\begindata{text,538545796} \textdsversion{12} \template{help} \define{global } \chapter{Console: A System Monitor Version 6.02 \smaller{\smaller{\bold{(or higher)}}}} \section{What Console is} \leftindent{Console is a program which keeps track of various kinds of status information about your workstation and files. It can display a digital or analog clock, monitor various aspects of your system's performance, notify you about the arrival of mail, warn you about system errors, and much more. } \section{Starting Console} \leftindent{Console is one of the programs that should be started automatically when you log on. You can always start Console from the \helptopic{Typescript} window (or other command window) if you need to by typing \leftindent{\typewriter{console}} and pressing the Enter key. This will get you the default console, a selection of indicators designed to be relevant to new users. }\ \section{The default Console and its indicators} \leftindent{The default Console is called "fudgenut" and is divided into four regions: date/time, basic system status, additional system stats, and the error log at the bottom. \bold{Date/time:} The time is displayed in the upper-leftmost corner, by default it displays hours and minutes. Next to it is a small box which is blank until you set the Alarm (see menus - below). In the middle is the day and date (month/date/year), and next to that is simply a title (AFS Activity) for the box below it. \bold{Basic system status:} The large EKG graph on the left-hand side is a measure of the CPU usage on your machine. The three icons in the middle represent (from left to right) printing jobs, new mail, and machine trouble. When there is no active status for an icon, it appears undarkened. The conditions which cause each icon to become darkened are: \leftindent{\italic{Printer and Mail:} darkens when there are items waiting to be printed or read; a number appears beneath the icon showing how many items. Updated every fifteen seconds. \italic{Trouble:} darkens when a machine condition exists which could halt your session or cause you to lose unsaved files. To find out what the condition is, click the left mouse button on the trouble icon. Updated every two seconds. }}\leftindent{On the right hand side is the AFS Activity log (if you are not running AFS - do not expect to see anything in it) it will display the fetching and storing of files along with timestamps of when the fetch/store occured. }\leftindent{\leftindent{ }Occasionally one or more of the icons will disappear; that is usually a symptom of problems with the file servers. There is nothing you can do except wait for the servers to recover. \ \bold{Additional system status:} this thin strip of four EKG graphs represent (from left to right) - [Q] queue of processes waiting to run, [V] virtual memory usage, [U] percentage of maximum user processes in use, and [T] percentage of maximum total process in use. \bold{Error Log:} shows error message from the programs you are using and from the file system. These messages will not wrap if the only thing that would be omitted is part of the time of the message; otherwise the entire message will appear. You can always see the rest of the message by moving the right boundary of the Console window, or by scrolling back in the log. (see section on Log Usage for more details about the logs)} \section{Pop-up menu meanings} Console has three basic pop-up menus. You can select from them by bringing up the menus when the cursor is anywhere inside the Console window. Here are the menu selections and what they do: \bold{Front menu:} \leftindent{\italic{Set Alarm:} sets the time at which the alarm clock will go off. This is replaced by a "Turn off Alarm" item when the alarm is set. When you set an alarm, you are prompted for the time the alarm should go off and the title of the event that is being marked by the alarm (i.e., doctor's appointment, meeting etc.). After you have set the alarm, a small bell appears in the lower right corner of the clock box to remind you that an alarm is set. When the alarm goes off, the the window changes its display and posts the event title that you entered. If you log out of Andrew before the alarm goes off, your alarm setting will be cancelled. \ \italic{Show Seconds/Hide Seconds:} change the clock display to include (or not include) seconds. \italic{Write Log File:} creates a file containing the information displayed in the text parts of the Console window. In most cases that includes error messages and/or file system activity. You will be prompted for the name of the file. NOTE: the best action to take at this prompt is to press Return and have Console write the log to its default file, /tmp/ConsoleLog. Console often lacks the permissions to write a file in your directory anywhere except in /tmp. You can copy or rename the file later. \italic{Clear All Logs:} deletes the contents of the logs. Note: this information can not be gotten back. \italic{Restart Getstats:} this menu will only appear if console cannot monitor system statistics - it will be preceded by some messages appearing in the ErrorLog. If you see this appear under normal operation - please notify Advisor so that they may notify the maintainer. \italic{Quit:} exits the Console program and closes the window. } \bold{Display menu:} \leftindent{\italic{Restart:} takes you back to whichever console you started with. \italic{Read New Console File:} reads in a new file describing a console. Names with tilde path identifiers are supported. However, Andrew path names usually contain a dot character in the path, so occasionally an unanticipated name may result from tilde expansion. If this should occur, re-type the name with the explicit pathname. Names without extensions are handled if a file can be found in the current path list which corresponds to the identified name, plus one of the supported extensions. If a name cannot be found with the capitalization as explicitly given, it is converted to lowercase (except for the pathname), and is retried automatically. \italic{Expand Menu: } adds a variable number of pop-up menus containing the names of all the Consoles in the Console library for sampling purposes. This menu item uses the paths that you have specified in the environment variable CONSOLELIB for additional search paths containing console files. Files without the supported extensions are not automatically recognized by the console program on startup. }\ \bold{Consoles menu:} The Consoles listed here are all variations on the basic theme describe above. \leftindent{\italic{BusyBox:} needs more space than the default in order to display properly. Displays a constantly-updated log of file system activity in addition to the error log, more detailed CPU graphs, and indicators showing what percentage of available disk space is in use. The CPU graphs show the following: \leftindent{C : CPU usage identical to the load graph in the default Console. \ I : I/O usage, especially operations involving the local disk. V : virtual memory use, or how much of the memory which might be devoted to running processes is already in use. \ Q : run queue, or how many processes are attempting to run simultaneously. }\ \italic{MuchVice:} needs more space. Displays a constantly-updated log of file system activity in addition to the error log at the bottom of the window. \italic{ViceAndMore:} needs more space. Has graphs for virtual memory and disk use. Also shows a constantly-updated log of file system activity in addition to the error log. \ \italic{FudgeNut:} (this is currently the default) needs more space. Has graphs for cpu load, queued processes, virtual memory, user processes, and total processes. Also shows a constantly-updated log of file system activity in addition to the error log. \italic{SmallFry:} monitors all system activity and errors, has a numeric display of the cpu load and your File System quota. Uses a square clock dial and icons appear in the following places: \leftindent{A - Alarm - replaced by a bell icon when the alarm is set. M - Mail - replaced by an envelope icon when you have mail waiting. P - Printer - replaced by a printing icon when you have jobs in the print queue. T - Trouble - lights up if there is some form of trouble that you should be aware of (i.e. approching the limits of your quota, becoming unauthenticated).} \ \italic{Tang:} moitors the cpu load, your File System quota, the printing queues for Birch and Pine. Shows constantly-updated logs of system activity and errors. Also uses some different icons.} \section{Changing the sizes of areas in the Console window} \indent{You can, if you like, dynamically change the size of the things you see on the Console. Point the mouse cursor at the boundary between two of the displays in the Console window and hold down the right button of the mouse. If the cursor changes into a big X, you aren't pointing at a boundary. If the cursor changes to one of the standard window manager boundary-movement icons, just move the boundary as you do to move window manager boundaries. When you let up on the right button, Console will redisplay with the new boundaries. } \section{Support for Console file extensions } \flushright{\indent{\flushleft{\flushleft{\flushleft{Console supports the extensions: ".con", ".vop", ".console", ".vopcon", and capitalizations} of these extensions. Console also supports identification of file names without extensions} in most cases, if a filename is given that matches a file in one of the specified paths, minus the supported extensions. \ Paths to search for console files may be specified through the environment variable CONSOLELIB. Paths that use tilde characters are matched correctly in most cases, however Andrew filenames may include extra dot characters that might cause mismatchs occasionally. If a mismatch happens, you should specify the complete path explicitly.\leftindent{ }}}} \section{Using a different Console as your default} \leftindent{ There are several Consoles available. Each Console is simply a different configuration of data and displays, designed to appeal to a different set of people. You can sample them by selecting one of them from the "Consoles" pop-up menu in the Console window or by choosing "Expand Menu" from the "Display" menu and trying the Consoles that appear on the expanded menus. If you find that you prefer a Console other than the default or "Monitor" Console, you can make the new Console your default by either by adding the name of the Console to the appropriate startup line (as shown in the example below) or by setting the console.default preference explained in the section on "Preferences" in this help document. \ \bold{Example:} Starting with a Console other than the default. Say you like the SmallFry display best. If you're running an X-based window manager (twm, olwm, etc.) then to start a console add this line to your ~/.xinitrc file: \leftindent{console SmallFry & } If you run the ITC window manager (wm) then add this line to your ~/preferences file: \leftindent{wm.startup: console SmallFry; typescript} }\ \section{Log Usage} \leftindent{The Console Logs are now textviews, similar in many respects to the text used in \helptopic{typescript} and \helptopic{ez}. \ When an ERROR is reported to the log, it will appear like: \leftindent{\bold{|>> error message <<|} \smaller{(timestamp) }} It will have the same appearance, though not in bold, when written out to a ConsoleLog file. If the logs are big enough in height, a scroll bar will appear on the left hand side of the log. The scroll bar can be used in the same manner as it is in other applications. When you click in a log, a text carot (^) will appear in the log - this means that the log has the "input focus". From there you can select text (the selected text will be displayed in inverse-video) for copying, and you can use some of the default cursor positioning key-commands to move about the logs (for more on this see the help on \italic{\helptopic{ez-keys}}). When you scroll through a log, if new information is being written to it, the log will scroll forward to where the new message was written. However, if you have text selected, the log will not scroll forward when new messages are written. }\section{Preferences} \leftindent{\bold{console.default: Default} Controls which Console appears if you type "console" without supplying a Console name. For new users, the default or Monitor Console appears. You can sample from the Console library and choose a Console for your default by using \bold{Expand Menu} from Console's pop-up menus and selecting from among the many Consoles listed there. You can also give the full path to a privately-maintained Console if you know of one. For example, if user pat designs a new Console (see the next section for more info) called MyConsole.console, she might make it her default by setting this preference: \leftindent{console.default: /afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr24/pat/consoles/MyConsole} \bold{console.bodyfont: andysans10} Controls the font used in the logs. Console assigns a font to the logs as follows: \leftindent{-- if you have a \italic{console.bodyfont} preference - it will use that, if not .... -- if you have a \italic{*.bodyfont} preference - it will use that, if not. it will use the built-in default of: andysans10.} Only one font is used for all the logs (if there is more than one) - you cannot have different logs use different fonts. \bold{console.tfhc: no} Controls whether or not time is represented in \italic{twenty-four-hour-clock} (tfhc) time or not - the default is "no" - set to "yes" to enable. This will control the digital clock time readout, the timestamps on the log entries, and how alarm time is represented. \bold{console.MailFrom: no} If set to "yes", console will display the [ReSent-] From: header of mail that is sitting in your Mailbox.} \section{Designing New Consoles} \leftindent{You can design new consoles by writing the console descriptions in a simple language that looks something like Scribe in its syntax. To examine a complete description of LACC, the Language for Andrew Console Construction, see the help entry on \italic{\helptopic{lacc}}. New users should never need to read this document. If you produce what you think is a particularly nice console, please let us know so that we can install it in the console library. \ The default directory for console files is /usr/andrew/lib/consoles. The CONSOLELIB environment variable can also be used to set additional pathnames to search for console files. This will substantially change what you see in the "Consoles" menu or the expanded menus, since those menus are created from the conforming console filenames found in the specified pathname list. \ }\section{Monitoring non-Andrew mail or printing}\leftindent{ By default, Console supports Andrew-style mailbox and print directory monitoring. However, it is possible to set up an Andrew workstation that uses normal IBM 4.3 mail or printing. To tell Console about this, you need to put an appropriate line in the /AndrewSetup file on the local disk. If you're using the standard IBM 4.3 mail system, you'll want the line AMS_NonAMSDelivery: yes If you're using the standard IBM 4.3 print system (/usr/spool/lpd), you'll want the line \leftindent{print.nonandrew:1} Console looks for these lines only when it first starts running; if you change the /AndrewSetup file, you will have to exit Console and restart it to see the changes take effect.} \section{Quick reference} \leftindent{\typewriter{Syntax: \bold{console} [ -cdqvDV ] [ console name ]} \bold{Options/arguments:} No options or arguments are necessary for most users. These are mostly of interest to those programming new consoles. \leftindent{-c -- allows monitoring of errors on a remote machine. -C -- disables opening of /dev/console for error monitoring -d -- inhibits forking. -q -- inhibits all but the most dire error messages. -v -- shows system warning messages that aren't vital. -D -- prints debugging output in typescipt. -V -- shows debugging output sent to the console. }\ \bold{Notes:} \leftindent{\bold{To get Console to run automatically when you log in:} Add a call to console in the wm.startup line in your preferences file, like this: \leftindent{wm.startup: console ; typescript }\ or \leftindent{wm.startup: console; typescript console.default: } is the name of a console other than the default. You can sample the available consoles from Console's second pop-up menu. If you don't specify a console name, you'll get the default which is called Monitor and shows a set of indicators designed to be relevant to new users. Do not include an extension (i.e. ".console" when specifying a . \bold{To sample other Consoles: } choose from the pop-up Consoles menu, which lists a subset of all the possible Consoles. To see all of them, choose "Expand Menu." The next time you pop-up the menus, several extra menus will appear. Keep in mind that some Consoles are designed for specific screen displays (narrow bands at the top, thick bands in a narrow column, etc.). If a Console seems distorted, that's probably the reason. \ }}\section{Program Authors} \leftindent{Nathaniel S. Borenstein - original Adam Stoller - BE2 conversion} Michael MacKay - Name support and menu changes \section{Recent changes to Console} \leftindent{6/15/89: Improved performance to eliminate frequent need for "Restart Getstats". Changed name and "Expand Menus" handing to include multiple paths with more robust name matching (improved AIX usability).} \section{Related tools} Select (highlight) one of the italicized names and choose "Show Help on Selected Word" to see the help document for: \leftindent{\italic{ \helptopic{lacc} \helptopic{lacc-quickref} \helptopic{vopcon}}} \ \begindata{bp,538505984} \enddata{bp,538505984} \view{bpv,538505984,1,0,0} Copyright 1992 Carnegie Mellon University and IBM. All rights reserved. \smaller{\smaller{$Disclaimer: Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice, this permission notice, and the following disclaimer appear in supporting documentation, and that the names of IBM, Carnegie Mellon University, and other copyright holders, not be used in advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of the software without specific, written prior permission. IBM, CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY, AND THE OTHER COPYRIGHT HOLDERS DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE, INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL IBM, CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY, OR ANY OTHER COPYRIGHT HOLDER BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE. $ }}\enddata{text,538545796}