RANCID on OS X (Darwin)

Mark Duling Mark.Duling at biola.edu
Thu Jul 3 03:12:18 UTC 2003


Hello All,

It turns out that RANCID runs on Mac OS X with no modifications.  I did
something wrong the first time and I'm not sure what but I didn't know
what I was doing at first so who knows.  The install and configuration
went without a hitch the second time around.  I have an unfinished howto
that gives the pre-requisites for non-Unix savvy people like myself. 
Tcl/tk and expect are installed together as a binary.  And I included
"cheat" instructions for those who don't want to deal with sendmail.  The
rest is as described in the instructions or Chris Boyd's howto for BSD. 
In case it helps another Mac user I am pasting the first 4 steps of my
howto for OS X in case it helps anyone else.

Mark

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1) Install the Developer Tools – You can use the CD that came with OS X if
you have it or download it from Apple's developer web site.  This is
required to compile and run open source software. 


2) Configure OS X to send email from the command line – You may configure
sendmail but it is challenging to configure.  Most UNIX commercial email
software supports sendmail emulation such as Communigate Pro from Stalker
Software or Post.Office from Tenon systems.  Both are simpler to get up
and running than sendmail and they have free unlicensed demo versions that
will support a few users or aliases which is all RANCID needs.  The
install program for each sets up sendmail emulation automatically.  To
check this, after the install type:

		ls –l /usr/sbin/sendmail and observe if sendmail has the correct
symbolic link (output abbrev)
lrwxr-xr-x  /usr/sbin/sendmail -> /usr/sbin/CommuniGatePro/sendmail (for
CGPro)
lrwxr-xr-x  /usr/sbin/sendmail -> /usr/local/post.office/bin/sendmail (for
Post.Office)

	Test the email server by sending a test message from the command line:
		mail [ mailto:joe at exp.com ]joe at exp.com (enter a subject, some body text,
terminate message with Control-D)


3) Install tcl/tk and expect - RANCID requires a program called expect
which in turn requires the scripting language tcl/tk.  The tcl/tkAqua
"Batteries Included" OS X package includes both of these two items. 
Download and install the package.  It can be found at Source.Forge.net or
Apple's site.  Here is the link on Apple’s site: 

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/unix_open_source/tcltkaqua.html

Install RANCID

4) Add /usr/local/bin to the path (so RANCID can find expect during
install)
	Type the following command:	PATH $PATH “:usr/local/bin”




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