.\" Copyright (c) 1999 Daniel C. Sobral
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.\" $FreeBSD$
.Dd April 18, 1999
.Dt LOADER.CONF 5
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm loader.conf
.Nd system bootstrap configuration information
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The file
.Nm
contains descriptive information on bootstrapping the system. Through
it you can specify the kernel to be booted, parameters to be passed to
it, additional modules to be loaded, and generally set all variables
described in
.Xr loader 8 .
.Pp
The file
.Pa /boot/loader.rc
must contain the following two lines for
.Nm
to be automatically processed:
.Pp
.Dl include /boot/loader.4th
.Dl start
.Pp
If no
.Pa /boot/loader.rc
exists at installworld time, one with the above lines will be installed.
.Sh SYNTAX
Though
.Nm Ns 's
format was defined explicitly to resemble
.Xr rc.conf 5 ,
and can be sourced by
.Xr sh 1 ,
some settings are treated in a special fashion. Also, the
behavior of some settings depends only on it's suffix.
.Pp
The general parsing rules are:
.Bl -bullet
.It
Spaces and empty lines are ignored.
.It
A # sign will mark the remainder of the line as a comment.
.It
Only one setting can be present on each line.
.El
.Pp
All settings have the following format:
.Pp
.Dl variable="value"
.Pp
Unless it belongs to one of the classes of settings that receive special
treatment, a setting will set the value of a
.Xr loader 8 Ns 's
environment variable. The settings that receive special
treatment are listed below. The ones beginning with a
.Qq *
define the modules to be loaded and
may have any prefix. All such settings sharing a common
prefix refer to the same module.
.Bl -tag -width Ar
.It Ar exec
Immediately executes a
.Xr loader 8
command. This type of setting cannot be processed by programs other
than
.Xr loader 8 ,
so it's use should be avoided. Multiple instances of it will be processed
independently.
.It Ar loader_conf_files
Defines additional configuration files to be processed right after the
present file.
.It Ar kernel
Name of the kernel to be loaded. If no kernel name is set, no additional
modules will be loaded.
.It Ar kernel_options
Flags to be passed to the kernel.
.It Ar password
Provides a password to be asked by check-password before execution is
allowed to continue.
.It Ar verbose_loading
If set to
.Dq YES ,
the modules' names will be displayed as they are loaded.
.It Ar *_load
If set to
.Dq YES ,
that module will be loaded. If no name is defined (see below), the
module's name is taken to be the same as the prefix.
.It Ar *_name
Defines the name of the module.
.It Ar *_type
Defines the module's type. If none is given, it defaults to a kld module.
.It Ar *_flags
Flags and parameters to be passed to the module.
.It Ar *_before
Commands to be executed before the module is loaded. Use of this setting
should be avoided.
.It Ar *_after
Commands to be executed after the module is loaded. Use of this setting
should be avoided.
.It Ar *_error
Commands to be executed if the loading of a module fails. Except for the
special value
.Dq abort ,
which aborts the bootstrap process, use of this setting should be avoided.
.El
.Sh DEFAULT SETTINGS
Most of
.Nm Ns 's
default settings can be ignored. The few of them which are important
or useful are:
.Bl -tag -width bootfile -offset indent
.It Va bitmap_load
.Pq Dq NO
If set to
.Dq YES ,
a bitmap will be loaded to be displayed on screen while booting.
.It Va bitmap_name
.Pq Dq /boot/splash.bmp
Name of the bitmap to be loaded. Any other name can be used.
.It Va kernel
.Pq Dq /kernel
.It Va loader_conf_files
.Pq Do /boot/loader.conf /boot/loader.conf.local Dc
.It Va splash_bmp_load
.Pq Dq NO
If set to
.Dq YES ,
will load the splash screen module, making possible to display a bmp image
on the screen while booting.
.It Va splash_pcx_load
.Pq Dq NO
If set to
.Dq YES ,
will load the splash screen module, making possible to display a pcx image
on the screen while booting.
.It Va userconfig_script_load
.Pq Dq NO
If set to
.Dq YES ,
will load the userconfig data.
.It Va vesa_load
.Pq Dq NO
If set to
.Dq YES ,
the vesa module will be loaded, enabling bitmaps above VGA resolution to
be displayed.
.El
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width /boot/defaults/loader.conf -compact
.It Pa /boot/defaults/loader.conf
default settings -- do not change this file.
.It Pa /boot/loader.4th
defines the commands used by loader to read and process
.Nm .
.It Pa /boot/loader.conf
user defined settings.
.It Pa /boot/loader.conf.local
machine-specific settings for sites with a common loader.conf.
.It Pa /boot/loader.rc
contains the instructions to automatically process
.Nm .
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr boot 8 ,
.Xr loader 8 ,
.Xr loader.4th 8
.Sh HISTORY
The file
.Nm
first appeared in
.Fx 3.2 .
.Sh AUTHORS
This manual page was written by
.An Daniel C. Sobral Aq dcs@FreeBSD.org .