[syslinux] How to run server side script from boot menu selection ?

[Moody Ahmad]

Here is what I am trying to do but don't know if it is possible or how to do.

Scenario:
A pxelinux.cfg boot menu item to load a pristine image.

This would execute a script on the linux server providing the pxe boot service to copy / rsync a pristine image and boot from that image. Or at least just do the copy on the server side.

Context:
I am setting up a drbl (diskless remote boot linux) environment at a public library. I would like users to be able to add software, make changes to the image as they want (free as in open source). Then the next user can just boot from a pristine image by rebooting and selecting that option. For this to work I need the pxe menu item to actually do the copy over of the pristine image on the server.

Is this possible? I have looked through the pxelinux and syslinux documentation on the menu options and haven't seen a way to execute a server side script. The script needs a few variable like the mac address and assigned dhcp ip address for the client. I would like to do the script in bash or perl.

Any help on doing this would be greatly appreciated. I have been digging through a lot of documentation and have not found a way to do this yet.

Thanks in advance,

Moody