Borg Frontends

This section describes a number of frontends to the borg core engine. After going into details of the different user interfaces we have to explain the router which is equal for all frontends. There are two different routers availble. The first router (before version 2.8) worked in a hierarchical way described below, the second router is much more performant and uses some kind of forwarding and uses a different initialisation file. Normally you should only read the '01 Router configuration file.

The '99 Router Configuration File

The router looks for the file cborg.%s.ini wherein %s is replaced by the name of the machine. If this file doesn't exist or can't be used because the required address is already in use it will take cborg.%s.0.ini, if this one doesn't succeed it will take the following one and so on. Router .ini files are sought where there resides an cborg.agent.boot file. (which can be at ./config/; ../config/ or ./)

An example of a router configuration file is

name(tecra)
# forward(134.184.43.75)

The configuration file can contain:

a. Remarks announced by a # at the start of a line
b. NAME(name) which gives this machine a name. The name shouldn't be fully qualified. For example: say name(tecra) instead of name(tecra.vub.ac.be). The domain will automatically be appended whenever the router contacts its forward.
c. PORT(name) says at which port this router should listen. All machines below this router should connect to this port
d. FORWARD(ipnumber/hostname) says at which IP-number the forwarding host can be found. E.g: forward(134.184.49.8) or forward(progpc15), or even forward(progpc15:2090) e. SUB(name) is obsolete but still valid. This command says which machines are expected to ask a connection to this router.

The '01 Router Configuration File

The router looks for the file borg.%s.ini wherein %s is replaced by the name of the machine. If this file doesn't exist, one with some reasnable defaults will be created. Router .ini files are sought where there resides an cborg.agent.boot file. (which can be at ./config/; ../config/, ../../config or ./)

Router confiuguration files can contain a number of commands

nameserver=%s, where %s contains the ip-num,bner and port of the nameserver to be used. If this line is ommited 134.184.43.76:2039 is assumed. If this line is given but contains nothing, no nameserver will be used
name=%s, where %s contains the name of this system. If this line is ommited, the hostname will be used.
port=%s, where $s is a number saying to which local port to bind. If this line is ommited 2039 will be used. If the port is already in use the next port will be tried until one is found are 10 tries failed.
isnameserver=true, if this line is added the local router will act as a nameserver, normally this should not be used, unless you know what you are doing.