Use any text editor to save files as ASCII text, such as Gedit or vim on Linux systems or Notepad on Windows systems, to create and edit Kickstart files. The file name of your Kickstart configuration does not matter. However, it is recommended to use a simple name as you will need to specify this name later in other configuration files or dialogs.

Commands

Commands are keywords that serve as directions for installation. Each command must be on a single line. Commands can take options. Specifying commands and options is similar to using Linux commands in a shell.

Sections

Certain special commands that begin with the percent % character start a section. Interpretation of commands in sections is different from commands placed outside sections. Every section must be finished with the %end command.

Section types

The available sections are:

• Add-on sections. These sections use the %addon addon_name command.
• Package selection sections. Start with %packages. Use it to list packages for installation, including indirect means such as package groups or modules.
• Script sections. These start with %pre, %pre-install, %post, and %onerror. These sections are not required.
• Certificate sections. These sections could be used to include certificates to be used by installation. For more information, see Kickstart certificates section.

Command section

The command section is a term used for the commands in the Kickstart file that are not part of any script section or %packages section.

Script section count and ordering

All sections except the command section are optional and can be present multiple times. When a script section type is evaluated, all sections of that type in the Kickstart file are processed in order of appearance. For example, two %post sections are evaluated one after another. However, you do not have to specify the various types of script sections in any order. It does not matter if there are %post sections before %pre sections.

Comments

Kickstart comments are lines starting with the hash # character. These lines are ignored by the installation program.

Items that are not required can be omitted. Omitting a required item causes the installation program to switch to interactive mode. You can then provide the missing information similar to a regular interactive installation. It is also possible to declare the kickstart script as non-interactive with the cmdline command. In non-interactive mode, any missing answer aborts the installation process.