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The DXSpider Administration Manual v1.50
Ian Maude, G0VGS, (g0vgs@gb7mbc.net), and Charlie Carroll,
K1XX, (k1xx@ptcnh.net)
February 2003 revision 0.3
A reference for SysOps of the DXSpider DXCluster program.
______________________________________________________________________
Table of Contents
1. Routing and Filtering
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Route Filters
1.3 The node_default filter
1.4 General route filtering
1.5 General filter rules
1.6 Types of filter
1.7 Filter options
1.8 Default filters
1.9 Advanced filtering
1.10 Basic hop control
1.11 Hop Control on Specific Nodes
1.12 Isolating networks
2. Other filters
2.1 Filtering Mail
2.2 Filtering words from text fields in Announce, Talk and DX spots
2.3 Stopping (possibly bad) DX Spots from Nodes or Spotters
3. Mail
3.1 Personal mail
3.2 Bulletin mail
3.3 Forward.pl
3.4 The msg command
3.5 Message status
3.6 Filtering mail
3.7 Distribution lists
3.8 BBS interface
4. Scripts
5. Databases
5.1 Creating databases
5.2 Importing databases
5.3 Checking available databases
5.4 Looking up databases
5.5 Removing databases
6. Information, files and useful programs
6.1 MOTD
6.2 MOTD_NOR
6.3 Downtime message
6.4 Other text messages
6.5 The Aliases file
6.6 Console.pl
6.7 Updating kepler data
6.8 The QRZ callbook
6.9 Connecting logging programs
7. Java Web applet
8. Web based statistics
9. Security
9.1 Registration
9.2 Passwords
10. CVS
10.1 CVS from a Linux platform
10.2 CVS from a Windows platform
11. The DXSpider command set
11.1 accept/announce (0)
11.2 accept/announce (extended for sysops) (8)
11.3 accept/route (8)
11.4 accept/spots (0)
11.5 accept/spots (extended for sysops) (8)
11.6 accept/wcy (0)
11.7 accept/wcy (extended for sysops) (8)
11.8 accept/wwv (0)
11.9 accept/wwv (extended for sysops) (8)
11.10 announce (0)
11.11 announce full (0)
11.12 announce sysop (5)
11.13 apropos (0)
11.14 bye (0)
11.15 catchup (5)
11.16 clear/announce (8)
11.17 clear/route (8)
11.18 clear/spots (0)
11.19 clear/spots (extended for sysops) (8)
11.20 clear/wcy (0)
11.21 clear/wcy (extended for sysops) (8)
11.22 clear/wwv (0)
11.23 clear/wwv (extended for sysops) (8)
11.24 connect (5)
11.25 dbavail (0)
11.26 dbcreate (9)
11.27 dbimport (9)
11.28 dbremove (9)
11.29 dbshow (0)
11.30 debug (9)
11.31 delete/user (9)
11.32 demonstrate (9)
11.33 directory (0)
11.34 directory (extended for sysops) (5)
11.35 disconnect (8)
11.36 dx (0)
11.37 export (9)
11.38 export_users (9)
11.39 filtering (0)
11.40 forward/latlong (8)
11.41 forward/opername (1)
11.42 help (0)
11.43 init (5)
11.44 kill (0)
11.45 kill (5)
11.46 kill full (5)
11.47 kill/expunge (6)
11.48 links (0)
11.49 load/aliases (9)
11.50 load/badmsg (9)
11.51 load/badwords (9)
11.52 load/bands (9)
11.53 load/cmd_cache (9)
11.54 load/forward (9)
11.55 load/messages (9)
11.56 load/prefixes (9)
11.57 merge (5)
11.58 msg (9)
11.59 pc (8)
11.60 ping (1)
11.61 rcmd (1)
11.62 read (0)
11.63 read (extended for sysops) (5)
11.64 reject/announce
11.65 reject/announce (extended for sysops) (8)
11.66 reject/route (8)
11.67 reject/spots (0)
11.68 reject/spots (extended for sysops) (8)
11.69 reject/wcy (0)
11.70 reject/wcy (extended for sysops) (8)
11.71 reject/wwv (0)
11.72 reject/wwv (extended for sysops) (8)
11.73 reply (0)
11.74 send (0)
11.75 set/address (0)
11.76 set/announce (0)
11.77 set/arcluster (5)
11.78 set/baddx (8)
11.79 set/badnode (6)
11.80 set/badspotter (8)
11.81 set/badword (8)
11.82 set/beep (0)
11.83 set/bbs (5)
11.84 set/clx (5)
11.85 set/debug (9)
11.86 set/dx (0)
11.87 set/dxgrid (0)
11.88 set/dxnet (5)
11.89 set/echo (0)
11.90 set/email (0)
11.91 set/here (0)
11.92 set/homenode (0)
11.93 set/hops (8)
11.94 set/isolate (9)
11.95 set/language (0)
11.96 set/location (0)
11.97 set/sys_location (9)
11.98 set/logininfo (0)
11.99 set/lockout (9)
11.100 set/name (0)
11.101 set/node (9)
11.102 set/obscount (9)
11.103 set/page (0)
11.104 set/password (0)
11.105 set/password (9)
11.106 set/pinginterval (9)
11.107 set/privilege (9)
11.108 set/spider (5)
11.109 set/sys_qra (9)
11.110 set/qra (0)
11.111 set/qth (0)
11.112 set/register (9)
11.113 set/talk (0)
11.114 set/wcy (0)
11.115 set/wwv (0)
11.116 set/wx (0)
11.117 show/baddx (1)
11.118 show/badnode (6)
11.119 show/badspotter (1)
11.120 show/badword (1)
11.121 show/configuration (0)
11.122 show/configuration/node (0)
11.123 show/connect (1)
11.124 show/date (0)
11.125 show/debug (9)
11.126 show/dx (0)
11.127 show/dxcc (0)
11.128 sh/dxstats (0)
11.129 show/files (0)
11.130 show/filter (0)
11.131 show/filter (extended for sysops) (5)
11.132 show/hfstats (0)
11.133 show/hftable (0)
11.134 show/hops (8)
11.135 show/isolate (1)
11.136 show/lockout (9)
11.137 show/log (8)
11.138 show/moon (0)
11.139 show/muf (0)
11.140 show/newconfiguration (0)
11.141 show/newconfiguration/node (0)
11.142 show/node (1)
11.143 show/prefix (0)
11.144 show/program (5)
11.145 show/qra (0)
11.146 show/qrz (0)
11.147 show/registered (9)
11.148 show/route (0)
11.149 show/satellite (0)
11.150 show/sun (0)
11.151 show/time (0)
11.152 show/vhfstats (0)
11.153 show/vhftable (0)
11.154 show/wcy (0)
11.155 show/wwv (0)
11.156 shutdown (5)
11.157 spoof (9)
11.158 stat/db (5)
11.159 stat/channel (5)
11.160 stat/msg (5)
11.161 stat/route_node (5)
11.162 stat/route_user (5)
11.163 stat/user (5)
11.164 sysop (0)
11.165 talk (0)
11.166 type (0)
11.167 who (0)
11.168 wx (0)
11.169 wx (enhanced for sysops) (5)
______________________________________________________________________
1. Routing and Filtering
1.1. Introduction
From DXSpider version 1.48, major changes were introduced to the way
node connections are treated. This is part of an ongoing process to
remove problems with loops and to enable talk and other functions to
propagate across the whole of the worldwide cluster network. In fact,
in a Spider network, it would be useful, perhaps even necessary to
have loops. This would give real resilience to the network, meaning
that if a link dropped, the information flow would simply come in and
go out via a different route. Of course, we do not have a complete
network of Spider nodes, there are other programs out there. Some of
these do not have any protection from loops. Certainly AK1A does not
handle loops well at all. It is therefore necessary to have some form
of protection for these nodes.
In fact DXSpider has had a simple system for some time which is called
isolation. This is similar to what in other systems such as clx, is
called passive mode. A more detailed explanation of isolation is given
further below. This system is still available and, for simple
networks, is probably all that you need.
The new functionality introduced in version 1.48 allows filtering the
node and user protocol frames on a "per interface" basis. We call this
route filtering. This is used instead of isolation.
What this really means is that you can control more or less completely
which user and node management PC protocol frames pass to each of your
partner nodes. You can also limit what comes into your node from your
partners. It is even possible to control the settings that your
partner node has for the routing information that it sends to you
(using the rcmd command).
1.2. Route Filters
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 use
route filtering at all. If you are a "normal" node with two or three
partners and you arranged in an "official" non-looping tree type
network, then you do not need to do route filtering and you will feel
a lot better for not getting involved. If you are successfully using
isolation then you also probably don't need to use route filtering.
To put it simply, you should not mix Isolation and Route Filtering.
It will work, of sorts, but you will not get the expected results. If
you are using Isolation sucessfully at the moment, do not get involved
in Route Filtering unless you have a good supply of aspirin! Once you
have started down the road of Route Filtering, do not use Isolation
either. Use one or the other, not both.
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.
Anyway, without further discouragement, let me start the process of
explanation.
1.3. The node_default filter
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.
The generic commands are:-
reject/route node_default <filter_option>
or
accept/route node_default <filter_option>
where filter_option is one of the following ...
call <prefixes>
call_dxcc <numbers>
call_itu <numbers>
call_zone <numbers>
channel <prefixes>
channel_dxcc <numbers>
channel_itu <numbers>
channel_zone <numbers>
Please be careful if you alter this setting, it will affect ALL your
links! Remember, this is a default filter for node connections, not a
per link default.
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:-
acc/route node_default call_dxcc 61,38
acc/route node_default call gb7djk
GB7DJK uses the first of these. The DXCC countries can be obtained
from the show/prefix command.
The example filters shown control output TO all your partner nodes
unless they have a specific filter applied to them (see next section).
It is also possible to control the incoming routing information that
you are prepared to accept FROM your partner nodes. The reason this is
necessary is to make sure that stuff like mail, pings and similar
commands a) go down the correct links and b) don't loop around
excessively. Again using GB7DJK as an example a typical default input
filter would be something like:
rej/route node_default input call_dxcc 61,38 and not channel_dxcc 61,38
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.
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:-
set/debug filter
After you have got tired of that, to put it back the way it was:-
unset/debug filter
1.4. General route filtering
Exactly the same rules apply for general route filtering. You would
use either an accept filter or a reject filter like this ...
reject/route <node_call> <filter_option>
or
accept/route <node_call> <filter_option>
Here are some examples of route filters ...
rej/route gb7djk call_dxcc 61,38 (send everything except UK+EIRE nodes)
rej/route all (equiv to [very] restricted mode)
acc/route gb7djk call_dxcc 61,38 (send only UK+EIRE nodes)
acc/route gb7djk call gb7djk (equiv to SET/ISOLATE)
In practice you will either be opening the default filter out for a
partner by defining a specific filter for that callsign:-
acc/route gb7baa all
acc/route gb7baa input all
or restricting it quite a lot, in fact making it very nearly like an
isolated node, like this:-
acc/route pi4ehv-8 call gb7djk
rej/route pi4ehv-8 input call_dxcc 61,38
This last example takes everything except UK and Eire from PI4EHV-8
but only sends him my local configuration (just a PC19 for GB7DJK and
PC16s for my local users).
It is possible to write much more complex rules, there are up to 10
accept/reject pairs per callsign per filter. For more information see
the next section.
1.5. General filter rules
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.
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 ...
accept/spots .....
reject/spots .....
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 ...
clear/spots 1
clear/spots all
There is clear/xxxx command for each type of filter.
and you can check that your filters have worked by the command ...
show/filter
For now we are going to use spots for the examples, but you can apply
the same principles to all types of filter.
1.6. Types of filter
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 ...
accept/spots on vhf and (by_zone 14,15,16 or call_zone 14,15,16)
then you will ONLY get VHF spots from or to CQ zones 14, 15 and 16.
If you set a reject filter like this ...
reject/spots on hf/cw
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 ...
reject/spots on hf/cw and not info iota
But in that case you might only be interested in iota and say:-
accept/spots not on hf/cw or info iota
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 ...
reject/spots 1 on hf/cw
reject/spots 2 on 50000/1400000 not (by_zone 14,15,16 or call_zone 14,15,16)
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.
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.
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 ...
(on 50000/1400000 and by_zone 14,15,16) or call_zone 14,15,16
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 ...
reject/spots 1 on hf/ssb
would redefine our earlier example, or
clear/spots 1
To remove all the filter lines in the spot filter ...
clear/spots all
1.7. Filter options
You can filter in several different ways. The options are listed in
the various helpfiles for accept, reject and filter.
1.8. Default filters
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 ...
accept/spot node_default by_zone 14,15,16,20,33
set/hops node_default spot 50
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.
1.9. Advanced filtering
Once you are happy with the results you get, you may like to
experiment.
The previous example that filters hf/cw spots and accepts vhf/uhf
spots from EU can be written with a mixed filter, for example ...
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)
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 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. Each filter slot actually has a
'reject' slot and an 'accept' slot. The reject slot is executed BEFORE
the accept slot.
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.
1.10. Basic hop control
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 ...
#
# 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,
},
);
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.
SHould any of the nodecalls include an ssid, it is important to wrap
the whole call in single quotes, like this ...
'DB0FHF-15' => {
11 => 5,
12 => 8,
16 => 8,
17 => 8,
19 => 8,
21 => 8,
},
If you do not do this, you will get errors and the file will not work
as expected.
You can alter this file at any time, including whilst the cluster is
running. If you alter the file during runtime, the command load/hops
will bring your changes into effect.
1.11. Hop Control on Specific Nodes
You can set a callsign specific hop count for any of the standard
filter options so:-
set/hops gb7djk spot 4
set/hops node_default route 10
set/hops gb7baa wcy 5
all work on their specific area of the protocol.
The set/hops command overrides any hops that you have set otherwise.
You can show what hops have been set using the show/hops command.
1.12. Isolating networks
It is possible to isolate networks from each other on a "gateway" node
using the set/isolate <node_call> command.
The effect of this is to partition an isolated network completely from
another 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 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.
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< all filter to override the isolate.
2. Other filters
2.1. Filtering Mail
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 ....
# 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 = (
);
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.
2.2. Filtering words from text fields in Announce, Talk and DX spots
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.
2.3. Stopping (possibly bad) DX Spots from Nodes or Spotters
There are a number of commands that control whether a spot progresses
any further by regarding it as "bad" in some way.
A DX Spot has a number of fields which can be checked to see whether
they contain "bad" values, they are: the DX callsign itself, the
Spotter and the Originating Node.
There are a set of commands which allow the sysop to control whether a
spot continues:-
set/baddx
set/badspotter
set/badnode
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:
set/badnode gb7djk gb7dxc
a bad spotter:
set/badspotter b0mb p1rat nocall
and some bad dx:
set/baddx video wsjt
You can remove a word using the appropriate unset command
(unset/baddx, unset/badspotter, unset/badnode) or list them using one
of show/baddx, show/badspotter and show/badnode.
3. Mail
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.
The cluster mail is automatically deleted after 30 days unless the
sysop sets the "keep" flag using the msg command.
3.1. Personal mail
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.
3.2. Bulletin mail
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.
3.3. Forward.pl
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 ...
#
# 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 = (
);
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.
To force the cluster to reread the file use load/forward
NB: If a user tries to send mail to a bulletin address that does not
exist in this file, they will get an error.
3.4. The msg command
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 ...
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 waiting 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
These commands are simply typed from within the cluster as the sysop
user.
3.5. Message status
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 ...
G0VGS de GB7MBC 28-Jan-2001 1308Z >
stat/msg 6869
From: GB7DJK
Msg Time: 26-Jan-2001 1302Z
Msgno: 6869
Origin: GB7DJK
Size: 8012
Subject: AMSAT 2line KEPS 01025.AMSAT
To: UK
Got it Nodes: GB7BAA, GB7ADX
Private: 0
Read Confirm: 0
Times read: 0
G0VGS de GB7MBC 28-Jan-2001 1308Z >
3.6. Filtering mail
This is described in the section on Other filters so I will not
duplicate it here.
3.7. Distribution lists
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.
qw(GB7TLH GB7DJK GB7DXM GB7CDX GB7BPQ GB7DXN GB7MBC GB7MBC-6 GB7MDX
GB7NDX GB7SDX GB7TDX GB7UDX GB7YDX GB7ADX GB7BAA GB7DXA GB7DXH
GB7DXK GB7DXI GB7DXS)
Any mail sent to "sysop" would only be sent to the callsigns in this
list.
3.8. BBS interface
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.
4. Scripts
From 1.48 onwards it will become increasingly possible to control
DXSpider's operation with scripts of various kinds.
The directory /spider/scripts is where it all happens and is used for
several things. Firstly it contains a file called startup that can be
used to call in any changes to the cluster from the default settings
on startup. This script is executed immediately after all
initialisation of the node is done but before any connections are
possible. Examples of this include how many spots it is possible to
get with the sh/dx command, whether you want registration/passwords to
be permanently on etc. An example file is shown below and is included
in the distribution as startup.issue.
#
# startup script example
#
# set maximum no of spots allowed to 100
# set/var $Spot::maxspots = 100
#
# Set registration on
# set/var $main::reqreg = 1
#
# Set passwords on
# set/var $main::passwdreq = 1
#
As usual, any text behind a # is treated as a comment and not read.
To use this file, simply rename it from startup.issue to startup. In
our example above there are three options. The first option is the
amount of spots that a user can request with the sh/dx command.
Normally the default is to give 10 spots unless the user specifies
more. Without this line enabled, the maximum a user can request is
100 spots. Depending on your link quality you may wish to enable more
or less by specifying the number.
The other 2 options are dealt with more fully in the security section.
Secondly, it is used to store the login scripts for users and nodes.
Currently this can only be done by the sysop but it is envisaged that
eventually users will be able to set their own. An example is
included in the distibution but here is a further example.
#
# G0FYD
#
blank +
sh/wwv 3
blank +
sh/dx
blank +
t g0jhc You abt?
blank +
The lines in between commands can simply insert a blank line or a
character such as a + sign to make the output easier to read. Simply
create this script with your favourite editor and save it with the
callsign of the user as the filename. Filenames should always be in
lower case.
Commands can be inserted in the same way for nodes. A node may wish a
series of commands to be issued on login, such as a merge command for
example.
Thirdly, there are 2 default scripts for users and nodes who do not
have a specifically defined script. These are user_default and
node_default
5. Databases
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.
5.1. Creating databases
Creating a database could not be more simple. All the commands are
sent from the cluster prompt as the sysop user.
To create a database you use the command dbcreate. It can be used in
3 different ways like so ..
dbcreate <name>
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.
dbcreate <name> chain <name> [<name>...]
This creates a chained database entry. The first database will be
scanned, then the second, the third etc...
dbcreate <name> remote <name>
This creates a remote entry. the first name field is the database
name at the remote node, then the remote switch, then the actual
node_call of the remote node, for example...
dbcreate buckmaster remote gb7dxc
Remote databases cannot be chained, however, the last database in a
chain can be a remote database.
5.2. Importing databases
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.
To import such a database, first put the file somewhere useful like
/tmp and then issue the following command ...
dbimport oblast /tmp/OBLAST.FUL
This will update the existing local oblast database or create it if it
does not exist.
5.3. Checking available databases
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 ...
dbavail
DB Name Location Chain
qsl Local
buck GB7ADX
hftest GB7DXM
G0VGS de GB7MBC 3-Feb-2001 1925Z >
5.4. Looking up databases
To look for information in a defined database, simply use the dbshow
command, for example ...
dbshow buckmaster G0YLM
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 ...
Now you can simply use show/buckmaster or an abreviation.
5.5. Removing databases
To delete an existing database you use the dbremove command. For
example ...
dbremove oblast
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.
6. Information, files and useful programs
6.1. MOTD
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.
6.2. MOTD_NOR
This message of the day file lives in the same directory as the
standard motd file but is only sent to non-registered users. Once
registered they will receive the same message as any other user.
6.3. Downtime message
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.
6.4. Other text messages
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
packclus. Under this directory you can create files called news or
newuser for example. In fact you can create files with any names you
like. These can be listed by the user with the command ....
show/files
They can be read by the user by typing the command ....
type news
If the file they want to read is called news. You could also set an
alias for this in the Alias file to allow them just to type news
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 bulletin. Now copy any OPDX or similar
bulletins into it. These can be listed by the user in the same way as
above using the show/files command with an extension for the bulletin
directory you have just created, like this ....
show/files bulletin
An example would look like this ....
sh/files
bulletin DIR 20-Dec-1999 1715Z news 1602 14-Dec-1999 1330Z
You can see that in the files area (basically the packclus directory)
there is a file called news and a directory called bulletin. You can
also see that dates they were created. In the case of the file news,
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 news you would simply issue the command ....
type news
To look what is in the bulletin directory you issue the command ....
show/files bulletin
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) >
You can now read any file in this directory using the type command,
like this ....
type bulletin/opdx391
Ohio/Penn DX Bulletin No. 391
The Ohio/Penn Dx PacketCluster
DX Bulletin No. 391
BID: $OPDX.391
January 11, 1999
Editor Tedd Mirgliotta, KB8NW
Provided by BARF-80 BBS Cleveland, Ohio
Online at 440-237-8208 28.8k-1200 Baud 8/N/1 (New Area Code!)
Thanks to the Northern Ohio Amateur Radio Society, Northern Ohio DX
Association, Ohio/Penn PacketCluster Network, K1XN & Golist, WB2RAJ/WB2YQH
& The 59(9) DXReport, W3UR & The Daily DX, K3TEJ, KN4UG, W4DC, NC6J, N6HR,
Press Enter to continue, A to abort (508 lines) >
The page length will of course depend on what you have it set to!
6.5. The Aliases file
You will find a file in /spider/cmd/ called Aliases. This is the file
that controls what a user gets when issuing a command. It is also
possible to create your own aliases for databases and files you create
locally.
You should not alter the original file in /spider/cmd/ but create a
new file with the same name in /spider/local_cmd. This means that any
new Aliases files that is downloaded will not overwrite your self
created Aliases and also that you do not override any new Aliases with
your copy in /spider/local_cmd/. You must remember that any files you
store in /spider/local/ or /spider/local_cmd override the originals if
the same lines are used in both files.
The best way of dealing with all this then is to only put your own
locally created Aliases in the copy in /spider/local_cmd. The example
below is currently in use at GB7MBC.
#
# Local Aliases File
#
package CmdAlias;
%alias = (
'n' => [
'^news$', 'type news', 'type',
],
's' => [
'^sh\w*/buck$', 'show/qrz', 'show',
'^sh\w*/hftest$', 'dbshow hftest', 'dbshow',
'^sh\w*/qsl$', 'dbshow qsl', 'dbshow',
'^sh\w*/vhf$', 'dbshow vhf', 'dbshow',
'^sh\w*/vhftest$', 'dbshow vhftest', 'dbshow',
],
)
Each alphabetical section should be preceded by the initial letter and
the section should be wrapped in square brackets as you can see. The
syntax is straightforward. The first section on each line is the new
command that will be allowed once the alias is included. The second
section is the command it is replacing and the last section is the
actual command that is being used.
The eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed that in the first
section, the new alias command has a '^' at the start and a '$' at the
end. Basically these force a perfect match on the alias. The '^'
says match the beginning exactly and the with similar commands.
I have 3 different types of alias in this file. At the top is an
alias for 'news'. This is a file I have created in the
/spider/packclus/ directory where I can inform users of new
developments or points of interest. In it's initial form a user would
have to use the command type news. The alias allows them to simply
type news to get the info. Second is an alias for the show/qrz
command so that those users used to the original show/buck command in
AK1A will not get an error, and the rest of the lines are for locally
created databases so that a user can type show/hftest instead of
having to use the command dbshow hftest which is not as intuitive.
This file is just an example and you should edit it to your own
requirements. Once created, simply issue the command load/alias at
the cluster prompt as the sysop user and the aliases should be
available.
6.6. Console.pl
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.
To edit the colours, copy /spider/perl/Console.pl to /spider/local and
edit the file with your favourite editor.
6.7. Updating kepler data
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 ...
export 5467 /spider/perl/keps.in
would export message number 5467 as a file called keps.in in the
/spider/perl directory.
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 ...
./convkeps.pl keps.in
Now go back to the cluster and issue the command ...
load/keps
That is it! the kepler data has been updated.
6.8. The QRZ callbook
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 qrz.com for allowing this access.
6.9. Connecting logging programs
There appear to be very few logging programs out there that support
telnet especially the popular ones like LogEQF, Turbolog etc. This
can make it difficult to connect to your own cluster! The way to do
it is to make the logging program think it has a TNC attached to a com
port on the logging PC and 'push' a linux login out to it. This is
achieved very simply by the use of agetty.
All that is required is to add a line in /etc/inittab to have the
client ready for a connection on the com port of your choice.
Remember that in Linux, the com ports start at ttyS0 for com1, ttyS1
for com2 etc.
c4:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -L 9600 ttyS1
Add this after the standard runlevel lines in /etc/inittab. The above
line works on ttyS1 (com2). Now as root, issue the command telinit q
and it should be ready for connection. All that is required is a 3
wire serial lead (tx, rx and signal ground). Tell you logging program
to use 8n1 at 9600 baud and you should see a Linux login prompt.
Login as normal and then telnet from there to the cluster.
7. Java Web applet
In the spider tree will be a directory spider-web. This is a neat
little java web applet that can be run from a website. The applet
must run on the same machine as the cluster. The included README file
is shown below.
I should comment here that the applet is precompiled, that is, ready
to go. It was compiled using JDK1.3.1. If your version is earlier
than this then it may not work. Should that be the case you need to
recompile or update your JDK. To recompile do the following ...
cd /spider/spider-web
rm *.class
/usr/bin/javac spiderclient.java
I have used /usr/bin/javac as an example, your path to javac may be
different.
Spider-WEB v0.6b
Completely based on a clx web client written in Java by dl6dbh
(ftp://clx.muc.de/pub/clx/clx-java_10130001.tgz)
The webserver has to run on the same machine as your DxSpider software!
It is assumed that you have Java installed. You need JDK1.3.1 at least.
Installation instructions (Performed as root):
Put all the files in the spider-web directory into a newly created directory
under the DocumentRoot of your websever for instance 'client'. In my case
this is: /home/httpd/html/client/ although ymmv. For Suse the correct
path should be /usr/local/httpd/htdocs/client/ for example.
Move spider.cgi to the cgi-bin directory of your webserver, in my case that is
/home/httpd/cgi-bin/ although ymmv. For Suse the correct path should be
/usr/local/httpd/cgi-bin/ for example.
Change the permissions of the files to ensure they are correct, obviously you
will need to use the correct path the the files according to your system:
chmod 755 /home/httpd/html/cgi-bin/spider.cgi
chmod -R 755 /home/httpd/html/client/
By default the spider.cgi script should pick up your hostname (As long as this
is set correctly). If it does not or your hostname differs from the name that
you attach to the public address that you are using, then edit spider.cgi :
# Uncomment and set the hostname manually here if the above fails.
# $HOSTNAME = "gb7mbc.spoo.org" ;
$PORT = "8000" ;
telnet (see Listeners.pm)
NOTE: If you can start the console but cannot connect to the cluster from it,
then it is possible that the machine you are on cannot resolve the hostname of
your cluster machine. If this is the case, you need to set your hostname
manually as above.
You also need to set the $NODECALL variable. This prints the name of your
choosing (probably your cluster callsign) on the html page.
You now can connect to Spider-Web via http://yourserver/cgi-bin/spider.cgi
8. Web based statistics
From version 1.50, you can use the freeware software MRTG to produce
really nice graphical statistics on your web site. For an example try
http://www.gb7mbc.net/mrtg/stats.html.
The following should help you get it all working.
First you need to download the latest version of MRTG from
http://people.ee.ethz.ch/~oetiker/webtools/mrtg/. You will also need
the following files..
libpng-1.0.14.tar.gz
zlib-1.1.4.tar.gz
gd-1.8.3.tar.gz
Login to your machine as the root user, put all the downloaded files
in /usr/local/src/ (or wherever you prefer) and untar and compile
them. All the information to compile and install these sources come
with them. After compilation and installation, you will find MRTG in
/usr/local/mrtg-2.
Now copy all the files in /usr/local/src/mrtg-2.9.22/images/ to
/spider/html/mrtg/
You now need to make 2 symbolic links like below...
ln -s /usr/local/mrtg-2/bin/mrtg /usr/bin/mrtg
ln -s /usr/local/mrtg-2/lib/mrtg2 /usr/lib/mrtg2
Now login to the cluster with your sysop callsign and run the command
"mrtg all".
Now you are nearly there! Login as the sysop user and change to the
/spider/html/mrtg/ directory. Now run the command indexmaker as shown
below...
indexmaker --output stats.html --columns=1 --title "MRTG statistics for GB7DJK" ../../mrtg/mrtg.cfg
Changing the callsign for your own cluster callsign of course!
And finally you need to login as the root user and create one last
symbolic link. Where this points will depend on where your html
documents are kept. For RedHat systems you use...
ln -s /home/sysop/spider/html/mrtg /home/httpd/html/mrtg
and for SuSE systems...
ln -s /home/sysop/spider/html/mrtg /usr/local/httpd/htdocs/mrtg
If you now point your browser to your website as below it should all
be happening!
http://www.xxx.xxx/mrtg/stats.html
Of course, to get the stats to update, you need to add some
information in the spider crontab file as below...
# Update stats for mrtg on website
00,05,10,15,20,25,30,35,40,45,50,55 * * * * run_cmd('mrtg all')
This will update the site every 5 minutes.
9. Security
From version 1.49 DXSpider has some additional security features.
These are not by any means meant to be exhaustive, however they do
afford some security against piracy. These two new features can be
used independently of each other or in concert to tighten the
security.
9.1. Registration
The basic principle of registration is simple. If a user is not
registered by the sysop, then they have read-only access to the
cluster. The only thing they can actually send is a talk or a message
to the sysop. In order for them to be able to spot, send announces or
talks etc the sysop must register them with the set/register command,
like this ...
set/register g0vgs
The user g0vgs can now fully use the cluster. In order to enable
registration, you can issue the command ...
set/var $main::reqreg = 1
Any users that are not registered will now see the motd_nor file
rather than the motd file as discussed in the Information, files and
useful programs section.
Entering this line at the prompt will only last for the time the
cluster is running of course and would not be present on a restart.
To make the change permanent, add the above line to
/spider/scripts/startup. To read more on the startup file, see the
section on Information, files and useful programs.
To unregister a user use unset/register and to show the list of
registered users, use the command show/register.
9.2. Passwords
At the moment, passwords only affect users who login to a DXSpider
cluster node via telnet. If a user requires a password, they can
either set it themselves or have the sysop enter it for them by using
the set/password command. Any users who already have passwords, such
as remote sysops, will be asked for their passwords automatically by
the cluster. Using passwords in this way means that the user has a
choice on whether to have a password or not. To force the use of
passwords at login, issue the command ...
set/var $main::passwdreq = 1
at the cluster prompt. This can also be added to the
/spider/scripts/startup file as above to make the change permanent.
Of course, if you do this you will have to assign a password for each
of your users. If you were asking them to register, it is anticipated
that you would ask them to send you a message both to ask to be
registered and to give you the password they wish to use.
Should a user forget their password, it can be reset by the sysop by
first removing the existing password and then setting a new one like
so ...
unset/password g0vgs
set/password g0vgs new_password
10. CVS
10.1. CVS from a Linux platform
CVS stands for "Concurrent Versions System" and the CVS for DXSpider
is held at Sourceforge. This means that it is possible to update your
DXSpider installation to the latest sources by using a few simple
commands. A graphical interface to CVS for Windows is explained in
the next section.
Please be aware that if you update your system using CVS, it is
possible that you could be running code that is very beta and not
fully tested. There is a possibility that it could be unstable.
I am of course assuming that you have a machine with both DXSpider and
Internet access running.
BEFORE YOU EVEN CONSIDER STARTING WITH THIS MAKE A BACKUP OF YOUR
ENTIRE SPIDER TREE!!
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 ...
First login as the user sysop. Next you need to connect to the CVS
repository. You do this with the command below ...
cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.DXSpider.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/dxspider login
You will get a password prompt. Simply hit return here and your
machine should return to a normal linux prompt.
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.
If you are installing Spider from CVS then change directory to
/home/sysop
If you are wanting to update Spider then cd to /tmp
The next step will create a brand new 'spider' directory in your
current directory.
cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.DXSpider.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/dxspider co spider
This command is all on one line.
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.
Now if you are doing a new installation, that's it. Carry on as if
you have just downloaded and untarred the lastest tarball.
If you want to upgrade your current installation then do this ...
tar cvfz /tmp/s.tgz spider
cd /
tar xvfzp /tmp/s.tgz
This is assuming you downloaded to the /tmp directory of course.
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)
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!
Now the magic part! From now on when you want to update, simply
connect to the Internet and then, as the user sysop ...
cd /spider
cvs -z3 update -d
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.
You will find any changes documented in the /spider/Changes file.
10.2. CVS from a Windows platform
After the initial setup, an update to your DXSpider software is no
more than a couple of clicks away. This section is intended to
explain and illustrate the use of the WinCVS application to update
your DXSpider software. The current stable version of WinCVS is Ver.
1.2. You can get this software at:
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/cvsgui/WinCvs120.zip
Pick your download mirror and then install WinCVS after the download
is complete.
In this next section I have included a series of links to .jpg files
to take advantage of the picture and 1000 words equivalency. The .jpg
files are in the C:\spider\html directory. If someone using a Linux
system is reading this section from boredom, the files are in
/home/sysop/spider/html. One aside, a Linux user can also get a copy
of gcvs and do your updates graphically as opposed to from the command
line. The following descriptions are almost identical between WinCvs
and gcvs. The following screen shots have duplicate links, depending
upon whether you are viewing this information under the Windows or
Linux operating system.
When WinCVS is installed, running, and you are connected to the
internet, the initial screen looks like:
initial.jpg
If you want, you can also look at these .jpg files with another viewer
that might provide some better clarity to the image. On the left is
the directory tree for your hard disk. Notice that the spider
directory has a gray highlight.
To start configuring WinCVS, click on Admin at the top of the screen
and then Preferences. This should get you:
pref-gen.jpg
In the top line for CVSROOT, enter:
anonymous@cvs.DXSpider.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/dxspider login
and select
"passwd" file on the cvs server
for Authentication on the General tab.
Next, move to the right to the Ports tab.
pref-ports.jpg
In here, check the box on the second line down for the "pserver" port.
Enter a port number of 2401.
Finally, go to the WinCvs tab all the way to the right.
pref-wincvs.jpg
Enter Notepad as the viewer to open files. For the HOME folder, put
"C:\spider" and click OK because the configuration is now complete.
You are now ready to upgrade your copy of DXSpider. Click on the
greyed Spider folder shown in the directory tree on the left of the
WinCVS display. Two things should happen. The Spider folder will be
selected and the greyed-out arrow located just below the word Query in
the top line will turn to solid green.
For anyone using gcvs under Linux, the green arrow is located on the
extreme left of the display, under the word File. A gcvs screen looks
like:
gcvs.jpg
Click on the now green arrow to start the download process. An Update
Settings box will be displayed to which you can simply say OK.
update-OK.jpg
For future reference, the Update Settings box is the place where you
can enter information to revert to a prior version of DXSpider.
Information on reverting to a Before Date is contained in the WinCVS
manual.
After a short period of time, a series of file names will scroll by in
the lower pane of the WinCVS window. Eventually you should see
*****CVS exited normally with code 0*****
appear in the lower pane. You're done. The updated files are in
place ready for you to stop and then restart your DXSpider. After the
restart, you're running with the latest version of DXSpider.
completed.jpg
To paraphrase from the CVS section... Now the magic part! From now on
when you want to update, simply connect to the Internet and start
WinCVS.
Click on the greyed-out Spider directory in the left screen
Click on the green down arrow
Click OK on the Update Settings dialog box
Restart your Spider software
11. The DXSpider command set
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
11.1. accept/announce (0)
accept/announce [0-9] <pattern> Set an accept filter line for announce
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:-
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)
some examples:-
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)
or
acc/ann by G,M,2
This filter would only allow announces that were posted buy UK
stations. You can use the tag 'all' to accept everything eg:
acc/ann all
but this probably for advanced users...
11.2. accept/announce (extended for sysops) (8)
accept/announce <call> [input] [0-9]<pattern> Announce filter sysop
version
This version allows a sysop to set a filter for a callsign as well as
the default for nodes and users eg:-
accept/ann by G,M,2
accept/ann input node_default by G,M,2
accept/ann user_default by G,M,2
11.3. accept/route (8)
accept/route <call> [0-9] <pattern> Set an 'accept' filter line for
routing
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:-
call <prefixes> the callsign of the thingy
call_dxcc <numbers> eg: 61,62 (from eg: sh/pre G)
call_itu <numbers>
call_zone <numbers>
origin <prefixes> really the interface it came in on
origin_dxcc <numbers> eg: 61,62 (from eg: sh/pre G)
origin_itu <numbers>
origin_zone <numbers>
some examples:-
acc/route gb7djk call_dxcc 61,38 (send only UK+EIRE nodes)
acc/route gb7djk call gb7djk (equiv to SET/ISOLATE)
You can use the tag 'all' to accept everything eg:
acc/route all
11.4. accept/spots (0)
accept/spots [0-9] <pattern> Set an accept filter line for spots
Create an 'accept this spot' line for a filter.
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.
Please read the following section carefully. Though it looks similar,
reformatting, corrections, and hopefully clarifications have been
added.
You can use any of the following things in this line:-
Filters for the station being spotted:
call <letters of the prefix, but NOT country inclusive>
call G --> G1AAA, GJ2BBB, GU3CCC, etc will be spotted
call K --> K1XX, K1XXX will be spotted
W1XX, W1XXX will NOT be spotted
call PA --> PA3EZL will be spotted
PB2FG will NOT be spotted
call_dxcc <numbers or prefixes>
call_dxcc G --> G1AAA will be spotted
GU1AAA will NOT be spotted (different country)
call_dxcc K --> K1XX, W1XX will be spotted (same country)
call_dxcc 139 --> PA3EZL and PB2FG will be spotted
call_itu <numbers>
call_zone <numbers>
Filters for the callsign of the station doing the spotting:
by <letters of the prefix, but NOT country inclusive>
by G --> spots from G1AAA, GJ2BBB, GU3CCC, etc will be spotted
by K --> spots from K1XX, K1XXX will be spotted
spots from W1XX, W1XXX will NOT be spotted
by_dxcc <numbers or prefixes>
by_dxcc G --> spots from G1AAA will be spotted
spots from GU1AAA will NOT be spotted (different
country)
by_dxcc K --> spots from K1XX, W1XX will be spotted (same country)
by_dxcc 139 --> spots from PA3EZL or PB2FG will be spotted
by_itu <numbers>
by_zone <numbers>
Filters for the callsign of the "node" doing the spotting:
origin <letters of the prefix, but NOT country inclusive>
origin K --> spots from a node starting with K will be spotted
spots from a node starting with KK will NOT be spotted
spots from a node starting with W will NOT be spotted
Filters for the callsign of the connected node or user (channel) doing the spotting:
channel <prefixes>
channel W1HR --> spots from the connected node W1HR will be spotted
channel K1QX --> spots from the connected user K1QX will be spotted
info <string> eg: iota or qsl
freq <range> eg: 0/30000 or hf or hf/cw or 6m,4m,2m
on <range> same as 'freq'
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:-
acc/spot 1 on hf/cw
acc/spot 2 on vhf and (by_zone 14,15,16 or call_zone 14,15,16)
You can use the tag 'all' to accept everything, eg:
acc/spot 3 all
but this probably for advanced users...
11.5. accept/spots (extended for sysops) (8)
accept/spots <call> [input] [0-9] <pattern> Spot filter sysop version
This version allows a sysop to set a filter for a callsign as well as
the default for nodes and users eg:-
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
11.6. accept/wcy (0)
accept/wcy [0-9] <pattern> set an accept WCY filter
It is unlikely that you will want to do this, but if you do then you
can filter on the following fields:-
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>
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.
11.7. accept/wcy (extended for sysops) (8)
accept/wcy <call> [input] [0-9] <pattern> WCY filter sysop version
This version allows a sysop to set a filter for a callsign as well as
the default for nodes and users eg:-
accept/wcy node_default all
set/hops node_default 10
11.8. accept/wwv (0)
accept/wwv [0-9] <pattern> Set an accept WWV filter
It is unlikely that you will want to do this, but if you do then you
can filter on the following fields:-
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>
for example
accept/wwv by_zone 4
is probably the only useful thing to do (which will only show WWV
broadcasts by stations in the US).
See HELP FILTER for information.
11.9. accept/wwv (extended for sysops) (8)
accept/wwv <call> [input] [0-9] <pattern> WWV filter sysop version
This version allows a sysop to set a filter for a callsign as well as
the default for nodes and users eg:-
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
11.10. announce (0)
announce <text> Send an announcement to local users
Send an announcement to LOCAL users only, where <text> is the text 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.
11.11. announce full (0)
announce full <text> Send an announcement cluster wide
This command will send your announcement across the whole cluster
network.
11.12. announce sysop (5)
announce sysop <text>
Send an announcement to Sysops only
11.13. apropos (0)
apropos <string> Search the help database
Search the help database for <string> (it isn't case sensitive), and
print the names of all the commands that may be relevant.
11.14. bye (0)
bye Exit from the cluster
This will disconnect you from the cluster
11.15. catchup (5)
catchup <node_call> All|[<msgno> ...] Mark a message as sent
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:-
catchup GB7DJK all
catchup GB7DJK 300 301 302 303 500-510
and to undo what you have just done:-
uncatchup GB7DJK all
uncatchup GB7DJK 300 301 302 303 500-510
which will arrange for them to be forward candidates again.
Order is not important.
11.16. clear/announce (8)
clear/announce <callsign> [input] [0-9|all] Clear an announce filter
line
A sysop can clear an input or normal output filter for a user or the
node_default or user_default.
11.17. clear/route (8)
clear/route <callsign> [input] [0-9|all] Clear a route filter line
This command allows you to clear (remove) a line in a route filter or
to remove the whole filter.
see CLEAR/SPOTS for a more detailed explanation.
A sysop can clear an input or normal output filter for a user or the
node_default or user_default.
11.18. clear/spots (0)
clear/spots [1|all] Clear a spot filter line
This command allows you to clear (remove) a line in a spot filter or
to remove the whole filter.
If you have a filter:-
acc/spot 1 on hf/cw
acc/spot 2 on vhf and (by_zone 14,15,16 or call_zone 14,15,16)
and you say:-
clear/spot 1
you will be left with:-
acc/spot 2 on vhf and (by_zone 14,15,16 or call_zone 14,15,16)
If you do:
clear/spot all
the filter will be completely removed.
11.19. clear/spots (extended for sysops) (8)
clear/spots <callsign> [input] [0-9|all] Clear a spot filter line
A sysop can clear an input or normal output filter for a user or the
node_default or user_default.
11.20. clear/wcy (0)
clear/wcy [1|all] Clear a WCY filter line
This command allows you to clear (remove) a line in a WCY filter or to
remove the whole filter.
see CLEAR/SPOTS for a more detailed explanation.
11.21. clear/wcy (extended for sysops) (8)
clear/wcy <callsign> [input] [0-9|all] Clear a WCY filter line
A sysop can clear an input or normal output filter for a user or the
node_default or user_default.
11.22. clear/wwv (0)
clear/wwv [1|all] Clear a WWV filter line
This command allows you to clear (remove) a line in a WWV filter or to
remove the whole filter.
see CLEAR/SPOTS for a more detailed explanation.
11.23. clear/wwv (extended for sysops) (8)
clear/wwv <callsign> [input] [0-9|all] Clear a WWV filter line
A sysop can clear an input or normal output filter for a user or the
node_default or user_default.
11.24. connect (5)
connect <callsign> Start a connection to another DX Cluster
Start a connection process that will culminate in a new connection to
the DX cluster <callsign>. This process creates a new 'client' process
which will use the script in /spider/connect/<callsign> to effect the
'chat' exchange necessary to traverse the network(s) to logon to the
cluster <callsign>.
11.25. dbavail (0)
dbavail Show a list of all the databases in the system
The title says it all really, this command lists all the databases
defined in the system. It is also aliased to SHOW/COMMAND.
11.26. dbcreate (9)
dbcreate <name> Create a database entry
dbcreate <name> chain <name> [<name>..] Create a chained database
entry
dbcreate <name> remote <node> Create a remote database entry
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/<dbname>' style syntax. So you
would need to add a line like:-
's' => [
..
..
'^sh\w*/buc', 'dbshow buckmaster', 'dbshow',
..
..
],
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
11.27. dbimport (9)
dbimport <dbname> Import AK1A data into a database
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.
11.28. dbremove (9)
dbremove <dbname> Delete a database
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.
11.29. dbshow (0)
dbshow <dbname> <key> Display an entry, if it exists, in a database
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:
SH/BUCK G1TLH
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:
DBSHOW buck G1TLH
11.30. debug (9)
debug Set the cluster program into debug mode
Executing this command will only have an effect if you are running the
cluster in debug mode i.e.
perl -d cluster.pl
It will interrupt the cluster just after the debug command has
finished.
11.31. delete/user (9)
delete/user <callsign> Delete a user from the User Database
This command will completely remove a one or more users from the
database.
There is NO SECOND CHANCE.
It goes without saying that you should use this command CAREFULLY!
11.32. demonstrate (9)
demonstrate <call> <command> Demonstrate a command to another user
This command is provided so that sysops can demonstrate commands to
other users. It runs a command as though that user had typed it in and
then sends the output to that user, together with the command that
caused it.
DEMO g7brn sh/dx iota oc209
DEMO g1tlh set/here
Note that this command is similar to SPOOF and will have the same side
effects. Commands are run at the privilege of the user which is being
demonstrated to.
11.33. directory (0)
directory List messages
directory own List your own messages
directory new List all new messages
directory to <call> List all messages to <call>
directory from <call> List all messages from <call>
directory subject <string> List all messages with <string> in subject
directory <nn> List last <nn> messages
directory <from>-<to> List messages <from> message <to> message
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
You can use shell escape characters such as '*' and '?' in the <call>
fields.
You can combine some of the various directory commands together eg:-
DIR TO G1TLH 5
or
DIR SUBJECT IOTA 200-250
You can abbreviate all the commands to one letter and use ak1a
syntax:-
DIR/T G1* 10
DIR/S QSL 10-100 5
11.34. directory (extended for sysops) (5)
Works just like the user command except that sysops can see ALL
messages.
11.35. disconnect (8)
disconnect <call> [<call> ...] Disconnect a user or node
Disconnect any <call> connected locally
11.36. dx (0)
dx [by <call>] <freq> <call> <remarks> Send a DX spot
This is how you send a DX Spot to other users. You can, in fact, now
enter the <freq> and the <call> either way round.
DX FR0G 144.600
DX 144.600 FR0G
DX 144600 FR0G
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.
DX FR0G 144600 this is a test
You can credit someone else by saying:-
DX by G1TLH FR0G 144.600 he isn't on the cluster
The <freq> is compared against the available bands set up in the
cluster. See SHOW/BANDS for more information.
11.37. export (9)
export <msgno> <filename> Export a message to a file
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
11.38. export_users (9)
export_users [<filename>] Export the users database to ascii
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 <filename>.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.
11.39. filtering (0)
filtering Filtering things in DXSpider
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:-
accept/spots ..... reject/spots .....
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 and
one to show you what you have set. They are:-
clear/spots 1 clear/spots all
and
show/filter
There is clear/xxxx command for each type of filter.
For now we are going to use spots for the examples, but you can apply
the principles to all types of filter.
There are two main types of filter 'accept' or 'reject'; which you use
depends entirely on how you look at the world and what is least
writing to achieve what you want. 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 gimme it).
The important thing to remember is that if you specify a 'reject'
filter (all the lines in it say 'reject/spots' (for instance) then if
a spot comes in that doesn't match any of the lines then you will get
it BUT if you specify an 'accept' filter then any spots that don't
match are dumped. For example if I have a one line accept filter:-
accept/spots on vhf and (by_zone 14,15,16 or call_zone 14,15,16)
then automatically you will ONLY get VHF spots from or to CQ zones 14
15 and 16. If you set a reject filter like:
reject/spots on hf/cw
Then you will get everything EXCEPT HF CW spots, If you am interested
in IOTA and will work it even on CW then you could say:-
reject/spots on hf/cw and not info iota
But in that case you might only be interested in iota and say:-
accept/spots not on hf/cw or info iota
which is exactly the same. You should choose one or the other until
you are confortable with the way it works. Yes, you can mix them
(actually you can have an accept AND a reject on the same line) but
don't try this at home until you can analyse the results that you get
without ringing up the sysop for help.
You can arrange your filter lines into logical units, either for your
own understanding or simply convenience. I have one set frequently:-
reject/spots 1 on hf/cw reject/spots 2 on 50000/1400000 not (by_zone
14,15,16 or call_zone 14,15,16)
What this does is to ignore all HF CW spots (being a class B I can't
read any CW and couldn't possibly be interested in HF :-) and also
rejects any spots on VHF which don't either originate or spot someone
in Europe.
This is an exmaple where you would use the line number (1 and 2 in
this case), if you leave the digit out, the system assumes '1'. Digits
You can leave the word 'and' out if you want, it is implied. You can
use any number of brackets to make the 'expression' as you want it.
There are things called precedence rules working here which mean that
you will NEED brackets in a situation like line 2 because, without it,
will assume:-
(on 50000/1400000 and by_zone 14,15,16) or call_zone 14,15,16
annoying, but that is the way it is. If you use OR - use brackets.
Whilst we are here CASE is not important. 'And BY_Zone' is just 'and
by_zone'.
If you want to alter your filter you can just redefine one or more
lines of it or clear out one line. For example:-
reject/spots 1 on hf/ssb
or
clear/spots 1
To remove the filter in its entirty:-
clear/spots all
There are similar CLEAR commands for the other filters:-
clear/announce clear/wcy clear/wwv
ADVANCED USERS:-
Once you are happy with the results you get, you may like to
experiment.
my example that filters hf/cw spots and accepts vhf/uhf spots from EU
can be written with a mixed filter, eg:
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)
each filter slot actually has a 'reject' slot and an 'accept' slot.
The reject slot is executed BEFORE the accept slot.
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
first, any non hf/cw spot is passed to the accept line, which lets
thru everything else on HF.
The next filter line lets through just VHF/UHF spots from EU.
11.40. forward/latlong (8)
forward/latlong <node_call> Send latitude and longitude information to
another cluster
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 set/dxgrid enabled. This could be a LOT of information though,
so it is not recommended on slow links.
11.41. forward/opername (1)
forward/opername <call> Send out information on this <call> to all
clusters
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.
11.42. help (0)
help <cmd> Get help on a command
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 <string> command which will search the help
database for the <string> you specify and give you a list of likely
commands to look at with HELP.
11.43. init (5)
init <node call> Re-initialise a link to an AK1A compatible node
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 <node> DISC/F <your
node>).
Best of luck - you will need it.
11.44. kill (0)
kill <msgno> [<msgno> ..] Delete a message from the local system
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).
11.45. kill (5)
kill <msgno> [<msgno> ...] Remove or erase a message from the system
kill from <call> Remove all messages from a callsign
kill to <call> Remove all messages to a callsign
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.
11.46. kill full (5)
kill full <msgno> [<msgno>] Delete a message from the whole cluster
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!
11.47. kill/expunge (6)
kill/expunge <msgno> [<msgno>..]Expunge a message
Deleting a message using the normal KILL commands only marks that
message for deletion. The actual deletion only happens later (usually
two days later).
The KILL EXPUNGE command causes the message to be truly deleted more
or less immediately.
It otherwise is used in the same way as the KILL command.
11.48. links (0)
links Show which nodes are physically connected
This is a quick listing that shows which links are connected and some
information about them. See WHO for a list of all connections.
11.49. load/aliases (9)
load/aliases Reload the command alias table
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.
11.50. load/badmsg (9)
load/badmsg Reload the bad message table
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.
11.51. load/badwords (9)
load/badwords Reload the bad words table
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.
11.52. load/bands (9)
load/bands Reload the band limits table
Reload the /spider/data/bands.pl file if you have changed it manually
whilst the cluster is running.
11.53. load/cmd_cache (9)
load/cmd_cache Reload the automatic command cache
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.
11.54. load/forward (9)
load/forward Reload the msg forwarding routing table
Reload the /spider/msg/forward.pl file if you have changed it manually
whilst the cluster is running.
11.55. load/messages (9)
load/messages Reload the system messages file
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'
11.56. load/prefixes (9)
load/prefixes Reload the prefix table
Reload the /spider/data/prefix_data.pl file if you have changed it
manually whilst the cluster is running.
11.57. merge (5)
merge <node> [<no spots>/<no wwv>] Ask for the latest spots and WWV
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).
11.58. msg (9)
msg <cmd> <msgno> [data ...] Alter various message parameters
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.
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
You can look at the status of a message by using:-
STAT/MSG <msgno>
This will display more information on the message than DIR does.
11.59. pc (8)
pc <call> <text> Send text (eg PC Protocol) to <call>
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 <blah> to <blah>" or
whatever.
pc G1TLH Try doing that properly!!!
11.60. ping (1)
ping <node> Check the link quality between nodes
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.
11.61. rcmd (1)
rcmd <node call> <cmd> Send a command to another DX cluster
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.
11.62. read (0)
read Read the next unread personal message addressed to you
read <msgno> Read the specified message
You can read any messages that are sent as 'non-personal' and also any
message either sent by or sent to your callsign.
11.63. read (extended for sysops) (5)
read <msgno> Read a message on the system
As a sysop you may read any message on the system
11.64. reject/announce
reject/announce [0-9] <pattern> Set a reject filter for announce
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:-
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)
some examples:-
rej/ann by_zone 14,15,16 and not by G,M,2
You can use the tag 'all' to reject everything eg:
rej/ann all
but this probably for advanced users...
11.65. reject/announce (extended for sysops) (8)
reject/announce <call> [input] [0-9] <pattern> Announce filter sysop
version
This version allows a sysop to set a filter for a callsign as well as
the default for nodes and users eg:-
reject/ann by G,M,2
reject/ann input node_default by G,M,2
reject/ann user_default by G,M,2
11.66. reject/route (8)
reject/route <call> [0-9] <pattern> Set an 'reject' filter line for
routing
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:-
call <prefixes> the callsign of the thingy
call_dxcc <numbers> eg: 61,62 (from eg: sh/pre G)
call_itu <numbers>
call_zone <numbers>
origin <prefixes> really the interface it came in on
origin_dxcc <numbers> eg: 61,62 (from eg: sh/pre G)
origin_itu <numbers>
origin_zone <numbers>
some examples:-
rej/route gb7djk call_dxcc 61,38 (everything except UK+EIRE nodes)
You can use the tag 'all' to reject everything eg:
rej/route all (equiv to [very] restricted mode)
11.67. reject/spots (0)
reject/spots [0-9] <pattern> Set a reject filter line for spots
Create a 'reject this spot' line for a filter.
A 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:-
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>
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:-
rej/spot 1 on hf
rej/spot 2 on vhf and not (by_zone 14,15,16 or call_zone 14,15,16)
You can use the tag 'all' to reject everything eg:
rej/spot 3 all
but this probably for advanced users...
11.68. reject/spots (extended for sysops) (8)
reject/spots <call> [input] [0-9] <pattern> Reject spot filter sysop
version
This version allows a sysop to set a filter for a callsign as well as
the default for nodes and users eg:-
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
11.69. reject/wcy (0)
reject/wcy [0-9] <pattern> Set a reject WCY filter
It is unlikely that you will want to do this, but if you do then you
can filter on the following fields:-
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>
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.
11.70. reject/wcy (extended for sysops) (8)
reject/wcy <call> [input] [0-9] <pattern> WCY reject filter sysop
version
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
11.71. reject/wwv (0)
reject/wwv [0-9] <pattern> Set a reject WWV filter
It is unlikely that you will want to do this, but if you do then you
can filter on the following fields:-
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>
for example
reject/wwv by_zone 14,15,16
is probably the only useful thing to do (which will only show WWV
broadcasts by stations in the US).
See HELP FILTER for information.
11.72. reject/wwv (extended for sysops) (8)
reject/wwv <call> [input] [0-9] <pattern> WWV reject filter sysop
version
This version allows a sysop to set a filter for a callsign as well as
the default for nodes and users eg:-
reject/wwv db0sue-7 1 by_zone 4
reject/wwv node_default all
reject/wwv user_default by W
11.73. reply (0)
reply Reply (privately) to the last message that you have read
reply <msgno> Reply (privately) to the specified message
reply B <msgno> Reply as a Bulletin to the specified message
reply NOPrivate <msgno> Reply as a Bulletin to the specified message
reply RR <msgno> Reply to the specified message with read receipt
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)
11.74. send (0)
send <call> [<call> ...] Send a message to one or more callsigns
send RR <call> Send a message and ask for a read receipt
send COPY <msgno> <call> Send a copy of a message to someone
send PRIVATE <call> Send a personal message
send NOPRIVATE <call> Send a message to all stations
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 <call> 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:-
SEND RR COPY 123 PRIVATE G1TLH G0RDI
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
11.75. set/address (0)
set/address <your_address> Record your postal address
Literally, record your address details on the cluster.
11.76. set/announce (0)
set/announce Allow announce messages
Allow announce messages to arrive at your terminal.
11.77. set/arcluster (5)
set/arcluster <node_call> [<node_call> ...] Make the node_call an AR-
Cluster type node
Set the node_call as an AR-Cluster type node
11.78. set/baddx (8)
set/baddx <call> Stop words we do not wish to see in the callsign
field of a dx spot being propagated
Setting a word as 'baddx' will prevent spots with that word in the
callsign field of a DX spot from going any further. They will not be
displayed and they will not be sent onto other nodes.
The word must be wriiten in full, no wild cards are allowed eg:-
set/baddx FORSALE VIDEO FR0G
To allow a word again, use the following command ...
unset/baddx VIDEO
11.79. set/badnode (6)
set/badnode <node_call> Stop spots from this node_call being
propagated
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:-
set/badnode K1TTT
will stop anything from K1TTT (including any SSID's)
unset/badnode K1TTT
will allow spots from him again.
Use with extreme care. This command may well be superceded by
FILTERing.
11.80. set/badspotter (8)
set/badspotter <call> Stop spots from this callsign being propagated
Setting a callsign as a 'badspotter' will prevent spots from this
callsign going any further. They will not be displayed and they will
not be sent onto other nodes.
The call must be written in full, no wild cards are allowed eg:-
set/badspotter VE2STN
will stop anything from VE2STN. If you want SSIDs as well then you
must enter them specifically.
unset/badspotter VE2STN
will allow spots from him again.
Use with extreme care. This command may well be superceded by
FILTERing.
11.81. set/badword (8)
set/badword <word> Stop things with this word being propogated
Setting a word as a 'badword' will prevent things like spots,
announces or talks with this word in the the text part from going any
further. They will not be displayed and they will not be sent onto
other nodes.
The word must be written in full, no wild cards are allowed eg:-
set/badword annihilate annihilated annihilation
will stop anything with these words in the text.
unset/badword annihilated
will allow text with this word again.
11.82. set/beep (0)
set/beep Add beeps to terminal messages
Add a beep to DX and other terminal messages.
11.83. set/bbs (5)
set/bbs <call> [<call>..]Make <call> a BBS
11.84. set/clx (5)
set/clx <node_call> [<node_call> ...] Make the node_call a CLX type
node
Set the node_call as a CLX type node
11.85. set/debug (9)
set/debug <name> Add a debug level to the debug set
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>
11.86. set/dx (0)
set/dxAllow DX messages to arrive at your terminal
You can stop DX messages with the unset/dx command
11.87. set/dxgrid (0)
set/dxgridAllow grid squares on the end of DX messages
Some logging programs do not like the additional information at the
end of a DX spot. If this is the case, use the unset/dxgrid command
to remove the grid squares.
11.88. set/dxnet (5)
set/dxnet <node_call> [<node_call> ...] Make the node_call a DXNet
type node
Set the node_call as a DXNet type node
11.89. set/echo (0)
set/echo Make the cluster echo your input
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 unset/echo command
The setting is stored in your user profile.
YOU DO NOT NEED TO USE THIS COMMAND IF YOU ARE CONNECTED VIA AX25.
11.90. set/email (0)
set/email <email_address> Set email address(es) and forward your
personals
If any personal messages come in for your callsign then you can use
these commands to control whether they are forwarded onto your email
address. To enable the forwarding do something like:-
SET/EMAIL mike.tubby@somewhere.com
You can have more than one email address (each one separated by a
space). Emails are forwarded to all the email addresses you specify.
You can disable forwarding by:-
UNSET/EMAIL
11.91. set/here (0)
set/here Set the here flag
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
unset/here command to let people know you are away. This simply puts
brackets around your callsign to indicate you are not available.
11.92. set/homenode (0)
set/homenode <node_call> Set your home cluster
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:-
SET/HOMENODE gb7djk
11.93. set/hops (8)
set/hops <node_call> ann|spots|wwv|wcy <n> Set hop count
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.
eg:
set/hops gb7djk ann 10
set/hops gb7mbc spots 20
Set SHOW/HOPS for information on what is already set. This command
creates a filter and works in conjunction with the filter system.
11.94. set/isolate (9)
set/isolate <node call> Isolate a node from the rest of the network
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.
11.95. set/language (0)
set/language <language> Set the language you wish to use
You can select the language that you want the cluster to use.
Currently the languages available are en (English) and nl (Dutch).
11.96. set/location (0)
set/location <lat and long> Set your latitude and longitude
You can set your latitude and longitude manually or alternatively use
the set/qra command which will do the conversion for you.
set/location 54 04 N 2 02 E
11.97. set/sys_location (9)
set/sys_location <lat & long> Set your cluster latitude and longitude
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:-
SET/LOCATION 52 22 N 0 57 E
11.98. set/logininfo (0)
set/logininfo Show logins and logouts of nodes and users
Show users and nodes when they log in and out of the local cluster.
You can stop these messages by using the unset/logininfo command.
11.99. set/lockout (9)
set/lockout <call> Stop a callsign connecting to the cluster
You can show who is locked out with the show/lockout command. To
allow the user to connect again, use the unset/lockout command.
11.100. set/name (0)
set/name <your_name> Set your name
Tell the cluster what your name is, eg:-
set/name Dirk
11.101. set/node (9)
set/node <call> [<call> ...] Make the callsign an AK1A cluster
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
set/spider
set/dxnet
set/clx
set/arcluster
To see what your nodes are set to, use the show/nodes command.
11.102. set/obscount (9)
set/obscount <count> <node call> Set the 'pump-up' obsolescence
counter
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.
11.103. set/page (0)
set/page <n> Set the number of lines per page
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.
SET/PAGE 30
SET/PAGE 0
The setting is stored in your user profile.
11.104. set/password (0)
set/password Set your own password
This command only works for a 'telnet' user (currently). It will only
work if you have a password already set. This initial password can
only be set by the sysop.
When you execute this command it will ask you for your old password,
then ask you to type in your new password twice (to make sure you get
it right). You may or may not see the data echoed on the screen as you
type, depending on the type of telnet client you have.
11.105. set/password (9)
set/password <callsign> <string> Set a users password
The password for a user can only be set by a full sysop. The string
can contain any characters.
The way this field is used depends on context. If it is being used in
the SYSOP command context then you are offered 5 random numbers and
you have to supply the corresponding letters. This is now mainly for
ax25 connections.
If it is being used on incoming telnet connections then, if a password
is set or the:
set/var $main::passwdreq = 1
command is executed in the startup script, then a password prompt is
given after the normal 'login: ' prompt.
The command "unset/password" is provided to allow a sysop to remove a
users password completely in case a user forgets or loses their
password.
11.106. set/pinginterval (9)
set/pinginterval <time> <node call> Set the ping time to neighbouring
nodes
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.
11.107. set/privilege (9)
set/privilege <n> <call> [<call> ...] Set the privilege level on a
call
Set the privilege level on a callsign. The privilege levels that
pertain to commands are as default:-
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.
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.
11.108. set/spider (5)
set/spider <node_call> [<node_call> ...] Make the node_call a DXSpider
type node
Set the node_call as a DXSpider type node
11.109. set/sys_qra (9)
set/sys_qra <locator> Set your cluster QRA locator
11.110. set/qra (0)
set/qra <locator> Set your QRA locator
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:-
SET/QRA JO02LQ
11.111. set/qth (0)
set/qth <your QTH> Set your QTH
Tell the system where your are. For example:-
set/qth East Dereham, Norfolk
11.112. set/register (9)
set/register <call> Mark a user as registered
Registration is a concept that you can switch on by executing the
set/var $main::regreq = 1
command (usually in your startup file)
If a user is NOT registered then, firstly, instead of the normal motd
file (/spider/data/motd) being sent to the user at startup, the user
is sent the motd_nor file instead. Secondly, the non registered user
only has READ-ONLY access to the node. The non-registered user cannot
use DX, ANN etc.
The only exception to this is that a non-registered user can TALK or
SEND messages to the sysop.
To unset a user use the 'unset/register' command
11.113. set/talk (0)
set/talk Allow talk messages to be seen at your console
Allow talk messages to arrive at your console. You can switch off
talks with the unset/talk command.
11.114. set/wcy (0)
set/wcy Allow WCY messages to be seen at your console
Allow WCY information to be seen at your console. You can switch off
WCY messages with the unset/wcy command.
11.115. set/wwv (0)
set/wwv Allow WWV messages to be seen at your console
Allow WWV information to be seen at your console. You can switch off
WWV messages with the unset/wwv command.
11.116. set/wx (0)
set/wx Allow WX messages to be seen at your console
Allow WX information to be seen at your console. You can switch off
WX messages with the unset/wx command.
11.117. show/baddx (1)
show/baddxShow all the bad dx calls in the system
Display all the bad dx callsigns in the system, see SET/BADDX for more
information.
11.118. show/badnode (6)
show/badnode Show all the bad nodes in the system
Display all the bad node callsigns in the system, see SET/BADNODE for
more information.
11.119. show/badspotter (1)
show/badspotter Show all the bad spotters in the system
Display all the bad spotter's callsigns in the system, see
SET/BADSPOTTER for more information.
11.120. show/badword (1)
show/badword Show all the bad words in the system
Display all the bad words in the system, see SET/BADWORD for more
information.
11.121. show/configuration (0)
show/configuration [<node>] Show all visible nodes and their users
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
11.122. show/configuration/node (0)
show/configuration/node Show all the nodes connected
Show all the nodes connected locally and the nodes they have
connected.
11.123. show/connect (1)
show/connect Show all the active connections
This command shows information on all the active connections known to
the node. This command gives slightly more information than WHO.
11.124. show/date (0)
show/date [<prefix>|<callsign>] Show the local time
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.
11.125. show/debug (9)
show/debug Show what levels of debug you are logging
The levels can be set with set/debug
11.126. show/dx (0)
show/dx [options] interrogate the spot database
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:-
on <band> - eg 160m 20m 2m 23cm 6mm
on <region> - eg hf vhf uhf shf (see SHOW/BANDS)
<number> - the number of spots you want
<from>-<to> - <from> spot no <to> spot no in
the selected list
<prefix> - for a spotted callsign beginning with <prefix>
*<suffix> - for a spotted callsign ending in <suffix>
*<string>* - for a spotted callsign containing <string>
day <number> - starting <number> days ago
day <from>-<to> - <from> days <to> days ago
info <text> - any spots containing <text> in the info or remarks
by <call> - any spots spotted by <call> (spotter <call>
is the same).
qsl - this automatically looks for any qsl info on the call
held in the spot database.
iota [<iota>] - 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 [<locator>] - this will look for the specific locator if
you specify one or else anything that looks like a locator.
e.g.
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
11.127. show/dxcc (0)
show/dxcc <prefix> Interrogate the spot database by country
This command takes the <prefix> (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.
SH/DXCC G
SH/DXCC W on 20m info iota
11.128. sh/dxstats (0)
sh/dxstats Show the DX Statistics for last 31 days
Show the total DX spots for the last 31 days
11.129. show/files (0)
show/files [<filearea> [<string>]] List the contents of a filearea
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:-
SH/FILES <filearea>
where <filearea> 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:-
SH/FILES bulletins arld*
See also TYPE - to see the contents of a file.
11.130. show/filter (0)
show/filter Show the filters you have set
Show the contents of all the filters that are set by you. This command
displays all the filters set - for all the various categories.
11.131. show/filter (extended for sysops) (5)
show/filter <callsign> Show the filters set by <callsign>
A sysop can look at any filters that have been set.
11.132. show/hfstats (0)
show/hfstats Show the HF DX Statistics for last 31 days
Show the HF DX spots breakdown by band for the last 31 days
11.133. show/hftable (0)
show/hftable Show the HF DX Spotter Table for your country
Show the HF DX Spotter table for your country for the last 31 days
11.134. show/hops (8)
show/hops <node_call> [ann|spots|wcy|wwv|] Show the hop counts for a
node
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.
11.135. show/isolate (1)
show/isolate Show a list of isolated nodes
Show which nodes are currently set to be isolated.
11.136. show/lockout (9)
show/lockout Show a list of excluded callsigns
Show a list of callsigns that have been excluded (locked out) of the
cluster locally with the set/lockout command
11.137. show/log (8)
show/log [<callsign>] Show excerpts from the system log
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.
11.138. show/moon (0)
show/moon [<prefix>|<callsign>] Show moon rise and set times
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:-
SH/MOON
SH/MOON G1TLH W5UN
11.139. show/muf (0)
show/muf <prefix> [<hours>][long] Show the likely propagation to
<prefix>
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:-
SH/MUF W
produces:
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
indicating that you will have weak, fading circuits on top band and
80m but usable signals on 40m (about S3).
inputting:-
SH/MUF W 24
will get you the above display, but with the next 24 hours worth of
propagation data.
SH/MUF W L 24
SH/MUF W 24 Long
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.
11.140. show/newconfiguration (0)
show/newconfiguration [<node>] Show all the nodes and users visible
This command allows you to see all the users that can be seen and the
nodes to which they are connected.
This command produces essentially the same information as
SHOW/CONFIGURATION except that it shows all the duplication of any
routes that might be present It also uses a different format which may
not take up quite as much space if you don't have any loops.
BE WARNED: the list that is returned can be VERY long
11.141. show/newconfiguration/node (0)
show/newconfiguration/node Show all the nodes connected locally
Show all the nodes connected to this node in the new format.
11.142. show/node (1)
show/node [<node_call> ...] Show the type and version number of nodes
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.
11.143. show/prefix (0)
show/prefix <callsign> Interrogate the prefix database
This command takes the <callsign> (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
11.144. show/program (5)
show/program Show the locations of all the included program modules
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.
11.145. show/qra (0)
show/qra <locator> [<locator>] Show the distance between locators
show/qra <lat> <long> Convert latitude and longitude to a locator
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:-
SH/QRA IO92QL
SH/QRA JN06 IN73
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:-
SH/QRA 52 41 N 0 58 E
11.146. show/qrz (0)
show/qrz <callsign> Show any callbook details on a callsign
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
11.147. show/registered (9)
show/registered [<prefix>[ Show the registered users
11.148. show/route (0)
show/route <callsign> Show the route to <callsign>
This command allows you to see to which node the callsigns specified
are connected. It is a sort of inverse sh/config.
sh/route n2tly
11.149. show/satellite (0)
show/satellite <name> [<hours> <interval>] Show satellite tracking
data
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:-
SH/SAT AO-10
SH/SAT FENGYUN1 12 2
11.150. show/sun (0)
show/sun [<prefix>|<callsign>] Show sun rise and set times
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:-
SH/SUN
SH/SUN G1TLH K9CW ZS
11.151. show/time (0)
show/time [<prefix>|<callsign>] Show the local time
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.
11.152. show/vhfstats (0)
show/vhfstats Show the VHF DX Statistics for last 31 days
Show the VHF DX spots breakdown by band for the last 31 days
11.153. show/vhftable (0)
show/vhftable Show the VHF DX Spotter Table for your country
Show the VHF DX Spotter table for your country for the last 31 days
11.154. show/wcy (0)
show/wcy Show the last 10 WCY broadcasts
show/wcy <n> Show the last <n> WCY broadcasts
Display the most recent WCY information that has been received by the
system
11.155. show/wwv (0)
show/wwv Show the last 10 WWV broadcasts
show/wwv <n> Show the last <n> WWV broadcasts
Display the most recent WWV information that has been received by the
system
11.156. shutdown (5)
shutdown Shutdown the cluster
Shutdown the cluster and disconnect all the users. If you have Spider
set to respawn in /etc/inittab it will of course restart.
11.157. spoof (9)
spoof <callsign> <command> Run commands as another user
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.
11.158. stat/db (5)
stat/db <dbname> Show the status of a database
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.
11.159. stat/channel (5)
stat/channel <callsign> Show the status of a channel on the cluster
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.
11.160. stat/msg (5)
stat/msg <msgno> Show the status of a message
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.
11.161. stat/route_node (5)
stat/route_node <callsign> Show the data in a Route::Node object
11.162. stat/route_user (5)
stat/route_user <callsign> Show the data in a Route::User object
11.163. stat/user (5)
stat/user <callsign> Show the full status of a user
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.
11.164. sysop (0)
sysop Regain your privileges if you login remotely
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 :-):
password = 012345678901234567890123456789
> sysop
22 10 15 17 3
you type:-
aa2bbbb0ccc5ddd7xxx3n
or 2 0 5 7 3
or 20573
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.
11.165. talk (0)
talk <callsign> Enter talk mode with <callsign>
talk <callsign> <text> Send a text message to <callsign>
talk <callsign> > <node_call> [<text>] Send a text message to
<callsign> via <node_call>
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:-
/DX 14001 G1TLH What's a B class licensee doing on 20m CW?
/HELP talk
To leave talk mode type:
/EX
11.166. type (0)
type <filearea>/<name> Look at a file in one of the fileareas
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:-
TYPE bulletins/arld051
See also SHOW/FILES to see what fileareas are available and a list of
content.
11.167. who (0)
who Show who is physically connected locally
This is a quick listing that shows which callsigns are connected and
what sort of connection they have
11.168. wx (0)
wx <text> Send a weather message to local users
wx full <text> Send a weather message to all cluster users
Weather messages can sometimes be useful if you are experiencing an
extreme that may indicate enhanced conditions
11.169. wx (enhanced for sysops) (5)
wx sysop <text> Send a weather message to other clusters only
Send a weather message only to other cluster nodes and not to general
users.
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