X-Git-Url: http://scm.dxcluster.org/gitweb/gitweb.cgi?a=blobdiff_plain;ds=inline;f=sgml%2Fadminmanual.sgml;h=d6fb29940ca80701b12555b89ae1fed1aa24cd66;hb=c87553a14286b31db30d28decb1c0d5c8327e443;hp=d66afd9addc3f3264ac66d717eb01bb040f5fb11;hpb=b85014c2efe367be21460ff3e72f4a0727e6c26c;p=spider.git diff --git a/sgml/adminmanual.sgml b/sgml/adminmanual.sgml index d66afd9a..d6fb2994 100644 --- a/sgml/adminmanual.sgml +++ b/sgml/adminmanual.sgml @@ -4,9 +4,10 @@ -
-Last modified: 24 January 2001 by Ian Maude, G0VGS
+
-This section describes the installation of DX Spider v1.35 on a
-
-I am assuming a general knowledge of Linux and its commands. You should
-know how to use tar and how to edit files using your favourite editor.
+In fact DXSpider has had a simple system for some time which is called
+
-The crucial ingredient for all of this is
- In addition to the standard Red Hat distribution you will require the
-following
+What this really means is that you can control more or less completely
+which PC protocol frames, to do with user and node management, pass to
+each of your partner nodes. You can also limit what comes into your
+node from your partners. You can even control the settings that your
+partner node has for the routing information that it sends to you
+(using the
-
+Initially when route filters were being tested we generated a
+"default" filter. Unfortunately it quickly became apparent that this
+might suit the UK cluster network but didn't really fit anybody else.
+However using a default filter is an appropriate thing to do. How, is
+explained further on.
-
+The first thing that you must do is determine whether you need to do route filtering
+You will only require this functionality if you are
+"well-connected". What that means is that you are connected to several
+different parts of (say) the EU cluster and, at the same time, also
+connected to two or three places in the US which, in turn are
+connected back to the EU. This is called a "loop" and if you are
+seriously looped then you need filtering.
+I should at this stage give a little bit of background on filters. All
+the filters in Spider work in basically the same way. You can either
+accept or reject various options in order to create the filter rules
+you wish to achieve. Some filters are user settable, others can only
+be altered by the sysop. Route filtering can only be done by the sysop.
-Do get the latest versions of these packages and install them
-but use the above list as the earliest versions usable.
+
+Anyway, without further discouragement, let me start the process
+of explanation.
-
-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.
+All normal systems should have a default routing filter and it should
+usually be set to send only the normal, unlooped, view of your
+"national" network. Here in the UK that means nodes from the UK and
+Eire, in EU it is more complex as the networks there grew up in a more
+intertwined way.
-
-Login as root and create a user to run the cluster under.
+The generic commands are:-
-
-Now set a password for the user ...
+or
-
-Now to unpack the DX Spider distribution, set symbolic links and group
-permissions. Copy the tarball to /home/sysop and do the following.
+where filter_option is one of the following ...
+For the default routing filter then you have two real choices: either
+a "national" view or the "safe" option of only your own
+callsign. Examples of each (for my node: GB7DJK) are:-
+The example filters shown control
-The next step is to set the permissions on the Spider directory tree and files ....
+
+It is also possible to control the
-This last step allows various users of the group spider 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.
+What this does is accept node and user information for our national
+network from nodes that are in our national network, but rejects such
+information from anyone else. Although it doesn't explicitly say so,
+by implication, any other node information (not from the UK and Eire)
+is accepted.
-
-Finally, you need to fix the permissions on the ax25_call and netrom_call
-programs. Check where they are with the locate command and alter
-the permissions with the chmod command like this ..
+
+As I imagine it will take a little while to get one's head around all of this you
+can study the effect of any rules that you try by watching the debug output
+after having done:-
-Now login to your machine as the user you created earlier. In my case that
-user is called sysop. Once logged in, issue the following commands ....
+After you have got tired of that, to put it back the way it was:-
-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 ....
-
-
-$myemail = "ianmaude\@btinternet.com";
-
-
-
-There appears to be an extra slash in there. However this has to be there
-for the file to work so leave it in.
-
-
-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!
-
-
-Save the new file and change directory to ../perl ....
-
-
-Now type the following command which creates the basic user file with you as
-the sysop.
+Exactly the same rules apply for general route filtering. You would
+use either an accept filter or a reject filter like this ...
-We can now bring spider up for the first time and see if all is well or not!
-It should look something like this ...
+or
-
-If all is well then login on another term or console as sysop and
-cd to /spider/perl. Now issue the following command ...
+Here are some examples of route filters ...
-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 ....
-
+In practice you will either be opening the default filter out for a
+partner by defining a specific filter for that callsign:-
+
-and both the cluster and the client should return to Linux prompts.
-
-
-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
-incoming connects at the moment. Before you can use it though it
-has to be "made". CD to /spider/src and type make. You
-should see the output on your screen and hopefully now have a small C program
-called client. Leave it in this directory.
+
+It is possible to do
-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 ...
-
-
-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 ....
-
-
-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 ....
+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 ...
- Now login as sysop and cd spider/perl. You can test that spider
-is accepting telnet logins by issuing the following command ....
+There is also a command to clear out one or more lines in a filter. They are ...
-Assuming all is well, then try a telnet from your linux console ....
+and you can check that your filters have worked by the command ...
-
-You should now get the login prompt and be able to login as before.
+For now we are going to use spots for the examples, but you can apply the same
+principles to all types of filter.
-
-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.
+There are two main types of filter, accept or reject. 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)
-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 ...
+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 accept filter ...
-For now, we will assume that the cluster we are going to connect to is an
-AK1A type node.
+then you will ONLY get VHF spots from or to CQ zones
+14, 15 and 16.
-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 ...
+If you set a reject filter like this ...
-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.
-
-
-That is now set, it is as simple as that. To prove it, login on yet another
-console as sysop and issue the command ...
+Then you will get everything EXCEPT 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 ...
-You should get an initialisation string from DXSpider like this ...
+But in that case you might only be interested in iota and say:-
-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.
+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!
-The connect scripts consist of lines which start with the following keywords
-or symbols:-
-
-
-
-
-Both these examples assume that everything is set up properly at the other end.
-You will find other examples in the /spider/examples directory.
-
-
-You start the connection, from within a sysop enabled cluster login, by typing
-in the word connect followed by a script name like this ....
+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 APART 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 ...
-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
-
-In a script, this might look like ...
+would redefine our earlier example, or
-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.
-
-
-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.
-
-
-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 ...
+To remove all the filter lines in the spot filter ...
-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.
-
-
-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.
+
-Login as root and bring up the /etc/inittab file in your favourite editor. Add
-the following lines to the file near the end ...
+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 ...
-This will automatically start DXSpider on tty7 (ALT-F7) on bootup and restart
-it should it crash for any reason.
+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.
-
-As root type the command telinit q. DXSpider should start up
-immediately. You will see the output on tty7 and if you login as sysop
-you should find everything running nicely.
+
-So far so good, now to automate script connections...
-
-
-Login as sysop and create a file in /spider/local_cmd called crontab.
-Edit it with your favourite editor and add a line like this (I have included
-a comment)
+The previous example that filters hf/cw spots and accepts vhf/uhf spots from EU
+can be written with a mixed filter, for example ...
-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.
-
-
-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
-
-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).
+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.
You can set a callsign specific hop count for any of the standard filter
+options so:-
+
+
+The set/hops command overrides any hops that you have set otherwise.
+
+
+You can set what hops have been set using the show/hops command.
+
@@ -730,7 +536,7 @@ It is possible to isolate networks from each other on a "gateway" node using the
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
+node 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
@@ -742,575 +548,477 @@ another network, he can still still send a talk/announce etc message via your
node and it will be routed across.
-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.
+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 use
+an acc/spot >call< allOther filters
+
+
-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 ....
+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 ....
-There is a lot more on filtering in the next section.
+# 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)
-
-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 .issue. There are two types of
-filter, one for incoming information and one for outgoing information.
-Outgoing filters are in the form CALLSIGN.pl and incoming filters
-are in the form in_CALLSIGN.pl. Filters can be set for both nodes
-and users.
+# The format of each line is as follows
-
-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 accept or to reject. 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.
+# type source pattern
+# P/B/F T/F/O/S regex
-
-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.
+# 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
-
-The actual elements of each filter are described more fully in the following
-sections.
+# The pattern can be undef or 0 in which case it will always be selected
+# for the action specified
-
-The elements of the Spot filter are ....
-
-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).
-
-
-The second element is the field_no. There are 13 possiblities to choose from
-here ....
+package DXMsg;
-
-The third element tells us what to expect in the fourth element. There are
-4 possibilities ....
+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.
-
-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.
+
-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.
+
+From version 1.48 onwards the interface to this has changed. You can now
+use the commands set/badword to add words that you are not prepared
+to see on the cluster, unset/badword to allow that word again and
+show/badword to list the words that you have set.
-
+If you have a previous /spider/data/badwords, the first time you start
+the node, it will read and convert this file to the new commands. The old style
+file will then be removed.
-
-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.
+
-What this line does is tell the program to drop any spots posted by anyone in
-the USA, Canada or Japan.
+
+There are a number of commands that control whether a spot progresses
+any further by regarding it as "bad" in some way.
-
-The second line is the default rule for anything else. The "d" tells us this
-and the line simply reads... accept anything else.
+
+A DX Spot has a number of fields which can checked to see whether they
+contain "bad" values, they are: the DX callsign itself, the Spotter and
+the Originating Node.
-
-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 ....
+
+There are a set of commands which allow the sysop to control whether a
+spot continues:-
-But the line below achieves the same thing and is more efficient ....
+These work in the same as the set/badword command, you can add
+any words or callsigns or whatever to the appropriate database. For
+example, to stop a spot from a particular node you do:
-It should be noted that the filter will start to be used only once a user/node
-has logged out and back in again.
-
-I am not going to spend any more time on these filters now as they will become
-more "comprehensive" in the near future.
+DXSpider deals seamlessly with standard AK1A type mail. It supports both
+personal and bulletin mail and the sysop has additional commands to ensure
+that mail gets to where it is meant. DXSpider will send mail almost
+immediately, assuming that the target is on line. However, only one
+mail message is dealt with at any one time. If a mail message is already
+being sent or recieved, then the new message will be queued until it has
+finished.
-
-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.
+Personal mail is sent using the sp command. This is actually the
+default method of sending mail and so a simple s for send will do.
+A full list of the send commands and options is in the command set
+section, so I will not duplicate them here.
-
-There are 3 basic commands involved in setting and manipulating filters. These
-are accept, reject and clear. 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.
+
-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 ...
+Bulletin mail is sent by using the sb command. This is one of the
+most common mistakes users make when sending mail. They send a bulletin
+mail with s or sp instead of sb and of course
+the message never leaves the cluster. This can be rectified by the sysop
+by using the msg command.
- Bulletin addresses can be set using the Forward.pl file.
-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.
+
+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 ...
-and you can check that your filters have worked by the command ...
+package DXMsg;
-
-For now we are going to use spots for the examples, but you can apply the same
-principles to all types of filter.
+To force the cluster to reread the file use load/forward
-
-There are two main types of filter, accept or reject. 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)
+
-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 accept filter ...
+The msg command is a very powerful and flexible tool for the
+sysop. It allows the sysop to alter to and from fields and make other
+changes to manage the cluster mail.
+
+Here is a full list of the various options ...
-If you set a reject filter like this ...
+These commands are simply typed from within the cluster as the sysop user.
-
+You can check on a message from within the cluster by using the command
+stat/msg. This will give you additional information on the
+message number including which nodes have received it, which node it
+was received from and when etc. Here is an example of the output of
+the command ...
+This is described in the section on Other filters so I will not
+duplicate it here.
-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!
+
-You can arrange your filter lines into logical units, either for your own
-understanding or simply convenience. Here is an example ...
+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 distro. You
+put any distibution lists in here. For example, here is a file called
+SYSOP.pl that caters for the UK sysops.
-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.
+Spider provides a simple BBS interface. No input is required from the sysop
+of the cluster at all. The BBS simply sets the cluster as a BBS and pushes
+any required mail to the cluster. No mail can flow from Spider to the BBS,
+the interface is one-way.
-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 APART 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 ...
+Please be careful not to flood the cluster network with unnecessary mail.
+Make sure you only send mail to the clusters that want it by using the
+Forward.pl file very carefully.
-
+From 1.48 onwards it will become increasingly possible to control DXSpider's
+operation with scripts of various kinds.
-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 ...
+
+In the first instance, in 1.48, the sysop can create, with their favorite
+text editor, files in the directory /spider/scripts which contain
+any legal command for a callsign or class of connection which will be executed
+at logon.
-
+The filename are the callsign of the connection that you want the script to
+operate on, eg: /spider/scripts/g1tlh. The filenames are always in
+lower case on those architectures where this makes a difference.
-would redefine our earlier example, or
+
+In addition to the callsign specific scripts there are three others:-
+The user_default script is executed for every user that does
+
+The node_default script is executed for every node that doesn't
+have a specific script.
-
+There are a couple of examples in the /spider/scripts directory.
-
-You can filter in several different ways. The options are listed in the
-various helpfiles for accept, reject and filter.
-
-
-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 ...
+Spider allows the creation of local or remote databases. It supports
+chained databases, allowing several different databases to be scanned
+with one simple command. Importing of databases is limited at present
+to the standard AK1A databases such as OBLAST and the DB0SDX QSL
+database but will expand with time.
-
-Once you are happy with the results you get, you may like to experiment.
+Creating a database could not be more simple. All the commands are
+sent from the cluster prompt as the sysop user.
-
-The previous example that filters hf/cw spots and accepts vhf/uhf spots from EU
-can be written with a mixed filter, for example ...
+To create a database you use the command dbcreate. It can
+be used in 3 different ways like so ..
-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.
-
-
-
-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 ....
+To simply create a database locally, you just tell the command the
+name of the database. This does not create the actual database, it
+simply defines it to say that it exists.
+The only databases that Spider can currently import are the standard
+AK1A databases such as OBLAST or the DB0SDX qsl and address database.
+This will be added to with time.
-@badmsg = (
-'B', 'T', 'SALE',
-'B', 'T', 'WANTED',
-'B', 'S', 'WANTED',
-'B', 'S', 'SALE',
-'B', 'S', 'WTB',
-'B', 'S', 'WTS',
-'B', 'T', 'FS',
-);
-
-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.
+
-
-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 ....
+Once a database is created, you will want to check that it has been
+added. To do this use the dbavail command. This will
+output the available databases. For example ...
+To look for information in a defined database, simply use the dbshow
+command, for example ...
-@baddx = qw
-
- FROG
- SALE
- FORSALE
- WANTED
- P1RATE
- PIRATE
- TEST
- DXTEST
- NIL
- NOCALL
-);
+
-Again, this is simply a list of names we do not want to see in the spotted
-field of a DX callout.
+will show the information for the callsign G0YLM from the buckmaster
+database if it exists. To make things more standard for the users
+you can add an entry in the Aliases file so that it looks like a standard
+show command like this ...
+
-Create a file in /spider/data called badwords. The format is quite
-simple. Lines beginning with # are ignored so comments can be added. An
-example file is below ...
+To delete an existing database you use the dbremove command.
+For example ...
-You can reload the file from the cluster prompt as sysop with load/badwords.
+would remove the oblast database and its associated datafile from the
+system. There are no warnings or recovery possible from this command.
+If you remove a database it ceases to exist and would have to be created
+from scratch if you still required it.
@@ -1376,11 +1084,11 @@ An example would look like this ....
-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 ...
-
-
-To force the cluster to reread the file use load/forward
+To edit the colours, copy /spider/perl/Console.pl to /spider/local and edit the
+file with your favourite editor.
-
-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 distro. You
-put any distibution lists in here. For example, here is a file called
-SYSOP.pl that caters for the UK sysops.
+Spider has a powerful and flexible show/satellite command. In order for
+this to be accurate, the kepler data has to be updated regularly. In
+general, this data is available as an email or via cluster mail.
+Updating it is simple. First you need to export the mail message as a
+file. You do this with the export command from the cluster prompt
+as the sysop. For example ...
-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.
+Now login to a VT as sysop and cd /spider/perl. There is a command in
+the perl directory called convkeps.pl. All we need to do now is
+convert the file like so ...
-
-To edit the colours, copy /spider/perl/Console.pl to /spider/local and edit the
-file with your favourite editor.
+
-Spider provides a simple BBS interface. No input is required from the sysop
-of the cluster at all. The BBS simply sets the cluster as a BBS and pushes
-any required mail to the cluster. No mail can flow from Spider to the BBS,
-the interface is one-way.
+
-Please be careful not to flood the cluster network with unnecessary mail.
-Make sure you only send mail to the clusters that want it by using the
-Forward.pl file very carefully.
+The command sh/qrz will only work once you have followed a few
+simple steps. First you need to get a user ID and password from qrz.com.
+Simply go to the site and create one. Secondly you need to copy the file
+/spider/perl/Internet.pm to /spider/local and alter it to match your user
+ID and password. You also at this point need to set $allow=1 to complete
+the setup. Many thanks to Fred Lloyd, the proprieter of
+
The next step will create a brand new 'spider' directory in your current
@@ -1776,7 +1430,7 @@ correct. YOU WERE LOGGED IN AS THE USER SYSOP WEREN'T YOU?????
Remember to recompile the C client (cd /spider/src; make)
-At this point the files have been upgraded. You can (usually) restrt the cluster
+At this point the files have been upgraded. You can (usually) restart 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!
@@ -1878,6 +1532,50 @@ default for nodes and users eg:-
accept/ann user_default by G,M,2
+
+
+Create an 'accept this routing PC Protocol' line for a filter.
+
+
+An accept filter line means that if a PC16/17/19/21/24/41/50 matches this filter
+it is passed thru that interface. See HELP FILTERING 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:-
+
+
+some examples:-
+
+
+You can use the tag 'all' to accept everything eg:
+
+
@@ -2064,7 +1762,9 @@ default for nodes and users eg:-
Send an announcement to LOCAL users only, where <text> is the text
-of the announcement you wish to broadcast
+of the announcement you wish to broadcast. If you do not wish to receive
+announces, use the set/noannounce command. Any announces made by
+a sysop will override set/noannounce.
-
-
-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.
-
@@ -2639,21 +2326,6 @@ 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.
-
-
-
-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.
-
@@ -2903,6 +2575,47 @@ default for nodes and users eg:-
reject/ann user_default by G,M,2
+
+
+Create an 'reject this routing PC Protocol' line for a filter.
+
+
+An reject filter line means that if a PC16/17/19/21/24/41/50 matches this filter
+it is NOT passed thru that interface. See HELP FILTERING 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:-
+
+
+some examples:-
+
+
+You can use the tag 'all' to reject everything eg:
+
+
@@ -3253,6 +2966,13 @@ Use with extreme care. This command may well be superceded by FILTERing.
Add a beep to DX and other terminal messages.
+
+
+
@@ -3272,7 +2992,18 @@ Set the node_call as a CLX type node
-You can remove this level with unset/debug <name>
+You can choose to log several different levels. The levels are
+
+chan
+state
+msg
+cron
+connect
+
+You can show what levels you are logging with the show/debug
+command.
+
+You can remove a debug level with unset/debug <name>
-
Display all the bad spotter's callsigns in the system, see SET/BADSPOTTER
for more information.
+
+
+
+This command allows you to see all the users that can be seen
+and the nodes to which they are connected. With the optional node,
+you can specify a particular node to look at.
+
+This command is normally abbreviated to: sh/c
+
+BE WARNED: the list that is returned can be VERY long
+
+
+
+
+Show all the nodes connected locally and the nodes they have connected.
+
+
+
+
+This command shows information on all the active connections known to
+the node. This command gives slightly more information than WHO.
+
@@ -3744,6 +3512,16 @@ 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.
+
+
+
+The levels can be set with set/debug
+
@@ -3906,6 +3684,18 @@ Show which nodes are currently set to be isolated.
Show a list of callsigns that have been excluded (locked out) of the
cluster locally with the set/lockout command
+
+
+
+This command outputs a short section of the system log. On its own
+it will output a general logfile. With the optional callsign it will
+show output from the log associated with that callsign.
+
@@ -4274,6 +4064,24 @@ Only the fields that are defined (in perl term) will be displayed.
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.
+
+If no message number is given then the status of the message system is
+displayed.
+
+
+
+
+
+