README.md

Autoinstall Scripts

This directory contains scripts that automate installation and configuration of various distros.

autoinst.sh: main installation script
autoconf.sh: main configuration script
common: scripts that can be used for multiple distros
distro: scripts specific to a particular distro (e.g., slackware)
fdisk: partition tables that get translated to fdisk commands for disks of various sizes

If a distro supports automated installation and/or configuration, it should:

Call the autoinst_prep function from its extract.sh script to copy the appropriate scripts to the distro's installation media.
Supply an autoinst.txt file listing which scripts to run during installation and in what order.
Supply an autoconf.txt file listing which scripts to run during post-install configuration and in what order.
Supply a config.sh script which sets up environment variables that are used by various installation and configuration steps.

Install scripts will run from the installation root floppy so the commands available are very limited. sed and cut are typically available, but other commands such as grep, awk, etc. are missing. sed can be used to simulate many grep commands.
Config scripts run after the base system has been installed so most commands should be available, but they are old versions and likely to be missing some new features.
The config.sh script and all the scripts specified by autoinst.txt and autoconf.txt are copied to the installation media and sourced by the main script prior to running the individual steps.
When the files specified in autoinst.txt and autoconf.txt are copied to the installation media they are renamed to numbered files in the inststep and confstep directories so that they are executed in the correct order.