1 <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//EN">
4 <META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="LinuxDoc-Tools 0.9.16">
5 <TITLE>The DXSpider Administration Manual v1.50: Information, files and useful programs</TITLE>
6 <LINK HREF="adminmanual_en-7.html" REL=next>
7 <LINK HREF="adminmanual_en-5.html" REL=previous>
8 <LINK HREF="adminmanual_en.html#toc6" REL=contents>
9 <link rel=stylesheet href="style.css" type="text/css" title="default stylesheet">
12 <A HREF="adminmanual_en-7.html">Next</A>
13 <A HREF="adminmanual_en-5.html">Previous</A>
14 <A HREF="adminmanual_en.html#toc6">Contents</A>
16 <H2><A NAME="s6">6.</A> <A HREF="adminmanual_en.html#toc6">Information, files and useful programs</A></H2>
18 <H2><A NAME="ss6.1">6.1</A> <A HREF="adminmanual_en.html#toc6.1">MOTD</A>
21 <P>One of the more important things a cluster sysop needs to do is to get
22 information to his users. The simplest way to do this is to have a banner
23 that is sent to the user on login. This is know as a "message of the day"
24 or "motd". To set this up, simply create a file in /spider/data called motd
25 and edit it to say whatever you want. It is purely a text file and will be
26 sent automatically to anyone logging in to the cluster.</P>
28 <H2><A NAME="ss6.2">6.2</A> <A HREF="adminmanual_en.html#toc6.2">MOTD_NOR</A>
31 <P>This message of the day file lives in the same directory as the standard
32 motd file but is only sent to non-registered users. Once registered they
33 will receive the same message as any other user.</P>
35 <H2><A NAME="ss6.3">6.3</A> <A HREF="adminmanual_en.html#toc6.3">Downtime message</A>
38 <P>If for any reason the cluster is down, maybe for upgrade or maintenance but
39 the machine is still running, a message can be sent to the user advising them
40 of the fact. This message lives in the /spider/data directory and is called
41 "offline". Simply create the file and edit it to say whatever you wish.
42 This file will be sent to a user attempting to log into the cluster when
43 DXSpider is not actually running.</P>
45 <H2><A NAME="ss6.4">6.4</A> <A HREF="adminmanual_en.html#toc6.4">Other text messages</A>
48 <P>You can set other text messages to be read by the user if they input the file
49 name. This could be for news items or maybe information for new users.
50 To set this up, make a directory under /spider called <EM>packclus</EM>.
51 Under this directory you can create files called <EM>news</EM> or <EM>newuser</EM>
52 for example. In fact you can create files with any names you like. These can
53 be listed by the user with the command ....</P>
61 <P>They can be read by the user by typing the command ....</P>
69 <P>If the file they want to read is called <EM>news</EM>. You could also set
70 an alias for this in the Alias file to allow them just to type <EM>news</EM></P>
72 <P>You can also store other information in this directory, either directly or
73 nested under directories. One use for this would be to store DX bulletins
74 such as the OPDX bulletins. These can be listed and read by the user.
75 To keep things tidy, make a directory under /spider/packclus called
76 <EM>bulletin</EM>. Now copy any OPDX or similar bulletins into it. These
77 can be listed by the user in the same way as above using the <EM>show/files</EM>
78 command with an extension for the bulletin directory you have just created,
88 <P>An example would look like this ....</P>
93 bulletin DIR 20-Dec-1999 1715Z news 1602 14-Dec-1999 1330Z
97 <P>You can see that in the files area (basically the packclus directory) there is a
98 file called <EM>news</EM> and a directory called <EM>bulletin</EM>. You can
99 also see that dates they were created. In the case of the file <EM>news</EM>,
100 you can also see the time it was last modified, a good clue as to whether the
101 file has been updated since you last read it. To read the file called
102 <EM>news</EM> you would simply issue the command ....</P>
110 <P>To look what is in the bulletin directory you issue the command ....</P>
115 opdx390 21381 29-Nov-1999 1621Z opdx390.1 1670 29-Nov-1999 1621Z
116 opdx390.2 2193 29-Nov-1999 1621Z opdx391 25045 29-Nov-1999 1621Z
117 opdx392 35969 29-Nov-1999 1621Z opdx393 15023 29-Nov-1999 1621Z
118 opdx394 33429 29-Nov-1999 1621Z opdx394.1 3116 29-Nov-1999 1621Z
119 opdx395 24319 29-Nov-1999 1621Z opdx396 32647 29-Nov-1999 1621Z
120 opdx396.1 5537 29-Nov-1999 1621Z opdx396.2 6242 29-Nov-1999 1621Z
121 opdx397 18433 29-Nov-1999 1621Z opdx398 19961 29-Nov-1999 1621Z
122 opdx399 17719 29-Nov-1999 1621Z opdx400 19600 29-Nov-1999 1621Z
123 opdx401 27738 29-Nov-1999 1621Z opdx402 18698 29-Nov-1999 1621Z
124 opdx403 24994 29-Nov-1999 1621Z opdx404 15685 29-Nov-1999 1621Z
125 opdx405 13984 29-Nov-1999 1621Z opdx405.1 4166 29-Nov-1999 1621Z
126 opdx406 28934 29-Nov-1999 1621Z opdx407 24153 29-Nov-1999 1621Z
127 opdx408 15081 29-Nov-1999 1621Z opdx409 23234 29-Nov-1999 1621Z
128 Press Enter to continue, A to abort (16 lines) >
132 <P>You can now read any file in this directory using the type command, like this ....</P>
136 type bulletin/opdx391
137 Ohio/Penn DX Bulletin No. 391
138 The Ohio/Penn Dx PacketCluster
142 Editor Tedd Mirgliotta, KB8NW
143 Provided by BARF-80 BBS Cleveland, Ohio
144 Online at 440-237-8208 28.8k-1200 Baud 8/N/1 (New Area Code!)
145 Thanks to the Northern Ohio Amateur Radio Society, Northern Ohio DX
146 Association, Ohio/Penn PacketCluster Network, K1XN & Golist, WB2RAJ/WB2YQH
147 & The 59(9) DXReport, W3UR & The Daily DX, K3TEJ, KN4UG, W4DC, NC6J, N6HR,
148 Press Enter to continue, A to abort (508 lines) >
152 <P>The page length will of course depend on what you have it set to!</P>
154 <H2><A NAME="ss6.5">6.5</A> <A HREF="adminmanual_en.html#toc6.5">The Aliases file</A>
157 <P>You will find a file in /spider/cmd/ called Aliases. This is the file that
158 controls what a user gets when issuing a command. It is also possible to
159 create your own aliases for databases and files you create locally.</P>
161 <P>You should not alter the original file in /spider/cmd/ but create a new file
162 with the same name in /spider/local_cmd. This means that any new Aliases files
163 that is downloaded will not overwrite your self created Aliases and also that
164 you do not override any new Aliases with your copy in /spider/local_cmd/. You
165 must remember that any files you store in /spider/local/ or /spider/local_cmd
166 override the originals if the same lines are used in both files.</P>
168 <P>The best way of dealing with all this then is to only put your own locally
169 created Aliases in the copy in /spider/local_cmd. The example below is
170 currently in use at GB7MBC.</P>
183 '^news$', 'type news', 'type',
186 '^sh\w*/buck$', 'show/qrz', 'show',
187 '^sh\w*/hftest$', 'dbshow hftest', 'dbshow',
188 '^sh\w*/qsl$', 'dbshow qsl', 'dbshow',
189 '^sh\w*/vhf$', 'dbshow vhf', 'dbshow',
190 '^sh\w*/vhftest$', 'dbshow vhftest', 'dbshow',
197 <P>Each alphabetical section should be preceded by the initial letter and the section
198 should be wrapped in square brackets as you can see. The syntax is straightforward.
199 The first section on each line is the new command that will be allowed once the
200 alias is included. The second section is the command it is replacing and the last
201 section is the actual command that is being used.</P>
203 <P>The eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed that in the first section, the new
204 alias command has a '^' at the start and a '$' at the end. Basically these force
205 a perfect match on the alias. The '^' says match the beginning exactly and the
206 '$' says match the end exactly. This prevents unwanted and unintentional matches
207 with similar commands.</P>
209 <P>I have 3 different types of alias in this file. At the top is an alias for 'news'.
210 This is a file I have created in the /spider/packclus/ directory where I can inform
211 users of new developments or points of interest. In it's initial form a user would
212 have to use the command <EM>type news</EM>. The alias allows them to simply type
213 <EM>news</EM> to get the info. Second is an alias for the <EM>show/qrz</EM>
214 command so that those users used to the original <EM>show/buck</EM> command in
215 AK1A will not get an error, and the rest of the lines are for locally created
216 databases so that a user can type <EM>show/hftest</EM> instead of having to use
217 the command <EM>dbshow hftest</EM> which is not as intuitive.</P>
219 <P>This file is just an example and you should edit it to your own requirements.
220 Once created, simply issue the command <EM>load/alias</EM> at the cluster
221 prompt as the sysop user and the aliases should be available.</P>
224 <H2><A NAME="ss6.6">6.6</A> <A HREF="adminmanual_en.html#toc6.6">Console.pl</A>
227 <P>In later versions of Spider a simple console program is provided for the sysop.
228 This has a type ahead buffer with line editing facilities and colour for spots,
229 announces etc. To use this program, simply use console.pl instead of client.</P>
231 <P>To edit the colours, copy /spider/perl/Console.pl to /spider/local and edit the
232 file with your favourite editor.</P>
234 <H2><A NAME="ss6.7">6.7</A> <A HREF="adminmanual_en.html#toc6.7">Updating kepler data</A>
237 <P>Spider has a powerful and flexible show/satellite command. In order for
238 this to be accurate, the kepler data has to be updated regularly. In
239 general, this data is available as an email or via cluster mail.
240 Updating it is simple. First you need to export the mail message as a
241 file. You do this with the <EM>export</EM> command from the cluster prompt
242 as the sysop. For example ...</P>
246 export 5467 /spider/perl/keps.in
251 <P>would export message number 5467 as a file called keps.in in the
252 /spider/perl directory.</P>
254 <P>Now login to a VT as sysop and cd /spider/perl. There is a command in
255 the perl directory called <EM>convkeps.pl</EM>. All we need to do now is
256 convert the file like so ...</P>
260 ./convkeps.pl keps.in
265 <P>Now go back to the cluster and issue the command ...</P>
274 <P>That is it! the kepler data has been updated.</P>
276 <H2><A NAME="ss6.8">6.8</A> <A HREF="adminmanual_en.html#toc6.8">The QRZ callbook</A>
279 <P>The command <EM>sh/qrz</EM> will only work once you have followed a few
280 simple steps. First you need to get a user ID and password from qrz.com.
281 Simply go to the site and create one. Secondly you need to copy the file
282 /spider/perl/Internet.pm to /spider/local and alter it to match your user
283 ID and password. You also at this point need to set $allow=1 to complete
284 the setup. Many thanks to Fred Lloyd, the proprieter of
285 <A HREF="http://www.qrz.com">qrz.com</A> for allowing this access.</P>
287 <H2><A NAME="ss6.9">6.9</A> <A HREF="adminmanual_en.html#toc6.9">Connecting logging programs</A>
290 <P>There appear to be very few logging programs out there that support telnet
291 especially the popular ones like LogEQF, Turbolog etc. This can make it
292 difficult to connect to your own cluster!
293 The way to do it is to make the logging program think it has a TNC attached
294 to a com port on the logging PC and 'push' a linux login out to it.
295 This is achieved very simply by the use of <EM>agetty</EM>.</P>
297 <P>All that is required is to add a line in /etc/inittab to have the client
298 ready for a connection on the com port of your choice. Remember that in
299 Linux, the com ports start at ttyS0 for com1, ttyS1 for com2 etc.</P>
303 c4:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -L 9600 ttyS1
308 <P>Add this after the standard runlevel lines in /etc/inittab. The above
309 line works on ttyS1 (com2). Now as root, issue the command <EM>telinit q</EM>
310 and it should be ready for connection. All that is required is a 3 wire
311 serial lead (tx, rx and signal ground). Tell you logging program to use
312 8n1 at 9600 baud and you should see a Linux login prompt. Login as normal
313 and then telnet from there to the cluster.</P>
316 <A HREF="adminmanual_en-7.html">Next</A>
317 <A HREF="adminmanual_en-5.html">Previous</A>
318 <A HREF="adminmanual_en.html#toc6">Contents</A>