Node Display/Control Utility

The Synchronet NODE utility can be used to display or control the status of Terminal Server (Telnet, RLogin, or SSH) nodes from the system shell prompt or via batch/script file.

Running

Note: Before the NODE utility can be used to monitor or control any Synchronet BBS nodes, the SBBSCTRL environment variable must be set to point to your Synchronet ctrl directory (so the node.dab file can be located, opened, and read or modified).

Usage

usage: node [-debug] [-loop] [-pause] <action [on|off]> [node numbers] [...]

Actions

Action	Description
list	list status (the default)
anon	anonymous user
lock	locked
intr	interrupt
down	shut-down
rerun	rerun
event	run event
nopage	page disable
noalerts	activity alerts disable
status=#	set status value (definition of status values later)
useron=#	set useron number
action=#	set action value (definition of action values later)
errors=#	set error counter
conn=#	set connection value
misc=#	set misc value
aux=#	set aux value
extaux=#	set extended aux value

Tutorial

To run the NODE utility, you must type the word “node”, an action (ex: “LOCK”), then a list of nodes to take the action on (ex: “1 2 4 5”). If no node numbers are specified, it is assumed you wanted to perform the action on ALL nodes.

Some actions can have an option “ON” or “OFF” state specified. Typing “NODE LOCK 1” would toggle the “locked” state of node 1. If it were previously off, it would be set to on. To be sure you are setting the state to either on or off rather than toggling, you may specify on or off (e.g. “node lock on 1” would set the locked state of node 1 to on).

Some actions are setting a value for the node status. These actions are listed with “=#” after the action word. This indicates that you must specify a numeric value for that status option (e.g. “node useron=1 5” would set the current user number on node 5 to 1).

The optional “-debug” switch can be used to view the current numeric values associated with the node status.

Example Usage

Example #1: To list the status of all your nodes, type:

node list

Example #2: To lock node 1, type:

node lock on 1

Example #3: To unlock nodes 1 and 2, type:

node lock off 1 2

Example #4: To set the status of node 3 to “Offline”, type:

node status=5 3

Example #5: To interrupt and lock node 4, type:

node intr on 4 lock on 4

Example #6: To clear the error counter of all nodes, type:

node errors=0

Example #7: To toggle the “rerun” status of all nodes, type:

node rerun

Example #8: To down node 2, type:

node down on 2

Possible Node Status Values

Value	Description
0	Waiting for connection
1	At logon prompt
2	New user applying for access
3	User online
4	User online in quiet mode
5	Offline
6	Networking
7	Waiting for all nodes to become inactive before running timed event
8	Running timed event
9	Waiting for timed event node to finish running event

Possible Node Action Values

Value	Description
0	Main Prompt
1	Reading Messages
2	Reading Mail
3	Sending Mail
4	Reading G-Files
5	Reading Sent Mail
6	Posting Message
7	Auto-message
8	Running External Program (aux=program number)
9	Main Defaults Section
10	Transfer Prompt
11	Downloading File (aux=estimated time of transfer completion)
12	Uploading File
13	Bi-directional Transfer (aux=estimated time of transfer completion)
14	Listing Files
15	Logging on
16	In Local Chat with Sysop
17	In Multi-Chat with Other Nodes
18	In Local Chat with Guru
19	In Chat Section
20	Sysop Activity
21	Transferring QWK packet
22	In Private Chat (aux=node chatting with)
23	Paging another node for Private Chat (aux=node being paged)
24	Retrieving file from a sequential device (aux=device num)

Bits Used in Node Misc

Value	Description
0	Anonymous User
1	Locked for sysops only
2	Interrupted - hang up
3	Message is waiting for user
4	Paging disabled
5	Activity Alert disabled
6	User data has been updated by another node
7	Re-run this node when logoff
8	Must run node event after logoff
9	Down this node after logoff
10	Reset private chat
11	Message is waiting for node

Unix Monitoring Example

# watch /sbbs/exec/node list

  
Every 2.0s: /sbbs/exec/node list


Synchronet Node Display/Control Utility v1.22

Node  1: At logon prompt
Node  2: Waiting for connection
Node  3: Waiting for connection
Node  4: Waiting for connection
Node  5: Waiting for connection
Node  6: Waiting for connection
Node  7: Waiting for connection
Node  8: Waiting for connection
Node  9: Waiting for connection
Node 10: Waiting for connection

Limitations

Since the node utility doesn't read any configuration or data files (other than the node.dab file), it doesn't know user names (it just display user numbers) or external program names.