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28 .\" @(#)rwhod.8 8.2 (Berkeley) 12/11/93
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37 .Nd system status server
48 utility is the server which maintains the database used by the
52 programs. Its operation is predicated on the ability to
56 messages on a network.
60 utility operates as both a producer and consumer of status information,
63 (listen mode) option is specified, in which case
64 it acts as a consumer only.
65 As a producer of information it periodically
66 queries the state of the system and constructs
67 status messages which are broadcasted or multicasted on a network.
68 As a consumer of information, it listens for other
70 servers' status messages, validating them, then recording
71 them in a collection of files located in the directory
76 option enables insecure mode, which causes
78 to ignore the source port on incoming packets.
82 option allows for the broadcast
86 to be reduced below 3 minutes. This enables for more 'real' time statistics
90 operand can be given as 30 (30 seconds) or 1m (1 minute), for example.
98 interfaces. This is useful if you do not wish to keep dial on demand
99 interfaces permanently active.
103 option enables listen mode, which causes
105 to not broadcast any information.
106 This allows you to monitor other machines'
108 information, without broadcasting your own.
114 to use IP multicast (instead of
115 broadcast) on all interfaces that have
116 the IFF_MULTICAST flag set in their "ifnet" structs
117 (excluding the loopback interface). The multicast
118 reports are sent with a time-to-live of 1, to prevent
119 forwarding beyond the directly-connected subnet(s).
123 argument is supplied with the
127 will send IP multicast datagrams with a
130 via a SINGLE interface rather
133 must be between 0 and
134 32 (or MAX_MULTICAST_SCOPE). Note that
140 specifies transmission on one interface only.
146 argument, the program accepts multicast
148 reports from all multicast-capable interfaces. If a
150 argument is given, it accepts multicast reports from only one interface, the
151 one on which reports are sent (which may be controlled via the host's routing
152 table). Regardless of the
154 option, the program accepts broadcast or
155 unicast reports from all interfaces. Thus, this program will hear the
156 reports of old, non-multicasting
158 but, if multicasting is used,
161 won't hear the reports generated by this program.
163 The server transmits and receives messages at the port indicated
164 in the ``who'' service specification; see
166 The messages sent and received, are of the form:
167 .Bd -literal -offset indent
169 char out_line[8]; /* tty name */
170 char out_name[8]; /* user id */
171 long out_time; /* time on */
180 char wd_hostname[32];
184 struct outmp we_utmp;
186 } wd_we[1024 / sizeof (struct whoent)];
190 All fields are converted to network byte order prior to
191 transmission. The load averages are as calculated by the
193 program, and represent load averages over the 5, 10, and 15 minute
194 intervals prior to a server's transmission; they are multiplied by 100
195 for representation in an integer. The host name
196 included is that returned by the
198 system call, with any trailing domain name omitted.
199 The array at the end of the message contains information about
200 the users logged in to the sending machine. This information
201 includes the contents of the
203 entry for each non-idle terminal line and a value indicating the
204 time in seconds since a character was last received on the terminal line.
206 Messages received by the
208 server are discarded unless they originated at an
212 option was specified. In addition, if the host's name, as specified
213 in the message, contains any unprintable
216 message is discarded. Valid messages received by
218 are placed in files named
222 These files contain only the most recent message, in the
223 format described above.
225 Status messages are generated by default approximately once every
232 every 30 minutes to guard against
233 the possibility that this file is not the system
234 image currently operating.
244 Status information should be sent only upon request rather than continuously.
245 People often interpret the server dying
246 or network communication failures
247 as a machine going down.