From gedetil at cs.umanitoba.ca  Tue Jun  1 11:04:06 2010
From: gedetil at cs.umanitoba.ca (Gilbert E. Detillieux)
Date: Tue, 1 Jun 2010 11:04:06 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: [RndTbl] MUUG Meeting, June 8, 7:30pm -- IPCop
Message-ID: <201006011604.o51G46N07428@iron.cs.umanitoba.ca>

The Manitoba UNIX User Group (MUUG) will be holding its next monthly
meeting on Tuesday, June 8.  The meeting topic for this month is
as follows:

   IPCop

   IPCop is an open source Linux distribution that turns an old (or
   new) PC into a stateful firewall. IPCop is geared towards home and
   SOHO users and offers services such as DHCP server, HTTP proxy, IDS
   and  VPN  server,  which are all fully configurable through an
   easy-to-use web interface. IPCop has very low hardware requirements.
   In this presentation, Jonas Lippuner will show how to install IPCop
   on an ordinary SD card and a Mini-ITX board.

   Before the break, as this month's RTFM topic, Adam Thompson will
   speak about the awk(1) command.

The group holds its general meetings at 7:30pm on the second Tuesday of
every month from September to June.  (There are no meetings in July and
August.) Meetings are open to the general public; you don't have to be a
MUUG member to attend.

   **********************************************************************
   Please note our meeting location: The IBM offices, at 400 Ellice Ave.
   (between Edmonton and Kennedy). When you arrive, you will have to
   sign in at the reception desk, and then wait for someone to take you
   (in groups) to the meeting room. Please try to arrive by about 7:15pm, 
   so the meeting can start promptly at 7:30pm. Don't be late, or you may
   not get in.  (But don't come too early either, since security may not
   be there to let you in before 7:15 or so.) Non-members may be required
   to show photo ID at the security desk.

   Limited parking is available for free on the street, either on Ellice
   Ave. or on some of the intersecting streets. Indoor parking is also
   available nearby, at Portage Place, for $5.00 for the evening. Bicycle
   parking is available in a bike rack under video surveillance located
   behind the building on Webb Place.
   **********************************************************************

For more information about MUUG, and its monthly meetings, check out their
Web server:

	http://www.muug.mb.ca/

Help us promote this month's meeting, by putting this poster up on your
workplace bulletin board or other suitable public message board:

	http://www.muug.mb.ca/meetings/MUUGmeeting.pdf

-- 
Gilbert E. Detillieux		E-mail: <gedetil at muug.mb.ca>
Manitoba UNIX User Group	Web:	http://www.muug.mb.ca/
PO Box 130 St-Boniface		Phone:  (204)474-8161
Winnipeg MB CANADA  R2H 3B4	Fax:    (204)474-7609

From sean at tinfoilhat.ca  Thu Jun  3 12:24:12 2010
From: sean at tinfoilhat.ca (Sean Cody)
Date: Thu, 3 Jun 2010 10:24:12 -0700
Subject: [RndTbl] Humble Indie Bundle
Message-ID: <2896A7A3-AE45-4EE5-A3D6-F233EC252F84@tinfoilhat.ca>

One thing missing from the newsletter article was a link to more information about the project.
Here you are!

http://infiniteammo.ca/blog/aquaria-source-released/

Alec is a really cool guy and very open about his work.

-- 
Sean




From uniquegeek at gmail.com  Thu Jun  3 15:15:24 2010
From: uniquegeek at gmail.com (Kat)
Date: Thu, 3 Jun 2010 15:15:24 -0500
Subject: [RndTbl] looking for a MCSE manual/book
Message-ID: <AANLkTilLgntI1CHjbwqYMLEjXoXUunrfCXKc65xk7OGI@mail.gmail.com>

Designing a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Active Directory and Network
Infrastructure (2282A)
isbn 0758076851

Does anyone have a copy to lend or sell to me?

Thanks

------------------------------------------------------------
Katherine Scrupa
Network Technology CCNA student, RRC
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.muug.mb.ca/pipermail/roundtable/attachments/20100603/7237279a/attachment.html 

From kevin.a.mcgregor at gmail.com  Fri Jun  4 11:53:43 2010
From: kevin.a.mcgregor at gmail.com (Kevin McGregor)
Date: Fri, 4 Jun 2010 11:53:43 -0500
Subject: [RndTbl] Desperate plea for help
Message-ID: <AANLkTikb1xvCzdm8Y2EfP-gtJtceqw8_-kxdEfjCPVop@mail.gmail.com>

I've got a HP ProLiant server running OpenFiler, and due to errors on my
part, the SCSI drives got rearranged. Now the HP 6400 RAID controller
complains that an "unsupported drive rearrangement has been attempted", and
the logical volume is missing. Is there any way to recover the correct order
of drives in the drive bay?

It is a test server, so technically no big deal, but you know how it is with
"test" servers... It would be pretty annoying to lose all the data.

I've tried booting the 8.30 SmartStart and using the ADU/ACU utility, but it
doesn't seem to show anything useful for this. It shows the controller and
all drives being "uninitialized", not just being out of order. The Option
ROM utility also doesn't show anything.

Suggestions, aside from "use software RAID next time"?

Kevin
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.muug.mb.ca/pipermail/roundtable/attachments/20100604/d43d99be/attachment.html 

From trevor at tecnopolis.ca  Mon Jun  7 08:34:25 2010
From: trevor at tecnopolis.ca (Trevor Cordes)
Date: Mon, 7 Jun 2010 08:34:25 -0500
Subject: [RndTbl] Desperate plea for help
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTikb1xvCzdm8Y2EfP-gtJtceqw8_-kxdEfjCPVop@mail.gmail.com>
References: <AANLkTikb1xvCzdm8Y2EfP-gtJtceqw8_-kxdEfjCPVop@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <20100607083425.1872028d@pog.tecnopolis.ca>

On 2010-06-04 Kevin McGregor wrote:
> I've got a HP ProLiant server running OpenFiler, and due to errors on
> my part, the SCSI drives got rearranged. Now the HP 6400 RAID
> controller complains that an "unsupported drive rearrangement has
> been attempted", and the logical volume is missing. Is there any way
> to recover the correct order of drives in the drive bay?

Very very strange that the physical ordering is important!  If Adam
hasn't already helped :-) ... here's my 2c:

How many drives are we talking?  If it's not large, there should be
only so many permutations and if you try every single one, one should
just magically work.

> Suggestions, aside from "use software RAID next time"?

If the data was super important, you could hook up the drives in a
non-raid environment and do so byte-level peeking to  try to figure out
the data arrangement (what raid level was it?), stripe sizes, etc.
That should be possible and from then a simple perl program could
extract all the data at the block level in the right order and dump to
another huge disk or array.  I think I could probably pull it off
unless the controller is doing something really wacky.  I've done
similar things in the past during raid disasters of my own (years ago
when I learned (the hard way) the value of RAID6 over RAID5).

From trevor at tecnopolis.ca  Mon Jun  7 08:47:47 2010
From: trevor at tecnopolis.ca (Trevor Cordes)
Date: Mon, 7 Jun 2010 08:47:47 -0500
Subject: [RndTbl] eSATA
In-Reply-To: <B3E31943-9018-4EA9-A392-49207A1C5683@shaw.ca>
References: <4BCCA222.50404@cs.umanitoba.ca>
	<6FBD6EFC-A395-4C07-86E1-BB49302702A8@shaw.ca>
	<i2jcc43a8f81004200934zc5ca266cy23fcc3bc346c7fad@mail.gmail.com>
	<B8044E82-8C45-40B1-875B-E463859B66F7@shaw.ca>
	<h2vcc43a8f81004201035x4032498eif62642a0b6e0c402@mail.gmail.com>
	<3F8E2399-4C98-41CB-A542-01C6A1789A72@shaw.ca>
	<u2jcc43a8f81004201126ke148d90ar5c6fd7fa06028aed@mail.gmail.com>
	<E2748B8C-2218-47A0-9E29-858FE1965CBB@shaw.ca>
	<l2hcc43a8f81004201234sb8c50149y67a2847c68dc4671@mail.gmail.com>
	<B3E31943-9018-4EA9-A392-49207A1C5683@shaw.ca>
Message-ID: <20100607084747.14fd5970@pog.tecnopolis.ca>

On 2010-05-31 Dan Martin wrote:
> I am assuming that the drives will run
> quietly and cool in toasters, and that my cat won't chew the cables.

I wouldn't do it for a few reasons:

1. If they are 3.5 external they will require their own power bricks,
and that's way less energy efficient than using a good internal APFC
power supply.  If they are 2.5 they will probably draw power from the
bus, which would be ok.  But 2.5 you have to make sure you get >= 7200
rpm to get good performance.

2. Most external drives and enclosures are not cooled adequately and
when they are, their tiny little fans die all the time.  If it's 2.5
you're going for, it's not as big a deal, but 3.5 will require normal
cooling which is just plain hard to do in small (single drive)
enclosures.

3. Things will bump the enclosure and your drives won't live as long.

4. Cable clutter.

From trevor at tecnopolis.ca  Mon Jun  7 08:51:38 2010
From: trevor at tecnopolis.ca (Trevor Cordes)
Date: Mon, 7 Jun 2010 08:51:38 -0500
Subject: [RndTbl] Replacement Shuttle PSU PC35I2402.
In-Reply-To: <FADA7946-A399-4297-B5C7-B360C27D415F@tinfoilhat.ca>
References: <FADA7946-A399-4297-B5C7-B360C27D415F@tinfoilhat.ca>
Message-ID: <20100607085138.0e237de0@pog.tecnopolis.ca>

On 2010-05-18 Sean Cody wrote:
> Anyone know of any decent place to find a replacement PSU for a
> Shuttle box. PSU part number is PC35I2402.

(slow response, sorry)

I find Shuttles are cooled inadequately and many suffer from badcaps,
so watch for that, too.

From john at johnlange.ca  Mon Jun  7 11:02:45 2010
From: john at johnlange.ca (John Lange)
Date: Mon, 07 Jun 2010 11:02:45 -0500
Subject: [RndTbl] Desperate plea for help
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTikb1xvCzdm8Y2EfP-gtJtceqw8_-kxdEfjCPVop@mail.gmail.com>
References: <AANLkTikb1xvCzdm8Y2EfP-gtJtceqw8_-kxdEfjCPVop@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <1275926565.3525.51.camel@linux-k6vx.site>

HP has their own command line tools which have a lot more features and
options than the BIOS does. I recently used them to turn two single
disks into a RAID 1 on a live system with no data loss or downtime.

They also have a lot of querying tools for examining the raid set etc.

If you haven't already tried them I can find out some more information.

Regards
-- 
John Lange
http://www.johnlange.ca

On Fri, 2010-06-04 at 11:53 -0500, Kevin McGregor wrote:
> I've got a HP ProLiant server running OpenFiler, and due to errors on
> my part, the SCSI drives got rearranged. Now the HP 6400 RAID
> controller complains that an "unsupported drive rearrangement has been
> attempted", and the logical volume is missing. Is there any way to
> recover the correct order of drives in the drive bay?
> 
> It is a test server, so technically no big deal, but you know how it
> is with "test" servers... It would be pretty annoying to lose all the
> data.
> 
> I've tried booting the 8.30 SmartStart and using the ADU/ACU utility,
> but it doesn't seem to show anything useful for this. It shows the
> controller and all drives being "uninitialized", not just being out of
> order. The Option ROM utility also doesn't show anything.
> 
> Suggestions, aside from "use software RAID next time"?
> 
> Kevin
> _______________________________________________
> Roundtable mailing list
> Roundtable at muug.mb.ca
> http://www.muug.mb.ca/mailman/listinfo/roundtable



From kevin.a.mcgregor at gmail.com  Mon Jun  7 11:14:23 2010
From: kevin.a.mcgregor at gmail.com (Kevin McGregor)
Date: Mon, 7 Jun 2010 11:14:23 -0500
Subject: [RndTbl] Desperate plea for help
In-Reply-To: <20100607083425.1872028d@pog.tecnopolis.ca>
References: <AANLkTikb1xvCzdm8Y2EfP-gtJtceqw8_-kxdEfjCPVop@mail.gmail.com>
	<20100607083425.1872028d@pog.tecnopolis.ca>
Message-ID: <AANLkTim_p1oseQ-XPHRmFt5Kkua1ots-wcyiYl-Scgce@mail.gmail.com>

Well, we got lucky and it is back in operation. There are 14 drive bays, so
an exhaustive search of the permutations would be time-prohibitive. I'll
label the drives from now on when I'm doing something like this!

On Mon, Jun 7, 2010 at 8:34 AM, Trevor Cordes <trevor at tecnopolis.ca> wrote:

> On 2010-06-04 Kevin McGregor wrote:
> > I've got a HP ProLiant server running OpenFiler, and due to errors on
> > my part, the SCSI drives got rearranged. Now the HP 6400 RAID
> > controller complains that an "unsupported drive rearrangement has
> > been attempted", and the logical volume is missing. Is there any way
> > to recover the correct order of drives in the drive bay?
>
> Very very strange that the physical ordering is important!  If Adam
> hasn't already helped :-) ... here's my 2c:
>
> How many drives are we talking?  If it's not large, there should be
> only so many permutations and if you try every single one, one should
> just magically work.
>
> > Suggestions, aside from "use software RAID next time"?
>
> If the data was super important, you could hook up the drives in a
> non-raid environment and do so byte-level peeking to  try to figure out
> the data arrangement (what raid level was it?), stripe sizes, etc.
> That should be possible and from then a simple perl program could
> extract all the data at the block level in the right order and dump to
> another huge disk or array.  I think I could probably pull it off
> unless the controller is doing something really wacky.  I've done
> similar things in the past during raid disasters of my own (years ago
> when I learned (the hard way) the value of RAID6 over RAID5).
> _______________________________________________
> Roundtable mailing list
> Roundtable at muug.mb.ca
> http://www.muug.mb.ca/mailman/listinfo/roundtable
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.muug.mb.ca/pipermail/roundtable/attachments/20100607/1cab42fe/attachment.html 

From kevin.a.mcgregor at gmail.com  Mon Jun  7 13:53:50 2010
From: kevin.a.mcgregor at gmail.com (Kevin McGregor)
Date: Mon, 7 Jun 2010 13:53:50 -0500
Subject: [RndTbl] Desperate plea for help
In-Reply-To: <1275926565.3525.51.camel@linux-k6vx.site>
References: <AANLkTikb1xvCzdm8Y2EfP-gtJtceqw8_-kxdEfjCPVop@mail.gmail.com>
	<1275926565.3525.51.camel@linux-k6vx.site>
Message-ID: <AANLkTilbKs80SzEA3ChXmdxY1xUGRlmDpSi0xYLpi1cJ@mail.gmail.com>

I'd like to know more about those command-line tools! I don't know when I'd
need them again (never, I hope), but I'd rather be prepared!

On Mon, Jun 7, 2010 at 11:02 AM, John Lange <john at johnlange.ca> wrote:

> HP has their own command line tools which have a lot more features and
> options than the BIOS does. I recently used them to turn two single
> disks into a RAID 1 on a live system with no data loss or downtime.
>
> They also have a lot of querying tools for examining the raid set etc.
>
> If you haven't already tried them I can find out some more information.
>
> Regards
> --
> John Lange
> http://www.johnlange.ca
>
> On Fri, 2010-06-04 at 11:53 -0500, Kevin McGregor wrote:
> > I've got a HP ProLiant server running OpenFiler, and due to errors on
> > my part, the SCSI drives got rearranged. Now the HP 6400 RAID
> > controller complains that an "unsupported drive rearrangement has been
> > attempted", and the logical volume is missing. Is there any way to
> > recover the correct order of drives in the drive bay?
> >
> > It is a test server, so technically no big deal, but you know how it
> > is with "test" servers... It would be pretty annoying to lose all the
> > data.
> >
> > I've tried booting the 8.30 SmartStart and using the ADU/ACU utility,
> > but it doesn't seem to show anything useful for this. It shows the
> > controller and all drives being "uninitialized", not just being out of
> > order. The Option ROM utility also doesn't show anything.
> >
> > Suggestions, aside from "use software RAID next time"?
> >
> > Kevin
> > _______________________________________________
> > Roundtable mailing list
> > Roundtable at muug.mb.ca
> > http://www.muug.mb.ca/mailman/listinfo/roundtable
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Roundtable mailing list
> Roundtable at muug.mb.ca
> http://www.muug.mb.ca/mailman/listinfo/roundtable
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.muug.mb.ca/pipermail/roundtable/attachments/20100607/49a2750c/attachment.html 

From john at johnlange.ca  Mon Jun  7 14:33:54 2010
From: john at johnlange.ca (John Lange)
Date: Mon, 07 Jun 2010 14:33:54 -0500
Subject: [RndTbl] Desperate plea for help
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTilbKs80SzEA3ChXmdxY1xUGRlmDpSi0xYLpi1cJ@mail.gmail.com>
References: <AANLkTikb1xvCzdm8Y2EfP-gtJtceqw8_-kxdEfjCPVop@mail.gmail.com>
	<1275926565.3525.51.camel@linux-k6vx.site>
	<AANLkTilbKs80SzEA3ChXmdxY1xUGRlmDpSi0xYLpi1cJ@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <1275939234.3525.122.camel@linux-k6vx.site>

You can start here:

http://people.freebsd.org/~jcagle/hpacucli-readme

There is also official documentation available from the HP website. Due
to the insane amount of time it takes to find anything on the official
HP web site I'm not able to provide that link at the moment.

If you find your hardware you can go to the download section where the
tools are available along with the documentation.

Let me know if you need more help finding the right thing.

-- 
John Lange
http://www.johnlange.ca

On Mon, 2010-06-07 at 13:53 -0500, Kevin McGregor wrote:
> I'd like to know more about those command-line tools! I don't know
> when I'd need them again (never, I hope), but I'd rather be prepared!
> 
> On Mon, Jun 7, 2010 at 11:02 AM, John Lange <john at johnlange.ca> wrote:
>         HP has their own command line tools which have a lot more
>         features and
>         options than the BIOS does. I recently used them to turn two
>         single
>         disks into a RAID 1 on a live system with no data loss or
>         downtime.
>         
>         They also have a lot of querying tools for examining the raid
>         set etc.
>         
>         If you haven't already tried them I can find out some more
>         information.
>         
>         Regards
>         --
>         John Lange
>         http://www.johnlange.ca
>         
>         
>         On Fri, 2010-06-04 at 11:53 -0500, Kevin McGregor wrote:
>         > I've got a HP ProLiant server running OpenFiler, and due to
>         errors on
>         > my part, the SCSI drives got rearranged. Now the HP 6400
>         RAID
>         > controller complains that an "unsupported drive
>         rearrangement has been
>         > attempted", and the logical volume is missing. Is there any
>         way to
>         > recover the correct order of drives in the drive bay?
>         >
>         > It is a test server, so technically no big deal, but you
>         know how it
>         > is with "test" servers... It would be pretty annoying to
>         lose all the
>         > data.
>         >
>         > I've tried booting the 8.30 SmartStart and using the ADU/ACU
>         utility,
>         > but it doesn't seem to show anything useful for this. It
>         shows the
>         > controller and all drives being "uninitialized", not just
>         being out of
>         > order. The Option ROM utility also doesn't show anything.
>         >
>         > Suggestions, aside from "use software RAID next time"?
>         >
>         > Kevin
>         
>         
>         > _______________________________________________
>         > Roundtable mailing list
>         > Roundtable at muug.mb.ca
>         > http://www.muug.mb.ca/mailman/listinfo/roundtable
>         
>         
>         _______________________________________________
>         Roundtable mailing list
>         Roundtable at muug.mb.ca
>         http://www.muug.mb.ca/mailman/listinfo/roundtable
>         
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Roundtable mailing list
> Roundtable at muug.mb.ca
> http://www.muug.mb.ca/mailman/listinfo/roundtable



From ve4drk at gmail.com  Tue Jun  8 23:07:23 2010
From: ve4drk at gmail.com (Dan Keizer)
Date: Tue, 8 Jun 2010 23:07:23 -0500
Subject: [RndTbl] Temperature/Humidty
Message-ID: <AANLkTimiupXONre_N6r_SbT6yY4JvWF_L8_BKZ4HduMT@mail.gmail.com>

One of the questions at the muug meeting today was about temperature
and humidity readings/monitoring.

The 1-wire devices are quite easy to use .. there are a few links I've
saved from prior here:  http://delicious.com/ve4drk/1-wire -- they're
about a year or so old ...

an interesting take is using the owfs (http://owfs.org/) with openWRT
( http://openwrt.org/ ):-) yes -- you know it can be done :-)

I know another local who has used these .. he has a nice display and
info on how to do it ..
it is:  http://www2.ertyu.org/temp/conditions.php

Dan.

From gedetil at cs.umanitoba.ca  Fri Jun 11 11:57:25 2010
From: gedetil at cs.umanitoba.ca (Gilbert E. Detillieux)
Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2010 11:57:25 -0500
Subject: [RndTbl] Temperature/Humidty
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTimiupXONre_N6r_SbT6yY4JvWF_L8_BKZ4HduMT@mail.gmail.com>
References: <AANLkTimiupXONre_N6r_SbT6yY4JvWF_L8_BKZ4HduMT@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <4C126AF5.5090501@cs.umanitoba.ca>

On 2010-06-08 23:07, Dan Keizer wrote:
> One of the questions at the muug meeting today was about temperature
> and humidity readings/monitoring.
> 
> The 1-wire devices are quite easy to use .. there are a few links I've
> saved from prior here:  http://delicious.com/ve4drk/1-wire -- they're
> about a year or so old ...
> 
> an interesting take is using the owfs (http://owfs.org/) with openWRT
> ( http://openwrt.org/ ):-) yes -- you know it can be done :-)
> 
> I know another local who has used these .. he has a nice display and
> info on how to do it ..
> it is:  http://www2.ertyu.org/temp/conditions.php

Thanks for the links, Dan.  Looks like a build-your-own solution, but I 
was hoping for something a bit more turn-key.  Jun Ma recommended (via 
private e-mail) the HWg-STE, which appears to be a small, network- 
attached box that accepts 1-wire probes.  He included links to their 
international web site (hw-group.com), as well as the Canadian 
distributor (hw-group.ca), but no prices are listed.  I've e-mailed the 
Canadian site, and will see what the price is.

Brad Vokey's brother, Gord, recommended the TemPageR 3E, from 
AVTech.com, which I had also already come across.  but their US $195 
package includes a temperature-only probe.  To get humidity as well, I'd 
be looking at more than the US $199 for the MicroGoose from ITWatchDogs.com.

Other options I've found include the Newport (newportus.com) iTHX and 
iTHX-SD, and the NetworkTechInc.com EnviroMUX-Mini, but they're more 
expensive as well.  Someone I know at U of Calgary recommended a cheap 
solution that came out of there called Phidgets (phidgets.com), but it's 
also a build-it-yourself type of solution, which would also require some 
programming.  (More effort than I want to put into it now, or that I can 
justify doing on work time.)

I'm thinking I'll order one MicroGoose from ITWatchDogs.com, and try it 
out.  If it doesn't do what we want, I can try other options later, and 
we've only lost a couple hundred dollars.

Thanks to all who replied or offered suggestions at the meeting.

-- 
Gilbert E. Detillieux		E-mail: <gedetil at muug.mb.ca>
Manitoba UNIX User Group	Web:	http://www.muug.mb.ca/
PO Box 130 St-Boniface		Phone:  (204)474-8161
Winnipeg MB CANADA  R2H 3B4	Fax:    (204)474-7609

From gedetil at cs.umanitoba.ca  Fri Jun 11 12:03:41 2010
From: gedetil at cs.umanitoba.ca (Gilbert E. Detillieux)
Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2010 12:03:41 -0500
Subject: [RndTbl] Temperature/Humidty
In-Reply-To: <4C126AF5.5090501@cs.umanitoba.ca>
References: <AANLkTimiupXONre_N6r_SbT6yY4JvWF_L8_BKZ4HduMT@mail.gmail.com>
	<4C126AF5.5090501@cs.umanitoba.ca>
Message-ID: <4C126C6D.6090607@cs.umanitoba.ca>

Minutes ago, I wrote:
> Jun Ma recommended (via 
> private e-mail) the HWg-STE, which appears to be a small, network- 
> attached box that accepts 1-wire probes.  He included links to their 
> international web site (hw-group.com), as well as the Canadian 
> distributor (hw-group.ca), but no prices are listed.  I've e-mailed the 
> Canadian site, and will see what the price is.

Just heard back from them.  The price is US $195 for the HWg-STE with a 
temperature sensor, and an additional US $105 for the humidity sensor. 
Looks like the MicroGoose is still the cheapest way to go for a 
packaged, plug & play solution.

-- 
Gilbert E. Detillieux		E-mail: <gedetil at muug.mb.ca>
Manitoba UNIX User Group	Web:	http://www.muug.mb.ca/
PO Box 130 St-Boniface		Phone:  (204)474-8161
Winnipeg MB CANADA  R2H 3B4	Fax:    (204)474-7609

From sean at tinfoilhat.ca  Fri Jun 11 12:07:43 2010
From: sean at tinfoilhat.ca (Sean Cody)
Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2010 12:07:43 -0500
Subject: [RndTbl] Temperature/Humidty
In-Reply-To: <4C126AF5.5090501@cs.umanitoba.ca>
References: <AANLkTimiupXONre_N6r_SbT6yY4JvWF_L8_BKZ4HduMT@mail.gmail.com>
	<4C126AF5.5090501@cs.umanitoba.ca>
Message-ID: <93A58834-EFBF-4F63-9F75-8F1F25537AF9@tinfoilhat.ca>

The ITWatchDog device is neat as is the WeatherDuck.
As long as the device speaks SNMP that's all you really need.

We have used the APC NetBotz (new name for the product) in the past as well as something called a NetTherm from NOFWare (http://www.neurotica.com/wiki/NetTherm).

You can even salvage a bunch of those AVR Butterflies (they already have a thermister) and poll via serial (did that at my house for a while).  Sounds like a good assignment for the RealTime Systems students.  Free labour/research. :P

On 2010-06-11, at 11:57 AM, Gilbert E. Detillieux wrote:

> On 2010-06-08 23:07, Dan Keizer wrote:
>> One of the questions at the muug meeting today was about temperature
>> and humidity readings/monitoring.
>> 
>> The 1-wire devices are quite easy to use .. there are a few links I've
>> saved from prior here:  http://delicious.com/ve4drk/1-wire -- they're
>> about a year or so old ...
>> 
>> an interesting take is using the owfs (http://owfs.org/) with openWRT
>> ( http://openwrt.org/ ):-) yes -- you know it can be done :-)
>> 
>> I know another local who has used these .. he has a nice display and
>> info on how to do it ..
>> it is:  http://www2.ertyu.org/temp/conditions.php
> 
> Thanks for the links, Dan.  Looks like a build-your-own solution, but I 
> was hoping for something a bit more turn-key.  Jun Ma recommended (via 
> private e-mail) the HWg-STE, which appears to be a small, network- 
> attached box that accepts 1-wire probes.  He included links to their 
> international web site (hw-group.com), as well as the Canadian 
> distributor (hw-group.ca), but no prices are listed.  I've e-mailed the 
> Canadian site, and will see what the price is.
> 
> Brad Vokey's brother, Gord, recommended the TemPageR 3E, from 
> AVTech.com, which I had also already come across.  but their US $195 
> package includes a temperature-only probe.  To get humidity as well, I'd 
> be looking at more than the US $199 for the MicroGoose from ITWatchDogs.com.
> 
> Other options I've found include the Newport (newportus.com) iTHX and 
> iTHX-SD, and the NetworkTechInc.com EnviroMUX-Mini, but they're more 
> expensive as well.  Someone I know at U of Calgary recommended a cheap 
> solution that came out of there called Phidgets (phidgets.com), but it's 
> also a build-it-yourself type of solution, which would also require some 
> programming.  (More effort than I want to put into it now, or that I can 
> justify doing on work time.)
> 
> I'm thinking I'll order one MicroGoose from ITWatchDogs.com, and try it 
> out.  If it doesn't do what we want, I can try other options later, and 
> we've only lost a couple hundred dollars.
> 
> Thanks to all who replied or offered suggestions at the meeting.
> 
> -- 
> Gilbert E. Detillieux		E-mail: <gedetil at muug.mb.ca>
> Manitoba UNIX User Group	Web:	http://www.muug.mb.ca/
> PO Box 130 St-Boniface		Phone:  (204)474-8161
> Winnipeg MB CANADA  R2H 3B4	Fax:    (204)474-7609
> _______________________________________________
> Roundtable mailing list
> Roundtable at muug.mb.ca
> http://www.muug.mb.ca/mailman/listinfo/roundtable

-- 
Sean




From gedetil at cs.umanitoba.ca  Fri Jun 11 12:44:52 2010
From: gedetil at cs.umanitoba.ca (Gilbert E. Detillieux)
Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2010 12:44:52 -0500
Subject: [RndTbl] Temperature/Humidty
In-Reply-To: <93A58834-EFBF-4F63-9F75-8F1F25537AF9@tinfoilhat.ca>
References: <AANLkTimiupXONre_N6r_SbT6yY4JvWF_L8_BKZ4HduMT@mail.gmail.com>	<4C126AF5.5090501@cs.umanitoba.ca>
	<93A58834-EFBF-4F63-9F75-8F1F25537AF9@tinfoilhat.ca>
Message-ID: <4C127614.5050400@cs.umanitoba.ca>

On 2010-06-11 12:07, Sean Cody wrote:
> The ITWatchDog device is neat as is the WeatherDuck. As long as the
> device speaks SNMP that's all you really need.

That's what I'm looking for...

> We have used the APC NetBotz (new name for the product) in the past

I had a hard time even figuring out their product line from their web 
site, but it looks like pricing _starts_ at over US $500, so there are 
numerous cheaper options.

> as well as something called a NetTherm from NOFWare
> (http://www.neurotica.com/wiki/NetTherm).

We tried ordering from them back in 2006 (after Shawn Wallbridge 
recommended them, and they were almost the only game in town in that 
price range), and after almost a year of delays and excuses, we 
cancelled the purchase order.  I don't think we'll try them again.

> You can even salvage a bunch of those AVR Butterflies (they already
> have a thermister) and poll via serial (did that at my house for a
> while).  Sounds like a good assignment for the RealTime Systems
> students.  Free labour/research. :P

Did I mention that I want something quick and easy, that we can count on 
to work reliably?  ;)

-- 
Gilbert E. Detillieux		E-mail: <gedetil at muug.mb.ca>
Manitoba UNIX User Group	Web:	http://www.muug.mb.ca/
PO Box 130 St-Boniface		Phone:  (204)474-8161
Winnipeg MB CANADA  R2H 3B4	Fax:    (204)474-7609

From athompso at athompso.net  Sun Jun 13 14:36:58 2010
From: athompso at athompso.net (athompso at athompso.net)
Date: Sun, 13 Jun 2010 14:36:58 -0500
Subject: [RndTbl] =?utf-8?q?restarting_a_process_via_crontab=3F?=
Message-ID: <2e0e3407871a8043a4711211781b6687@localhost>


My server panics occasionally (bad RAM that I haven't replaced yet - it's
ECC but one bank occasionally hits an uncorrectable multi-bit error), which
of course leaves various state files laying around on disk without the
processes to match them.

In particular, fetchmail(1) is causing me problems; there's a
~/.fetchmail.pid file that's supposed to contain the PID of the running
fetchmail daemon.  It has to run (well, I *want* it to run) as me, not as
root, so starting it from init isn't a good solution.  I'd also like it to
be recover gracefully if I have to kill it (or it crashes due to a bug),
also contraindicating the obvious rc.local solution.

So far, the best solution I've come up with is a crontab entry (for me,
not root):

0 * * * * if [ -f /home/athompso/.fetchmail.pid ];then read
FP</home/athompso/.fetchmail.pid;if [ -d /proc/$FP -a -r /proc/$FP/exe
];then BIN=$(stat -c %N /proc/$FP/exe);BIN="${BIN#*->
}";BIN="${BIN#\`}";BIN="${BIN%\'}";BIN=$(basename "${BIN}");if [ "$BIN" ==
"fetchmail" ];then exit 0;fi;fi;fi;fetchmail

(or, more readably:)
        if [ -f /home/athompso/.fetchmail.pid ]
        then
                read FP < /home/athompso/.fetchmail.pid
                if [ -d /proc/$FP -a -r /proc/$FP/exe ]
                then
                        BIN=$(stat -c %N /proc/$FP/exe)
                        BIN="${BIN#*-> }"
                        BIN="${BIN#\`}"
                        BIN="${BIN%\'}"
                        BIN=$(basename "${BIN}")
                        if [ "$BIN" == "fetchmail" ]
                        then
                                exit 0
                        fi
                fi
        fi
        fetchmail

I particularly hate the method of extracting the imagename for a given
PID, but haven't come up with anything better yet.  Suggestions gratefully
appreciated.  Or even a better way of doing this altogether; this feels
like a terrible hack - it works, but doesn't seem elegant.

FYI: I decided against using sed(1) to parse the output because doing it
this way saves two fork(2)s and one exec(2).  I know I don't need to worry
about efficiency on a dual-Xeon server, but I'm trying to stay in the habit
because I'm also working on 200MHz ARM5 platforms where it does matter.

(And who ever thought putting the output of stat(1) in typographical-style
quotes would be a good idea???)

Thanks for any suggestions,
-Adam


From athompso at athompso.net  Sun Jun 13 14:51:15 2010
From: athompso at athompso.net (athompso at athompso.net)
Date: Sun, 13 Jun 2010 14:51:15 -0500
Subject: [RndTbl] D-Link DIR-825 dual-band 802.11N 5xGigE runs DD-WRT,
	for around $150
Message-ID: <17be027d723615fa418186040817b125@localhost>


Further to my comments at the last meeting, I was pleasantly surprised
when I bought a D-Link DIR-825 and discovered it can run DD-WRT.

This is a *simultaneous* dual-band (i.e. two radios, one at 2.4GHz, one at
5GHz) 802.11N router with 5 GigE ports, a USB port, two antennas, and the
usual array of activity lights on the front.

There is a beta build of DD-WRT that runs on this unit (and thus
presumably OpenWRT will also support it soon if not already).

Range & performance are OK but not great.

The price, however, is impressive: you can typically find it online (in
Canada) for under $150.  If it were a $250 unit, it would be utterly
unremarkable (aside from being one of the first dual-radio models to run
DD-WRT) but considering that you can still regularly find 802.11G and
single-band 802.11N routers for over $150, that makes it impressive - for
now.

With the stock D-Link firmware, the USB port can be used for (apparently)
*any* device whatsoever, and includes software to remotely connect a
Windows PC to the port.  Not sure how they've done this, but I'm told it
should work for any USB device (subject to bandwidth limitations, of course
- USB2.0 is still faster than 802.11N).

DD-WRT can expose USB storage devices and (I think) printers; so you do
lose something compared to the factory firmware.  Flashing DD-WRT onto the
device requires TFTP while putting the device into disaster-recovery mode;
it was harder to find the instructions online than to actually do it.

Also see CNet's review here:
http://reviews.cnet.com/routers/d-link-xtreme-n/4505-3319_7-33246906.html#cnetReview

-Adam


From high.res.mike at gmail.com  Sun Jun 13 15:11:05 2010
From: high.res.mike at gmail.com (Mike Pfaiffer)
Date: Sun, 13 Jun 2010 15:11:05 -0500
Subject: [RndTbl] D-Link DIR-825 dual-band 802.11N 5xGigE runs DD-WRT,
 for around $150
In-Reply-To: <17be027d723615fa418186040817b125@localhost>
References: <17be027d723615fa418186040817b125@localhost>
Message-ID: <4C153B59.8040900@gmail.com>

On 10-06-13 02:51 PM, athompso at athompso.net wrote:
>
> Further to my comments at the last meeting, I was pleasantly surprised
> when I bought a D-Link DIR-825 and discovered it can run DD-WRT.

	I have an older model (DIR-655 - You've seen it). I think it's about 
two or three units older than yours. Does the new version of the 
alternate firmware you mentioned support this model?

	My original purpose was to learn about wireless technology. The thing 
is it mostly just works under Linux and OS X. Now the ever shifting goal 
is to connect various game (and other) servers to it and see what I can 
do in that area.

	Just for a smile... I had it connected to an OS X web server for a 
couple of months last year. ONLY that server and no internet access. 
Nobody bothered accessing the web server. Although I did have a script 
kiddie try to hack the router to enable (non-existent) internet access. 
They never managed to get past the router password. Apparently this had 
been going on for the better part of three months. Kind of amusing to 
think they couldn't get through an open router with out of the box 
security in all that time. ;-)

				Later
				Mike


From athompso at athompso.net  Sun Jun 13 15:23:15 2010
From: athompso at athompso.net (Adam Thompson)
Date: Sun, 13 Jun 2010 15:23:15 -0500
Subject: [RndTbl] D-Link DIR-825 dual-band 802.11N 5xGigE runs DD-WRT,
	for around $150
In-Reply-To: <4C153B59.8040900@gmail.com>
References: <17be027d723615fa418186040817b125@localhost>
	<4C153B59.8040900@gmail.com>
Message-ID: <000301cb0b36$414ff610$c3efe230$@net>

Sorry, looks like you're out of luck:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Known_incompatible_devices
-Adam

-----Original Message-----
From: roundtable-bounces at muug.mb.ca [mailto:roundtable-bounces at muug.mb.ca]
On Behalf Of Mike Pfaiffer
Sent: Sunday, June 13, 2010 15:11
To: roundtable at muug.mb.ca
Subject: Re: [RndTbl] D-Link DIR-825 dual-band 802.11N 5xGigE runs DD-WRT,
for around $150

On 10-06-13 02:51 PM, athompso at athompso.net wrote:
>
> Further to my comments at the last meeting, I was pleasantly surprised
> when I bought a D-Link DIR-825 and discovered it can run DD-WRT.

	I have an older model (DIR-655 - You've seen it). I think it's about

two or three units older than yours. Does the new version of the 
alternate firmware you mentioned support this model?




From high.res.mike at gmail.com  Sun Jun 13 15:27:29 2010
From: high.res.mike at gmail.com (Mike Pfaiffer)
Date: Sun, 13 Jun 2010 15:27:29 -0500
Subject: [RndTbl] D-Link DIR-825 dual-band 802.11N 5xGigE runs DD-WRT,
 for around $150
In-Reply-To: <000301cb0b36$414ff610$c3efe230$@net>
References: <17be027d723615fa418186040817b125@localhost>	<4C153B59.8040900@gmail.com>
	<000301cb0b36$414ff610$c3efe230$@net>
Message-ID: <4C153F31.6020909@gmail.com>

On 10-06-13 03:23 PM, Adam Thompson wrote:
> Sorry, looks like you're out of luck:
> http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Known_incompatible_devices
> -Adam

	Oh well... The CNET review of the 655 put it third from the top of home 
routers at the time. It will still suffice for what I want to do for the 
near future.

				Later
				Mike



> -----Original Message-----
> From: roundtable-bounces at muug.mb.ca [mailto:roundtable-bounces at muug.mb.ca]
> On Behalf Of Mike Pfaiffer
> Sent: Sunday, June 13, 2010 15:11
> To: roundtable at muug.mb.ca
> Subject: Re: [RndTbl] D-Link DIR-825 dual-band 802.11N 5xGigE runs DD-WRT,
> for around $150
>
> On 10-06-13 02:51 PM, athompso at athompso.net wrote:
>>
>> Further to my comments at the last meeting, I was pleasantly surprised
>> when I bought a D-Link DIR-825 and discovered it can run DD-WRT.
>
> 	I have an older model (DIR-655 - You've seen it). I think it's about
>
> two or three units older than yours. Does the new version of the
> alternate firmware you mentioned support this model?
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Roundtable mailing list
> Roundtable at muug.mb.ca
> http://www.muug.mb.ca/mailman/listinfo/roundtable


From kevin.a.mcgregor at gmail.com  Sun Jun 13 17:06:32 2010
From: kevin.a.mcgregor at gmail.com (Kevin McGregor)
Date: Sun, 13 Jun 2010 17:06:32 -0500
Subject: [RndTbl] D-Link DIR-825 dual-band 802.11N 5xGigE runs DD-WRT,
	for 	around $150
In-Reply-To: <17be027d723615fa418186040817b125@localhost>
References: <17be027d723615fa418186040817b125@localhost>
Message-ID: <AANLkTinB03ZoJTrVEB1cB_R0L4934phbx4LrjiKnJqGb@mail.gmail.com>

But does it have removable antennas a la WRT-54G? Do you know of any
(other?) N devices to which you can attach external antennas (i.e.
unidirectional, specifically)?

Kevin

On Sun, Jun 13, 2010 at 2:51 PM, athompso at athompso.net <
athompso at athompso.net> wrote:

>
> Further to my comments at the last meeting, I was pleasantly surprised
> when I bought a D-Link DIR-825 and discovered it can run DD-WRT.
>
> This is a *simultaneous* dual-band (i.e. two radios, one at 2.4GHz, one at
> 5GHz) 802.11N router with 5 GigE ports, a USB port, two antennas, and the
> usual array of activity lights on the front.
>
> There is a beta build of DD-WRT that runs on this unit (and thus
> presumably OpenWRT will also support it soon if not already).
>
> Range & performance are OK but not great.
>
> The price, however, is impressive: you can typically find it online (in
> Canada) for under $150.  If it were a $250 unit, it would be utterly
> unremarkable (aside from being one of the first dual-radio models to run
> DD-WRT) but considering that you can still regularly find 802.11G and
> single-band 802.11N routers for over $150, that makes it impressive - for
> now.
>
> With the stock D-Link firmware, the USB port can be used for (apparently)
> *any* device whatsoever, and includes software to remotely connect a
> Windows PC to the port.  Not sure how they've done this, but I'm told it
> should work for any USB device (subject to bandwidth limitations, of course
> - USB2.0 is still faster than 802.11N).
>
> DD-WRT can expose USB storage devices and (I think) printers; so you do
> lose something compared to the factory firmware.  Flashing DD-WRT onto the
> device requires TFTP while putting the device into disaster-recovery mode;
> it was harder to find the instructions online than to actually do it.
>
> Also see CNet's review here:
>
> http://reviews.cnet.com/routers/d-link-xtreme-n/4505-3319_7-33246906.html#cnetReview
>
> -Adam
>
> _______________________________________________
> Roundtable mailing list
> Roundtable at muug.mb.ca
> http://www.muug.mb.ca/mailman/listinfo/roundtable
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.muug.mb.ca/pipermail/roundtable/attachments/20100613/ff0d4e8f/attachment.html 

From athompso at athompso.net  Sun Jun 13 17:12:27 2010
From: athompso at athompso.net (Adam Thompson)
Date: Sun, 13 Jun 2010 22:12:27 +0000
Subject: [RndTbl] D-Link DIR-825 dual-band 802.11N 5xGigE runs DD-WRT,
	for 	around $150
Message-ID: <1037246949-1276467150-cardhu_decombobulator_blackberry.rim.net-366095501-@bda957.bisx.prod.on.blackberry>

Yes, both antennas are the standard consumer-grade-router connector.  In fact, you have to screw them on yourself when you unpack it :).
Not sure how directional antennae play with N's beam-forming-ish tech though.
-Adam


From sean at tinfoilhat.ca  Sun Jun 13 17:32:31 2010
From: sean at tinfoilhat.ca (Sean Cody)
Date: Sun, 13 Jun 2010 15:32:31 -0700
Subject: [RndTbl] D-Link DIR-825 dual-band 802.11N 5xGigE runs DD-WRT,
	for 	around $150
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTinB03ZoJTrVEB1cB_R0L4934phbx4LrjiKnJqGb@mail.gmail.com>
References: <17be027d723615fa418186040817b125@localhost>
	<AANLkTinB03ZoJTrVEB1cB_R0L4934phbx4LrjiKnJqGb@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <2EF8151E-DCBC-4D9C-89EA-42255983C974@tinfoilhat.ca>

I have this unit and the it isn't great.

The range is pretty bad relative to my previous unit (WAP54g).
I replaced the antennas with higher gain ones but the reception didn't get better probably worse.  Finding dual-band SMA antennas is not easy as most of the antennas out there on the commodity market are single band only.

Could even be antenna positioning issues on the N band but it is driving me nuts trying to figure out why it doesn't work well.

The N band support is so aggravatingly bad I don't connect to it, you can't stream from it (at least in my house) and decent throughput happens if I'm standing over top of the unit.

I could probably move it a bit and see about better range but given I had better luck with an older device attached with the _same_ screw mounts on the wall doesn't let me to believe much other than it's not a great device.

The G band support is fine so maybe the unit isn't the issue but radio properties of N band devices in my house.

On 2010-06-13, at 3:06 PM, Kevin McGregor wrote:

> But does it have removable antennas a la WRT-54G? Do you know of any (other?) N devices to which you can attach external antennas (i.e. unidirectional, specifically)?
> 
> Kevin
> 
> On Sun, Jun 13, 2010 at 2:51 PM, athompso at athompso.net <athompso at athompso.net> wrote:
> 
> Further to my comments at the last meeting, I was pleasantly surprised
> when I bought a D-Link DIR-825 and discovered it can run DD-WRT.
> 
> This is a *simultaneous* dual-band (i.e. two radios, one at 2.4GHz, one at
> 5GHz) 802.11N router with 5 GigE ports, a USB port, two antennas, and the
> usual array of activity lights on the front.
> 
> There is a beta build of DD-WRT that runs on this unit (and thus
> presumably OpenWRT will also support it soon if not already).
> 
> Range & performance are OK but not great.
> 
> The price, however, is impressive: you can typically find it online (in
> Canada) for under $150.  If it were a $250 unit, it would be utterly
> unremarkable (aside from being one of the first dual-radio models to run
> DD-WRT) but considering that you can still regularly find 802.11G and
> single-band 802.11N routers for over $150, that makes it impressive - for
> now.
> 
> With the stock D-Link firmware, the USB port can be used for (apparently)
> *any* device whatsoever, and includes software to remotely connect a
> Windows PC to the port.  Not sure how they've done this, but I'm told it
> should work for any USB device (subject to bandwidth limitations, of course
> - USB2.0 is still faster than 802.11N).
> 
> DD-WRT can expose USB storage devices and (I think) printers; so you do
> lose something compared to the factory firmware.  Flashing DD-WRT onto the
> device requires TFTP while putting the device into disaster-recovery mode;
> it was harder to find the instructions online than to actually do it.
> 
> Also see CNet's review here:
> http://reviews.cnet.com/routers/d-link-xtreme-n/4505-3319_7-33246906.html#cnetReview
> 
> -Adam
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Roundtable mailing list
> Roundtable at muug.mb.ca
> http://www.muug.mb.ca/mailman/listinfo/roundtable
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Roundtable mailing list
> Roundtable at muug.mb.ca
> http://www.muug.mb.ca/mailman/listinfo/roundtable

-- 
Sean


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.muug.mb.ca/pipermail/roundtable/attachments/20100613/1f034a3b/attachment-0001.html 

From athompso at athompso.net  Sun Jun 13 18:52:18 2010
From: athompso at athompso.net (Adam Thompson)
Date: Sun, 13 Jun 2010 18:52:18 -0500
Subject: [RndTbl] D-Link DIR-825 dual-band 802.11N 5xGigE runs DD-WRT,
	for 	around $150
In-Reply-To: <2EF8151E-DCBC-4D9C-89EA-42255983C974@tinfoilhat.ca>
References: <17be027d723615fa418186040817b125@localhost>	<AANLkTinB03ZoJTrVEB1cB_R0L4934phbx4LrjiKnJqGb@mail.gmail.com>
	<2EF8151E-DCBC-4D9C-89EA-42255983C974@tinfoilhat.ca>
Message-ID: <000b01cb0b53$7599b5b0$60cd2110$@net>

LOL

I don't think the issues you described are unique to you.

The DIR-825 I just set up, a Sony VAIO PC (touchscreen all-in-one) less than
20 feet away shows 60% signal strength.  That's on the 5GHz AFAIK.   An HP
laptop with a G radio perhaps 10 feet away showed 80% signal strength,
that's in the 2.4GHz band for sure.

Well, as I said, it was "OK" on speed and range - as in, it works OK for the
20x40 office it has to serve.

-Adam

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.muug.mb.ca/pipermail/roundtable/attachments/20100613/73c6f2d4/attachment.html 

From peter at pogma.com  Mon Jun 14 09:26:40 2010
From: peter at pogma.com (Peter O'Gorman)
Date: Mon, 14 Jun 2010 09:26:40 -0500
Subject: [RndTbl] restarting a process via crontab?
In-Reply-To: <2e0e3407871a8043a4711211781b6687@localhost>
References: <2e0e3407871a8043a4711211781b6687@localhost>
Message-ID: <4C163C20.9070200@pogma.com>

On 06/13/2010 02:36 PM, athompso at athompso.net wrote:
>
> So far, the best solution I've come up with is a crontab entry (for me,
> not root):
>
> 0 * * * * if [ -f /home/athompso/.fetchmail.pid ];then read
> FP</home/athompso/.fetchmail.pid;if [ -d /proc/$FP -a -r /proc/$FP/exe
> ];then BIN=$(stat -c %N /proc/$FP/exe);BIN="${BIN#*->
> }";BIN="${BIN#\`}";BIN="${BIN%\'}";BIN=$(basename "${BIN}");if [ "$BIN" ==
> "fetchmail" ];then exit 0;fi;fi;fi;fetchmail

I would put the script into a file and run that from cron, it must be 
hard to maintain a crontab with more than a couple of entries like that :-)

>
> (or, more readably:)
>          if [ -f /home/athompso/.fetchmail.pid ]
>          then
>                  read FP<  /home/athompso/.fetchmail.pid
>                  if [ -d /proc/$FP -a -r /proc/$FP/exe ]
>                  then
>                          BIN=$(stat -c %N /proc/$FP/exe)

I'd use readlink(1) here.

>                          BIN="${BIN#*->  }"
>                          BIN="${BIN#\`}"
>                          BIN="${BIN%\'}"

Which should get rid of the above.

>                          BIN=$(basename "${BIN}")

Why do basename? BIN=${BIN##*/} saves a fork.

>                          if [ "$BIN" == "fetchmail" ]
>                          then
>                                  exit 0
>                          fi
>                  fi
>          fi
>          fetchmail

My script might look something like (typed in mail):

#!/bin/sh
pidfile=/home/athompso/.fetchmail.pid
BIN=
test -f $pidfile && read FP < $pidfile
test -d /proc/$FP && BIN=$(readlink /proc/$FP/exe)
case "${BIN}" in
   */fetchmail) ;;
   *) fetchmail ;;
esac

>
> FYI: I decided against using sed(1) to parse the output because doing it
> this way saves two fork(2)s and one exec(2).  I know I don't need to worry
> about efficiency on a dual-Xeon server, but I'm trying to stay in the habit
> because I'm also working on 200MHz ARM5 platforms where it does matter.
>

Yes, forking is expensive.

Peter