and the necessary mod for testing / in calls

[spider.git] / sgml / spiderFAQ_en.sgml

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<title>The DXSpider FAQ</title>
<author>Ian Maude, G0VGS, (g0vgs@gb7mbc.net)</author>
<date>February 2005 Revision: 1.8</date>
<abstract>
A reference for SysOps of the DXSpider DXCluster program.
</abstract>

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<P>Please mail any FAQs to the maintainer at the address above.

<P>
<sect>Installation 

<sect1>Where do I get DXSpider?

<P>
All things Spider can be found at <htmlurl url="http://www.dxcluster.org" name="www.dxcluster.org"> and the actual program and patches can be found in the <htmlurl url="http://www.dxcluster.org/download/index.html" name="download"> area.

<sect1>How do I use the patches?

<P>
Patching is done in the standard linux way ...

<tscreen><verb>
zcat /tmp/patch-1.40 | patch -p0
</verb></tscreen>

<P>
assuming the patch version you are using is 1.40 and resides in /tmp!

<P>
Be aware that each patch assumes the previous patch has been applied.  That
is to say if you are patching from version 1.38 to 1.40 you would first need
to apply patch-1.39 and then patch-1.40.

<sect1>If I use a tarball to overwrite my installation, what happens to my configuration?

<P>
The tarballs are designed to not overwrite your existing configuration
and can be used at any time to update your Spider software.  All the key
files have the suffix .issue (eg. DXVars.pm.issue) at default. 

<sect1>I am running RedHat 5.2 and I am getting strange errors, what is wrong?

<P>
The version of Perl that comes with 5.2 seems to be some kind of pre-release
and is broken.  You can get a new version of perl from 
<htmlurl url="http://www.dxcluster.org/download/index.html" name="www.dxcluster.org"> 
or <htmlurl url="ftp://updates.redhat.com" name="ftp://updates.redhat.com">.  
Don't forget to patch it with the CPAN modules.

<sect>Administration

<sect1>How can I get Spider to restart automatically if it crashes?

<P>
Put this line into /etc/inittab ..

<tscreen><verb>
DX:3:respawn:/bin/su -c "/usr/bin/perl -w /spider/perl/cluster.pl" sysop > /dev/tty7
</verb></tscreen>

Run <em>telinit q</em> as root.  Spider will restart so be aware.  However, any
time you reboot, cluster.pl will start in tty7 and if it crashes, it should restart ok.

<sect1>How can I monitor traffic to and from a node or user?

<P>
There are 2 ways to achieve this.  You can use the <em>tail</em> command like this ..

<tscreen><verb>
tail -f /spider/data/debug/167.dat |grep G0VGS
</verb></tscreen>

or in later versions of Spider, there is a command called <em>watchdbg</em> in which
case you simply type ..

<tscreen><verb>
watchdbg G0VGS
</verb></tscreen>

<sect1>I see spots coming in my debug log, but none go out to the users

<P>
Please check the time on your PC. 

<P>
All spots are checked that they are no more
than 15 minutes in the future and 60 minutes in the past. If your clock on your client
prompt (or console.pl display) is not set to the correct time
in GMT (UTC) and is more than one hour out (say on your local (summer) time) then
the test will fail and no spots will come out. Neither will they be stored.

<P>
If you are connected to the internet, most linux distributions have an implementation of
<htmlurl url="http://www.ntp.org" name="ntpd">. The Microsoft Windows 2003, XP, 
2000 and NT machine clock can also be set to be syncronised
to an NTP source.  This can be done in the standard time configuration screen. There is also
the simple <htmlurl url="http://nettime.sourceforge.net" name="nettime"> program for Windows 95/98/ME.


<sect1>My neighbouring node cannot use the RCMD command to me, he just keeps 
getting the "tut tut" message.

<P>
Assuming that the permissions are set correctly (perm level 5 required), it could be
that the home_node is set incorrectly.  You can reset the home_node using the <em>spoof</em>
command like this ..

<tscreen><verb>
spoof gb7adx set/home gb7adx
</verb></tscreen>

Assuming that the node_call you are changing is gb7adx.

<sect1>I do not seem to be sending any bulletin mail to my link partners, what is wrong?

<P>
There is a file in /spider/msg called forward.pl.issue.  Rename this to
forward.pl and edit it to meet your requirements.  You will need to issue
the command <em>load/forward</em> or restart Spider for the changes to 
take effect.

<sect1>How can I automatically limit the amount of debug logfiles that are stored?

<P>
Use the tmpwatch command.  Create a file in /etc/cron.daily/ containing the line ...

<tscreen><verb>
/usr/sbin/tmpwatch -f 240 /spider/data/debug
</verb></tscreen>

Remember to make it executable!

This will limit your debug data down to the last 10 days. 

However, modern versions of DXSpider will do this for you, so this is now probably unnecessary.

<sect1>I updated my Linux distribution and now Spider cannot read the users file or the dupefile, what is the problem?

<P>
Almost certainly this is a change in the db format of perl.  Follow these
few steps to correct the problem.

<itemize>
<item>stop the cluster (disable any autostart in inittab)
<item>cd /spider/data
<item>issue the command: perl user_asc
<item>restart the cluster
</itemize>

That should solve the problem.

<sect1>Since I last updated I seem to be getting duplicate spots appearing.

<P>
What has probably happened is that the dupefile has got corrupted in
some way.  Simply delete the /spider/data/dupefile and restart the
cluster.  It may take a little time to become fully functional but
should solve your problem.

<sect1>I have deleted a message but it is still there, why?

<P>
This is now the way messages are handled for deletion in Spider.  If you
look closely you will see a 'D' following the message number.  This 
message is marked for deletion and will be deleted in 2 days if nothing
further is done.  Optionally you can use the command <em>delete/expunge</em>
to delete it immediately.

<sect1>I have updated from CVS and I get all sorts of errors when I restart

<P>
Whenever you update from CVS, a log is displayed. Next to each
file that is downloaded there is a letter, e.g.:

<tscreen><verb>
? fred.pl
? jim
..
.
..
cvs server: Updating perl
P cluster.pl
C Messages
M Internet.pm
U DXProt.pm
..
.
..
</verb></tscreen>

<P>
For normal CVS use you should only ever see the letters 'P', 'U' or '?'. The 
letter 'P' means that the file has
changed in CVS and is more recent than the one that is currently on your system. You will also
see the letter '?', which means that
there is a file that you (or the system) has created that CVS doesn't know about and isn't 
under its control. These are all normal and good.

<P>
Sometimes you will see the letter 'U' next to a file. This means that it is a new file that you don't currently
have. This is also OK.

<P>
However, if you see the letter 'C' or 'M', that means that CVS thinks that the file has 
changed locally. For the letter 'C', it has changed sufficiently near to one or more
modifications which CVS wants to download to your system. For the 'M', CVS thinks that it
is OK to make the change (you may also see some messages about "merging revision 1.xx with 1.yy").
Neither of these things are good. Files that are under the control of CVS
must not be changed by sysops. It is the files that have the 'C' next to them that will show
the errors that you are complaining about and they will be things like:-

<tscreen><verb>
Syntax error near '<<<<' at line 23
Syntax error near '===' at line 40
Syntax error near '>>>' at line 51
</verb></tscreen>

<P>
You will not necessarily see all of the errors shown but you will get one or more sets of some
of them. The cure is simple: 

<itemize>
<item> identify the file that is causing the problem.  
<item> remove the file.
<item> run the cvs update again.
</itemize>

<P>
You will see that file come back (with a letter 'U' next to it). That will be the correct 
file as CVS thinks it should be. If you <em>still</em> have a problem, then get onto the
dxspider-support mailing list.

<P>
If all else fails (or you have several conflicts) you can safely remove the entire <tt>/spider/perl</tt> and 
<tt>/spider/cmd</tt> directories and then run the cvs update. They will all be recreated in their pristine
condition.

<sect1>I have done a CVS update, restarted and it says that "fileX" is missing

<P>
The correct way to run cvs is:-

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

<P>
The '-d' is crucial. It makes sure that any new directories, that may contain new code,
are created and that new code downloaded. I have absolutely no idea why this is not the
default, seeing as CVS (in other circumstances) happily recurses its merry way down a 
directory tree, but there you are.

<P>
WinCVS and other graphical CVS frontends have a checkbox for the update screen called something
like "create sub-directories" (it may be hidden in some sub-screen - go look for it if it isn't
obvious). Make sure that this box is checked. If you can make this the
default setting in the program's setup screen then please do that. It will save you a lot
of pulled hair. 

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