[spider.git] / sgml / adminmanual.sgml

<!doctype linuxdoc system>

<article>

<!-- Title information -->

<title>The DXSpider Installation and Administration Manual 
<author>Ian Maude, G0VGS, (ianmaude@btinternet.com)
<date>Version 1.28 January 2001
<abstract>
A reference for SysOps of the DXSpider DXCluster program.
</abstract>

<!-- Table of contents -->
<toc>

<!-- Begin the document -->

<sect>Installation (Original version by Iain Phillips, G0RDI)

<P>
Last modified: 03 January 2001 by Ian Maude, G0VGS

<sect1>Introduction

<P>
This section describes the installation of DX Spider v1.35 on a 
<htmlurl url="http://www.redhat.com" name="RedHat"> Linux Distribution.  
I do not intend to try and cover the installation of Linux or the setup 
of the AX25 utilities.  If you need help on this then read Iains original 
HOWTO on the <htmlurl url="http://www.dxcluster.org" name="DXSpider"> 
website.

<P>
I am assuming a general knowledge of Linux and its commands.  You should 
know how to use <em>tar</em> and how to edit files using your favourite editor.

<P>
The crucial ingredient for all of this is 
<htmlurl url="http://www.perl.org" name="Perl 5.004">.  Now I know Perl 5.005 
is out and this will almost certainly work with it, but 
<htmlurl url="http://www.redhat.com" name="RedHat 5.1"> comes with 5.004. 
<em>Be Warned</em>, earlier versions of 
<htmlurl url="http://www.redhat.com" name="RedHat"> <bf>do not</bf> come 
with 5.004 as standard, you need to 
<htmlurl url="ftp://upgrade.redhat.com" name="upgrade">

<P>In addition to the standard Red Hat distribution you will require the 
following <htmlurl url="http://www.cpan.org/CPAN.html" name="CPAN"> modules: -

<P>
<itemize>

<item>          MD5-1.7.tar.gz
<item>          Data-Dumper-2.10.tar.gz
<item>          FreezeThaw-0.3.tar.gz
<item>          MLDBM-2.00.tar.gz
<item>          TimeDate-1.08.tar.gz
<item>          IO-1.20.tar.gz
<item>          Net-Telnet-3.02.tar.gz
<item>          Curses-1.05.tar.gz
<item>          Time-HiRes-01.20.tar.gz

</itemize>

<P>

<em>Do</em> get the latest versions of these packages and install them 
but use the above list as the earliest versions usable.

<sect1>Preparation

<P>
I will assume that you have already downloaded the latest tarball of 
the DXSpider software and are ready to install it. I am assuming version 
1.35 for this section but of course you would use the latest version.

<P>
Login as root and create a user to run the cluster under.  <bf><it>UNDER 
NO CIRCUMSTANCES USE ROOT AS THIS USER!</it></bf>.  I am going to use 
the name <em>sysop</em>.  You can call it anything you wish.  Depending 
on your security requirements you may wish to use an existing user, 
however this is your own choice.

<P>
<tscreen><verb>
# adduser -m sysop
</verb></tscreen>

<P>
Now set a password for the user ...

<tscreen><verb>
# passwd sysop
# New UNIX password:
# Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully
</verb></tscreen>

<sect1>Installing the software

<P>
Now to unpack the DX Spider distribution, set symbolic links and group 
permissions.  Copy the tarball to /home/sysop and do the following.

<tscreen><verb>
# cd ~sysop
# tar xvfz spider-1.35.tar.gz
# ln -s ~sysop/spider /spider
# groupadd -g 251 spider       (or another number)
</verb></tscreen>

If you do not have the command <em>groupadd</em> available to you simply 
add a line in /etc/group by hand.

<tscreen><verb>
# vi /etc/group                (or your favorite editor)
</verb></tscreen>

You also need to add some others to the group, including your own callsign 
(this will be used as an alias) and root.  The finished line in /etc/group 
should look something like this

<tt>
spider:x:251:sysop,g0vgs,root
</tt>

<P>
The next step is to set the permissions on the Spider directory tree and files ....

<tscreen><verb>
# chown -R sysop.spider spider
# find . -type d -exec chmod 2775 {} \;
# find . -type f -exec chmod 775 {} \;
</verb></tscreen>

<P>
This last step allows various users of the group <em>spider</em> to have 
write access to all the directories.  This is not really needed just yet 
but will be useful when web interfaces start to appear.

<P>
Finally, you need to fix the permissions on the ax25_call and netrom_call 
programs.  Check where they are with the <em>locate</em> command and alter 
the permissions with the <em>chmod</em> command like this ..

<tscreen><verb>
# chown root ax25_call netrom_call
# chmod 4775 ax25_call netrom_call
</verb></tscreen>

<sect1>Setting callsigns etc

<P>
Now login to your machine as the user you created earlier.  In my case that 
user is called <em>sysop</em>.  Once logged in, issue the following commands ....

<tscreen><verb>
$ cd /spider
$ mkdir local
$ mkdir local_cmd
$ cp perl/DXVars.pm.issue local/DXVars.pm
$ cd local
$ vi DXVars.pm (or your favourite editor)
</verb></tscreen>

<P>
Using the distributed DXVars.pm as a a template, set your cluster callsign, 
sysop callsign and other user info to suit your own environment. Note that 
this a perl file which will be parsed and executed as part of the cluster. If 
you get it wrong then perl will complain when you start the cluster process.  
It is important only to alter the text of any section.  Some of the lines look 
a little odd.  Take this line for example ....

<tt>
$myemail = "ianmaude\@btinternet.com";
</tt>

<P>
There appears to be an extra slash in there.  However this has to be there 
for the file to work so leave it in.
                
<P><bf>PLEASE USE CAPITAL LETTERS FOR CALLSIGNS</bf>
                
<P>
DON'T alter the DXVars.pm (or any other file) in /spider/perl, they are 
overwritten with every release. Any files or commands you place in /spider/local 
or /spider/local_cmd will automagically be used in preference to the ones in 
/spider/perl EVEN while the cluster is running!

<P>
Save the new file and change directory to ../perl ....

<tscreen><verb>
$ cd ../perl
</verb></tscreen>

<P>
Now type the following command which creates the basic user file with you as 
the sysop.

<tscreen><verb>
$ create_sysop.pl
</verb></tscreen>

<sect1>Starting up for the first time

<P>
We can now bring spider up for the first time and see if all is well or not!  
It should look something like this ...

<tscreen><verb>
$ cluster.pl
DXSpider DX Cluster Version 1.35
Copyright (c) 1998 Dirk Koopman G1TLH
loading prefixes ...
loading band data ...
loading user file system ...
starting listener ...
reading existing message headers
reading cron jobs
orft we jolly well go ...
</verb></tscreen>

<P>
If all is well then login on another term or console as <em>sysop</em> and 
cd to /spider/perl.  Now issue the following command ...

<tscreen><verb>
$ client.pl
</verb></tscreen>

<P>
This should log you into the cluster as the sysop under the alias callsign we 
set earlier.  In this case the callsign is G0VGS.  The cluster callsign is set 
in the DXVars.pm file in /spider/local.  In this case we will assume that this 
was set as GB7MBC.  You should therefore see this when you login ....

<tscreen><verb>
G0VGS de GB7MBC 19-Nov-1999 2150Z >
</verb></tscreen>

If you do, congratulations!  If not, look over the instructions again, you 
have probably missed something out.  You can shut spider down again with the 
command ....

<tscreen><verb>
shutdown
</verb></tscreen>

<P>
and both the cluster and the client should return to Linux prompts.

<sect>The Client program

<P>
In earlier versions of Spider, all the processes were Perl scripts.  This 
was fine but with a lot of users your computer memory would soon be used up.  
To combat this a new client was written in "C".  This client only works for
<em>incoming</em> connects at the moment.  Before you can use it though it 
has to be "made".  CD to /spider/src and type <em>make</em>.  You 
should see the output on your screen and hopefully now have a small C program 
called <em>client</em>.  Leave it in this directory.

<sect>Configuration

<sect1>Allowing ax25 connects from users

<P>
As stated previously, the aim of this document is not to tell you how to 
configure Linux or the ax25 utilities.  However, you do need to add a line 
in your ax25d.conf to allow connections to DXSpider for your users.  For
each interface that you wish to allow connections on, use the following format ...

<tscreen><verb>
default  * * * * * *  - sysop /spider/src/client client %u ax25
</verb></tscreen>

<sect1>Allowing telnet connects from users

<P>
Allowing telnet connections is quite simple.  Firstly you need to add a line 
in /etc/services to allow connections to a port number, like this ....

<tscreen><verb>
spdlogin   8000/tcp     # spider anonymous login port
</verb></tscreen>

Then add a line in /etc/inetd.conf like this ....

<tscreen><verb>
spdlogin stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/tcpd /spider/src/client login telnet
</verb></tscreen>

<P>
This needs to be added above the standard services such as ftp, telnet etc.  
Once this is done, you need to restart inetd like this ....

<tscreen><verb>
killall -HUP inetd
</verb></tscreen>


<P>Now login as <em>sysop</em> and cd spider/perl. You can test that spider 
is accepting telnet logins by issuing the following command ....

<tscreen><verb>
client.pl login telnet
</verb></tscreen>

You should get a login prompt and on issuing a callsign, you will be given 
access to the cluster.  Note, you will not get a password login.  There seems 
no good reason for a password prompt to be given so it is not asked for.

<P>
Assuming all is well, then try a telnet from your linux console ....

<tscreen><verb>
telnet localhost 8000
</verb></tscreen>

<P>
You should now get the login prompt and be able to login as before.

<sect1>Setting up node connects

<P>
In order to allow cluster node connections, spider needs to know that the 
connecting callsign is a cluster node.  This is the case whether the connect 
is incoming or outgoing.  In spider this is a simple task and can be done in 
runtime.

<P>
Later versions of Spider can distinguish different software and treat them
differently.  For example, the WCY beacon cannot be handles by AK1A type
nodes as AK1A does not know what to do with PC73.  There are 4 different
types of node at present and although they may not have any major
differences at the moment, it allows for compatibility.  The 4 types are ...

<tscreen><verb>
set/node        (AK1A type)
set/spider
set/dxnet
set/clx
</verb></tscreen>

<P>
For now, we will assume that the cluster we are going to connect to is an
AK1A type node.

<P>
Start up the cluster as you did before and login as the sysop with client.pl.
The cluster node I am wanting to make a connection to is GB7BAA but you would
obviously use whatever callsign you required.  At the prompt type ...

<tscreen><verb>
set/node gb7baa
</verb></tscreen>

<P>
The case does not matter as long as you have a version of DXSpider later than 
1.33.  Earlier versions required the callsign to be in upper case.

<P>
That is now set, it is as simple as that.  To prove it, login on yet another 
console as sysop and issue the command ...

<tscreen><verb>
client.pl gb7baa (using the callsign you set as a node)
</verb></tscreen>

<P>
You should get an initialisation string from DXSpider like this ...

<tscreen><verb>
client.pl gb7baa
PC38^GB7MBC^~
</verb></tscreen>

If the callsign you just set up as a cluster node is for an incoming connect, 
this is all that needs to be done.  If the connection is to be outgoing then 
a connection script needs to be written.

<sect1>Connection scripts

<P>
Because DXSpider operates under Linux, connections can be made using just about 
any protocol;  AX25, NETRom, tcp/ip, ROSE etc are all possible examples.  
Connect scripts live in the /spider/connect directory and are simple ascii files.  
Writing a script for connections is therefore relatively simple.  

<P>
The connect scripts consist of lines which start with the following keywords 
or symbols:-

<verb>
        
#               All lines starting with a # are ignored, as are completely 
                blank lines.

timeout         timeout followed by a number is the number of seconds to wait for a 
                command to complete. If there is no timeout specified in the script 
                then the default is 60 seconds.

abort           abort is a regular expression containing one or more strings to look 
                for to abort a connection. This is a perl regular expression and is 
                executed ignoring case.

connect         connect followed by ax25 or telnet and some type dependent 
                information. In the case of a telnet connection, there can be up to 
                two parameters.
                The first is the ip address or hostname of the computer you wish to 
                connect to and the second is the port number you want to use (this 
                can be left out if it is a normal telnet session).
                In the case of an ax25 session then this would normally be a call to
                ax25_call or netrom_call as in the example above. It is your
                responsibility to get your node and other ax25 parameters to work 
                before going down this route!

'               ' is the delimiting character for a word or phrase of an expect/send 
                line in a chat type script. The words/phrases normally come in pairs,
                either can be empty. Each line reads input from the connection until 
                it sees the string (or perl regular expression) contained in the
                left hand string. If the left hand string is empty then it doesn't 
                read or wait for anything. The comparison is done ignoring case.
                When the left hand string has found what it is looking for (if it is)
                then the right hand string is sent to the connection.
                This process is repeated for every line of chat script. 

client          client starts the connection, put the arguments you would want here 
                if you were starting the client program manually. You only need this 
                if the script has a different name to the callsign you are trying to 
                connect to (i.e. you have a script called other which actually 
                connects to GB7DJK-1 [instead of a script called gb7djk-1]).
</verb>


There are many possible ways to configure the script but here are two examples, 
one for a NETRom/AX25 connect and one for tcp/ip.  

<tscreen><verb>
timeout 60
abort (Busy|Sorry|Fail)
# don't forget to chmod 4775 netrom_call!
connect ax25 /usr/sbin/netrom_call bbs gb7djk g1tlh
'Connect' '' 
'Connect' 'c np7'
'Connect' 'c gb7dxm'
# you can leave this out if you call the script 'gb7dxm'
client gb7dxm ax25
</verb></tscreen>

<P>

<tscreen><verb>
timeout 15
connect telnet dirkl.tobit.co.uk
'login' 'gb7djk'
'word' 'gb7djk'
# tell GB7DJK-1 that it is connected to GB7DJK
# you can leave this out if you call this script 'gb7djk'
client gb7djk telnet
</verb></tscreen>

<P>
Both these examples assume that everything is set up properly at the other end.  
You will find other examples in the /spider/examples directory.

<sect1>Starting the connection

<P>
You start the connection, from within a sysop enabled cluster login, by typing 
in the word <em>connect</em> followed by a script name like this ....

<tscreen><verb>
G0VGS de GB7MBC 13-Dec-1998 2041Z >connect gb7djk-1
connection to GB7DJK-1 started
G0VGS de GB7MBC 13-Dec-1998 2043Z >
</verb></tscreen>

This will start a connection using the script called <em>gb7djk-1</em>.  You can
follow the connection by watching the term or console from where you started
<em>cluster.pl</em>.  You should see something like this ...

<tscreen><verb>
<- D G1TLH connect gb7djk-1
-> D G1TLH connection to GB7DJK-1 started
-> D G1TLH G1TLH de GB7DJK 13-Dec-1998 2046Z >
timeout set to 15
CONNECT sort: telnet command: dirkl.tobit.co.uk
CHAT "login" -> "gb7djk"
received "
Red Hat Linux release 5.1 (Manhattan)
Kernel 2.0.35 on an i586
"
received "login: "
sent "gb7djk"
CHAT "word" -> "gb7djk"
received "gb7djk"
received "Password: "
sent "gb7djk"
Connected to GB7DJK-1, starting normal protocol
<- O GB7DJK-1 telnet
-> B GB7DJK-1 0
GB7DJK-1 channel func  state 0 -> init
<- D GB7DJK-1 
<- D GB7DJK-1 Last login: Sun Dec 13 17:59:56 from dirk1
<- D GB7DJK-1 PC38^GB7DJK-1^~
<- D GB7DJK-1 PC18^ 1 nodes, 0 local / 1 total users  Max users 0  Uptime 
0 00:00^5447^~
    etc

</verb></tscreen>

<P>
With later versions of Spider there is a set/login command for users.  This 
tells them when a user or node logs in or out.  If you do not add a line to 
your scripts after the final line (or before the client line which should always 
be last if needed) then the login/logout information will be sent to users
<it>before</it> the login actually completes.  This means if a node is 
unreachable, it will continue sending logins and logouts to users even though it 
is not actually connecting.  To avoid this use the following line ...

<tscreen><verb>
'connect' ''
</verb></tscreen>

<P>
In a script, this might look like ...

<tscreen><verb>
timeout 35 
abort (Busy|Sorry|Fail)
connect telnet mary 3000
'ogin:' 'gb7mbc'
'>' 'telnet 44.131.93.96 7305'
'connect' ''
</verb></tscreen>

<sect1>Telnet echo

<P>
Cluster links in particular suffer greatly from the presence of telnet echo.  
This is caused by the telnet negotiation itself and can create at worst severe 
loops.  At best it creates unnecessary bandwidth and large logfiles!  There are
things that can be done to limit this problem but will not always work dependent 
on the route taken to connect.

<P>
Telnet echo itself should only be a problem if the connection is being made to 
the telnet port (23).  This port uses special rules that include echo negotiation.
If the connection is to a different port, such as 8000, this negotiation does 
not happen and therefore no echo should be present.

<P>
Sometimes it is not possible to make a direct connection to another node and this 
can cause problems.  There is a way of trying to suppress the telnet echo but 
this will not always work, unfortunately it is difficult to be more specific.  
Here is an example of what I mean ...

<tscreen><verb>
timeout 35
abort (Busy|Sorry|Fail)
connect telnet mary.lancs.ac.uk
'ogin:' 'gb7mbc'
'word:' 'mypasswd'
'\$' 'stty -echo raw'
'\$' 'telnet 44.131.93.96'
'connect' ''
</verb></tscreen>

So, the first connection is made by Spider.  This is fine as Spider uses the
Net_Telnet script from within perl.  This actually uses TCP rather than TELNET 
so no negotiation will be done on the first connection.  Once connected to
mary.lancs.ac.uk, the command is sent to suppress echo.  Now a telnet is made 
to a cluster node that is accepting connections on port 23.  The problem with 
this link is that the negotiation is made by the remote machine, therefore you 
have no control over it.  The chances are that this link will create echo and 
there will be no way you can stop it.


<sect>Automating things

<P>
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.

<sect1>Autostarting the cluster

<P>
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.

<P>
Login as root and bring up the /etc/inittab file in your favourite editor.  Add 
the following lines to the file near the end ...

<tscreen><verb>
##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
</verb></tscreen>

<P>
This will automatically start DXSpider on tty7 (ALT-F7) on bootup and restart 
it should it crash for any reason.

<P>
As root type the command <em>telinit q</em>.  DXSpider should start up 
immediately.  You will see the output on tty7 and if you login as <em>sysop</em> 
you should find everything running nicely.

<P>
So far so good, now to automate script connections...

<sect1>The crontab file

<P>
Login as <em>sysop</em> 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)

<tscreen><verb>
# check every 10 minutes to see if gb7xxx is connected and if not
# start a connect job going

0,10,20,30,40,50 * * * * start_connect('gb7xxx') if !connected('gb7xxx')
</verb></tscreen>

<P>
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.

<P>
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
<htmlurl url="http://www.dxcluster.org/cron.html" name="DXSpider"> website 
at the cron page where it is explained more fully.

<sect>Hop control

<P>
Starting with version 1.13 there is simple hop control available on a per
node basis. Also it is possible to isolate a network completely so that you 
get all the benefits of being on that network, but can't pass on information
from it to any other networks you may be connected to (or vice versa).

<sect1>Basic hop control

<P>
In /spider/data you will find a file called hop_table.pl.  This is the file 
that controls your hop count settings.  It has a set of default hops on the 
various PC frames and also a set for each node you want to alter the hops for.  
You may be happy with the default settings of course, but this powerful tool 
can help to protect and improve the network.  The file will look something 
like this ...

<tscreen><verb>
# 
# hop table construction
# 

package DXProt;

# default hopcount to use
$def_hopcount = 5;

# some variable hop counts based on message type
%hopcount = 
(
 11 => 10,
 16 => 10,
 17 => 10,
 19 => 10,
 21 => 10,
);


# the per node hop control thingy


%nodehops = 

 GB7ADX => {            11 => 8,
                        12 => 8,
                        16 => 8,
                        17 => 8,
                        19 => 8,
                        21 => 8,
                   },

 GB7UDX => {            11 => 8,
                        12 => 8,
                        16 => 8,
                        17 => 8,
                        19 => 8,
                        21 => 8,
                   },
 GB7BAA => {
                        11 => 5,
                        12 => 8,
                        16 => 8,
                        17 => 8,
                        19 => 8,
                        21 => 8,
                   },
};
</verb></tscreen>

<P>
Each set of hops is contained within a pair of curly braces and contains a 
series of PC frame types.  PC11 for example is a DX spot. The figures here 
are not exhaustive but should give you a good idea of how the file works.

<P>
You can alter this file at any time, including whilst the cluster is running.  
If you alter the file during runtime, the command <em>load/hops</em> will 
bring your changes into effect.

<sect1>Isolating networks

<P>
It is possible to isolate networks from each other on a "gateway" node using the
 <em>set/isolate &lt;node_call&gt;</em> command.
        
<P>
The effect of this is to partition an isolated network completely from another 
nodes connected to your node. Your node will appear on and otherwise behave 
normally on every network to which you are connected, but data from an isolated 
network will not cross onto any other network or vice versa. However all the 
spot, announce and WWV traffic and personal messages will still be handled 
locally (because you are a real node on all connected networks), that is locally
connected users will appear on all networks and will be able to access and 
receive information from all networks transparently.  All routed messages will 
be sent as normal, so if a user on one network knows that you are a gateway for 
another network, he can still still send a talk/announce etc message via your 
node and it will be routed across.

<P>
The only limitation currently is that non-private messages cannot be passed down 
isolated links regardless of whether they are generated locally. This will change 
when the bulletin routing facility is added.

<P>
If you use isolate on a node connection you will continue to receive all 
information from the isolated partner, however you will not pass any information 
back to the isolated node.  There are times when you would like to forward only 
spots across a link (maybe during a contest for example).  To do this, isolate 
the node in the normal way and put in a filter in the /spider/filter/spots 
directory to override the isolate.  This filter can be very simple and consists 
of just one line ....

<tscreen><verb>
$in = [
        [ 1, 0, 'd', 0, 3]      # The last figure (3) is the hop count
];
</verb></tscreen>

<P>
There is a lot more on filtering in the next section.

<sect>Filtering (Old Style upto v1.44)

<P>
Filters can be set for spots, announcements and WWV.  You will find the 
directories for these under /spider/filter.  You will find some examples in 
the directories with the suffix <em>.issue</em>.  There are two types of 
filter, one for incoming information and one for outgoing information. 
Outgoing filters are in the form <em>CALLSIGN.pl</em> and incoming filters 
are in the form <em>in_CALLSIGN.pl</em>.  Filters can be set for both nodes 
and users.

<P>
All filters work in basically the same way.  There are several elements 
delimited by commas.  There can be many lines in the filter and they are 
read from the top by the program.  When writing a filter you need to think 
carefully about just what you want to achieve.  You are either going to write 
a filter to <em>accept</em> or to <em>reject</em>.  Think of a filter as 
having 2 main elements.  For a reject filter, you would have a line or multiple 
lines rejecting the things you do not wish to receive and then a default line
accepting everything else that is not included in the filter.  Likewise, for an
accept filter, you would have a line or multiple lines accepting the things you 
wish to receive and a default line rejecting everthing else.

<P>
In the example below, a user requires a filter that would only return SSB spots
posted in Europe on the HF bands.  This is achieved by first rejecting the CW 
section of each HF band and rejecting all of VHF, UHF etc based on frequency.
Secondly, a filter rule is set based on CQ zones to only accept spots posted in
Europe.  Lastly, a default filter rule is set to reject anything outside the filter.

<tscreen><verb>
$in = [
        [ 0, 0, 'r', # reject all CW spots
                [
                1800.0, 1850.0,
                3500.0, 3600.0,
                7000.0, 7040.0,
                14000.0, 14100.0,
                18068.0, 18110.0,
                21000.0, 21150.0,
                24890.0, 24930.0,
                28000.0, 28180.0,
                30000.0, 49000000000.0,
                ] ,1 ],
        [ 1, 11, 'n', [ 14, 15, 16, 20, 33, ], 15 ], #accept EU
        [ 0, 0, 'd', 0, 1 ], # 1 = want, 'd' = everything else
];
</verb></tscreen>

<P>
The actual elements of each filter are described more fully in the following
sections.

<sect1>Spots

<P>
The elements of the Spot filter are ....

<tscreen><verb>
[action, field_no, sort, possible_values, hops]
</verb></tscreen>

<P>
There are 3 elements here to look at.  Firstly, the action element.  This is 
very simple and only 2 possible states exist, accept (1) or drop (0).

<P>
The second element is the field_no.  There are 13 possiblities to choose from 
here ....

<tscreen><verb>
      0 = frequency
      1 = call
      2 = date in unix format
      3 = comment
      4 = spotter
      5 = spotted dxcc country
      6 = spotter's dxcc country
      7 = origin
      8 = spotted itu
      9 = spotted cq
      10 = spotter's itu
      11 = spotter's cq
      12 = callsign of the channel on which the spot has appeared
</verb></tscreen>

<P>
The third element tells us what to expect in the fourth element.  There are 
4 possibilities ....

<tscreen><verb>
     n - numeric list of numbers e.g. [ 1,2,3 ]
     r - ranges of pairs of numbers e.g. between 2 and 4 or 10 to 17 - [ 2,4, 10,17 ]
     a - an alphanumeric regex
     d - the default rule
</verb></tscreen>

<P>
The fifth element is simply the hops to set in this filter.  This would only 
be used if the filter was for a node of course and overrides the hop count in
hop_table.pl.

<P>
So, let's look at an example spot filter.  It does not matter in the example 
who the filter is to be used for.  So, what do we need in the filter?  We need 
to filter the spots the user/node requires and also set a default rule for 
anything else outside the filter.  Below is a simple filter that stops spots 
arriving from outside Europe.

<tscreen><verb>$in = [
  [ 0, 4, 'a', '^(K|N|A|W|VE|VA|J)'],  # 0 = drop, 'a' = alphanumeric
  [ 1, 0, 'd', 0, 1 ],                 # 1 = want, 'd' = everything else
                     ];
</verb></tscreen>

<P>
So the filter is wrapped in between a pair of square brackets.  This tells 
Spider to look in between these limits.  Then each line is contained within 
its own square brackets and ends with a comma. Lets look carefully at the first 
line.  The first element is 0 (drop).  Therefore anything we put on this line 
will not be accepted.  The next element is 4.  This means we are filtering by 
the spotter.  The third element is the letter "a" which tells the program to 
expect an alphanumeric expression in the fourth element.  The fourth element 
is a list of letters separated by the pipe symbol.

<P>
What this line does is tell the program to drop any spots posted by anyone in 
the USA, Canada or Japan.

<P>
The second line is the default rule for anything else.  The "d" tells us this 
and the line simply reads... accept anything else.

<P>
You can add as many lines as you need to complete the filter but if there are 
several lines of the same type it is neater to enclose them all as one line.  
An example of this is where specific bands are set.  We could write this like 
this ....

<tscreen><verb>
[ 0,0,'r',[1800.0, 2000.0], 1],
[ 0,0,'r',[10100.0, 10150.0], 1],
[ 0,0,'r',[14000.0, 14350.0], 1],
[ 0,0,'r',[18000.0, 18200.0], 1],
</verb></tscreen>

<P>
But the line below achieves the same thing and is more efficient ....

<tscreen><verb>
  [ 0, 0, 'r',
    [  
      1800.0, 2000.0,         # top band 
      10100.0, 10150.0,       # WARC  
      14000.0, 14350.0,       # 20m
      18000.0, 18200.0,       # WARC
    [ ,1 ],
</verb></tscreen>


<sect1>Announcements

<P>
<tscreen><verb>

# This is an example announce or filter allowing only West EU announces
# 
# The element list is:-
# 0 - callsign of announcer
# 1 - destination * = all, <callsign> = routed to the node
# 2 - text
# 3 - * - sysop, <some text> - special list eg 6MUK, ' ', normal announce
# 4 - origin
# 5 - 0 - announce, 1 - wx
# 6 - channel callsign (the interface from which this spot came)

$in = [
        [ 1, 0, 'a', '^(P[ABCDE]|DK0WCY|G|M|2|EI|F|ON)' ],
        [ 0, 0, 'd', 0 ]
];
</verb></tscreen>

In this example, only the prefixes listed will be allowed.  It is possible to 
be quite specific.  The Dutch prefix "P" is followed by several secondary 
identifiers which are allowed.  So, in the example, "PA" or "PE" would be ok 
but not "PG".  It is even possible to allow information from a single callsign.  
In the example this is DK0WCY, to allow the posting of his Aurora Beacon.

<sect1>WWV

<P>
<tscreen><verb>

# This is an example WWV filter
# 
# The element list is:-
# 0 - nominal unix date of spot (ie the day + hour:13)
# 1 - the hour
# 2 - SFI
# 3 - K
# 4 - I
# 5 - text
# 6 - spotter
# 7 - origin
# 8 - incoming interface callsign

# this one doesn't filter, it just sets the hop count to 6 and is
# used mainly just to override any isolation from WWV coming from
# the internet.

$in = [
        [ 1, 0, 'd', 0, 6 ]
];

</verb></tscreen>

<P>
It should be noted that the filter will start to be used only once a user/node 
has logged out and back in again.
<P>
I am not going to spend any more time on these filters now as they will become 
more "comprehensive" in the near future.

<sect>Filtering (New Style v1.45 and later)

<sect1>General filter rules

<P>
Upto v1.44 it was not possible for the user to set their own filters.  From 
v1.45 though that has all changed.  It is now possible to set filters for just 
about anything you wish.  If you have just updated from an older version of 
DXSpider you will need to update your new filters.  You do not need to do 
anything with your old filters, they will be renamed as you update.

<P>
There are 3 basic commands involved in setting and manipulating filters.  These 
are <em>accept</em>, <em>reject</em> and <em>clear</em>.  First we will look
generally at filtering. There are a number of things you can filter in the 
DXSpider system. They all use the same general mechanism.

<P>
In general terms you can create a 'reject' or an 'accept' filter which can have 
up to 10 lines in it. You do this using, for example ... 

<tscreen><verb> 
accept/spots .....
reject/spots .....
</verb></tscreen>

where ..... are the specific commands for that type of filter. There are filters 
for spots, wwv, announce, wcy and (for sysops) connects. See each different 
accept or reject command reference for more details.

There is also a command to clear out one or more lines in a filter. They are ...

<tscreen><verb>
clear/spots 1
clear/spots all
</verb></tscreen>

There is clear/xxxx command for each type of filter.

<P>
and you can check that your filters have worked by the command ... 

<tscreen><verb>  
show/filter
</verb></tscreen>

<P>
For now we are going to use spots for the examples, but you can apply the same
principles to all types of filter.

<sect1>Types of filter

<P>
There are two main types of filter, <em>accept</em> or <em>reject</em>.  You 
can use either to achieve the result you want dependent on your own preference 
and which is more simple to do.  It is pointless writing 8 lines of reject 
filters when 1 accept filter would do the same thing!  Each filter has 10 
lines (of any length) which are tried in order.  If a line matches then the 
action you have specified is taken (ie reject means ignore it and accept 
means take it)

<P>
If you specify reject filters, then any lines that arrive that match the filter 
will be dumped but all else will be accepted.  If you use an accept filter, 
then ONLY the lines in the filter will be accepted and all else will be dumped.
For example if you have a single line <em>accept</em> filter ...

<tscreen><verb>
accept/spots on vhf and (by_zone 14,15,16 or call_zone 14,15,16)
</verb></tscreen>

then you will <em>ONLY</em> get VHF spots <em>from</em> or <em>to</em> CQ zones 
14, 15 and 16.

<P>
If you set a reject filter like this ...

<tscreen><verb>
reject/spots on hf/cw
</verb></tscreen>

Then you will get everything <em>EXCEPT</em> HF CW spots.  You could make this 
single filter even more flexible.  For example, if you are interested in IOTA 
and will work it even on CW even though normally you are not interested in 
CW, then you could say ...

<tscreen><verb>
reject/spots on hf/cw and not info iota
</verb></tscreen>

But in that case you might only be interested in iota and say:-

<tscreen><verb>
accept/spots not on hf/cw or info iota
</verb></tscreen>

which achieves exactly the same thing. You should choose one or the other 
until you are comfortable with the way it works. You can mix them if you 
wish (actually you can have an accept AND a reject on the same line) but 
don't attempt this until you are sure you know what you are doing!

<P>
You can arrange your filter lines into logical units, either for your own
understanding or simply convenience. Here is an example ...

<tscreen><verb>
reject/spots 1 on hf/cw
reject/spots 2 on 50000/1400000 not (by_zone 14,15,16 or call_zone 14,15,16)  
</verb></tscreen>

What this does is to ignore all HF CW spots and also rejects any spots on VHF 
which don't either originate or spot someone in Europe. 

<P>
This is an example where you would use a line number (1 and 2 in this case), if 
you leave the digit out, the system assumes '1'. Digits '0'-'9' are available.  
This make it easier to see just what filters you have set.  It also makes it 
more simple to remove individual filters, during a contest for example.

<P>
You will notice in the above example that the second line has brackets.  Look 
at the line logically.  You can see there are 2 separate sections to it.  We 
are saying reject spots that are VHF or above <em>APART</em> from those in 
zones 14, 15 and 16 (either spotted there or originated there).  If you did 
not have the brackets to separate the 2 sections, then Spider would read it 
logically from the front and see a different expression entirely ...

<tscreen><verb>
(on 50000/1400000 and by_zone 14,15,16) or call_zone 14,15,16 
</verb></tscreen>

The simple way to remember this is, if you use OR - use brackets. Whilst we are 
here CASE is not important. 'And BY_Zone' is just the same as 'and by_zone'.

As mentioned earlier, setting several filters can be more flexible than 
simply setting one complex one.  Doing it in this way means that if you want 
to alter your filter you can just redefine or remove one or more lines of it or 
one line. For example ...

<tscreen><verb>
reject/spots 1 on hf/ssb
</verb></tscreen>

would redefine our earlier example, or 

<tscreen><verb>
clear/spots 1
</verb></tscreen>

To remove all the filter lines in the spot filter ...

<tscreen><verb>
clear/spots all
</verb></tscreen>

<sect1>Filter options

<P>
You can filter in several different ways.  The options are listed in the
various helpfiles for accept, reject and filter.

<sect1>Default filters

<P>
Sometimes all that is needed is a general rule for node connects.  This can
be done with a node_default filter.  This rule will always be followed, even
if the link is isolated, unless another filter is set specifically.  Default
rules can be set for nodes and users.  They can be set for spots, announces,
WWV and WCY.  They can also be used for hops.  An example might look like 
this ...

<tscreen><verb>
accept/spot node_default by_zone 14,15,16,20,33
set/hops node_default spot 50
</verb></tscreen>

This filter is for spots only, you could set others for announce, WWV and WCY.
This filter would work for ALL nodes unless a specific filter is written to 
override it for a particular node.  You can also set a user_default should
you require.  It is important to note that default filters should be
considered to be "connected".  By this I mean that should you override the
default filter for spots, you need to add a rule for the hops for spots also.

<sect1>Advanced filtering

<P>
Once you are happy with the results you get, you may like to experiment. 

<P>
The previous example that filters hf/cw spots and accepts vhf/uhf spots from EU 
can be written with a mixed filter, for example ... 

<tscreen><verb>
rej/spot on hf/cw
acc/spot on 0/30000
acc/spot 2 on 50000/1400000 and (by_zone 14,15,16 or call_zone 14,15,16)
</verb></tscreen>

Note that the first filter has not been specified with a number.  This will 
automatically be assumed to be number 1.  In this case, we have said <em>reject all
HF spots in the CW section of the bands but accept all others at HF.  Also
accept anything in VHF and above spotted in or by operators in the zones
14, 15 and 16</em>.  Each filter slot actually has a 'reject' slot and 
an 'accept' slot. The reject slot is executed BEFORE the accept slot.

<P>
It was mentioned earlier that after a reject test that doesn't match, the default 
for following tests is 'accept', the reverse is true for 'accept'. In the example 
what happens is that the reject is executed first, any non hf/cw spot is passed 
to the accept line, which lets through everything else on HF.  The next filter line 
lets through just VHF/UHF spots from EU.


<sect>Other filters

<sect1>Filtering Mail

<P>
In the /spider/msg directory you will find a file called badmsg.pl.issue.  Rename
this to badmsg.pl and edit the file.  The original looks something like this ....

<tscreen><verb>

# the list of regexes for messages that we won't store having
# received them (bear in mind that we must receive them fully before
# we can bin them)


# The format of each line is as follows

#     type      source             pattern 
#     P/B/F     T/F/O/S            regex  

# type: P - private, B - bulletin (msg), F - file (ak1a bull)
# source: T - to field, F - from field,  O - origin, S - subject 
# pattern: a perl regex on the field requested

# Currently only type B and P msgs are affected by this code.
# 
# The list is read from the top down, the first pattern that matches
# causes the action to be taken.

# The pattern can be undef or 0 in which case it will always be selected
# for the action specified



package DXMsg;

@badmsg = (
'B',    'T',    'SALE', 
'B',    'T',    'WANTED',
'B',    'S',    'WANTED',
'B',    'S',    'SALE', 
'B',    'S',    'WTB',
'B',    'S',    'WTS',
'B',    'T',    'FS',
);
</verb></tscreen>

<P>
I think this is fairly self explanatory.  It is simply a list of subject 
headers that we do not want to pass on to either the users of the cluster or 
the other cluster nodes that we are linked to.  This is usually because of 
rules and regulations pertaining to items for sale etc in a particular country.

<sect1>Filtering DX callouts

<P>
In the same way as mail, there are some types of spot we do not wish to pass on 
to users or linked cluster nodes.  In the /spider/data directory you will find 
a file called baddx.pl.issue.  Rename this to baddx.pl and edit the file.  The
original looks like this ....

<tscreen><verb>

# the list of dx spot addresses that we don't store and don't pass on


package DXProt;

@baddx = qw 

 FROG 
 SALE
 FORSALE
 WANTED
 P1RATE
 PIRATE
 TEST
 DXTEST
 NIL
 NOCALL 
);
</verb></tscreen>

<P>
Again, this is simply a list of names we do not want to see in the spotted 
field of a DX callout.


<sect1>Filtering words from text fields in Announce, Talk and DX spots

<P>
Create a file in /spider/data called <em>badwords</em>.  The format is quite
simple.  Lines beginning with # are ignored so comments can be added.  An
example file is below ...

<tscreen><verb>
# Below is a list of words we do not wish to see on the cluster
grunge grunged grunging
splodge splodger splodging
grince
fluffle
</verb></tscreen>

Multiple words can be used on the same line as shown.  Obviously these
are just examples :-)

<P>
You can reload the file from the cluster prompt as sysop with load/badwords.

<sect>Information, files and useful programs

<sect1>MOTD

<P>
One of the more important things a cluster sysop needs to do is to get 
information to his users.  The simplest way to do this is to have a banner 
that is sent to the user on login.  This is know as a "message of the day" 
or "motd".  To set this up, simply create a file in /spider/data called motd 
and edit it to say whatever you want.  It is purely a text file and will be 
sent automatically to anyone logging in to the cluster.

<sect1>Downtime message

<P>
If for any reason the cluster is down, maybe for upgrade or maintenance but 
the machine is still running, a message can be sent to the user advising them 
of the fact.  This message lives in the /spider/data directory and is called
"offline".  Simply create the file and edit it to say whatever you wish.  
This file will be sent to a user attempting to log into the cluster when
DXSpider is not actually running.

<sect1>Other text messages

<P>
You can set other text messages to be read by the user if they input the file 
name.  This could be for news items or maybe information for new users.  
To set this up, make a directory under /spider called <em>packclus</em>.  
Under this directory you can create files called <em>news</em> or <em>newuser</em>
for example.  In fact you can create files with any names you like.  These can 
be listed by the user with the command ....

<tscreen><verb>
show/files
</verb></tscreen>

They can be read by the user by typing the command ....

<tscreen><verb>
type news
</verb></tscreen>

If the file they want to read is called <em>news</em>.  You could also set 
an alias for this in the Alias file to allow them just to type <em>news</em>

<P>
You can also store other information in this directory, either directly or 
nested under directories.  One use for this would be to store DX bulletins 
such as the OPDX bulletins.  These can be listed and read by the user.  
To keep things tidy, make a directory under /spider/packclus called
<em>bulletins</em>.  Now copy any OPDX or similar bulletins into it.  These 
can be listed by the user in the same way as above using the <em>show/files</em>
command with an extension for the bulletins directory you have just created, 
like this ....

<tscreen><verb>
show/files bulletins
</verb></tscreen>

<P>
An example would look like this ....

<tscreen><verb>
sh/files
bulletins      DIR 20-Dec-1999 1715Z news          1602 14-Dec-1999 1330Z
</verb></tscreen>

You can see that in the files area (basically the packclus directory) there is a 
file called <em>news</em> and a directory called <em>bulletins</em>.  You can 
also see that dates they were created.  In the case of the file <em>news</em>, 
you can also see the time it was last modified, a good clue as to whether the 
file has been updated since you last read it.  To read the file called 
<em>news</em> you would simply issue the command ....

<tscreen><verb>
type news
</verb></tscreen>

To look what is in the bulletins directory you issue the command ....

<tscreen><verb>
show/files bulletins
opdx390      21381 29-Nov-1999 1621Z opdx390.1     1670 29-Nov-1999 1621Z
opdx390.2     2193 29-Nov-1999 1621Z opdx391      25045 29-Nov-1999 1621Z  
opdx392      35969 29-Nov-1999 1621Z opdx393      15023 29-Nov-1999 1621Z  
opdx394      33429 29-Nov-1999 1621Z opdx394.1     3116 29-Nov-1999 1621Z  
opdx395      24319 29-Nov-1999 1621Z opdx396      32647 29-Nov-1999 1621Z
opdx396.1     5537 29-Nov-1999 1621Z opdx396.2     6242 29-Nov-1999 1621Z
opdx397      18433 29-Nov-1999 1621Z opdx398      19961 29-Nov-1999 1621Z  
opdx399      17719 29-Nov-1999 1621Z opdx400      19600 29-Nov-1999 1621Z
opdx401      27738 29-Nov-1999 1621Z opdx402      18698 29-Nov-1999 1621Z
opdx403      24994 29-Nov-1999 1621Z opdx404      15685 29-Nov-1999 1621Z
opdx405      13984 29-Nov-1999 1621Z opdx405.1     4166 29-Nov-1999 1621Z
opdx406      28934 29-Nov-1999 1621Z opdx407      24153 29-Nov-1999 1621Z
opdx408      15081 29-Nov-1999 1621Z opdx409      23234 29-Nov-1999 1621Z
Press Enter to continue, A to abort (16 lines) >
</verb></tscreen>

You can now read any file in this directory using the type command, like this ....

<tscreen><verb>
type bulletins/opdx391
Ohio/Penn DX Bulletin No. 391
The Ohio/Penn Dx PacketCluster
DX Bulletin No. 391
BID: $OPDX.391
January 11, 1999
Editor Tedd Mirgliotta, KB8NW
Provided by BARF-80 BBS Cleveland, Ohio
Online at 440-237-8208 28.8k-1200 Baud 8/N/1 (New Area Code!)
Thanks to the Northern Ohio Amateur Radio Society, Northern Ohio DX
Association, Ohio/Penn PacketCluster Network, K1XN & Golist, WB2RAJ/WB2YQH
& The 59(9) DXReport, W3UR & The Daily DX, K3TEJ, KN4UG, W4DC, NC6J, N6HR,
Press Enter to continue, A to abort (508 lines) >
</verb></tscreen>

The page length will of course depend on what you have it set to!

<sect1>The Aliases file

<P>
You will find a file in /spider/cmd/ called Aliases.  First, copy this file to
/spider/local_cmd/Aliases and edit this file.  You will see something like this ...

<tscreen><verb>

#!/usr/bin/perl

# provide some standard aliases for commands for terminally
# helpless ak1a user (helpless in the sense that they never
# read nor understand help files)

# This file is automagically reloaded if its modification time is 
# later than the one stored in CmdAlias.pm

# PLEASE make this file consistant with reality! (the patterns MUST
# match the filenames!)

# Don't alter this file, copy it into the local_cmd tree and modify it.
# This file will be replaced everytime I issue a new release.

# You only need to put aliases in here for commands that don't work as
# you desire naturally, e.g sh/dx on its own just works as you expect
# so you need not add it as an alias.



package CmdAlias;

%alias = (
    '?' => [
          '^\?', 'apropos', 'apropos',
        ],
    'a' => [
          '^ann.*/full', 'announce full', 'announce', 
          '^ann.*/sysop', 'announce sysop', 'announce',
          '^ann.*/(.*)$', 'announce $1', 'announce',
        ],
        'b' => [
        ],
        'c' => [
        ],
        'd' => [
          '^del', 'kill', 'kill',
          '^del\w*/fu', 'kill full', 'kill',
          '^di\w*/a\w*', 'directory all', 'directory',
          '^di\w*/b\w*', 'directory bulletins', 'directory',
          '^di\w*/n\w*', 'directory new', 'directory',
          '^di\w*/o\w*', 'directory own', 'directory',
          '^di\w*/s\w*', 'directory subject', 'directory',
          '^di\w*/t\w*', 'directory to', 'directory',
          '^di\w*/f\w*', 'directory from', 'directory',
          '^di\w*/(\d+)', 'directory $1', 'directory',
        ],
        'e' => [
        ],
        'f' => [
        ],
        'g' => [
        ],
        'h' => [
        ],
        'i' => [
        ],
        'j' => [
        ],
        'k' => [
        ],
        'l' => [
          '^l$', 'directory', 'directory',
          '^ll$', 'directory', 'directory',
          '^ll/(\d+)', 'directory $1', 'directory',
        ],
        'm' => [
        ],
        'n' => [
          '^news', 'type news', 'type',
        ],
        'o' => [
        ],
        'p' => [
        ],
        'q' => [
          '^q', 'bye', 'bye',
        ],
        'r' => [        
          '^r$', 'read', 'read',
          '^rcmd/(\S+)', 'rcmd $1', 'rcmd',
        ],
        's' => [
          '^s/p$', 'send', 'send',
          '^sb$', 'send noprivate', 'send',
          '^set/home$', 'set/homenode', 'set/homenode',
          '^set/nobe', 'unset/beep', 'unset/beep',
          '^set/nohe', 'unset/here', 'unset/here',
          '^set/noan', 'unset/announce', 'unset/announce',
          '^set/nodx', 'unset/dx', 'unset/dx',
          '^set/nota', 'unset/talk', 'unset/talk',
          '^set/noww', 'unset/wwv', 'unset/wwv',
          '^set/nowx', 'unset/wx', 'unset/wx',
          '^sh$', 'show', 'show',
          '^sh\w*/buck', 'dbshow buck', 'dbshow',
          '^sh\w*/bu', 'show/files bulletins', 'show/files',
          '^sh\w*/c/n', 'show/configuration nodes', 'show/configuration',
          '^sh\w*/c$', 'show/configuration', 'show/configuration',
          '^sh\w*/com', 'dbavail', 'dbavail',
          '^sh\w*/dx/(\d+)-(\d+)', 'show/dx $1-$2', 'show/dx',
          '^sh\w*/dx/(\d+)', 'show/dx $1', 'show/dx',
          '^sh\w*/dx/d(\d+)', 'show/dx from $1', 'show/dx',
          '^sh\w*/email', 'dbshow email', 'dbshow',
          '^sh\w*/hftest', 'dbshow hftest', 'dbshow',
          '^sh\w*/vhftest', 'dbshow vhftest', 'dbshow',
          '^sh\w*/qsl', 'dbshow qsl', 'dbshow',
          '^sh\w*/tnc', 'who', 'who',
          '^sh\w*/up', 'show/cluster', 'show/cluster',
          '^sh\w*/w\w*/(\d+)-(\d+)', 'show/wwv $1-$2', 'show/wwv',
          '^sh\w*/w\w*/(\d+)', 'show/wwv $1', 'show/wwv',
          '^sp$', 'send', 'send',
        
    ],
        't' => [
          '^ta$', 'talk', 'talk',
          '^t$', 'talk', 'talk',
        ],
        'u' => [
        ],
        'v' => [
        ],
        'w' => [
          '^wx/full', 'wx full', 'wx',
          '^wx/sysop', 'wx sysop', 'wx',
        ],
        'x' => [
        ],
        'y' => [
        ],
        'z' => [
        ],
)
</verb></tscreen>

You can create aliases for commands at will.  Beware though, these may not 
always turn out as you think.  Care is needed and you need to test the 
results once you have set an alias.

<sect1>Forward.pl

<P>
DXSpider receives all and any mail sent to it without any alterations needed
in files.  Because personal and bulletin mail are treated differently, there
is no need for a list of accepted bulletin addresses.  It is necessary, however,
to tell the program which links accept which bulletins.  For example, it is
pointless sending bulletins addresses to "UK" to any links other than UK
ones.  The file that does this is called forward.pl and lives in /spider/msg.
At default, like other spider files it is named forward.pl.issue.  Rename it
to forward.pl and edit the file to match your requirements.
The format is below ...

<tscreen><verb>
#
# this is an example message forwarding file for the system
#
# The format of each line is as follows
#
#     type    to/from/at pattern action  destinations
#     P/B/F     T/F/A     regex   I/F    [ call [, call ...] ]
#
# type: P - private, B - bulletin (msg), F - file (ak1a bull)
# to/from/at: T - to field, F - from field, A - home bbs, O - origin 
# pattern: a perl regex on the field requested
# action: I - ignore, F - forward
# destinations: a reference to an array containing node callsigns
#
# if it is non-private and isn't in here then it won't get forwarded 
#
# Currently only type B msgs are affected by this code.
# 
# The list is read from the top down, the first pattern that matches
# causes the action to be taken.
#
# The pattern can be undef or 0 in which case it will always be selected
# for the action specified
#
# If the BBS list is undef or 0 and the action is 'F' (and it matches the
# pattern) then it will always be forwarded to every node that doesn't have 
# it (I strongly recommend you don't use this unless you REALLY mean it, if
# you allow a new link with this on EVERY bull will be forwarded immediately
# on first connection)
#

package DXMsg;

@forward = (
'B',    'T',    'LOCAL',        'F',    [ qw(GB7MBC) ],
'B',    'T',    'ALL',          'F',    [ qw(GB7BAA GB7ADX PA4AB-14) ],
'B',    'T',    'UK',           'F',    [ qw(GB7BAA GB7ADX) ],
'B',    'T',    'QSL',          'F',    [ qw(GB7BAA GB7ADX PA4AB-14) ],
'B',    'T',    'QSLINF',       'F',    [ qw(GB7BAA GB7ADX PA4AB-14) ],
'B',    'T',    'DX',           'F',    [ qw(GB7BAA GB7ADX PA4AB-14) ],
'B',    'T',    'DXINFO',       'F',    [ qw(GB7BAA GB7ADX PA4AB-14) ],
'B',    'T',    'DXNEWS',       'F',    [ qw(GB7BAA GB7ADX PA4AB-14) ],
'B',    'T',    'DXQSL',        'F',    [ qw(GB7BAA GB7ADX PA4AB-14) ],
'B',    'T',    'SYSOP',        'F',    [ qw(GB7BAA GB7ADX) ],
'B',    'T',    '50MHZ',        'F',    [ qw(GB7BAA GB7ADX PA4AB-14) ],
);
</verb></tscreen>

Simply insert a bulletin address and state in the brackets where you wish
that mail to go.  For example, you can see here that mail sent to "UK" will
only be sent to the UK links and not to PA4AB-14.

<P>
To force the cluster to reread the file use load/forward

<sect1>Distribution lists

<P>
Distribution lists are simply a list of users to send certain types of
mail to.  An example of this is mail you only wish to send to other
sysops.  In /spider/msg there is a directory called <em>distro</em>.  You
put any distibution lists in here.  For example, here is a file called
SYSOP.pl that caters for the UK sysops.

<tscreen><verb>
qw(GB7TLH GB7DJK GB7DXM GB7CDX GB7BPQ GB7DXN GB7MBC GB7MBC-6 GB7MDX
   GB7NDX GB7SDX GB7TDX GB7UDX GB7YDX GB7ADX GB7BAA GB7DXA GB7DXH 
   GB7DXK GB7DXI GB7DXS)
</verb></tscreen>

Any mail sent to "sysop" would only be sent to the callsigns in this list.
 
<sect1>Console.pl

<P>
In later versions of Spider a simple console program is provided for the sysop.  
This has a type ahead buffer with line editing facilities and colour for spots,
announces etc.  To use this program, simply use console.pl instead of client.pl.

<P>
To edit the colours, copy /spider/perl/Console.pl to /spider/local and edit the 
file with your favourite editor.

<sect>CVS

<P>
CVS stands for "Concurrent Versions System" and the CVS for DXSpider is held
at <htmlurl url="http://www.sourceforge.net" name="Sourceforge">.  This means
that it is possible to update your DXSpider installation to the latest
sources by using a few simple commands.

<P>
THIS IS NOT FOR THE FAINT HEARTED!!!  ONLY DO THIS IF YOU HAVE A TEST
INSTALLATION OR ARE WILLING TO HAVE YOUR CLUSTER CRASH ON YOU!!!
THIS MUST BE CONSIDERED AT LEAST BETA TESTING AND MAYBE EVEN ALPHA!!
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!

<P>
DID I MENTION..... ONLY DO THIS IF YOU ARE WILLING TO ACCEPT THE
CONSEQUENCES!!!

<P>
I am of course assuming that you have a machine with both DXSpider and
Internet access running.

<P>
BEFORE YOU EVEN CONSIDER STARTING WITH THIS MAKE A BACKUP OF YOUR
ENTIRE SPIDER TREE!!

<P>
Assuming you are connected to the Internet, you need to login to the
CVS repository and then update your Spider source.  There are several
steps which are listed below ...

<P>
First login as the user <em>sysop</em>.  Next you need to connect to the CVS
repository.  You do this with the command below ...

<verb>
cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.DXSpider.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/dxspider login 
</verb>

You will get a password prompt.  Simply hit return here and your machine should
return to a normal linux prompt.

<P>
What happens next depends on whether you have an existing installation that 
you want to update with the latest and greatest or whether you just want
to see what is there and/or run it on a new machine for testing.
Either way you will want to change directory to a new place, if you want to
update an existing installation then I suggest /tmp, otherwise choose a
suitable place according to the normal installation instructions.

<P>
The next step will create a brand new 'spider' directory in your current
directory.

<verb>
cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.DXSpider.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/DXSpider co spider
</verb>

This command is all on one line.

<P>
Hopefully your screen should show you downloading files.  The -z3 simply compresses
the download to improve speed.
When this has finished, you will have exactly the same as if you had untarred a full 
tarball PLUS some extra directories and files that CVS needs to do the magic that 
it does.

<P>
Now if you are doing a new installation, that's it.  Carry on as if you have
just downloaded and untarred the lastest tarball.

<P>
If you want to upgrade your current installation then do this ...

<tscreen><verb>
tar cvfz /tmp/s.tgz spider
cd /
tar xvfzp /tmp/s.tgz
</verb></tscreen>

This is assuming you downloaded to the /tmp directory of course.

<P>
NOTE:  the 'p' on the end of the 'xvfz' is IMPORTANT!   It keeps the permissions
correct.  YOU WERE LOGGED IN AS THE USER SYSOP WEREN'T YOU?????

Remember to recompile the C client (cd /spider/src; make)

<P>
At this point the files have been upgraded.  You can (usually) restrt the cluster
in your own time.  However, if you attempt to use any new commands or features
expect it to be fatal!  At least your cluster will have been restarted then so it
will be too late to worry about it!

<P>
Now the magic part!  From now on when you want to update, simply connect to the 
Internet and then, as the user <em>sysop</em> ...

<tscreen><verb>
cd /spider
cvs -z3 update -d
</verb></tscreen>

and your files will be updated.  As above, remember to recompile the "C" client 
if it has been updated (CVS will tell you) and restart if any of the perl scripts
have been altered or added, again, CVS will tell you.

<P>
You will find any changes documented in the /spider/Changes file.

<sect>The DXSpider command set

<P>
Below is a complete list of commands available from the cluster prompt.
Most maintenance tasks are automatic but there are some commands that are useful 
for a sysop.  These are listed below in alphabetical order.  The number in 
brackets following the command name is the permissions level needed to use 
the command.

<sect1>accept/announce (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>accept/announce &lsqb;0-9&rsqb; &lt;pattern&gt;</bf> Set an accept filter
 line for announce
</tt>

<P>
Create an 'accept this announce' line for a filter. 

An accept filter line means that if the announce matches this filter it is
passed onto the user. See HELP FILTERS for more info. Please read this
to understand how filters work - it will save a lot of grief later on.

You can use any of the following things in this line:-

<verb>
  info <string>            eg: iota or qsl
  by <prefixes>            eg: G,M,2         
  origin <prefixes>
  origin_dxcc <numbers>    eg: 61,62 (from eg: sh/pre G)
  origin_itu <numbers>
  origin_zone <numbers>
  by_dxcc <numbers>
  by_itu <numbers>
  by_zone <numbers>
  channel <prefixes>
  wx 1                     filter WX announces
  dest <prefixes>          eg: 6MUK,WDX      (distros)
</verb>

some examples:-

<verb>
  acc/ann dest 6MUK
  acc/ann 2 by_zone 14,15,16
  (this could be all on one line: acc/ann dest 6MUK or by_zone 14,15,16)
</verb>

or

<verb>
  acc/ann by G,M,2 
</verb>

This filter would only allow announces that were posted buy UK stations.  
You can use the tag 'all' to accept everything eg:

<verb>
  acc/ann all
</verb>

but this probably for advanced users...

<sect1>accept/announce (extended for sysops) (8)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>accept/announce &lt;call&gt; &lsqb;input&rsqb; &lsqb;0-9&rsqb;&lt;pattern&gt;</bf> Announce filter sysop version
</tt>

<P>
This version allows a sysop to set a filter for a callsign as well as the
default for nodes and users eg:-

<verb>
  accept/ann by G,M,2
  accept/ann input node_default by G,M,2
  accept/ann user_default by G,M,2
</verb>

<sect1>accept/spots (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>accept/announce &lsqb;0-9&rsqb; &lt;pattern&gt;</bf> Set an accept filter 
line for spots
</tt>

<P>
Create an 'accept this spot' line for a filter.

<P>
An accept filter line means that if the spot matches this filter it is
passed onto the user. See HELP FILTERS for more info. Please read this
to understand how filters work - it will save a lot of grief later on.

You can use any of the following things in this line:-

<verb>
  freq <range>           eg: 0/30000 or hf or hf/cw or 6m,4m,2m
  on <range>             same as 'freq'
  call <prefixes>        eg: G,PA,HB9
  info <string>          eg: iota or qsl
  by <prefixes>            
  call_dxcc <numbers>    eg: 61,62 (from eg: sh/pre G)
  call_itu <numbers>
  call_zone <numbers>
  by_dxcc <numbers>
  by_itu <numbers>
  by_zone <numbers>
  origin <prefixes>
  channel <prefixes>
</verb>

<P>
For frequencies, you can use any of the band names defined in
SHOW/BANDS and you can use a subband name like: cw, rtty, data, ssb -
thus: hf/ssb. You can also just have a simple range like: 0/30000 -
this is more efficient than saying simply: freq HF (but don't get
too hung up about that)

some examples:-

<verb>
  acc/spot 1 on hf/cw
  acc/spot 2 on vhf and (by_zone 14,15,16 or call_zone 14,15,16)
</verb>

You can use the tag 'all' to accept everything, eg:

<verb>
  acc/spot 3 all
</verb>

but this probably for advanced users...

<sect1>accept/spots (extended for sysops) (8)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>accept/spots &lt;call&gt; &lsqb;input&rsqb; &lsqb;0-9&rsqb; &lt;pattern&gt;</bf> Spot filter sysop version
</tt>

<P>
This version allows a sysop to set a filter for a callsign as well as the
default for nodes and users eg:-

<verb>
  accept/spot db0sue-7 1 by_zone 14,15,16
  accept/spot node_default all
  set/hops node_default 10

  accept/spot user_default by G,M,2
</verb>

<sect1>accept/wcy (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>accept/wcy &lsqb;0-9&rsqb; &lt;pattern&gt;</bf> set an accept WCY filter
</tt>

<P>
It is unlikely that you will want to do this, but if you do then you can
filter on the following fields:-

<verb>
  by <prefixes>            eg: G,M,2         
  origin <prefixes>
  origin_dxcc <numbers>    eg: 61,62 (from eg: sh/pre G)
  origin_itu <numbers>
  origin_zone <numbers>
  by_dxcc <numbers>
  by_itu <numbers>
  by_zone <numbers>
  channel <prefixes>
</verb>

<P>
There are no examples because WCY Broadcasts only come from one place and
you either want them or not (see UNSET/WCY if you don't want them).

This command is really provided for future use.

See HELP FILTER for information.

<sect1>accept/wcy (extended for sysops) (8)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>accept/wcy &lt;call&gt; &lsqb;input&rsqb; &lsqb;0-9&rsqb; &lt;pattern&gt;</bf>
WCY filter sysop version
</tt>

<P>
This version allows a sysop to set a filter for a callsign as well as the
default for nodes and users eg:-

<verb>
  accept/wcy node_default all
  set/hops node_default 10
</verb>

<sect1>accept/wwv (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>accept/wwv &lsqb;0-9&rsqb; &lt;pattern&gt;</bf> Set an accept WWV filter
</tt>

<P>
It is unlikely that you will want to do this, but if you do then you can
filter on the following fields:-

<verb>
  by <prefixes>            eg: G,M,2         
  origin <prefixes>
  origin_dxcc <numbers>    eg: 61,62 (from eg: sh/pre G)
  origin_itu <numbers>
  origin_zone <numbers>
  by_dxcc <numbers>
  by_itu <numbers>
  by_zone <numbers>
  channel <prefixes>
</verb>

for example 

<verb>
  accept/wwv by_zone 4
</verb>

is probably the only useful thing to do (which will only show WWV broadcasts
by stations in the US).

See HELP FILTER for information.

<sect1>accept/wwv (extended for sysops) (8)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>accept/wwv &lt;call&gt; &lsqb;input&rsqb; &lsqb;0-9&rsqb; &lt;pattern&gt;</bf>
WWV filter sysop version
</tt>

<P>
This version allows a sysop to set a filter for a callsign as well as the
default for nodes and users eg:-

<verb>
  accept/wwv db0sue-7 1 by_zone 4
  accept/wwv node_default all
  set/hops node_default 10

  accept/wwv user_default by W,K
</verb>

<sect1>announce (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>announce &lt;text&gt;</bf> Send an announcement to local users
</tt>

<P>
Send an announcement to LOCAL users only, where &lt;text&gt; is the text 
of the announcement you wish to broadcast

<sect1>announce full (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>announce full &lt;text&gt;</bf> Send an announcement cluster wide
</tt>

<P>
This command will send your announcement across the whole cluster
network.


<sect1>announce sysop (5)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>announce sysop &lt;text&gt;</bf>
</tt>

<P>
Send an announcement to Sysops only

<sect1>apropos (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>apropos &lt;string&gt;</bf> Search the help database
</tt>

<P>
Search the help database for &lt;string&gt; (it isn't case sensitive), 
and print the names of all the commands that may be relevant.

<sect1>bye (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>bye</bf> Exit from the cluster
</tt>

<P>
This will disconnect you from the cluster

<sect1>catchup (5)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>catchup &lt;node_call&gt; All&verbar;&lsqb;&lt;msgno&gt; ...&rsqb;</bf> 
Mark a message as sent
</tt>

<P>
When you send messages the fact that you have forwarded it to another node 
is remembered so that it isn't sent again. When you have a new partner
node and you add their callsign to your /spider/msg/forward.pl file, all
outstanding non-private messages will be forwarded to them. This may well
be ALL the non-private messages. You can prevent this by using these 
commmands:-

<verb>
  catchup GB7DJK all
  catchup GB7DJK 300 301 302 303 500-510
</verb>
        
and to undo what you have just done:-
  
<verb>
  uncatchup GB7DJK all
  uncatchup GB7DJK 300 301 302 303 500-510
</verb>

which will arrange for them to be forward candidates again.

Order is not important.

<sect1>clear/spots (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>clear/spots &lsqb;1&verbar;all&rsqb;</bf> Clear a spot filter line
</tt>

<P>
This command allows you to clear (remove) a line in a spot filter or to 
remove the whole filter.

If you have a filter:-

<verb>
  acc/spot 1 on hf/cw
  acc/spot 2 on vhf and (by_zone 14,15,16 or call_zone 14,15,16)
</verb>

and you say:-

<verb>
  clear/spot 1
</verb>

you will be left with:-

<verb>
  acc/spot 2 on vhf and (by_zone 14,15,16 or call_zone 14,15,16)
</verb>

If you do:

<verb>
  clear/spot all
</verb>

the filter will be completely removed.


<sect1>connect (5) 

<P>
<tt>
<bf>connect &lt;callsign&gt;</bf> Start a connection to another DX Cluster
</tt>

<P>
Start a connection process that will culminate in a new connection to the
DX cluster &lt;callsign&gt;. This process creates a new 'client' process which will
use the script in /spider/connect/&lt;callsign&gt; to effect the 'chat' exchange
necessary to traverse the network(s) to logon to the cluster &lt;callsign&gt;.

<sect1>dbavail (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>dbavail</bf> Show a list of all the databases in the system
</tt>

<P>
The title says it all really, this command lists all the databases defined
in the system. It is also aliased to SHOW/COMMAND.

<sect1>dbcreate (9)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>dbcreate &lt;name&gt;</bf> Create a database entry<newline>
<bf>dbcreate &lt;name&gt; chain &lt;name&gt; [&lt;name&gt;..]</bf> Create a 
chained database entry<newline>
<bf>dbcreate &lt;name&gt; remote &lt;node&gt;</bf> Create a remote database
entry<newline>
</tt>

<P>
DBCREATE allows you to define a database in the system. It doesn't actually
create anything, just defines it.

The databases that are created are simple DB_File hash databases, they are 
therefore already 'indexed'.

You can define a local database with the first form of the command eg:

  DBCREATE oblast

You can also chain databases with the addition of the 'chain' keyword. 
This will search each database one after the other. A typical example 
is:

  DBCREATE sdx_qsl chain sql_ad

No checking is done to see if the any of the chained databases exist, in
fact it is usually better to do the above statement first then do each of
the chained databases.

Databases can exist offsite. To define a database that lives on another 
node do:

  DBCREATE buckmaster remote gb7dxc

Remote databases cannot be chained; however, the last database in a 
a chain can be a remote database eg:

  DBCREATE qsl chain gb7dxc

To see what databases have been defined do:

  DBAVAIL (or it will have been aliased to SHOW/COMMAND)

It would be normal for you to add an entry into your local Aliases file
to allow people to use the 'SHOW/&lt;dbname&gt;' style syntax. So you would
need to add a line like:-

<tscreen><verb>
  's' => [
    ..
    ..
    '^sh\w*/buc', 'dbshow buckmaster', 'dbshow',
    ..
    ..
   ],
</verb></tscreen>

to allow 

  SH/BUCK g1tlh

to work as they may be used to.

See DBIMPORT for the importing of existing AK1A format data to databases.
See DBSHOW for generic database enquiry

<sect1>dbimport (9)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>dbimport &lt;dbname&gt;</bf> Import AK1A data into a database
</tt>

<P>
If you want to import or update data in bulk to a database you can use
this command. It will either create or update entries into an existing
database. For example:-

  DBIMPORT oblast /tmp/OBLAST.FUL

will import the standard OBLAST database that comes with AK1A into the
oblast database held locally.

<sect1>dbremove (9)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>dbremove &lt;dbname&gt;</bf> Delete a database
</tt>

<P>
DBREMOVE will completely remove a database entry and also delete any data
file that is associated with it. 

There is no warning, no comeback, no safety net. 

For example:

  DBREMOVE oblast 

will remove the oblast database from the system and it will also remove
the associated datafile.

I repeat:

There is no warning, no comeback, no safety net.

You have been warned.

<sect1>dbshow (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>dbshow &lt;dbname&gt; &lt;key&gt;</bf> Display an entry, if it exists, 
in a database
</tt>

<P>
This is the generic user interface to the database to the database system.
It is expected that the sysop will add an entry to the local Aliases file
so that users can use the more familiar AK1A style of enquiry such as:

<verb>
  SH/BUCK G1TLH
</verb>

but if he hasn't and the database really does exist (use DBAVAIL or
SHOW/COMMAND to find out) you can do the same thing with:

<verb>
  DBSHOW buck G1TLH
</verb>


<sect1>debug (9)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>debug</bf> Set the cluster program into debug mode
</tt>

<P>
Executing this command will only have an effect if you are running the cluster
in debug mode i.e.

<tscreen><verb>
        perl -d cluster.pl
</verb></tscreen>

It will interrupt the cluster just after the debug command has finished.

<sect1>directory (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>directory</bf> List messages<newline> 
<bf>directory all</bf> List all messages<newline>
<bf>directory own</bf> List your own messages<newline>
<bf>directory new</bf> List all new messages<newline>
<bf>directory to &lt;call&gt;</bf> List all messages to &lt;call&gt;<newline>
<bf>directory from &lt;call&gt;</bf> List all messages from &lt;call&gt;<newline>
<bf>directory subject &lt;string&gt;</bf> List all messages with &lt;string&gt; 
in subject<newline>
<bf>directory &lt;nn&gt;</bf> List last &lt;nn&gt; messages<newline>
<bf>directory &lt;from&gt;-&lt;to&gt;</bf> List messages &lt;from&gt; message &lt;to&gt; message <newline>
</tt>

<P>
List the messages in the messages directory.

If there is a 'p' one space after the message number then it is a 
personal message. If there is a '-' between the message number and the
'p' then this indicates that the message has been read.

You can use shell escape characters such as '*' and '?' in the &lt;call&gt;
fields.

You can combine some of the various directory commands together eg:-

<verb>
   DIR TO G1TLH 5
or 
   DIR SUBJECT IOTA 200-250
</verb>

You can abbreviate all the commands to one letter and use ak1a syntax:-

<verb>
   DIR/T G1* 10
   DIR/S QSL 10-100 5
</verb>


<sect1>directory (extended for sysops) (5)

<P>
Works just like the user command except that sysops can see ALL messages.

<sect1>disconnect (8)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>disconnect &lt;call&gt; [&lt;call&gt; ...]</bf> Disconnect a user or node
</tt>

<P>
Disconnect any &lt;call&gt; connected locally

<sect1>dx (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>dx &lsqb;by &lt;call&gt;&rsqb; &lt;freq&gt; &lt;call&gt; &lt;remarks&gt;</bf> Send a DX spot
</tt>

<P>
This is how you send a DX Spot to other users. You can, in fact, now
enter the &lt;freq&gt; and the &lt;call&gt; either way round. 

<verb>
   DX FR0G 144.600
   DX 144.600 FR0G
   DX 144600 FR0G 
</verb>

will all give the same result. You can add some remarks to the end
of the command and they will be added to the spot.

<verb>
   DX FR0G 144600 this is a test
</verb>

You can credit someone else by saying:-

<verb>
   DX by G1TLH FR0G 144.600 he isn't on the cluster
</verb>

The &lt;freq&gt; is compared against the available bands set up in the 
cluster.  See SHOW/BANDS for more information.

<sect1>export (9)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>export &lt;msgno&gt; &lt;filename&gt;</bf> Export a message to a file
</tt>

<P>
Export a message to a file. This command can only be executed on a local
console with a fully privileged user. The file produced will be in a form
ready to be imported back into the cluster by placing it in the import 
directory (/spider/msg/import).

This command cannot overwrite an existing file. This is to provide some 
measure of security. Any files written will owned by the same user as the 
main cluster, otherwise you can put the new files anywhere the cluster can
access. For example:-

  EXPORT 2345 /tmp/a

<sect1>export_users (9)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>export_users &lsqb;&lt;filename&gt;&rsqb;</bf> Export the users database to ascii
</tt>

<P>
Export the users database to a file in ascii format. If no filename
is given then it will export the file to /spider/data/user_asc.

If the file already exists it will be renamed to &lt;filename&gt;.o. In fact
up to 5 generations of the file can be kept each one with an extra 'o' on the
suffix. 

BE WARNED: this will write to any file you have write access to. No check is
made on the filename (if any) that you specify.

<sect1>forward/latlong (8)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>forward/latlong &lt;node_call&gt;</bf> Send latitude and longitude 
information to another cluster
</tt>

<P>
This command sends all the latitude and longitude information that your
cluster is holding against callsigns.  One advantage of recieving this
information is that more locator information is held by you.  This
means that more locators are given on the DX line assuming you have
<em>set/dxgrid</em> enabled.  This could be a LOT of information though, so
it is not recommended on slow links.

<sect1>forward/opername (1)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>forward/opername &lt;call&gt;</bf> Send out information on this &lt;call&gt; 
to all clusters
</tt>

<P>
This command sends out any information held in the user file which can 
be broadcast in PC41 protocol packets. This information is Name, QTH, Location
and Homenode. PC41s are only sent for the information that is available.

<sect1>help (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>help &lt;cmd&gt;</bf> Get help on a command
</tt>

<P>
All commands can be abbreviated, so SHOW/DX can be abbreviated
to SH/DX, ANNOUNCE can be shortened to AN and so on.

Look at the APROPOS &lt;string&gt; command which will search the help database
for the &lt;string&gt; you specify and give you a list of likely commands
to look at with HELP.

<sect1>init (5)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>init &lt;node call&gt;</bf> Re-initialise a link to an AK1A compatible node
</tt>

<P>
This command attempts to re-initialise a link to a (usually) AK1A node
that has got confused, usually by a protocol loop of some kind. It may
work - but you usually will be better off simply disconnecting it (or
better, if it is a real AK1A node, doing an RCMD &lt;node&gt; DISC/F &lt;your
node&gt;).

Best of luck - you will need it.

<sect1>kill (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>kill &lt;msgno&gt; &lsqb;&lt;msgno&gt; ..&rsqb;</bf> Delete a message 
from the local system
</tt>

<P>
Delete a message from the local system. You will only be able to
delete messages that you have originated or been sent (unless you are
the sysop).

<sect1>kill (5)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>kill &lt;msgno&gt [&lt;msgno&gt; ...]</bf> Remove or erase a message from 
the system<newline>
<bf>kill from &lt;call&gt;</bf> Remove all messages from a callsign<newline>
<bf>kill to &lt;call&gt;</bf> Remove all messages to a callsign<newline>
</tt>

<P>
You can get rid of any message to or originating from your callsign using 
this command. You can remove more than one message at a time.

As a sysop you can kill any message on the system.

<sect1>kill full (5)

<tt>
<bf>kill full &lt;msgno&gt; &lsqb;&lt;msgno&gt;&rsqb;</bf> Delete a message from the 
whole cluster
</tt>

<P>
Delete a message (usually a 'bulletin') from the whole cluster system. 

This uses the subject field, so any messages that have exactly the same subject
will be deleted. Beware!

<sect1>links (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>links</bf> Show which nodes are physically connected
</tt>

<P>
This is a quick listing that shows which links are connected and
some information about them. See WHO for a list of all connections.


<sect1>load/aliases (9)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>load/aliases</bf> Reload the command alias table
</tt>

<P>
Reload the /spider/cmd/Aliases file after you have editted it. You will need to
do this if you change this file whilst the cluster is running in order for the
changes to take effect.


<sect1>load/baddx (9)
<tt>
<bf>load/baddx</bf> Reload the bad DX table
</tt>

<P>
Reload the /spider/data/baddx.pl file if you have changed it manually whilst
the cluster is running. This table contains the DX Calls that, if spotted, 
will not be passed on. FR0G and TEST are classic examples.

<sect1>load/badmsg (9)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>load/badmsg</bf> Reload the bad message table
</tt>

<P>
Reload the /spider/msg/badmsg.pl file if you have changed it manually whilst
the cluster is running. This table contains a number of perl regular 
expressions which are searched for in the fields targetted of each message. 
If any of them match then that message is immediately deleted on receipt. 

<sect1>load/badwords (9)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>load/badwords</bf> Reload the badwords file
</tt>

<P>
Reload the /spider/data/badwords file if you have changed it manually whilst
the cluster is running. This file contains a list of words which, if found
on certain text portions of PC protocol, will cause those protocol frames
to be rejected. It will all put out a message if any of these words are
used on the announce, dx and talk commands. The words can be one or 
more on a line, lines starting with '#' are ignored.

<sect1>load/bands (9)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>load/bands</bf> Reload the band limits table
</tt>

<P>
Reload the /spider/data/bands.pl file if you have changed it manually whilst
the cluster is running. 

<sect1>load/cmd_cache (9)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>load/cmd_cache</bf> Reload the automatic command cache
</tt>

<P>
Normally, if you change a command file in the cmd or local_cmd tree it will
automatially be picked up by the cluster program. Sometimes it can get confused
if you are doing a lot of moving commands about or delete a command in the 
local_cmd tree and want to use the normal one again. Execute this command to
reset everything back to the state it was just after a cluster restart.

<sect1>load/forward (9)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>load/forward</bf> Reload the msg forwarding routing table
</tt>

Reload the /spider/msg/forward.pl file if you have changed it
manually whilst the cluster is running.

<sect1>load/messages (9)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>load/messages</bf> Reload the system messages file
</tt>

<P>
If you change the /spider/perl/Messages file (usually whilst fiddling/writing ne
commands) you can have them take effect during a cluster session by executing this
command. You need to do this if get something like :-

unknown message 'xxxx' in lang 'en'

<sect1>load/prefixes (9)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>load/prefixes</bf> Reload the prefix table
</tt>

<P>
Reload the /spider/data/prefix_data.pl file if you have changed it manually 
whilst the cluster is running. 

<sect1>merge (5)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>merge &lt;node&gt; [&lt;no spots&gt;/&lt;no wwv&gt;]</bf> Ask for the 
latest spots and WWV
</tt>

<P>
MERGE allows you to bring your spot and wwv database up to date. By default
it will request the last 10 spots and 5 WWVs from the node you select. The 
node must be connected locally.

You can request any number of spots or wwv and although they will be appended
to your databases they will not duplicate any that have recently been added 
(the last 2 days for spots and last month for WWV data).

<sect1>msg (9)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>msg &lt;cmd&gt; &lt;msgno&gt; [data ...]</bf> Alter various message 
parameters
</tt>

<P>
Alter message parameters like To, From, Subject, whether private or bulletin
or return receipt (RR) is required or whether to keep this message from timing
out.

<tscreen><verb>
  MSG TO <msgno> <call>     - change TO callsign to <call>
  MSG FRom <msgno> <call>   - change FROM callsign to <call>
  MSG PRrivate <msgno>      - set private flag
  MSG NOPRrivate <msgno>    - unset private flag
  MSG RR <msgno>            - set RR flag
  MSG NORR <msgno>          - unset RR flag
  MSG KEep <msgno>          - set the keep flag (message won't be deleted ever)
  MSG NOKEep <msgno>        - unset the keep flag
  MSG SUbject <msgno> <new> - change the subject to <new>
  MSG WAittime <msgno>      - remove any waitting time for this message
  MSG NOREad <msgno>        - mark message as unread
  MSG REad <msgno>          - mark message as read
  MSG QUeue                 - queue any outstanding bulletins
  MSG QUeue 1               - queue any outstanding private messages
</verb></tscreen>

You can look at the status of a message by using:-

  STAT/MSG &lt;msgno&gt;      

This will display more information on the message than DIR does.

<sect1>pc (8)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>pc &lt;call&gt; &lt;text&gt;</bf> Send text (eg PC Protocol) to &lt;call&gt;
</tt>

<P>
Send some arbitrary text to a locally connected callsign. No processing is done on
the text. This command allows you to send PC Protocol to unstick things if problems
arise (messages get stuck etc). eg:-

   pc gb7djk PC33^GB7TLH^GB7DJK^400^

You can also use in the same way as a talk command to a connected user but
without any processing, added of "from &lt;blah&gt; to &lt;blah&gt;" or whatever.

   pc G1TLH Try doing that properly!!!

<sect1>ping (1)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>ping &lt;node&gt;</bf> Check the link quality between nodes
</tt>

<P>
his command allows you to send a frame to another cluster node on
the network and get a return frame.  The time it takes to do this
is a good indication of the quality of the link.  The actual time
it takes is output to the console in seconds.
Any visible cluster node can be PINGed.


<sect1>rcmd (1)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>rcmd &lt;node call&gt; &lt;cmd&gt;</bf> Send a command to another DX cluster
</tt>

<P>
This command allows you to send nearly any command to another DX Cluster
node that is connected to the system. 

Whether you get any output is dependant on a) whether the other system knows
that the node callsign of this cluster is in fact a node b) whether the
other system is allowing RCMDs from this node and c) whether you have
permission to send this command at all.

<sect1>read (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>read</bf> Read the next unread personal message addressed to you<newline>
<bf>read &lt;msgno&gt;</bf> Read the specified message<newline>
</tt>

<P>
You can read any messages that are sent as 'non-personal' and also any
message either sent by or sent to your callsign.


<sect1>read (extended for sysops) (5) 

<P>
<tt>
<bf>read &lt;msgno&gt;</bf> Read a message on the system
</tt>

<P>
As a sysop you may read any message on the system

<sect1>reject/announce

<P>
<tt>
<bf>reject/announce &lsqb;0-9&rsqb; &lt;pattern&gt;</bf> Set a reject filter
for announce
</tt>

<P>
Create an 'reject this announce' line for a filter. 

An reject filter line means that if the announce matches this filter it is
passed onto the user. See HELP FILTERS for more info. Please read this
to understand how filters work - it will save a lot of grief later on.

You can use any of the following things in this line:-

<verb>
  info <string>            eg: iota or qsl
  by <prefixes>            eg: G,M,2         
  origin <prefixes>
  origin_dxcc <numbers>    eg: 61,62 (from eg: sh/pre G)
  origin_itu <numbers>
  origin_zone <numbers>
  by_dxcc <numbers>
  by_itu <numbers>
  by_zone <numbers>
  channel <prefixes>
  wx 1                     filter WX announces
  dest <prefixes>          eg: 6MUK,WDX      (distros)
</verb>

some examples:-

<verb>
  rej/ann by_zone 14,15,16 and not by G,M,2
</verb>
 
You can use the tag 'all' to reject everything eg:

<verb>
  rej/ann all
</verb>

but this probably for advanced users...

<sect1>reject/announce (extended for sysops) (8)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>reject/announce &lt;call&gt; &lsqb;input&rsqb; &lsqb;0-9&rsqb; &lt;pattern&gt;</bf> Announce filter sysop version
</tt>

<P>
This version allows a sysop to set a filter for a callsign as well as the
default for nodes and users eg:-

<verb>
  reject/ann by G,M,2
  reject/ann input node_default by G,M,2
  reject/ann user_default by G,M,2
</verb>

<sect1>reject/spots (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>reject/spots &lsqb;0-9&rsqb; &lt;pattern&gt;</bf> Set a reject filter 
line for spots
</tt>

<P>
Create an 'reject this spot' line for a filter. 

An reject filter line means that if the spot matches this filter it is
dumped (not passed on). See HELP FILTERS for more info. Please read this
to understand how filters work - it will save a lot of grief later on.

You can use any of the following things in this line:-

<verb>
  freq <range>           eg: 0/30000 or hf or hf/cw or 6m,4m,2m
  on <range>             same as 'freq'
  call <prefixes>        eg: G,PA,HB9
  info <string>          eg: iota or qsl
  by <prefixes>            
  call_dxcc <numbers>    eg: 61,62 (from eg: sh/pre G)
  call_itu <numbers>
  call_zone <numbers>
  by_dxcc <numbers>
  by_itu <numbers>
  by_zone <numbers>
  origin <prefixes>
  channel <prefixes>
</verb>

For frequencies, you can use any of the band names defined in
SHOW/BANDS and you can use a subband name like: cw, rtty, data, ssb -
thus: hf/ssb. You can also just have a simple range like: 0/30000 -
this is more efficient than saying simply: on HF (but don't get
too hung up about that)

some examples:-

<verb>
  rej/spot 1 on hf
  rej/spot 2 on vhf and not (by_zone 14,15,16 or call_zone 14,15,16)
</verb>

You can use the tag 'all' to reject everything eg:

<verb>
  rej/spot 3 all
</verb>

but this probably for advanced users...

<sect1>reject/spots (extended for sysops) (8)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>reject/spots &lt;call&gt; &lsqb;input&rsqb; &lsqb;0-9&rsqb; &lt;pattern&gt;</bf>
 Reject spot filter sysop version 
</tt>

<P>
This version allows a sysop to set a filter for a callsign as well as the
default for nodes and users eg:-

<verb>
  reject/spot db0sue-7 1 by_zone 14,15,16
  reject/spot node_default all
  set/hops node_default 10

  reject/spot user_default by G,M,2
</verb>

<sect1>reject/wcy (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>reject/wcy &lsqb;0-9&rsqb; &lt;pattern&gt;</bf> Set a reject WCY filter
</tt>

<P>
It is unlikely that you will want to do this, but if you do then you can
filter on the following fields:-

<verb>
  by <prefixes>            eg: G,M,2         
  origin <prefixes>
  origin_dxcc <numbers>    eg: 61,62 (from eg: sh/pre G)
  origin_itu <numbers>
  origin_zone <numbers>
  by_dxcc <numbers>
  by_itu <numbers>
  by_zone <numbers>
  channel <prefixes>
</verb>

There are no examples because WCY Broadcasts only come from one place and
you either want them or not (see UNSET/WCY if you don't want them).

This command is really provided for future use.

See HELP FILTER for information.

<sect1>reject/wcy (extended for sysops) (8)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>reject/wcy &lt;call&gt; &lsqb;input&rsqb; &lsqb;0-9&rsqb; &lt;pattern&gt;</bf>
 WCY reject filter sysop version
</tt>

<P>
This version allows a sysop to set a filter for a callsign as well as the
default for nodes and users eg:-

  reject/wcy gb7djk all

<sect1>reject/wwv (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>reject/wwv &lsqb;0-9&rsqb; &lt;pattern&gt;</bf> Set a reject WWV filter
</tt>

<P>
It is unlikely that you will want to do this, but if you do then you can
filter on the following fields:-

<verb>
  by <prefixes>            eg: G,M,2         
  origin <prefixes>
  origin_dxcc <numbers>    eg: 61,62 (from eg: sh/pre G)
  origin_itu <numbers>
  origin_zone <numbers>
  by_dxcc <numbers>
  by_itu <numbers>
  by_zone <numbers>
  channel <prefixes>
</verb>

for example 

<verb>
  reject/wwv by_zone 14,15,16
</verb>

is probably the only useful thing to do (which will only show WWV broadcasts
by stations in the US).

See HELP FILTER for information.

<sect1>reject/wwv (extended for sysops) (8)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>reject/wwv &lt;call&gt; &lsqb;input&rsqb; &lsqb;0-9&rsqb; &lt;pattern&gt;</bf>
 WWV reject filter sysop version
</tt>

<P>This version allows a sysop to set a filter for a callsign as well as the
default for nodes and users eg:-

<verb>
  reject/wwv db0sue-7 1 by_zone 4
  reject/wwv node_default all

  reject/wwv user_default by W
</verb>

<sect1>reply (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>reply</bf> Reply (privately) to the last message that you have read<newline>
<bf>reply &lt;msgno&gt;</bf> Reply (privately) to the specified message<newline>
<bf>reply B &lt;msgno&gt;</bf> Reply as a Bulletin to the specified message<newline>
<bf>reply NOPrivate &lt;msgno&gt;</bf> Reply as a Bulletin to the specified
message<newline>
<bf>reply RR &lt;msgno&gt;</bf> Reply to the specified message with read 
receipt<newline>
</tt>

<P>
You can reply to a message and the subject will automatically have
"Re:" inserted in front of it, if it isn't already present.

You can also use all the extra qualifiers such as RR, PRIVATE, 
NOPRIVATE, B that you can use with the SEND command (see SEND
for further details)

<sect1>send (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>send &lt;call&gt; &lsqb;&lt;call&gt; ...&rsqb;</bf> Send a message to 
one or more callsigns<newline>
<bf>send RR &lt;call&gt;</bf> Send a message and ask for a read receipt<newline>
<bf>send COPY &lt;msgno&gt; &lt;call&gt;</bf> Send a copy of a  message 
to someone<newline>
<bf>send PRIVATE &lt;call&gt;</bf> Send a personal message<newline>
<bf>send NOPRIVATE &lt;call&gt;</bf> Send a message to all stations<newline>
</tt>

<P>
All the SEND commands will create a message which will be sent either to
an individual callsign or to one of the 'bulletin' addresses. 

SEND &lt;call&gt; on its own acts as though you had typed SEND PRIVATE, that is
it will mark the message as personal and send it to the cluster node that
that callsign is connected to.

You can have more than one callsign in all of the SEND commands.

You can have multiple qualifiers so that you can have for example:-

<verb>
  SEND RR COPY 123 PRIVATE G1TLH G0RDI
</verb>

which should send a copy of message 123 to G1TLH and G0RDI and you will
receive a read receipt when they have read the message.

SB is an alias for SEND NOPRIVATE (or send a bulletin in BBS speak)
SP is an alias for SEND PRIVATE

<sect1>set/address (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>set/address &lt;your_address&gt;</bf> Record your postal address
</tt>

<P>
Literally, record your address details on the cluster.

<sect1>set/announce (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>set/announce</bf> Allow announce messages
</tt>

<P>
Allow announce messages to arrive at your terminal.

<sect1>set/arcluster (5)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>set/arcluster &lt;node_call&gt; &lsqb;&lt;node_call&gt; ...&rsqb;</bf> Make
the node_call an AR-Cluster type node
</tt>

<P>
Set the node_call as an AR-Cluster type node

<sect1>set/badnode (6)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>set/badnode &lt;node_call&gt;</bf> Stop spots from this node_call
being propagated
</tt>

<P>
Setting a callsign as a 'badnode' will prevent spots from that node 
going any further. They will not be displayed and they will not be 
sent onto other nodes.

The call can be a full or partial call (or a prefix), eg:-

<verb>
  set/badnode K1TTT 
</verb>

will stop anything from K1TTT (including any SSID's)

<verb>
  unset/badnode K1TTT
</verb>

will allow spots from him again.

Use with extreme care. This command may well be superceded by FILTERing.

<sect1>set/beep (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>set/beep</bf> Add beeps to terminal messages
</tt>

<P>
Add a beep to DX and other terminal messages.

<sect1>set/clx (5)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>set/clx &lt;node_call&gt; &lsqb;&lt;node_call&gt; ...&rsqb;</bf> Make
the node_call a CLX type node
</tt>

<P>
Set the node_call as a CLX type node

<sect1>set/debug (9)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>set/debug &lt;name&gt;</bf> Add a debug level to the debug set
</tt>

<P>
You can remove this level with unset/debug &lt;name&gt;

<sect1>set/dx (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>set/dx</bf>Allow DX messages to arrive at your terminal
</tt>

<P>
You can stop DX messages with the <em>unset/dx</em> command

<sect1>set/dxgrid (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>set/dxgrid</bf>Allow grid squares on the end of DX messages
</tt>

<P>
Some logging programs do not like the additional information at
the end of a DX spot.  If this is the case, use the <em>unset/dxgrid</em>
command to remove the grid squares.

<sect1>set/dxnet (5)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>set/dxnet &lt;node_call&gt; &lsqb;&lt;node_call&gt; ...&rsqb;</bf> Make
the node_call a DXNet type node
</tt>

<P>
Set the node_call as a DXNet type node

<sect1>set/echo (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>set/echo</bf> Make the cluster echo your input
</tt>

<P>
If you are connected via a telnet session, different implimentations
of telnet handle echo differently depending on whether you are 
connected via port 23 or some other port. You can use this command
to change the setting appropriately. 

You can remove the echo with the <em>unset/echo</em> command

The setting is stored in your user profile.

YOU DO NOT NEED TO USE THIS COMMAND IF YOU ARE CONNECTED VIA AX25.

<sect1>set/here (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>set/here</bf> Set the here flag
</tt>

<P>
Let others on the cluster know you are here by only displaying your
callsign.  If you are away from your terminal you can use the <em>unset/here</em>
command to let people know you are away.  This simply puts brackets
around your callsign to indicate you are not available.

<sect1>set/homenode (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>set/homenode &lt;node_call&gt;</bf> Set your home cluster
</tt>

<P>
Tell the cluster system where you normally connect to. Any Messages sent
to you will normally find their way there should you not be connected.
eg:-

<verb>
  SET/HOMENODE gb7djk
</verb>

<sect1>set/hops (8)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>set/hops &lt;node_call&gt; ann&verbar;spots&verbar;wwv&verbar;wcy &lt;n&gt;</bf>
Set hop count
</tt>

<P>
Set the hop count for a particular type of broadcast for a node.

This command allows you to set up special hop counts for a node 
for currently: announce, spots, wwv and wcy broadcasts.

<verb>
eg:
  set/hops gb7djk ann 10
  set/hops gb7mbc spots 20
</verb>

Set SHOW/HOPS for information on what is already set. This command
creates a filter and works in conjunction with the filter system. 

<sect1>set/isolate (9)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>set/isolate &lt;node call&gt;</bf> Isolate a node from the rest of the network
</tt>

<P>
Connect a node to your system in such a way that you are a full protocol
member of its network and can see all spots on it, but nothing either leaks
out from it nor goes back into from the rest of the nodes connected to you.

You can potentially connect several nodes in this way.

You can see which nodes are isolated with the show/isolate (1) command.

You can remove the isolation with the command unset/isolate.

<sect1>set/language (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>set/language &lt;language&gt;</bf> Set the language you wish to use
</tt>

<P>
You can select the language that you want the cluster to use. Currently
the languages available are <em>en</em> (English) and <em>nl</em> (Dutch).

<sect1>set/location (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>set/location &lt;lat and long&gt;</bf> Set your latitude and longitude
</tt>

<P>
You can set your latitude and longitude manually or alternatively use the
<em>set/qra</em> command which will do the conversion for you.

<verb>
  set/location 54 04 N 2 02 E
</verb>


<sect1>set/sys_location (9)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>set/sys_location &lt;lat & long&gt;</bf> Set your cluster latitude and longitude
</tt>

<P>
In order to get accurate headings and such like you must tell the system
what your latitude and longitude is. If you have not yet done a SET/QRA
then this command will set your QRA locator for you. For example:-

<verb>
  SET/LOCATION 52 22 N 0 57 E
</verb>

<sect1>set/logininfo (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>set/logininfo</bf> Show logins and logouts of nodes and users
</tt>

<P>
Show users and nodes when they log in and out of the local cluster.  You
can stop these messages by using the <em>unset/logininfo</em> command.


<sect1>set/lockout (9)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>set/lockout &lt;call&gt;</bf> Stop a callsign connecting to the cluster
</tt>

<P>
You can show who is locked out with the <em>show/lockout</em> command.
To allow the user to connect again, use the <em>unset/lockout</em> command.

<sect1>set/name (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>set/name &lt;your_name&gt;</bf> Set your name
</tt>

<P>
Tell the cluster what your name is, eg:-

<verb>
  set/name Dirk
</verb>

<sect1>set/node (9)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>set/node &lt;call&gt; [&lt;call&gt; ...]</bf> Make the callsign an AK1A cluster
</tt>

<P>
Tell the system that the call(s) are to be treated as AK1A cluster and
fed PC Protocol rather normal user commands.

From version 1.41 you can also set the following types of cluster

<verb>
  set/spider
  set/dxnet
  set/clx
  set/arcluster
</verb>

To see what your nodes are set to, use the <em>show/nodes</em> command.

<sect1>set/obscount (9)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>set/obscount &lt;count&gt; &lt;node call&gt;</bf> Set the 'pump-up' 
obsolescence counter
</tt>

<P>
From version 1.35 onwards neighbouring nodes are pinged at regular intervals (see
SET/PINGINTERVAL), usually 300 seconds or 5 minutes. There is a 'pump-up'
counter which is decremented on every outgoing ping and then reset to
the 'obscount' value on every incoming ping. The default value of this
parameter is 2. 

What this means is that a neighbouring node will be pinged twice at 
(default) 300 second intervals and if no reply has been heard just before
what would be the third attempt, that node is disconnected.

If a ping is heard then the obscount is reset to the full value. Using
default values, if a node has not responded to a ping within 15 minutes,
it is disconnected.

<sect1>set/page (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>set/page &lt;n&gt;</bf> Set the number of lines per page
</tt>

<P>
Tell the system how many lines you wish on a page when the number of lines
of output from a command is more than this. The default is 20. Setting it
explicitly to 0 will disable paging. 

<verb>
  SET/PAGE 30
  SET/PAGE 0
</verb>

The setting is stored in your user profile.


<sect1>set/password (9)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>set/password &lt;callsign&gt; &lt;string&gt;</bf> Set a users password
</tt>

<P>
The password for a user can only be set by a full sysop. The string
can contain any characters but any spaces are removed (you can type in
spaces - but they won't appear in the password). You can see the
result with STAT/USER.  The password is the usual 30 character baycom
type password.

<sect1>set/pinginterval (9)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>set/pinginterval &lt;time&gt; &lt;node call&gt;</bf> Set the ping time 
to neighbouring nodes
</tt>

<P>
As from version 1.35 all neighbouring nodes are pinged at regular intervals
in order to determine the rolling quality of the link and, in future, to
affect routing decisions. The default interval is 300 secs or 5 minutes.

You can use this command to set a different interval. Please don't. 

But if you do the value you enter is treated as minutes up 60 and seconds
for numbers greater than that.

This is used also to help determine when a link is down at the far end
(as certain cluster software doesn't always notice), see SET/OBSCOUNT
for more information.

<sect1>set/privilege (9)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>set/privilege &lt;n&gt; &lt;call&gt; [&lt;call&gt; ...]</bf> Set the 
privilege level on a call
</tt>

<P>
Set the privilege level on a callsign. The privilege levels that pertain
to commands are as default:-

<tscreen><verb>
  0 - normal user
  1 - allow remote nodes normal user RCMDs
  5 - various privileged commands (including shutdown, but not disc-
      connect), the normal level for another node.
  8 - more privileged commands (including disconnect)
  9 - local sysop privilege. DO NOT SET ANY REMOTE USER OR NODE TO THIS
      LEVEL.
</verb></tscreen>

If you are a sysop and you come in as a normal user on a remote connection
your privilege will automatically be set to 0.

<sect1>set/spider (5)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>set/spider &lt;node_call&gt; &lsqb;&lt;node_call&gt; ...&rsqb;</bf> Make
the node_call a DXSpider type node
</tt>

<P>
Set the node_call as a DXSpider type node

<sect1>set/sys_qra (9)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>set/sys_qra &lt;locator&gt;</bf> Set your cluster QRA locator
</tt>

<sect1>set/qra (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>set/qra &lt;locator&gt;</bf> Set your QRA locator
</tt>

<P>
Tell the system what your QRA (or Maidenhead) locator is. If you have not
done a SET/LOCATION then your latitude and longitude will be set roughly
correctly (assuming your locator is correct ;-). For example:-

<verb>
  SET/QRA JO02LQ
</verb>

<sect1>set/qth (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>set/qth &lt;your QTH&gt;</bf> Set your QTH
</tt>

<P>
Tell the system where your are.  For example:-

<verb>
  set/qth East Dereham, Norfolk
</verb>

<sect1>set/talk (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>set/talk</bf> Allow talk messages to be seen at your console
</tt>

<P>
Allow talk messages to arrive at your console.  You can switch off
talks with the <em>unset/talk</em> command.

<sect1>set/wcy (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>set/wcy</bf> Allow WCY messages to be seen at your console
</tt>

<P>
Allow WCY information to be seen at your console.  You can switch off
WCY messages with the <em>unset/wcy</em> command.

<sect1>set/wwv (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>set/wwv</bf> Allow WWV messages to be seen at your console
</tt>

<P>
Allow WWV information to be seen at your console.  You can switch off
WWV messages with the <em>unset/wwv</em> command.

<sect1>set/wx (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>set/wx</bf> Allow WX messages to be seen at your console
</tt>

<P>
Allow WX information to be seen at your console.  You can switch off
WX messages with the <em>unset/wx</em> command.

<sect1>show/badnode (6)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>show/badnode</bf> Show all the bad nodes in the system
</tt>

<P>
Display all the bad node callsigns in the system, see SET/BADNODE
for more information.

<sect1>show/date (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>show/date &lsqb;&lt;prefix&gt;&verbar;&lt;callsign&gt;&rsqb;</bf> Show
the local time
</tt>

<P>
This is very nearly the same as SHOW/TIME, the only difference the format
of the date string if no arguments are given.

If no prefixes or callsigns are given then this command returns the local
time and UTC as the computer has it right now. If you give some prefixes
then it will show UTC and UTC + the local offset (not including DST) at
the prefixes or callsigns that you specify.

<sect1>show/dx (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>show/dx &lsqb;options&rsqb;</bf> interrogate the spot database
</tt>

<P>
If you just type SHOW/DX you will get the last so many spots
(sysop configurable, but usually 10).
   
In addition you can add any number of these options in very nearly
any order to the basic SHOW/DX command, they are:-

<verb>   
on &lt;band&gt;       - eg 160m 20m 2m 23cm 6mm
on &lt;region&gt;     - eg hf vhf uhf shf      (see SHOW/BANDS)
   
&lt;number&gt;        - the number of spots you want
&lt;from&gt;-&lt;to&gt     - &lt;from&gt; spot no &lt;to&gt; spot no in 
                  the selected list
   
&lt;prefix&gt;        - for a spotted callsign beginning with &lt;prefix&gt;
*&lt;suffix&gt;       - for a spotted callsign ending in &lt;suffix&gt;
*&lt;string&gt;*      - for a spotted callsign containing &lt;string&gt;
   
day &lt;number&gt;    - starting &lt;number&gt; days ago
day &lt;from&gt;-&lt;to&gt; - &lt;from&gt; days &lt;to&gt; days ago
   
info &lt;text&gt;     - any spots containing &lt;text&gt; in the info or remarks
   
by &lt;call&gt;       - any spots spotted by &lt;call&gt; (spotter &lt;call&gt; 
                        is the same).

qsl             - this automatically looks for any qsl info on the call
                  held in the spot database.

iota &lsqb;&lt;iota&gt;&rsqb;   - If the iota island number is missing it will 
                  look for the string iota and anything which looks like 
                  an iota island number. If you specify then it will look 
                  for that island.

qra &lsqb;&lt;locator&gt;&rsqb; - this will look for the specific locator if 
                  you specify one or else anything that looks like a locator.
</verb>
   
e.g. 

<verb>   
   SH/DX 9m0
   SH/DX on 20m info iota
   SH/DX 9a on vhf day 30
   SH/DX rf1p qsl
   SH/DX iota 
   SH/DX iota eu-064
   SH/DX qra jn86
</verb>

<sect1>show/dxcc (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>show/dxcc &lt;prefix&gt;</bf> Interrogate the spot database by country
</tt>

<P>
This command takes the &lt;prefix&gt; (which can be a full or partial 
callsign if desired), looks up which internal country number it is
and then displays all the spots as per SH/DX for that country.
   
The options for SHOW/DX also apply to this command.   
e.g. 

<verb>   
   SH/DXCC G
   SH/DXCC W on 20m info iota
</verb>

<sect1>show/files (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>show/files &lsqb;&lt;filearea&gt; &lsqb;&lt;string&gt;&rsqb;&rsqb;</bf> List
the contents of a filearea
</tt>

<P>
SHOW/FILES on its own will show you a list of the various fileareas
available on the system. To see the contents of a particular file
area type:-

<verb>
   SH/FILES &lt;filearea&gt;
</verb>

where &lt;filearea&gt; is the name of the filearea you want to see the 
contents of.

You can also use shell globbing characters like '*' and '?' in a
string to see a selection of files in a filearea eg:-

<verb>
   SH/FILES bulletins arld*
</verb>

See also TYPE - to see the contents of a file.

<sect1>show/filter (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>show/filter</bf> Show the filters you have set
</tt>

<P>
Show the contents of all the filters that are set by you. This command 
displays all the filters set - for all the various categories.

<sect1>show/filter (extended for sysops) (5)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>show/filter &lt;callsign&gt;</bf> Show the filters set by &lt;callsign&gt;
</tt>

<P>
A sysop can look at any filters that have been set.

<sect1>show/hops (8)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>show/hops &lt;node_call&gt; &lsqb;ann&verbar;spots&verbar;wcy&verbar;wwv&verbar;&rsqb;</bf> Show the hop 
counts for a node
</tt>

<P>
This command shows the hop counts set up for a node. You can specify
which category you want to see. If you leave the category out then 
all the categories will be listed.

<sect1>show/isolate (1)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>show/isolate</bf> Show a list of isolated nodes
</tt>

<P>
Show which nodes are currently set to be isolated.

<sect1>show/lockout (9)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>show/lockout</bf> Show a list of excluded callsigns
</tt>

<P>
Show a list of callsigns that have been excluded (locked out) of the
cluster locally with the <em>set/lockout</em> command

<sect1>show/moon (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>show/moon &lsqb;&lt;prefix&gt;&verbar;&lt;callsign&gt;&rsqb;</bf> Show moon
rise and set times
</tt>

<P>
Show the Moon rise and set times for a (list of) prefixes or callsigns, 
together with the azimuth and elevation of the sun currently at those
locations.

If you don't specify any prefixes or callsigns, it will show the times for
your QTH (assuming you have set it with either SET/LOCATION or SET/QRA),
together with the current azimuth and elevation.

In addition, it will show the gain or loss dB relative to the nominal 
distance of 385,000Km due to the ellipsoidal nature of the orbit.

If all else fails it will show the Moonrise and set times for the node
that you are connected to. 

For example:-

<verb>
  SH/MOON
  SH/MOON G1TLH W5UN
</verb>

<sect1>show/muf (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>show/muf &lt;prefix&gt; &lsqb;&lt;hours&gt;&rsqb;&lsqb;long&rsqb;</bf> Show
the likely propagation to &lt;prefix&gt;
</tt>

<P>
This command allow you to estimate the likelihood of you contacting
a station with the prefix you have specified. The output assumes a modest
power of 20dBW and receiver sensitivity of -123dBm (about 0.15muV/10dB SINAD)

The result predicts the most likely operating frequencies and signal
levels for high frequency (shortwave) radio propagation paths on
specified days of the year and hours of the day. It is most useful for
paths between 250 km and 6000 km, but can be used with reduced accuracy
for paths shorter or longer than this.

The command uses a routine MINIMUF 3.5 developed by the U.S. Navy and
used to predict the MUF given the predicted flux, day of the year,
hour of the day and geographic coordinates of the transmitter and
receiver. This routine is reasonably accurate for the purposes here,
with a claimed RMS error of 3.8 MHz, but much smaller and less complex
than the programs used by major shortwave broadcasting organizations,
such as the Voice of America.

The command will display some header information detailing its
assumptions, together with the locations, latitude and longitudes and
bearings. It will then show UTC (UT), local time at the other end
(LT), calculate the MUFs, Sun zenith angle at the midpoint of the path
(Zen) and the likely signal strengths. Then for each frequency for which
the system thinks there is a likelihood of a circuit it prints a value.

The value is currently a likely S meter reading based on the conventional
6dB / S point scale. If the value has a '+' appended it means that it is
1/2 an S point stronger. If the value is preceeded by an 'm' it means that
there is likely to be much fading and by an 's' that the signal is likely
to be noisy.  

By default SHOW/MUF will show the next two hours worth of data. You
can specify anything up to 24 hours worth of data by appending the no of
hours required after the prefix. For example:-

<verb>
  SH/MUF W
</verb>

produces:

<verb>
  RxSens: -123 dBM SFI: 159   R: 193   Month: 10   Day: 21
  Power :   20 dBW    Distance:  6283 km    Delay: 22.4 ms
  Location                       Lat / Long           Azim
  East Dereham, Norfolk          52 41 N 0 57 E         47
  United-States-W                43 0 N 87 54 W        299
  UT LT  MUF Zen  1.8  3.5  7.0 10.1 14.0 18.1 21.0 24.9 28.0 50.0
  18 23 11.5 -35  mS0+ mS2   S3
  19  0 11.2 -41  mS0+ mS2   S3
</verb>

indicating that you will have weak, fading circuits on top band and 
80m but usable signals on 40m (about S3).

inputing:-

<verb>
  SH/MUF W 24
</verb>

will get you the above display, but with the next 24 hours worth of
propagation data.

<verb>
  SH/MUF W L 24
  SH/MUF W 24 Long
</verb>

Gives you an estimate of the long path propagation characterics. It
should be noted that the figures will probably not be very useful, nor
terrible accurate, but it is included for completeness.

<sect1>show/node (1)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>show/node &lsqb;&lt;node_call&gt; ...&rsqb;</bf> Show the type and version
number of nodes
</tt>

<P>
Show the type and version (if connected) of the nodes specified on the
command line. If no callsigns are specified then a sorted list of all
the non-user callsigns known to the system will be displayed.

<sect1>show/prefix (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>show/prefix &lt;callsign&gt;</bf> Interrogate the prefix database
</tt>

<P>
This command takes the &lt;callsign&gt; (which can be a full or partial 
callsign or a prefix), looks up which internal country number 
it is and then displays all the relevant prefixes for that country
together with the internal country no, the CQ and ITU regions. 

See also SHOW/DXCC


<sect1>show/program (5)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>show/program</bf> Show the locations of all the included program modules
</tt>

<P>
Show the name and location where every program module was load from. This
is useful for checking where you think you have loaded a .pm file from.

<sect1>show/qra (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>show/qra &lt;locator&gt &lsqb;&lt;locator&gt;&rsqb;</bf> Show the distance
between locators<newline>
<bf>show/qra &lt;lat&gt; &lt;long&gt;</bf> Convert latitude and longitude to 
a locator
</tt>

<P>
This is a multipurpose command that allows you either to calculate the
distance and bearing between two locators or (if only one locator is
given on the command line) the distance and beraing from your station
to the locator. For example:-

<verb>
SH/QRA IO92QL 
SH/QRA JN06 IN73
</verb>

The first example will show the distance and bearing to the locator from
yourself, the second example will calculate the distance and bearing from
the first locator to the second. You can use 4 or 6 character locators.

It is also possible to convert a latitude and longitude to a locator by 
using this command with a latitude and longitude as an argument, for
example:-

<verb>
SH/QRA 52 41 N 0 58 E
</verb>

<sect1>show/qrz (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>show/qrz &lt;callsign&gt;</bf> Show any callbook details on a callsign
</tt>

<P>
This command queries the QRZ callbook server on the internet
and returns any information available for that callsign. This service
is provided for users of this software by http://www.qrz.com 

<sect1>show/route (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>show/route &lt;callsign&gt;</bf> Show the route to &lt;callsign&gt;
</tt>

<P>
This command allows you to see to which node the callsigns specified are
connected. It is a sort of inverse sh/config.

<verb>
  sh/route n2tly
</verb>

<sect1>show/satellite (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>show/satellite &lt;name&gt; &lsqb;&lt;hours&gt; &lt;interval&gt;&rsqb;</bf>
Show satellite tracking data
</tt>

<P>
Show the tracking data from your location to the satellite of your choice
from now on for the next few hours.

If you use this command without a satellite name it will display a list
of all the satellites known currently to the system. 

If you give a name then you can obtain tracking data of all the passes
that start and finish 5 degrees below the horizon. As default it will
give information for the next three hours for every five minute period.

You can alter the number of hours and the step size, within certain 
limits. 

Each pass in a period is separated with a row of '-----' characters

So for example:-

<verb>
SH/SAT AO-10 
SH/SAT FENGYUN1 12 2
</verb>

<sect1>show/sun (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>show/sun &lsqb;&lt;prefix&gt;&verbar;&lt;callsign&gt;&rsqb;</bf> Show
sun rise and set times
</tt>

<P>
Show the sun rise and set times for a (list of) prefixes or callsigns, 
together with the azimuth and elevation of the sun currently at those
locations.

If you don't specify any prefixes or callsigns, it will show the times for
your QTH (assuming you have set it with either SET/LOCATION or SET/QRA),
together with the current azimuth and elevation.

If all else fails it will show the sunrise and set times for the node
that you are connected to. 

For example:-

<verb>
  SH/SUN
  SH/SUN G1TLH K9CW ZS
</verb>

<sect1>show/time (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>show/time &lsqb;&lt;prefix&gt;&verbar;&lt;callsign&gt;&rsqb;</bf> Show
the local time
</tt>

<P>
If no prefixes or callsigns are given then this command returns the local
time and UTC as the computer has it right now. If you give some prefixes
then it will show UTC and UTC + the local offset (not including DST) at
the prefixes or callsigns that you specify.

<sect1>show/wcy (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>show/wcy</bf> Show the last 10 WCY broadcasts<newline>
<bf>show/wcy &lt;n&gt;</bf> Show the last &lt;n&gt; WCY broadcasts
</tt>

<P>
Display the most recent WCY information that has been received by the system

<sect1>show/wwv (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>show/wwv</bf> Show the last 10 WWV broadcasts<newline>
<bf>show/wwv &lt;n&gt;</bf> Show the last &lt;n&gt; WWV broadcasts
</tt>

<P>
Display the most recent WWV information that has been received by the system


<sect1>shutdown (5)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>shutdown</bf> Shutdown the cluster
</tt>

<P>
Shutdown the cluster and disconnect all the users.  If you have Spider
set to respawn in /etc/inittab it will of course restart.

<sect1>spoof (9)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>spoof &lt;callsign&gt; &lt;command&gt;</bf> Run commands as another user
</tt>

<P>
This is a very simple yet powerful command for the sysop.  It allows you to
issue commands as if you were a different user.  This is very useful for the
kind of things that users seem to always get wrong.. like home_node for
example.

<sect1>stat/db (5)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>stat/db &lt;dbname&gt;</bf> Show the status of a database
</tt>

<P>
Show the internal status of a database descriptor.

Depending on your privilege level you will see more or less information. 
This command is unlikely to be of much use to anyone other than a sysop.

<sect1>stat/channel (5)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>stat/channel &lt;callsign&gt;</bf> Show the status of a channel on the cluster
</tt>

<P>
Show the internal status of the channel object either for the channel that 
you are on or else for the callsign that you asked for.

Only the fields that are defined (in perl term) will be displayed.

<sect1>stat/msg (5)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>stat/msg &lt;msgno&gt;</bf> Show the status of a message
</tt>

<P>
This command shows the internal status of a message and includes information
such as to whom it has been forwarded, its size, origin etc etc.

<sect1>stat/user (5)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>stat/user &lt;callsign&gt;</bf> Show the full status of a user
</tt>

<P>
Shows the full contents of a user record including all the secret flags
and stuff.

Only the fields that are defined (in perl term) will be displayed.

<sect1>sysop (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>sysop</bf> Regain your privileges if you login remotely
</tt>

<P>
The system automatically reduces your privilege level to that of a
normal user if you login in remotely. This command allows you to
regain your normal privilege level. It uses the normal system: five
numbers are returned that are indexes into the character array that is
your assigned password (see SET/PASSWORD). The indexes start from
zero.

You are expected to return a string which contains the characters
required in the correct order. You may intersperse those characters
with others to obscure your reply for any watchers. For example (and
these values are for explanation :-):

<verb>
  password = 012345678901234567890123456789
  > sysop
  22 10 15 17 3
</verb>

you type:-

<verb>
 aa2bbbb0ccc5ddd7xxx3n
 or 2 0 5 7 3
 or 20573
</verb>

They will all match. If there is no password you will still be offered
numbers but nothing will happen when you input a string. Any match is
case sensitive.

<sect1>talk (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>talk &lt;callsign&gt;</bf> Enter talk mode with &lt;callsign&gt;<newline>
<bf>talk &lt;callsign&gt; &lt;text&gt;</bf> Send a text message to &lt;callsign&gt;<newline>
<bf>talk &lt;callsign&gt; &gt; &lt;node_call&gt; &lsqb;&lt;text&gt;&rsqb;</bf>
Send a text message to &lt;callsign&gt; via &lt;node_call&gt;
</tt>

<P>
Send a short message to any other station that is visible on the cluster
system. You can send it to anyone you can see with a SHOW/CONFIGURATION 
command, they don't have to be connected locally.

The second form of TALK is used when other cluster nodes are connected
with restricted information. This usually means that they don't send 
the user information usually associated with logging on and off the cluster.

If you know that G3JNB is likely to be present on GB7TLH, but you can only
see GB7TLH in the SH/C list but with no users, then you would use the
second form of the talk message.

If you want to have a ragchew with someone you can leave the text message
out and the system will go into 'Talk' mode. What this means is that a
short message is sent to the recipient telling them that you are in a 'Talking' 
frame of mind and then you just type - everything you send will go to the 
station that you asked for. 

All the usual announcements, spots and so on will still come out on your
terminal.

If you want to do something (such as send a spot) you precede the normal 
command with a '/' character, eg:-

<verb>
   /DX 14001 G1TLH What's a B class licensee doing on 20m CW?
   /HELP talk
</verb>

To leave talk mode type:
   
<verb>
   /EX
</verb>

<sect1>type (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>type &lt;filearea&gt;/&lt;name&gt;</bf> Look at a file in one of the fileareas
</tt>

<P>
Type out the contents of a file in a filearea. So, for example, in 
filearea 'bulletins' you want to look at file 'arld051' you would 
enter:-

<verb>
   TYPE bulletins/arld051
</verb>

See also SHOW/FILES to see what fileareas are available and a 
list of content.

<sect1>who (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>who</bf> Show who is physically connected locally
</tt>

<P>
This is a quick listing that shows which callsigns are connected and
what sort of connection they have

<sect1>wx (0)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>wx &lt;text&gt;</bf> Send a weather message to local users<newline>
<bf>wx full &lt;text&gt; </bf> Send a weather message to all cluster users
</tt>

<P>
Weather messages can sometimes be useful if you are experiencing an extreme
that may indicate enhanced conditions

<sect1>wx (enhanced for sysops) (5)

<P>
<tt>
<bf>wx sysop &lt;text&gt;</bf> Send a weather message to other clusters only
</tt>

<P>
Send a weather message only to other cluster nodes and not to general users.



</article>