3.3. Creating/Editing a Control File Manually

If you edit the control file manually, make sure it has a valid syntax. To check the syntax, use some tools already available on the distribution. For example to verify that the file is well formed, use the utility xmllint available with the libxml2 package:

	xmllint <control file>
      

If the control file is not well formed, i.e. if a tag is not closed, xmllint will report about the errors.

Before going on with the auto-installation, please fix any errors resulting from such checks. The auto-installation process can't be started with an invalid and non-well formed control file.

You can use any XML editor available on your system or use your favorite text editor with XML support (i.e. Emacs, Vim). However, it is not quite optimal to create the control file manually for large number of machines and it should only be seen as an interface between the auto-installation engine and the Configuration Management System (CMS).