Ok, you should now have DXSpider running nicely and allowing connects by cluster -nodes or users. However, it has to be shutdown and restarted manually and if -connection scripts fail they have to be started again manually too, not much use -if you are not at the console! So, in this section we will automate both. -Firstly starting the cluster. +
From 1.48 onwards it will become increasingly possible to control DXSpider's +operation with scripts of various kinds.
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This is not only a way to start the cluster automatically, it also works as a -watchdog, checking the sanity of DXSpider and respawning it should it crash for -any reason. Before doing the following, shutdown the cluster as you did earlier. -
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Login as root and bring up the /etc/inittab file in your favourite editor. Add -the following lines to the file near the end ... +
In the first instance, in 1.48, the sysop can create, with their favorite +text editor, files in the directory /spider/scripts which contain +any legal command for a callsign or class of connection which will be executed +at logon.
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-##Start DXSpider on bootup and respawn it should it crash
-DX:3:respawn:/bin/su -c "/usr/bin/perl -w /spider/perl/cluster.pl" sysop >/dev/tty7
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-+The filename are the callsign of the connection that you want the script to +operate on, eg: /spider/scripts/g1tlh. The filenames are always in +lower case on those architectures where this makes a difference.
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This line works fine for RedHat and SuSE distributions. The line required for -Slackware distributions is slightly different. My thanks to Aurelio, PA3EZL for -this information. +
In addition to the callsign specific scripts there are three others:-
-DX:23:respawn:/bin/su - sysop -c "/usr/bin/perl -w /spider/perl/cluster.pl" >/dev/tty7
+startup
+user_default
+node_default
The startup script is executed immediately after all +initialisation of the node is done, but before any connections are +possible.
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This will automatically start DXSpider on tty7 (ALT-F7) on bootup and restart -it should it crash for any reason. -
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As root type the command telinit q. DXSpider should start up -immediately. You will see the output on tty7 and if you login as sysop -you should find everything running nicely. -
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So far so good, now to automate script connections... -
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Login as sysop and create a file in /spider/local_cmd called crontab. -Edit it with your favourite editor and add a line like this (I have included -a comment) -
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-# check every 10 minutes to see if gb7xxx is connected and if not
-# start a connect job going
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-0,10,20,30,40,50 * * * * start_connect('gb7xxx') if !connected('gb7xxx')
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-The user_default script is executed for every user that does +NOT already have a specific script.
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The callsign involved will be the callsign of the cluster node you are -going to connect to. This will now check every 10 minutes to see if -gb7xxx is connected, if it is then nothing will be done. If it is not, -then a connect attempt will be started. +
The node_default script is executed for every node that doesn't +have a specific script.
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There are probably lots of other things you could use this crontab file for. -If you want to know more about it, look at the -DXSpider website -at the cron page where it is explained more fully. +
There are a couple of examples in the /spider/scripts directory.