1.4/src/README

- INTRODUCTION
- SUMMARY
- PREREQUISITES
- INSTALLATION
- RELEASE NOTES
- DOCUMENTATION
- AUTHOR

# INTRODUCTION

AFS::Command -- An OO wrapper API for the AFS command line utilities (vos, bos, pts, fs)

# SUMMARY

This suite of perl modules implements an API for the command line utilities for managing and using the AFS distributed file system. AFS is available as both an Open Source product (http://www.openafs.org), as well as a commercial version from IBM (http://www.ibm.com/software/stormgmt/afs/).

For example, AFS volumes are managed using the command line utility 'vos', for which there is currently no programmatic API, in any language. This API is a pure perl wrapper around the command line utility, that implements an OO API that allows for the easy development of systems management applications for AFS.

# PREREQUISITES

This module requires perl5.6 or later, as well as an installed AFS infrastructure to work with. The code is pure perl, with no compiled components, do it should work on any variant of UNIX (sorry, but this code makes aggressive use of `pipe()` and `fork(),` so porting it to Windows is gonna be painful... but then, why anyone would want to manage their AFS infrastructure from Windows escapes me).

# INSTALLATION

This module builds like almost everything else on CPAN:

      perl Makefile.PL
      make
      make test
      make install

Before running 'make test', edit the CONFIG file and follow the instructions in the comments. Minimally, you have to specify a couple of AFS file servers and one AFS database server against which to run the tests, as well as a pathname in AFS where we can create mount points.

The test suite will require AFS super-user privileges, so you must either be a member of the system:administrators protection group, or a member of the super users list on the servers. If you don't know what that means, you shouldn't be testing this module, so consult your AFS administrators.

See the CONFIG file for more details. Its pretty verbosely documented.

Any failure in the test suite is a cause for concern. For more verbose output, run:

      make test TEST_VERBOSE=1

If you can't determine the source of the `problem(s),` send the verbose test output, along with the output from ``perl -V'', as well as the versions of AFS in use at your site, to the author, and I'll do my best to figure out why things are breaking, and if you're lucky, actually fix it.

# RELEASE NOTES

In addition to the README file (which in case you hadn't noticed, you're reading right now), the history of changes is maintained in Changes.html.

# DOCUMENTATION

Docs for these modules are split across several files, and will be installed as man pages.

      man AFS::Command

will provide the general overview of the API, its basic design. The details of the API calls, their arguments, and return values, are found in the following documents:

      man AFS::Command::Base
      man AFS::Command::VOS
      man AFS::Command::BOS
      man AFS::Command::PTS
      man AFS::Command::FS
      man AFS::Object

# AUTHOR

This code is a product of the demented mind of:

        W. Phillip Moore <Phil.Moore@MorganStanley.com>

Feedback, patches, recommendations, adulations, and even flames are all welcome. Feed my ego (or try to shoot it down :-), please...