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Agama URLs

In addition to well known protocols, like http(s)://. ftp://, file://, etc., Agama understands most of YaST and AutoYaST specific URLs. So when you need to specify a URL (e.g., if you want to perform an unattended installation), you can use any of those options.

Supported schemes​

Agama supports the following standard schemes1:

  • http and https for HTTP and HTTPS.
  • ftp and ftps for FTP and FTP over TSL.
  • smb and smbs for the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol2.
  • nfs for the Network File System (NFS) protocol.
  • file for local files.

In addition to those schemes, Agama supports a set of specific ones which can be rather useful:

  • device for finding files on specific devices (even unmounted ones).
  • usb for finding files in USB devices (even unmounted ones).
  • label for finding files in a file system with a given label.
  • cd, dvd, hd for finding files on specific devices (prefer device).

Relative references​

For "scripts" and "files" in the Agama JSON config, the "url" property can be a relative reference, where the resolution base is the URL of the containing config.

This is a replacement for the relurl scheme used in AutoYaST.

For example, if the configuration below is retrieved from https://example.com/machines/sles16.jsonnet, it refers to https://example.com/machines/scripts/snapshot.sh.

{
  scripts: {
    postPartitioning: [
      {
        name: "snapshot",
        url: "scripts/snapshot.sh"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Agama specific schemes​

The typical protocols are enough for most use cases. However, more specific URLs can be handy in many situations. For instance, instead of serving your profile through HTTP, you could just put it on a USB stick and tell Agama about it with usb:///profile.json. Agama would search on all your USB devices for the profile to use.

Let's have a look to the different kind of URLs that Agama offers.

device​

This is the most flexible scheme. The general form is device://[DEVICE]/PATH. Let's have a look to some examples to better understand of how it works.

In the following example, Agama will search for the profile.json file in the /dev/sda1 device:

device://sda1/profile.json

It is possible to search in a given directory. In this case, the /profiles/sles.json file in the /dev/sda1 device:

device://sda1/profiles/sles.json

Nested devices are supported too:

device:///cciss/c1d0p5/sles.json

usb​

The usb:// scheme is a particular form of the device:// but limited to USB devices. As mentioned before, the following URL will search the profile/sles.json on all USB devices.

usb:///profile/sles.json

label​

The label:// scheme allows to search on file systems with a given label. It has the form label://LABEL/PATH. In the following example, Agama will search for the sles.json in a file system labeled as OEMDRV:

label://OEMDRV/sles.json

cd, dvd and hd​

This is another particular case of device:// but with a slightly different form. In Agama, there is no difference between these forms (hd, dvd and cd). The syntax is dvd:/PATH?devices=DEVICE:

hd:/sles.jsonnet?devices=/dev/sr0
dvd:/autoinst.xml?devices=sr1
note

Prefer device to cd, dvd or hd Given that cd, dvd and hd do not offer any advantage, using device might be a better option.

Not supported yet​

The repo:// URLs are not supported yet, but there are plans to implement them.

Footnotes​

  1. Agama relies on curl to support generic protocols (network protocols and file://). So it might happen that some protocol is supported "by accident". However, only the documented protocols are really supported by Agama. ↩

  2. Use smb instead of cifs, although in the future you should be able to use any of them. ↩