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To: hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: Re: How to... 
In-reply-to: Your message of "Thu, 27 Jun 1996 20:34:36 PDT."
             <1808.835932876@time.cdrom.com> 
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Date: Fri, 28 Jun 1996 08:06:45 -0400
From: Robert Withrow <witr@rwwa.com>
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Someone asked about ``cloning'' a FreeBSD system, and

jkh@time.cdrom.com said:
> Easy, just copy a FreeBSD distribution under ~ftp/pub on the server 
> and then select this server under "Other" on the FTP site selection 
> menu as "ftp://yourname/pub" 

That isn't what I would mean by ``clone'', and I don't think that
is what the original person meant.

Interactive SVR4 had this neat feature called a ``gaspump'' tape
that worked thisway:

  1) You booted the system with the boot floppies
  2) You typed a magic command
  3) The system was cpioed to a tape

then, at the target system

  4) You booted the floppy
  5) You ``filled 'er up'' from the gaspump tape.
  6) After the tape was dumped on the new system, the
     boot floppy scripts asked you for the new IP address,
     system name, etc.  (I.e. all the things that need
     to be different in a ``cloned'' system.
  7) You rebooted and bingo, you were running.

The idea is that you setup a FreeBSD configuration *once* (build kernals,
install packages, etc...) then you ``clone'' it to all the other machines
in the area...

I've thought about setting this up several times, but I've never gotten
it done.  Has any one else done this.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert Withrow, Tel: +1 617 592 8935, Net: witr@rwwa.COM