Maintaining Kickstart files

You can run automated checks on Kickstart files. Typically, you will want to verify that a new or problematic Kickstart file is valid.

Installing Kickstart maintenance tools

To use the Kickstart maintenance tools, you must install the package that contains them.

Procedure
  • Install the pykickstart package:

    # yum install pykickstart

Verifying a Kickstart file

Use the ksvalidator command line utility to verify that your Kickstart file is valid. This is useful when you make extensive changes to a Kickstart file.

Procedure
  • Run ksvalidator on your Kickstart file:

    $ ksvalidator /path/to/kickstart.ks

    Replace /path/to/kickstart.ks with the path to the Kickstart file you want to verify.

The validation tool cannot guarantee the installation will be successful. It ensures only that the syntax is correct and that the file does not include deprecated options. It does not attempt to validate the %pre, %post and %packages sections of the Kickstart file.
Additional resources
  • The ksvalidator(1) manual page.