Openstack-manuals autogenerated tables - Headers

Another category of autogenerated files 'types' are the headers files. They are located at tools/autogenerate-config-flagmappings and the filename formats are '*.headers'. These files specify the titles of the available configuration tables.

Table titles take the format "Description of ... configuration options". It is the contents of "..." that you specify in the headers file. For example, "dothill Dot Hill volume driver" in cinders.headers means that the cinder-dothill config table title will be "Description of Dot Hill volume driver configuration options"

Just like the flagmappings files, headers file contents are also in alphabetical order.

Openstack-manuals autogenerated tables - Flagmappings

If you have contributed to the Openstack-manuals you might have come across some files that start with "Warning: Do not edit this file. It is automatically generated ...". These files are configuration tables for the different Openstack services, located at 'doc/config-reference/source/tables'

This post documents one of the types of files that aid the autogeneration of the configuration tables. Disclaimer -> This is from my own observation of the files and from working on them and is not intended to be the final authority on what these files really are and what they really do.

Flagmappings
As the name suggests these files map a configuration option to a configuration table. Rules

• Each line of a flagmappings file first states the configuration option then the table file name. For example "agent_down_time common" in the neutron.flagmappings file means that the neutron_common.rst table has a configuration option known as the agent_down_time. Note that the filename part of the line is just "common" and not "neutron_common.rst", this is because it is already a fact that the configuration option is for Neutron because it is in the neutron.flagmappings file so it would be redundant to again repeat the name of the file.
• The options are listed in alphabetical order

• Incase an option belongs in a particular section of the configuration file, this section will precede the configuration option with the two being separated by a front-slash("/"). For example "database/connection" means that the 'connection' config option belong in the '[database]' section of the config file.

  In this scenario, the sectionless config options will go first followed by the sectioned one also in alphabetical order by the sections.

• A config option belonging to more than one file will have the filenames added to the options. For example "AGENT/dont_fragment openvswitch_agent ml2_ofa" means the 'dont_fragment' option is under the 'AGENT' sections of two files, the "neutron_openvswitch_agent" and "neutron_ml2_ofa" configuration table files

Outreachy Update

If you have lived as long as I have then you have seen yourself some life. But for me the outreachy experience has been one of the most challenging and rewarding at the same time. To be honest even if I would not have been accepted, just the application process alone was growth enough for me and an entry point into the Openstack opensource community.

My choice of Openstack was strategic. I have a background in web development and I wanted to venture into the waters(are they murky?) of cloud technology because for me that meant growth.

It is interesting how you can go into something looking to learn one thing and you end up learning a suite of other things along with it. I came to Openstack to learn cloud and I am additionally ending up with some much needed and neccessary community skills. If you join an army of contributors spread across the globe working on a common project with common goals then you will have to learn how to carry yourself in their midst. If you are joining an already existing community then chances are there already exist norms and ways of doing things that you should adopt to ease your blending in.

I am looking forward to the entirety of what I am continuing to learn aside cloud.