| SYSINST(8) | System Manager's Manual | SYSINST(8) | 
NAME
 sysinst — install or upgrade a NetBSD system
SYNOPSIS
| sysinst | [-D] [-f definition_file] [-r release] | 
 
DESCRIPTION
 sysinst is a menu-based program that may be used to install or upgrade a 
NetBSD system. It is usually invoked automatically when the system is booted from appropriate installation media.
sysinst is usually not present on a NetBSD system that has been fully installed.
The following options are available:
- 
-D
- 
Switch on debugging.
- 
-f definition_file
- 
Use definition_file as a file for definitions other than the defaults. See the DEFINITION FILE section for its format.
- 
-r release
- 
Use release as the release name if it is different to the one compiled. Currently unused.
 
DEFINITION FILE
 A definition file can be used with 
sysinst to control several aspects of the installation or upgrade process. Options can be stored within the file as
option = value
pairs. Options include the following, shown with their defaults as well as a description (“REL” and “MACH” are the release and architecture respectively, as determined by the image 
sysinst is used on):
| option name | default value | description | 
| release | REL | Release name (also set by -r release) | 
| machine | MACH | Machine architecture | 
| xfer dir | /usr/INSTALL | Transfer dir | 
| ext dir |  | Extract dir (will usually be set later on) | 
| ftp host | ftp.NetBSD.org | FTP host for fetching files | 
| ftp dir | pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-REL | FTP directory for fetching files | 
| ftp prefix | /MACH/binary/sets | Directory to look for sets, used for all methods of fetching (i.e., not just FTP) | 
| ftp user | ftp | FTP user for connecting | 
| ftp pass | - | FTP password | 
| ftp proxy | - | FTP proxy | 
| nfs host | - | NFS host for fetching via NFS | 
| nfs dir | /bsd/release | NFS directory for fetching files | 
| cd dev | cd0a | Name of CD device for fetching files | 
| fd dev | /dev/fd0a | Name of floppy device for fetching files | 
| local dev | - | Other device to be mounted for fetching files | 
| local fs | ffs | File system type for local device | 
| local dir | release | Directory to look for in the mounted local file system | 
| targetroot mount | /targetroot | Directory to mount target root dir to | 
| dist postfix | .tgz | Suffix of set files to be extracted | 
| diskname | mydisk | disktab(5) diskname to use for target disk | 
 
HISTORY
 A sysinst command appeared in NetBSD 1.3.