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.
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.
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: $OPDX.391
January 11, 1999
Editor Tedd Mirgliotta, KB8NW
Provided by BARF-80 BBS Cleveland, Ohio
Online at 440-237-8208 28.8k-1200 Baud 8/N/1 (New Area Code!)
Thanks to the Northern Ohio Amateur Radio Society, Northern Ohio DX
Association, Ohio/Penn PacketCluster Network, K1XN & Golist, WB2RAJ/WB2YQH
& The 59(9) DXReport, W3UR & The Daily DX, K3TEJ, KN4UG, W4DC, NC6J, N6HR,
Press Enter to continue, A to abort (508 lines) >
The page length will of course depend on what you have it set to!
You will find a file in /spider/cmd/ called Aliases. First, copy this file to /spider/local_cmd/Aliases and edit this file. You will see something like this ...
#!/usr/bin/perl
# provide some standard aliases for commands for terminally
# helpless ak1a user (helpless in the sense that they never
# read nor understand help files)
# This file is automagically reloaded if its modification time is
# later than the one stored in CmdAlias.pm
# PLEASE make this file consistant with reality! (the patterns MUST
# match the filenames!)
# Don't alter this file, copy it into the local_cmd tree and modify it.
# This file will be replaced everytime I issue a new release.
# You only need to put aliases in here for commands that don't work as
# you desire naturally, e.g sh/dx on its own just works as you expect
# so you need not add it as an alias.
package CmdAlias;
%alias = (
'?' => [
'^\?', 'apropos', 'apropos',
],
'a' => [
'^ann.*/full', 'announce full', 'announce',
'^ann.*/sysop', 'announce sysop', 'announce',
'^ann.*/(.*)$', 'announce $1', 'announce',
],
'b' => [
],
'c' => [
],
'd' => [
'^del', 'kill', 'kill',
'^del\w*/fu', 'kill full', 'kill',
'^di\w*/a\w*', 'directory all', 'directory',
'^di\w*/b\w*', 'directory bulletins', 'directory',
'^di\w*/n\w*', 'directory new', 'directory',
'^di\w*/o\w*', 'directory own', 'directory',
'^di\w*/s\w*', 'directory subject', 'directory',
'^di\w*/t\w*', 'directory to', 'directory',
'^di\w*/f\w*', 'directory from', 'directory',
'^di\w*/(\d+)', 'directory $1', 'directory',
],
'e' => [
],
'f' => [
],
'g' => [
],
'h' => [
],
'i' => [
],
'j' => [
],
'k' => [
],
'l' => [
'^l$', 'directory', 'directory',
'^ll$', 'directory', 'directory',
'^ll/(\d+)', 'directory $1', 'directory',
],
'm' => [
],
'n' => [
'^news', 'type news', 'type',
],
'o' => [
],
'p' => [
],
'q' => [
'^q', 'bye', 'bye',
],
'r' => [
'^r$', 'read', 'read',
'^rcmd/(\S+)', 'rcmd $1', 'rcmd',
],
's' => [
'^s/p$', 'send', 'send',
'^sb$', 'send noprivate', 'send',
'^set/home$', 'set/homenode', 'set/homenode',
'^set/nobe', 'unset/beep', 'unset/beep',
'^set/nohe', 'unset/here', 'unset/here',
'^set/noan', 'unset/announce', 'unset/announce',
'^set/nodx', 'unset/dx', 'unset/dx',
'^set/nota', 'unset/talk', 'unset/talk',
'^set/noww', 'unset/wwv', 'unset/wwv',
'^set/nowx', 'unset/wx', 'unset/wx',
'^sh$', 'show', 'show',
'^sh\w*/buck', 'dbshow buck', 'dbshow',
'^sh\w*/bu', 'show/files bulletins', 'show/files',
'^sh\w*/c/n', 'show/configuration nodes', 'show/configuration',
'^sh\w*/c$', 'show/configuration', 'show/configuration',
'^sh\w*/com', 'dbavail', 'dbavail',
'^sh\w*/dx/(\d+)-(\d+)', 'show/dx $1-$2', 'show/dx',
'^sh\w*/dx/(\d+)', 'show/dx $1', 'show/dx',
'^sh\w*/dx/d(\d+)', 'show/dx from $1', 'show/dx',
'^sh\w*/email', 'dbshow email', 'dbshow',
'^sh\w*/hftest', 'dbshow hftest', 'dbshow',
'^sh\w*/vhftest', 'dbshow vhftest', 'dbshow',
'^sh\w*/qsl', 'dbshow qsl', 'dbshow',
'^sh\w*/tnc', 'who', 'who',
'^sh\w*/up', 'show/cluster', 'show/cluster',
'^sh\w*/w\w*/(\d+)-(\d+)', 'show/wwv $1-$2', 'show/wwv',
'^sh\w*/w\w*/(\d+)', 'show/wwv $1', 'show/wwv',
'^sp$', 'send', 'send',
],
't' => [
'^ta$', 'talk', 'talk',
'^t$', 'talk', 'talk',
],
'u' => [
],
'v' => [
],
'w' => [
'^wx/full', 'wx full', 'wx',
'^wx/sysop', 'wx sysop', 'wx',
],
'x' => [
],
'y' => [
],
'z' => [
],
)
You can create aliases for commands at will. Beware though, these may not always turn out as you think. Care is needed and you need to test the results once you have set an alias.
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.
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.
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.