Linux-Server-Management-Toolkit/docs/SYSTEM-VARIABLES-READY-FOR-UPDATES.md

System Variables Architecture - Ready for Script Updates

Status: ✅ INFRASTRUCTURE COMPLETE AND TESTED Date: 2026-03-20 Test Results: All variables correctly detected and derived on cPanel/AlmaLinux system

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What's Been Completed

Phase 1: Comprehensive Audit ✅

• Analyzed 105 shell scripts across all modules
• Found 300+ hardcoded platform-specific paths
• Categorized into 10 log categories + other configs
• Identified 140+ unique variables needed

Phase 2: Detection & Derivation Infrastructure ✅

• System detection (lib/system-detect.sh): Detects control panel, OS, web server, database, mail system, firewall
• Log paths derivation (lib/log-paths.sh): 10 categories → 28 variables
• Database paths derivation (lib/database-paths.sh): MySQL/PostgreSQL → 9 variables
• Service info derivation (lib/service-info.sh): Services, users, init system, package manager → 24 variables
• Control panel paths derivation (lib/control-panel-paths.sh): cPanel/Plesk/InterWorx specific → 33 variables
• Web server config derivation (lib/web-server-config.sh): Apache/Nginx/LiteSpeed configs → 28 variables

Phase 3: Variable Export ✅

• lib/system-variables.sh: Master file that re-exports all 140+ variables
• Tested and verified working on cPanel/AlmaLinux system
• Variables correctly derived based on platform combo

Phase 4: Documentation ✅

• SYSTEM-VARIABLES-REFERENCE.md: Complete reference of all variables
• SYSTEM-VARIABLES-MAPPING-COMPLETE.md: Coverage analysis and examples
• LOG-PATHS-REFERENCE.md: Original log paths documentation

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Test Results (Verified)

System: cPanel on AlmaLinux
Test: source launcher.sh && check variables

Results:
✅ SYS_CONTROL_PANEL=cpanel (correct)
✅ SYS_OS_TYPE=almalinux (correct)
✅ SYS_WEB_SERVER=apache (correct)
✅ SYS_LOG_WEB_ACCESS=/var/log/httpd/access_log (correct for RHEL)
✅ SYS_DB_SOCKET=/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock (correct for RHEL)
✅ All derivation functions executed without errors

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How Scripts Will Use This

Current Pattern (Hardcoded)

#!/bin/bash
if [ -f "/var/log/apache2/domlogs" ]; then
    # cPanel code
    tail -f /var/log/apache2/domlogs/*.log
elif [ -f "/var/www/vhosts/system" ]; then
    # Plesk code
    tail -f /var/www/vhosts/system/*/logs/access_log
fi

New Pattern (Using Variables)

#!/bin/bash
source lib/system-variables.sh

# Works everywhere - launcher already detected the platform
tail -f "$SYS_LOG_WEB_DOMAIN_ACCESS"/*

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Variables Ready to Use (Sample)

Log Files (Ready to replace hardcoded paths)

$SYS_LOG_WEB_ACCESS          # /var/log/apache2/access.log or /var/log/httpd/access_log
$SYS_LOG_WEB_ERROR           # /var/log/apache2/error.log or /var/log/httpd/error_log
$SYS_LOG_WEB_DOMAIN_ACCESS   # /var/log/apache2/domlogs or /var/www/vhosts/system or /home/*/var/*/logs
$SYS_LOG_AUTH                # /var/log/auth.log or /var/log/secure
$SYS_LOG_MAIL_MAIN           # /var/log/exim_mainlog or /var/log/maillog or /var/log/mail.log
$SYS_LOG_FIREWALL            # /var/log/lfd.log or /var/log/messages or /var/log/syslog
$SYS_LOG_DB_ERROR            # /var/log/mysqld.log or /var/log/mysql/error.log

Service Names (Ready to replace hardcoded names)

$SYS_WEB_SERVICE             # "httpd" or "apache2" or "nginx"
$SYS_WEB_USER                # "apache" or "www-data" or "nginx"
$SYS_DB_SERVICE              # "mysqld" or "mariadb" or "postgresql"
$SYS_MAIL_SERVICE            # "exim" or "postfix" or "sendmail"

Database Connections (Ready to replace socket paths)

$SYS_DB_SOCKET               # /var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock or /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
$SYS_DB_CONFIG               # /etc/my.cnf or /etc/mysql/my.cnf

Control Panel Paths (Ready to replace panel detection)

$SYS_CPANEL_USERS_DIR        # /var/cpanel/users (cPanel only)
$SYS_CPANEL_USERDATA_DIR     # /var/cpanel/userdata (cPanel only)
$SYS_PLESK_VHOSTS_BASE       # /var/www/vhosts (Plesk only)
$SYS_INTERWORX_CHROOT_BASE   # /chroot/home (InterWorx only)

Service Control Commands (Ready to replace init system detection)

$SYS_SERVICE_RESTART         # "systemctl restart" or "service ... restart"
$SYS_SERVICE_START           # "systemctl start" or "service ... start"
$SYS_SERVICE_STOP            # "systemctl stop" or "service ... stop"

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Priority Update List (From Audit)

Tier 1: Critical Impact (54+ log references each)

1. live-attack-monitor-v2.sh (54 refs)
2. live-attack-monitor.sh (50 refs)
3. malware-scanner.sh (45 refs)
4. hardware-health-check.sh (40 refs)
5. suspicious-login-monitor.sh (32 refs)

Tier 2: High Impact (20-30 references)

• wordpress-cron-manager.sh
• website-slowness-diagnostics.sh
• website-error-analyzer.sh
• 500-error-tracker.sh
• bot-analyzer.sh
• tail-apache-access.sh

Tier 3: Medium Impact (10-19 references)

• web-traffic-monitor.sh
• cloudflare-detector.sh
• system-health-check.sh
• email-diagnostics.sh
• Various other scripts

Tier 4: Low Impact (2-9 references)

• Remaining 40+ scripts

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Update Template for Scripts

Step 1: Add sourcing

#!/bin/bash
set -eo pipefail

SCRIPT_DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" && pwd)"
BASE_DIR="$(cd "$SCRIPT_DIR/../.." && pwd)"

# Source the variables (launcher already ran detection)
source "$BASE_DIR/lib/system-variables.sh"

Step 2: Replace hardcoded paths with variables

# BEFORE
if grep -q "error" /var/log/apache2/error.log; then
    echo "Errors found"
fi

# AFTER
if grep -q "error" "$SYS_LOG_WEB_ERROR"; then
    echo "Errors found"
fi

Step 3: Remove platform detection code

# DELETE this code - platform is already detected
if [ -f "/usr/local/cpanel/version" ]; then
    # ... cPanel code ...
fi

# Use variables instead
if [ -d "$SYS_CPANEL_USERS_DIR" ]; then
    # ... cPanel code ...
fi

Step 4: Use service commands from variables

# BEFORE
systemctl restart httpd   # fails on Debian
service httpd restart     # fails on systemd

# AFTER
restart_service "$SYS_WEB_SERVICE"    # Works everywhere

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Available Helper Functions

Convenience functions available after sourcing lib/system-variables.sh:

# Service management
restart_service "service_name"           # Works on systemd and sysvinit
is_service_running "service_name"        # Check if service is running

# Log operations
log_exists "log_path"                    # Check if log file exists

# Platform info
get_platform_summary                     # Get text summary of platform

# Log categories
get_log_vars_by_category "web"           # Get all web log variables

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Migration Path

Phase 1: Tier 1 Scripts (5 scripts, ~220 hardcoded paths)

1. Update live-attack-monitor-v2.sh
2. Update live-attack-monitor.sh
3. Update malware-scanner.sh
4. Update hardware-health-check.sh
5. Update suspicious-login-monitor.sh

Effort: ~8-12 hours Testing: All platforms (cPanel, Plesk, InterWorx, Standalone)

Phase 2: Tier 2 Scripts (~6 scripts, ~100 hardcoded paths)

• Website and WordPress monitoring scripts
• Error analysis scripts

Effort: ~4-6 hours Testing: Core platforms

Phase 3: Tier 3 & 4 Scripts (40+ scripts)

• Remaining modules gradually updated
• Lower-impact scripts can be updated in batches

Effort: ~10-20 hours total Testing: Representative sample testing

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Validation Checklist Before Updating Script

• Script has proper shebang and strict mode (set -eo pipefail)
• Script sources lib/system-variables.sh
• No hardcoded /var/log, /var/www, /home, /usr/local, /var/cpanel paths
• No platform-specific conditionals (use variables instead)
• Service commands use variables or helper functions
• Database operations use $SYS_DB_SOCKET
• All variables checked for null before use (some may be empty on non-matching platforms)
• Script tested on at least 2 platform combinations

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Testing Strategy

Single Script Test

cd /root/server-toolkit-beta

# Source the updated script
source modules/security/updated-script.sh

# Run the script
/root/server-toolkit-beta/launcher.sh

Multi-Platform Test (Simulate)

# Set variables for different platform combinations
export SYS_CONTROL_PANEL=plesk
export SYS_OS_TYPE=ubuntu

# Run the script and verify correct paths are used

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Files Reference

New Files Created

• lib/log-paths.sh - Log path derivation
• lib/database-paths.sh - Database path derivation
• lib/service-info.sh - Service name derivation
• lib/control-panel-paths.sh - Panel path derivation
• lib/web-server-config.sh - Web server config derivation
• lib/system-variables.sh - Master variable export (updated)
• docs/SYSTEM-VARIABLES-REFERENCE.md - Complete variable reference
• docs/SYSTEM-VARIABLES-MAPPING-COMPLETE.md - Coverage and examples
• docs/SYSTEM-VARIABLES-READY-FOR-UPDATES.md - This file

Modified Files

• launcher.sh - Sources new derivation libraries
• lib/system-detect.sh - Calls new derivation functions

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Key Points for Script Writers

1. Launcher runs detection once - Don't re-detect in scripts
2. All variables are pre-set - Just source and use them
3. Variables may be empty - Check before using (some platforms don't have all services)
4. Use SYS_ for everything* - Never hardcode paths
5. Test on multiple platforms - Variables are platform-aware
6. Use helper functions - restart_service() works everywhere

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Summary

✅ Infrastructure complete and tested ✅ 140+ variables ready to use ✅ 5 new derivation libraries created ✅ Comprehensive documentation provided ✅ Helper functions available ✅ Priority list identified ✅ Update templates ready

Next Step: Start updating scripts using the priority list (Tier 1 first)

All hardcoded platform-specific paths can now be replaced with variables that automatically adapt to the detected platform.