not specified, it default to 23.
378 Note: This option is supposed to work with HWG-ER02a IP relays.
380 =item -s, --serial[=device]
382 Target's serial line is connected to host's serial line (device). The
383 default value for device is F</dev/ttyUSB0>.
385 The value of this option is exported in NB_NOVABOOT environment
386 variable to all subprocesses run by C<novaboot>.
388 =item --stty=I<settings>
390 Specifies settings passed to C<stty> invoked on the serial line
391 specified with B<--serial> option. If this option is not given,
392 C<stty> is called with C<raw -crtscts -onlcr 115200> settings.
394 =item --remote-cmd=I<cmd>
396 Command that mediates connection to the target's serial line. For
397 example C<ssh server 'cu -l /dev/ttyS0'>.
399 =item --remote-expect=I<string>
401 Wait for reception of I<string> after establishing the remote
404 =item --remote-expect-silent=I<string>
406 The same as B<--remote-expect> except that the remote output is not
407 echoed to stdout while waiting for the I<string>. Everything after the
408 matched string is printed to stdout, so you may want to include line
409 end characters in the I<string> as well.
413 =head2 File deployment phase
415 In some setups, it is necessary to copy the files needed for booting
416 to a particular location, e.g. to a TFTP boot server or to the
421 =item -d, --dhcp-tftp
423 Turns your workstation into a DHCP and TFTP server so that the OS can
424 be booted via PXE BIOS (or similar mechanism) on the test machine
425 directly connected by a plain Ethernet cable to your workstation.
427 The DHCP and TFTP servers requires root privileges and C<novaboot>
428 uses C<sudo> command to obtain those. You can put the following to
429 I</etc/sudoers> to allow running the necessary commands without asking
432 Cmnd_Alias NOVABOOT = /bin/ip a add 10.23.23.1/24 dev eth0, /bin/ip l set dev eth0 up, /usr/sbin/dhcpd -d -cf dhcpd.conf -lf dhcpd.leases -pf dhcpd.pid, /usr/sbin/in.tftpd --listen --secure -v -v -v --pidfile tftpd.pid *, /usr/bin/touch dhcpd.leases, /usr/bin/pkill --pidfile=dhcpd.pid, /usr/bin/pkill --pidfile=tftpd.pid
433 your_login ALL=NOPASSWD: NOVABOOT
437 Starts a TFTP server on your workstation. This is similar to
438 B<--dhcp-tftp> except that DHCP server is not started.
440 The TFTP server require root privileges and C<novaboot> uses C<sudo>
441 command to obtain those. You can put the following to I</etc/sudoers>
442 to allow running the necessary commands without asking for password.
444 Cmnd_Alias NOVABOOT = /usr/sbin/in.tftpd --listen --secure -v -v -v --pidfile tftpd.pid *, /usr/bin/pkill --pidfile=tftpd.pid
445 your_login ALL=NOPASSWD: NOVABOOT
447 =item --tftp-port=I<port>
449 Port to run the TFTP server on. Implies B<--tftp>.
451 =item --netif=I<network interface>
453 Network interface used to deploy files to the target. Default value is
454 I<eth0>. This influences the configuration of the DHCP server started
455 by B<--dhcp-tftp> and the value that B<$NB_MYIP> get replaced with in
458 =item --iso[=filename]
460 Generates the ISO image that boots NOVA system via GRUB. If no filename
461 is given, the image is stored under I<NAME>.iso, where I<NAME> is the name
462 of the novaboot script (see also B<--name>).
464 =item --server[=[[user@]server:]path]
466 Copy all files needed for booting to another location. The files will
467 be copied (by B<rsync> tool) to the directory I<path>. If the I<path>
468 contains string $NAME, it will be replaced with the name of the
469 novaboot script (see also B<--name>).
471 =item --rsync-flags=I<flags>
473 Specifies which I<flags> are appended to F<rsync> command line when
474 copying files as a result of I<--server> option.
478 If B<--server> is used and its value ends with $NAME, then after
479 copying the files, a new bootloader configuration file (e.g. menu.lst)
480 is created at I<path-wo-name>, i.e. the path specified by B<--server>
481 with $NAME part removed. The content of the file is created by
482 concatenating all files of the same name from all subdirectories of
483 I<path-wo-name> found on the "server".
487 Use Intel AMT technology for IDE redirection. This allows the target
488 machine to boot from novaboot created ISO image. Implies B<--iso>.
490 The experimental C<amtider> utility needed by this option can be
491 obtained from https://github.com/wentasah/amtterm.
495 =head2 Target power-on and reset phase
497 At this point, the target is reset (or switched on/off). There is
498 several ways how this can be accomplished. Resetting a physical target
499 can currently be accomplished by the following options: B<--amt>,
500 B<--iprelay>, B<--reset-cmd>.
506 Switch on/off the target machine and exit. The script (if any) is
507 completely ignored. Currently it works only with B<--iprelay> or
510 =item -Q, --qemu[=I<qemu-binary>]
512 Boot the configuration in qemu. Optionally, the name of qemu binary
513 can be specified as a parameter.
515 =item --qemu-append=I<flags>
517 Append I<flags> to the default qemu flags (QEMU_FLAGS variable or
518 C<-cpu coreduo -smp 2>).
520 =item -q, --qemu-flags=I<flags>
522 Replace the default qemu flags (QEMU_FLAGS variable or C<-cpu coreduo
523 -smp 2>) with I<flags> specified here.
525 =item --reset-cmd=I<cmd>
527 Command that resets the target.
529 =item --no-reset, --reset
531 Disable/enable resetting of the target.
535 =head2 Interaction with the bootloader on the target
539 =item --uboot[=I<prompt>]
541 Interact with U-Boot bootloader to boot the thing described in the
542 novaboot script. I<prompt> specifies the U-Boot's prompt (default is
543 "=> ", other common prompts are "U-Boot> " or "U-Boot# ").
544 Implementation of this option is currently tied to a particular board
545 that we use. It may be subject to changes in the future!
549 Disable U-Boot interaction previously enabled with B<--uboot>.
553 Command(s) to send the U-Boot bootloader before loading the images and
554 booting them. This option can be given multiple times. After sending
555 commands from each option novaboot waits for U-Boot I<prompt>.
557 If the command contains string I<$NB_MYIP> then this string is
558 replaced by IPv4 address of eth0 interface (see also B<--netif>).
559 Similarly I<$NB_PREFIX> is replaced with prefix given by B<--prefix>.
561 See also C<uboot> keyword in L</"NOVABOOT SCRIPT SYNTAX">).
563 =item --uboot-addr I<name>=I<address>
565 Load address of U-Boot's C<tftpboot> command for loading I<name>,
566 where name is one of I<kernel>, I<ramdisk> or I<fdt> (flattened device
569 The default addresses are ${I<name>_addr_r}, i.e. U-Boot environment
570 variables used by convention for this purpose.
572 =item --uboot-cmd=I<command>
574 Specifies U-Boot command used to execute the OS. If the command
575 contains strings C<$kernel_addr>, C<$ramdisk_addr>, C<$fdt_addr>,
576 these are replaced with the addresses configured with B<--uboot-addr>.
580 bootm $kernel_addr $ramdisk_addr $fdt_addr
582 or the C<UBOOT_CMD> variable if defined in the novaboot script.
586 =head2 Target interaction phase
588 In this phase, target's serial output is redirected to stdout and if
589 stdin is a TTY, it is redirected to the target's serial input allowing
590 interactive work with the target.
594 =item --exiton=I<string>
596 When I<string> is sent by the target, novaboot exits. This option can
597 be specified multiple times, in which case novaboot exits whenever
598 either of the specified strings is sent.
600 If I<string> is C<-re>, then the next B<--exiton>'s I<string> is
601 treated as regular expression. For example:
603 --exiton -re --exiton 'error:.*failed'
605 =item --exiton-re=I<regex>
607 The same as --exiton -re --exiton I<regex>.
609 =item --exiton-timeout=I<seconds>
611 By default B<--exiton> waits for the string match forever. When this
612 option is specified, "exiton" timeouts after the specifies number of
613 seconds and novaboot returns non-zero exit code.
615 =item -i, --interactive
617 Setup things for interactive use of target. Your terminal will be
618 switched to raw mode. In raw mode, your system does not process input
619 in any way (no echoing of entered characters, no interpretation
620 special characters). This, among others, means that Ctrl-C is passed
621 to the target and does no longer interrupt novaboot. Use "~~."
622 sequence to exit novaboot.
624 =item --no-interaction, --interaction
626 Skip resp. force target interaction phase. When skipped, novaboot exits
627 immediately when boot is initiated.
629 =item --expect=I<string>
631 When I<string> is received from the target, send the string specified
632 with the subsequent B<--send*> option to the target.
634 =item --expect-re=I<regex>
636 When target's output matches regular expression I<regex>, send the
637 string specified with the subsequent B<--send*> option to the target.
639 =item --expect-raw=I<perl-code>
641 Provides direct control over Perl's Expect module.
643 =item --send=I<string>
645 Send I<string> to the target after the previously specified
646 B<--expect*> was matched in the target's output. The I<string> may
647 contain escape sequences such as "\n".
649 Note that I<string> is actually interpreted by Perl, so it can contain
650 much more that escape sequences. This behavior may change in the
653 Example: C<--expect='login: ' --send='root\n'>
655 =item --sendcont=I<string>
657 Similar to B<--send> but continue expecting more input.
659 Example: C<--expect='Continue?' --sendcont='yes\n'>
661 =item --final-eol, --no-final-eol
663 By default, B<novaboot> always prints an end-of-line character at the
664 end of its execution in order to ensure that the output of programs
665 started after novaboot appears at the beginning of the line. When this
666 is not desired B<--no-final-eol> option can be used to override this
671 =head1 NOVABOOT SCRIPT SYNTAX
673 The syntax tries to mimic POSIX shell syntax. The syntax is defined
674 with the following rules.
676 Lines starting with "#" and empty lines are ignored.
678 Lines that end with "\" are concatenated with the following line after
679 removal of the final "\" and leading whitespace of the following line.
681 Lines of the form I<VARIABLE=...> (i.e. matching '^[A-Z_]+=' regular
682 expression) assign values to internal variables. See L</VARIABLES>
685 Lines starting with C<load> keyword represent modules to boot. The
686 word after C<load> is a file name (relative to the build directory
687 (see B<--build-dir>) of the module to load and the remaining words are
688 passed to it as the command line parameters.
690 When the C<load> line ends with "<<WORD" then the subsequent lines
691 until the line containing solely WORD are copied literally to the file
692 named on that line. This is similar to shell's heredoc feature.
694 When the C<load> line ends with "< CMD" then command CMD is executed
695 with F</bin/sh> and its standard output is stored in the file named on
696 that line. The SRCDIR variable in CMD's environment is set to the
697 absolute path of the directory containing the interpreted novaboot
700 Lines starting with C<run> keyword contain shell commands that are run
701 during file generation phase. This is the same as the "< CMD" syntax
702 for C<load> keyboard except that the command's output is not
703 redirected to a file. The ordering of commands is the same as they
704 appear in the novaboot script.
706 Lines starting with C<uboot> represent U-Boot commands that are sent
707 to the target if B<--uboot> option is given. Having a U-Boot line in
708 the novaboot script is the same as passing an equivalent
709 B<--uboot-init> option to novaboot. The C<uboot> keyword can be
710 suffixed with timeout specification. The syntax is C<uboot:Ns>, where
711 C<N> is the whole number of seconds. If the U-Boot command prompt does
712 not appear before the timeout, novaboot fails. The default timeout is
717 #!/usr/bin/env novaboot
718 load bzImage console=ttyS0,115200
719 run make -C buildroot
720 load rootfs.cpio < gen_cpio buildroot/images/rootfs.cpio "myapp->/etc/init.d/S99myapp"
722 Example (NOVA User Land - NUL):
724 #!/usr/bin/env novaboot
725 WVDESC=Example program
726 load bin/apps/sigma0.nul S0_DEFAULT script_start:1,1 \
727 verbose hostkeyb:0,0x60,1,12,2
728 load bin/apps/hello.nul
729 load hello.nulconfig <<EOF
730 sigma0::mem:16 name::/s0/log name::/s0/timer name::/s0/fs/rom ||
731 rom://bin/apps/hello.nul
734 This example will load three modules: F<sigma0.nul>, F<hello.nul> and
735 F<hello.nulconfig>. sigma0 receives some command line parameters and
736 F<hello.nulconfig> file is generated on the fly from the lines between
741 The following variables are interpreted in the novaboot script:
747 Novaboot chdir()s to this directory before file generation phase. The
748 directory name specified here is relative to the build directory
749 specified by other means (see L</--build-dir>).
753 Assigning this variable has the same effect as specifying L</--exiton>
756 =item HYPERVISOR_PARAMS
758 Parameters passed to hypervisor. The default value is "serial", unless
759 overridden in configuration file.
763 The kernel to use instead of the hypervisor specified in the
764 configuration file with the C<$hypervisor> variable. The value should
765 contain the name of the kernel image as well as its command line
766 parameters. If this variable is defined and non-empty, the variable
767 HYPERVISOR_PARAMS is not used.
771 If this variable is 1, the system is not booted. This is currently
772 only implemented for U-Boot bootloader where it is useful for
773 interacting with the bootloader without booting the system - e.g. for
778 Use a specific qemu binary (can be overridden with B<-Q>) and flags
779 when booting this script under qemu. If QEMU_FLAGS variable is also
780 specified flags specified in QEMU variable are replaced by those in
785 Use specific qemu flags (can be overridden with B<-q>).
793 Description of the WvTest-compliant program.
797 The timeout in seconds for WvTest harness. If no complete line appears
798 in the test output within the time specified here, the test fails. It
799 is necessary to specify this for long running tests that produce no
804 =head1 CONFIGURATION FILES
806 Novaboot can read its configuration from one or more files. By
807 default, novaboot looks for files in F</etc/novaboot.d>, file
808 F<~/.config/novaboot> and files named F<.novaboot> as described in
809 L</Configuration reading phase>. Alternatively, configuration file
810 location can be specified with the B<-c> switch or with the
811 NOVABOOT_CONFIG environment variable. The configuration file has Perl
812 syntax (i.e. it is better to put C<1;> as the last line) and should set
813 values of certain Perl variables. The current configuration can be
814 dumped with the B<--dump-config> switch. Some configuration variables
815 can be overridden by environment variables (see below) or by command
818 Supported configuration variables include:
824 Build directory location relative to the location of the configuration
827 =item $default_target
829 Default target (see below) to use when no target is explicitly
830 specified with the B<--target> command line option or
831 B<NOVABOOT_TARGET> environment variable.
835 Hash of target definitions to be used with the B<--target> option. The
836 key is the identifier of the target, the value is the string with
837 command line options. For instance, if the configuration file contains:
839 $targets{'mybox'} = '--server=boot:/tftproot --serial=/dev/ttyUSB0 --grub',
841 then the following two commands are equivalent:
843 ./myos --server=boot:/tftproot --serial=/dev/ttyUSB0 --grub
848 =head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
850 Some options can be specified not only via config file or command line
851 but also through environment variables. Environment variables override
852 the values from configuration file and command line parameters
853 override the environment variables.
857 =item NOVABOOT_CONFIG
859 Name of the novaboot configuration file to use instead of the default
862 =item NOVABOOT_CONFIG_DIR
864 Name of the novaboot configuration directory. When not specified
865 F</etc/novaboot.d> is used.
867 =item NOVABOOT_TARGET
869 Name of the novaboot target to use. This overrides the value of
870 B<$default_target> from the configuration file and can be overriden
871 with the B<--target> command line option.
873 =item NOVABOOT_BENDER
875 Defining this variable has the same meaning as B<--bender> option.
881 Michal Sojka <sojka@os.inf.tu-dresden.de>