noderange.3

Name

noderange - syntax for compactly expressing a list of node names

Synopsis

Examples:

node1,node2,node8,node20,group1

node14-node56,node70-node203,group1-group10

node1,node2,node8,node20,node14-node56,node70-node203

node[14-56]

f[1-3]n[1-20]

all,-node129-node256,-frame01-frame03

/node.*

^/tmp/nodes

node10+5

10-15,-13

group1@group2

table.attribute<operator>value

Description

noderange is a syntax that can be used in most xCAT commands to conveniently specify a list of nodes. The result is that the command will be applied to a range of nodes, often in parallel.

If you invoke xCAT noderange from a shell you may need to quote the noderange if the shell would otherwise treat the punctuation marks in the noderange as control operators. The affected punctuation marks may include Asterisk (`*’), Left Square Bracket (`[’) , Right Square Bracket (`]’), Circumflex Accent (`^’), and Overline (`~’).

noderange is a comma-separated list. Each token (text between commas) in the list can be any of the forms listed below:

Individual node or group:

node01
group1

A range of nodes or groups:

node01-node10  (equivalent to: node01,node02,node03,...node10)
node[01-10]    (same as above)
node01:node10  (same as above)
node[01:10]    (same as above)
f[1-2]n[1-3]   (equivalent to: f1n1,f1n2,f1n3,f2n1,f2n2,f2n3)
group1-group3  (equivalent to: group1,group2,group3)
(all the permutations supported above for nodes are also supported for groups)

nodeRange tries to be intelligent about detecting padding, so you can specify “node001-node200” and it will add the proper number of zeroes to make all numbers 3 digits.

An incremented range of nodes:

node10+3  (equivalent to: node10,node11,node12,node13)

A node shorthand range of nodes:

10-20   (equivalent to: node10,node11,node12,...node20)
10+3    (equivalent to: node10,node11,node12,node13)

Currently, the prefix that will be prepended for the above syntax is always “node”. Eventually, the prefix and optional suffix will be settable via the environment variables XCAT_NODE_PREFIX and XCAT_NODE_SUFFIX, but currently this only works in bypass mode.

A regular expression match of nodes or groups:

/node[345].*   (will match any nodes that start with node3, node4, or node5)
/group[12].*   (will match any groups that start with group1 or group2)

The path of a file containing noderanges of nodes or groups:

^/tmp/nodelist

where /tmp/nodelist can contain entries like:

#my node list (this line ignored)
^/tmp/foo #ignored
node01    #node comment
node02
node03
node10-node20
/group[456].*
-node50

Node ranges can contain any combination:

node01-node30,node40,^/tmp/nodes,/node[13].*,2-10,node50+5

Any individual noderange may be prefixed with an exclusion operator (default -) with the exception of the file operator (default ^). This will cause that individual noderange to be subtracted from the total resulting list of nodes.

The intersection operator @ calculates the intersection of the left and right sides:

group1@group2   (will result in the list of nodes that group1 and group2 have in common)

Any combination or multiple combinations of inclusive and exclusive ranges of nodes and groups is legal. There is no precedence implied in the order of the arguments. Exclusive ranges have precedence over inclusive. Parentheses can be used to explicitly specify precedence of any operators.

Nodes have precedence over groups. If a node range match is made then no group range match will be attempted.

All node and group names are validated against the nodelist table. Invalid names are ignored and return nothing.

xCAT Node Name Format

Throughout this man page the term xCAT Node Name Format is used. xCAT Node Name Format is defined by the following regex:

^([A-Za-z-]+)([0-9]+)(([A-Za-z-]+[A-Za-z0-9-]*)*)

In plain English, a node or group name is in xCAT Node Name Format if starting from the beginning there are:

* one or more alpha characters of any case and any number of “-” in any combination

* followed by one or more numbers

* then optionally followed by one alpha character of any case or “-”

* followed by any combination of case mixed alphanumerics and “-”

noderange supports node/group names in any format. xCAT Node Name Format is not required, however some node range methods used to determine range will not be used for non-conformant names.

Example of xCAT Node Name Format node/group names:

NODENAME           PREFIX      NUMBER   SUFFIX
node1              node        1
node001            node        001
node-001           node-       001
node-foo-001-bar   node-foo-   001      -bar
node-foo-1bar      node-foo-   1        bar
foo1bar2           foo         1        bar2
rack01unit34       rack        01       unit34
unit34rack01       unit        34       rack01
pos0134            pos         0134

Examples

Generates a list of all nodes (assuming all is a group) listed in the nodelist table less node5 through node10:
```
all,-node5-node10
```
Generates a list of nodes 1 through 10 less nodes 3,4,5. Note that node4 is listed twice, first in the range and then at the end. Because exclusion has precedence node4 will be excluded.
```
node1-node10,-node3-node5,node4
```
Generates a list of nodes 1 through 10 less nodes 3 and 5.
```
node1-node10,-node3,-node5
```
Generates a list of all (assuming `all’ is a group) nodes in the nodelist table less 17 through 32.
```
-node17-node32,all
```
Generates a list of nodes 1 through 128, and user nodes 1 through 4.
```
node1-node128,user1-user4
```
Generates a list of all nodes (assuming `all’ is a group), less nodes in groups rack1 through rack3 (assuming groups rack1, rack2, and rack3 are defined), less nodes 100 through 200, less nodes in the storage group. Note that node150 is listed but is excluded.
```
all,-rack1-rack3,-node100-node200,node150,-storage
```
Generates a list of nodes matching the regex node[23].\*. That is all nodes that start with node2 or node3 and end in anything or nothing. E.g. node2, node3, node20, node30, node21234 all match.
```
/node[23].*
```
Generates a list of nodes which have the value hmc in the nodehm.cons attribute.
```
nodehm.cons==hmc

nodehm.cons=~hmc
```
Generate a list of nodes in the 1st two frames:
```
f[1-2]n[1-42]
```

Bugs

The special characters used by xCAT noderange are also special characters to many shell programs. In particular, the characters `*’, `[’, `]’, `^’, and `~’ may have to be escaped from the shell.