If editing the control file manually, make sure it has a valid syntax. To check the syntax, use the tools already available on the distribution. For example, to verify that the file is well-formed, use the utility xmllint available with the libxml2 package:

xmllint <control file>

If the control file is not well formed, for example, if a tag is not closed, xmllint will report about the errors.

Before going on with the autoinstallation, fix any errors resulting from such checks. The autoinstallation process cannot be started with an invalid and not well-formed control file.

You can use any XML editor available on your system or your favorite text editor with XML support (for example, Emacs, Vim). However, it is not optimal to create the control file manually for a large number of machines and it should only be seen as an interface between the autoinstallation engine and the Configuration Management System (CMS).

Figure 3.2. Editing the control file with kxmledit