Using Template and Update Files

When creating configurations for a large number of clients to implement, you can create a template configuration file that represents the common configuration elements for all clients. Using an update file with only those changes necessary for each client, you can distribute the template and update file and merge the two to create the target configuration.

The Personal Communications Server template and update files enable you to create or modify a configuration using an ASCII editor. You can configure all of the Personal Communications configuration keywords and parameters with update files. Both the template and update files have the same format as Personal Communications configuration (.ACG) files.

Template files can ease the mass distribution of configurations to remote clients. A template file can specify the keywords which are common to several clients. For example, if you have multiple clients to configure as SNA clients, many of the keywords will be identical. You can create a template configuration file that reflects those common keywords.

You can use update files to add, modify, or delete keywords in a template file. The original template configuration file is left unchanged. An update file is merged into a template file by specifying the INCLUDE keyword at the end of the template file. For example, if an update file is named myconfig.chg, the last line of the template file that will use the update file is INCLUDE=myconfig.chg. When the template file and the update file are merged, you can give the resulting configuration file a name with the .ACG extension that distinguishes it from other .ACG files.

To ensure that the verification utility can locate the template and update files, you should store them in the system-class application data directory, which is also where the configuration (.ACG) files are stored.