Cotse - Connected: An Internet Encyclopedia - 9. Sample BOOTP Server Database

As a suggestion, we show a sample text file database that the BOOTP server program might use. The database has two sections, delimited by a line containing an percent in column 1. The first section contains a 'default directory' and mappings from generic names to directory/pathnames. The first generic name in this section is the 'default file' you get when the bootrequest contains a null 'file' string.

The second section maps hardware addresstype/address into an ipaddress. Optionally you can also overide the default generic name by supplying a ipaddress specific genericname. A 'suffix' item is also an option; if supplied, any generic names specified by the client will be accessed by first appending 'suffix' to the 'pathname'

appropriate to that generic name. If that file is not found, then the plain 'pathname' will be tried. This 'suffix' option allows a whole set of custom generics to be setup without a lot of effort. Below is shown the general format; fields are delimited by one or more spaces or tabs; trailing empty fields may be omitted; blank lines and lines beginning with '#' are ignored.

      # comment line

      homedirectory
      genericname1    pathname1
      genericname2    pathname2
      ...

      % end of generic names, start of address mappings

      hostname1 hardwaretype hardwareaddr1 ipaddr1 genericname suffix
      hostname2 hardwaretype hardwareaddr2 ipaddr2 genericname suffix
      ...

Here is a specific example. Note the 'hardwaretype' number is the same as that shown in the ARP section of the 'Assigned Numbers' RFC. The 'hardwaretype' and 'ipaddr' numbers are in decimal; 'hardwareaddr' is in hex.

      # last updated by smith

      /usr/boot
      vmunix          vmunix
      tip             ethertip
      watch           /usr/diag/etherwatch
      gate            gate.

      % end of generic names, start of address mappings

      hamilton        1 02.60.8c.06.34.98     36.19.0.5
      burr            1 02.60.8c.34.11.78     36.44.0.12
      101-gateway     1 02.60.8c.23.ab.35     36.44.0.32      gate 101
      mjh-gateway     1 02.60.8c.12.32.bc     36.42.0.64      gate mjh
      welch-tipa      1 02.60.8c.22.65.32     36.47.0.14      tip
      welch-tipb      1 02.60.8c.12.15.c8     36.46.0.12      tip

In the example above, if 'mjh-gateway' does a default boot, it will get the file '/usr/boot/gate.mjh'.

Next: 10. Acknowledgements

Connected: An Internet Encyclopedia
9. Sample BOOTP Server Database


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