zgenhostid

genhostid emulates genhostid(1), available on RHEL/CENTOS, for distros which do not provide that utility. I don’t remember why or when I wrote this.

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# Emulate genhostid(1) available on RHEL/CENTOS, for use on distros
# which do not provide that utility.
#
# Usage:
#    zgenhostid
#    zgenhostid <value>
#
# If /etc/hostid already exists and is size > 0, the script exits immediately
# and changes nothing.  Unlike genhostid, this generates an error message.
#
# The first form generates a random hostid and stores it in /etc/hostid.
# The second form checks that the provided value is between 0x1 and 0xFFFFFFFF
# and if so, stores it in /etc/hostid.  This form is not supported by
# genhostid(1).

hostid_file=/etc/hostid

function usage {
	echo "$0 [value]"
	echo "If $hostid_file is not present, store a hostid in it." >&2
	echo "The optional value must be an 8-digit hex number between" >&2
	echo "1 and 2^32-1.  If no value is provided, a random one will" >&2
	echo "be generated.  The value must be unique among your systems." >&2
}

# hostid(1) ignores contents of /etc/hostid if size < 4 bytes.  It would
# be better if this checked size >= 4 bytes but it the method must be
# widely portable.
if [ -s $hostid_file ]; then
	echo "$hostid_file already exists.  No change made." >&2
	exit 1
fi

if [ -n "$1" ]; then
	host_id=$1
else
	# $RANDOM goes from 0..32k-1
	number=$((((RANDOM % 4) * 32768 + RANDOM) * 32768 + RANDOM))
	host_id=$(printf "%08x" $number)
fi

if egrep -o '^0{8}$' <<< $host_id >/dev/null 2>&1; then
	usage
	exit 2
fi

if ! egrep -o '^[a-fA-F0-9]{8}$' <<< $host_id >/dev/null 2>&1; then
	usage
	exit 3
fi

a=${host_id:6:2}
b=${host_id:4:2}
c=${host_id:2:2}
d=${host_id:0:2}

echo -ne \\x$a\\x$b\\x$c\\x$d > $hostid_file

exit 0