<title>The DXSpider Installation and Administration Manual
<author>Ian Maude, G0VGS, (ianmaude@btinternet.com)
-<date>Version 1.31 January 2001
+<date>Version 1.33 (Revision 1.22) March 2001
<abstract>
A reference for SysOps of the DXSpider DXCluster program.
</abstract>
<!-- Begin the document -->
-<sect>Installation (Original version by Iain Phillips, G0RDI)
+<sect>Installation (Original version by Iain Philipps, G0RDI)
<sect1>Introduction
<P>
-This section describes the installation of DX Spider v1.35 on a
-<htmlurl url="http://www.redhat.com" name="RedHat"> Linux Distribution.
+This section describes the installation of DX Spider v1.46 on a
+<htmlurl url="http://www.redhat.com" name="RedHat"> Linux Distribution.
+Wherever possible I will try to include differences for other distributions.
I do not intend to try and cover the installation of Linux or the setup
of the AX25 utilities. If you need help on this then read Iains original
-HOWTO on the <htmlurl url="http://www.dxcluster.org" name="DXSpider">
-website.
+installation guide that comes with the Spider distribution.
<P>
I am assuming a general knowledge of Linux and its commands. You should
<P>
The crucial ingredient for all of this is
-<htmlurl url="http://www.perl.org" name="Perl 5.004">. Now I know Perl 5.005
-is out and this will almost certainly work with it, but
-<htmlurl url="http://www.redhat.com" name="RedHat 5.1"> comes with 5.004.
-<em>Be Warned</em>, earlier versions of
-<htmlurl url="http://www.redhat.com" name="RedHat"> <bf>do not</bf> come
-with 5.004 as standard, you need to
-<htmlurl url="ftp://upgrade.redhat.com" name="upgrade">
+<htmlurl url="http://www.perl.org" name="Perl">. Earlier versions of
+Spider required perl 5.004, however it is now <it>STRONGLY</it> recommended
+that you use at least version 5.005_03 as this is the version being used
+in the development of Spider.
<P>In addition to the standard Red Hat distribution you will require the
-following <htmlurl url="http://www.cpan.org/CPAN.html" name="CPAN"> modules: -
+following modules from <htmlurl url="http://www.cpan.org/CPAN.html" name="http://www.cpan.org/CPAN.html"> ...
<P>
<itemize>
<item> MD5-1.7.tar.gz
<item> Data-Dumper-2.10.tar.gz
-<item> FreezeThaw-0.3.tar.gz
-<item> MLDBM-2.00.tar.gz
<item> TimeDate-1.08.tar.gz
<item> IO-1.20.tar.gz
<item> Net-Telnet-3.02.tar.gz
<P>
I will assume that you have already downloaded the latest tarball of
the DXSpider software and are ready to install it. I am assuming version
-1.35 for this section but of course you would use the latest version.
+1.46 for this section but of course you would use the latest version.
<P>
Login as root and create a user to run the cluster under. <bf><it>UNDER
<tscreen><verb>
# cd ~sysop
-# tar xvfz spider-1.35.tar.gz
+# tar xvfz spider-1.46.tar.gz
# ln -s ~sysop/spider /spider
# groupadd -g 251 spider (or another number)
</verb></tscreen>
<P><bf>PLEASE USE CAPITAL LETTERS FOR CALLSIGNS</bf>
<P>
-DON'T alter the DXVars.pm (or any other file) in /spider/perl, they are
-overwritten with every release. Any files or commands you place in /spider/local
-or /spider/local_cmd will automagically be used in preference to the ones in
-/spider/perl EVEN while the cluster is running!
+DON'T alter any file in /spider/perl, they are overwritten with every
+release. Any files or commands you place in /spider/local or /spider/local_cmd
+will automagically be used in preference to the ones in /spider/perl EVEN
+while the cluster is running!
<P>
Save the new file and change directory to ../perl ....
the sysop.
<tscreen><verb>
-$ create_sysop.pl
+$ ./create_sysop.pl
</verb></tscreen>
<sect1>Starting up for the first time
It should look something like this ...
<tscreen><verb>
-$ cluster.pl
-DXSpider DX Cluster Version 1.35
+$ ./cluster.pl
+DXSpider DX Cluster Version 1.46
Copyright (c) 1998 Dirk Koopman G1TLH
loading prefixes ...
loading band data ...
cd to /spider/perl. Now issue the following command ...
<tscreen><verb>
-$ client.pl
+$ ./client.pl
</verb></tscreen>
<P>
default * * * * * * - sysop /spider/src/client client %u ax25
</verb></tscreen>
+or, if you wish your users to be able to use SSID's on their callsigns ..
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+default * * * * * * - sysop /spider/src/client client %s ax25
+</verb></tscreen>
+
<sect1>Allowing telnet connects from users
<P>
is accepting telnet logins by issuing the following command ....
<tscreen><verb>
-client.pl login telnet
+./client.pl login telnet
</verb></tscreen>
You should get a login prompt and on issuing a callsign, you will be given
<P>
That is now set, it is as simple as that. To prove it, login on yet another
-console as sysop and issue the command ...
+console as sysop, cd to spider/perl and issue the command ...
<tscreen><verb>
-client.pl gb7baa (using the callsign you set as a node)
+./client.pl gb7baa (using the callsign you set as a node)
</verb></tscreen>
<P>
You should get an initialisation string from DXSpider like this ...
<tscreen><verb>
-client.pl gb7baa
+./client.pl gb7baa
PC38^GB7MBC^~
</verb></tscreen>
DX:3:respawn:/bin/su -c "/usr/bin/perl -w /spider/perl/cluster.pl" sysop >/dev/tty7
</verb></tscreen>
+<P>
+This line works fine for RedHat distributions. It is also fine for SuSE up to
+7.0. From Suse 7.1 you need to add runlevels 2 and 5 like this ...
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+DX:235:respawn:/bin/su -c "/usr/bin/perl -w /spider/perl/cluster.pl" sysop >/dev/tty7
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+
+The line required for Slackware distributions is slightly different. My thanks to
+Aurelio, PA3EZL for this information.
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+DX:23:respawn:/bin/su - sysop -c "/usr/bin/perl -w /spider/perl/cluster.pl" >/dev/tty7
+</verb></tscreen>
+
<P>
This will automatically start DXSpider on tty7 (ALT-F7) on bootup and restart
it should it crash for any reason.
Make sure you only send mail to the clusters that want it by using the
Forward.pl file very carefully.
+<sect>Databases
+
+<P>
+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.
+
+<sect1>Creating databases
+
+<P>
+Creating a database could not be more simple. All the commands are
+sent from the cluster prompt as the <em>sysop</em> user.
+
+To create a database you use the command <em>dbcreate</em>. It can
+be used in 3 different ways like so ..
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+dbcreate <name>
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+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.
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+dbcreate <name> chain <name> [<name>...]
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+This creates a chained database entry. The first database will be
+scanned, then the second, the third etc...
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+dbcreate <name> remote <name>
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+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...
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+dbcreate buckmaster remote gb7dxc
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+Remote databases cannot be chained, however, the last database in a
+chain can be a remote database.
+
+<sect1>Importing databases
+
+<P>
+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 ...
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+dbimport oblast /tmp/OBLAST.FUL
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+This will update the existing local oblast database or create it if
+it does not exist.
+
+<sect1>Checking available databases
+
+<P>
+Once a database is created, you will want to check that it has been
+added. To do this use the <em>dbavail</em> command. This will
+output the available databases. For example ...
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+dbavail
+DB Name Location Chain
+qsl Local
+buck GB7ADX
+hftest GB7DXM
+G0VGS de GB7MBC 3-Feb-2001 1925Z >
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<sect1>Looking up databases
+
+<P>
+To look for information in a defined database, simply use the <em>dbshow</em>
+command, for example ...
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+dbshow buckmaster G0YLM
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+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
+<em>show</em> command like this ...
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+'^sh\w*/buc', 'dbshow buckmaster', 'dbshow',
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+Now you can simply use show/buckmaster or an abreviation.
+
+<sect1>Removing databases
+
+<P>
+To delete an existing database you use the <em>dbremove</em> command.
+For example ...
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+dbremove oblast
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+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.
+
<sect>Information, files and useful programs
<sect1>MOTD
That is it! the kepler data has been updated.
+<sect1>The QRZ callbook
+
+<P>
+The command <em>sh/qrz</em> 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
+<htmlurl url="http://www.qrz.com" name="qrz.com"> for allowing this access.
<sect>CVS
What happens next depends on whether you have an existing installation that
you want to update with the latest and greatest or whether you just want
to see what is there and/or run it on a new machine for testing.
-Either way you will want to change directory to a new place, if you want to
-update an existing installation then I suggest /tmp, otherwise choose a
-suitable place according to the normal installation instructions.
+
+If you are installing Spider from CVS then change directory to /home/sysop
+
+If you are wanting to update Spider then cd to /tmp
<P>
The next step will create a brand new 'spider' directory in your current
Remember to recompile the C client (cd /spider/src; make)
<P>
-At this point the files have been upgraded. You can (usually) restrt the cluster
+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!
</tt>
<P>
-You can remove this level with unset/debug <name>
+You can choose to log several different levels. The levels are
+
+chan
+state
+msg
+cron
+connect
+
+You can show what levels you are logging with the <em>show/debug</em>
+command.
+
+You can remove a debug level with unset/debug <name>
<sect1>set/dx (0)
<P>
<tt>
-<bf>show/badspotter</bf>Show all the bad spotters in the system
+<bf>show/badspotter</bf> Show all the bad spotters in the system
</tt>
<P>
then it will show UTC and UTC + the local offset (not including DST) at
the prefixes or callsigns that you specify.
+<sect1>show/debug (9)
+
+<P>
+<tt>
+<bf>show/debug</bf> Show what levels of debug you are logging
+</tt>
+
+<P>
+The levels can be set with <em>set/debug</em>
+
<sect1>show/dx (0)
<P>
Show a list of callsigns that have been excluded (locked out) of the
cluster locally with the <em>set/lockout</em> command
+<sect1>show/log (8)
+
+<P>
+<tt>
+<bf>show/log [<callsign>]</bf> Show excerpts from the system log
+</tt>
+
+<P>
+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.
+
<sect1>show/moon (0)
<P>
projects / spider.git / blobdiff