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14 <h2>The Standard Client</h2>
19 <address><a href="mailto:djk@tobit.co.uk">Dirk Koopman G1TLH</a></address>
21 <!-- Created: Sun Dec 13 20:25:14 GMT 1998 -->
23 Last modified: Fri Jan 19 14:25:13 GMT 2001
28 The standard client program is written in perl and lives in <tt>/spider/perl/client.pl</tt>.
29 It performs the interface function
30 between the cluster daemon (<tt>/spider/perl/cluster.pl</tt>) and
31 AX25 or Telnet connections, both incoming and outgoing.
33 <p>There is a related program called <tt>/spider/perl/console.pl</tt> which,
34 as of version 1.30, is the standard sysop or full duplex telnet user
35 connected interface program. This is a simple screen oriented program
36 that has a bash or shell like command history editing facility as well
37 as a scrolling cluster window with colouration of particular lines of
38 interest (such as DX spots, Announces etc).
43 The client itself is a rather rudimentary program which really only deals with
44 things like line end conventions and noticing when a connection goes away. It is
45 envisaged that at some time in the nearish future this program will be written in
46 C and thus become considerably smaller. But, for the moment and whilst this area
47 is under some development, it will remain in perl for ease of change.
49 <P>The client can take up two arguments: a "callsign" and a connection type.
51 <p>The "callsign" can have the following values:-
53 <p><li>A real callsign (!).
55 <P>For incoming connections it is important to make sure that
56 the callsign passed <b>DOES NOT</b> have an SSID (use the %u
57 or %U in <tt>ax25d.conf</tt>). The DXSpider system largely
58 ignores what it regards as 'duplicate' callsigns (and that
59 includes those with SSIDs) except in certain <a
60 href="#special">special</a> cases.
62 <P><li>The name of a <a href="connect.html">connect</a> script.
64 <p><li><b>login</b> This will cause a unix like <tt>login:</tt> and
65 <tt>password:</tt> phase to be run. With version 1.13 the password isn't
66 checked unless there is a password recorded in the user file - but you have
67 no means of recording a password! (unless you have created a local <tt>set/password</tt>
68 command - please donate a copy it you have)
70 <p>Also in 1.13 only existing users can enter via this means. This will probably
71 change, but please discuss this in the <a href="../lists/dxspider-support/index.html">support</a>
76 <p>The connection type can be:-
78 <p><li><b>ax25</b> This tells the client to use ax25 line conventions.
80 <p><li><b>telnet</b> This tells the client to use normal unix line conventions.
82 <p><li><b>connect</b> Start an outgoing <a href="connect.html">connect</a> script.
83 Use the line conventions in that script.
86 <p>The connection type can be missing in which case the default is unix line conventions.
88 <p>If both the callsign and the connection are missing then it is
89 assumed that the client is the sysop and uses the callsign set in
90 your local copy of <a href="install.html#dxvar">DXVars.pm</a>.
92 <h4>Considerations</h4>
94 <a name="special"></a>As mentioned earlier, SSIDs are generally stripped from
95 callsigns except in two cases:
97 <p><li>For Cluster node callsigns. Although here in the UK we are issued with
98 special callsigns to run cluster nodes and BBSs, this is not universal. Therefore
99 by marking a callsign as a node you disable SSID checking. You will have to treat
100 incoming cluster callsigns specially in <tt>ax25d.conf</tt> to use this feature (i.e
101 you will have to set up a line specially for that callsign with a %s or %S for the
102 callsign substitution [better just put the callsign you want!]).
104 <p><li>The sysop callsign set up in your local copy of
105 <a href="install.html#dxvar">DXVars.pm</a>. You must call <tt>client.pl</tt> with
106 no parameters for this to work.
111 The client only uses files when in the <b>login</b> phase. It
112 prints the <tt>/spider/data/issue</tt> file, if it is present, to
113 the user before issuing the <tt>login:</tt> prompt. After a callsign
114 and password is entered it uses
115 the standard cluster user file to check them.
117 <p>Having said all of that the client <em>appears</em> to use the following files and
118 sends them to the user if they are present:-
120 <li><b>/spider/data/motd</b> which is sent to the user on normal user startup.
121 <li><b>/spider/data/logout</b> which is sent to user on disconnection.
122 <li><b>/spider/data/offline</b> which is sent to the user if the cluster daemon
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