<!ENTITY dhfirstname "<firstname>Wouter</firstname>">
<!ENTITY dhsurname "<surname>Verhelst</surname>">
<!-- Please adjust the date whenever revising the manpage. -->
- <!ENTITY dhdate "<date>september 19, 2001</date>">
+ <!ENTITY dhdate "<date>$Date$</date>">
<!-- SECTION should be 1-8, maybe w/ subsection other parameters are
allowed: see man(7), man(1). -->
<!ENTITY dhsection "<manvolnum>1</manvolnum>">
</refnamediv>
<refsynopsisdiv>
<cmdsynopsis>
- <command>&dhpackage;</command>
+ <command>&dhpackage; </command>
- <arg><option>-c <replaceable>this</replaceable></option></arg>
<arg choice=plain><replaceable>port</replaceable</arg>
<arg choice=plain><replaceable>filename</replaceable></arg>
<arg><replaceable>size</replaceable></arg>
<arg><option>-r</option></arg>
<arg><option>-m</option></arg>
<arg><option>-c</option></arg>
+ <arg><option>-a <replaceable>timeout</replaceable></option></arg>
+ <arg><option>-l <replaceable>host list</replaceable></option></arg>
+ <arg><option>-o <replaceable>section name</replaceable></option></arg>
</cmdsynopsis>
</refsynopsisdiv>
<refsect1>
<title>DESCRIPTION</title>
- <para>This manual page documents the
- <command>&dhpackage;</command> command.</para>
-
- <para>This manual page was written for the &debian; distribution
- because the original program does not have a manual page.</para>
-
<para><command>&dhpackage;</command> is the server for the Linux
Network Block Device (NBD). With NBD, a client can use a file,
exported over the network from a server, as a block device. It can
then be used for whatever purpose a normal block device (harddisk,
CD-ROM, ...) can be used for.</para>
- <para>NBD can be usefull for diskless clients that need swapspace,
+ <para>NBD can be useful for diskless clients that need swapspace,
but you can also create a filesystem on it and use it as though it
were a local filesystem.</para>
<para><command>&dhpackage;</command> implements some security
- through a file called "nbd_server.allow" in the current directory.
+ through a file called "nbd_server.allow" in the current directory (by default; a different file can be chosen with the '-l' option).
This file must list the IP-addresses of clients that are allowed
to connect. If it does not exist, all clients are able to connect.
If the file is empty, no clients can connect.</para>
Linux 2.2 and below), you can use this option to store the
data in multiple files and export a larger filesystem, if
needed.</para>
+ <para>
+ To use this option, you must create a number of files
+ with names in the format "name.X", where "name" is given as
+ the filename argument to nbd-server, and "X" is a number
+ starting by 0 and going up for each file.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ The files must all be 1GB in size.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Allowing more flexibility for this option is planned for
+ future versions.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>-c</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>Copy on write. When this option is provided,
- write-operations are not done to the exported file, but to a
- separate file. This separate file is removed when the
- connection is closed, which means that serving this way will
- make nbd-server slow down (especially on large block devices
- with lots of writes), and that after disconnecting and
- reconnecting the client or the server, all changes are
- lost.</para>
+ write-operations are not done to the exported file, but to a
+ separate file. This separate file is removed when the
+ connection is closed, which means that serving this way will
+ make nbd-server slow down (especially on large block devices
+ with lots of writes), and that after disconnecting and
+ reconnecting the client or the server, all changes are
+ lost.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-C</option></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Specify configuration file. The default configuration
+ file, if this parameter is not specified, is
+ <filename>@sysconfdir@/nbd-server/config</filename>.</para>
+ <para>Note that the configuration file is always parsed and
+ the entries in the file used, even if an extra server is
+ specified on the command line. To disable the configuration
+ file entirely, either move it away or use the -C option to
+ point <command>nbd-server</command>(1) to a non-existing or
+ empty configuration file.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>timeout</option></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Maximum number of idle seconds. If a connection is
+ inactive for this amount of time, it is terminated; this is to
+ avoid stale nbd-server processes staying in memory. Use of
+ this option is strongly recommended.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>host list</option></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>This argument should contain a list of IP-addresses
+ for hosts that may connect to the server. Wildcards are
+ <emphasis>not</emphasis> allowed. If the file does not
+ exist, it is ignored (and any host can connect); If the file
+ does exist, but is empty, no host can connect. By default,
+ the name 'nbd_server.allow' is used, and looked for in the
+ current directory, unless nbd-server is compiled as a
+ daemon, in which case it is looked for in the
+ root-directory.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>section name</option></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>If the <option>-o</option> argument is given on the
+ command line, then &dhpackage; will output a configuration
+ file section with this as the header that is functionally
+ equivalent to the other options specified on the command line,
+ and exit. This is useful for migrating pre-2.9 nbd-server
+ initscript configuration files to the new format.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
+
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>EXAMPLES</title>
changes are lost after restarting the client or the
server:</para>
<para><command>nbd-server 2000 /export/nbd/exp-bl-dev
- -c</command></para>
+ -c</command></para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
- <title>FILES</title>
-
- <para><filename>nbd_server.allow</filename></para>
-
- </refsect1>
- <refsect1>
<title>SEE ALSO</title>
-
- <para>nbd-client (8).</para>
-
+
+ <para>nbd-client (8), nbd-server (5), http://nbd.sourceforge.net/roadmap.html</para>
+
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>AUTHOR</title>
+ <para>The NBD kernel module and the NBD tools were originally
+ written by Pavel Machek (pavel@ucw.cz)</para>
+
+ <para>The Linux kernel module is now maintained by Paul Clements
+ (Paul.Clements@steeleye.com), while the userland tools are
+ maintained by &dhusername; (&dhemail;)</para>
+
+ <para>On The Hurd there is a regular translator available to perform the
+ client side of the protocol, and the use of
+ <command>nbd-client</command> is not required. Please see the
+ relevant documentation for more information.</para>
<para>This manual page was written by &dhusername; (&dhemail;) for
the &debian; system (but may be used by others). Permission is
granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under
- the terms of the <acronym>GNU</acronym> Free Documentation
- License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free
- Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover
- Texts and no Back-Cover Texts.</para>
+ the terms of the <acronym>GNU</acronym> General Public License,
+ version 2, as published by the Free Software Foundation.</para>
</refsect1>
</refentry>