Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 40550
Kickstart Documentation incomplete, incoherent, inconsistent
Last modified: 2007-04-18 12:33:13 EDT
From Bugzilla Helper: User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0b; Windows NT 5.0) Description of problem: The kickstart file format is described in two places on the referenced URL, in the first bullet point and the last. The first bullet point refers to <installclass>. This is further described *nowhere* else. The first bullet point refers to "%pre, %post, and %packages" in "any combination". The last bulleted point omits the "%pre" description, and doesn't say where it needs to go. "Any combination" implies (to me) "any order, all optional". But the last bulleted point says (I think correctly) that the %post section has to be last. (But, once again, the first bullet point says <installclass> is last. Whatever it is.) In addition, the documentation (on the referenced page and in what follows in the section) refers to (variously and vaguely): "items", "commands", "sections", and "options" in the kickstart file. No effort is made to rigorously define these terms. How reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1.Read the description of the kickstart file 2.Try to write one. 3. Actual Results: Confusion and multiple experiments. Expected Results: A clear syntax description would make it easier. Additional info: I think it's time to get this right. Kickstart documentation has been poor for the last few releases.
I understand your concerns about the order of items in the file. I am checking on this.
I reworded the list of items with a description of each as follows: * Items must be specified in order. That order is: * Command section ? Refer to the section called Kickstart Options for a list of kickstart options. You must include the required options. * The %packages section ? Refer to the section called %packages ? Package Selection for details. * The %pre and %post sections. ? These two sections can be in any order and are not required. Refer to the section called %pre ? Pre-Installation Configuration Section and the section called %post ? Post-Installation Configuration Section for details. The "refer to" links the reader to the section that provides a more in-depth explanation. I also removed the sentence that says the %post section has to be last. This statement is not correct.
Resolving - fixed in CVS for next release.