The utility menu option on xmenu gives you access to routines to edit the files used by cross-updating and UUCP.

Note: DO NOT USE THESE OPTIONS UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING. You should also be logged (or su'ed) as root.

The Utilities menu has the following options:

a Edit /etc/call_info
b View cron settings 
c Edit cron settings 
d Edit /usr/lib/uucp/Systems
e Edit /usr/lib/uucp/Devices 
f Edit xc phonelist 
g Prepare technical report   
h Switch background integration  ON
i Kill ALL queued work
j Compare data with other sites
Q Return to main menu 

Please Select an option and press [ENTER] 

Note: These files will rarely need to be changed.

The contents and uses of these files are explained below:

/etc/call_info

This is the control file used to tell the x_send and x_check utilities how your system is configured and where to send the information. This control file is VERY specific to machines and once set-up will not need to be changed. The control file is edited with this option. A basic minimal file is shown below with comments.: (For a full description of all the options you can specify in call_info then please see Appendix 1.)

# This file contains various variables for use
# with cross updating. It is VERY site specific.
# Lines starting with a # are ignored by the system.

# VETSYS - Location of the Premvet 5 database 
# you want the information transferred to and from. 
VETSYS="/u/vetdata"

# LOGFILE - Name of file to transfer. Do not change.
LOGFILE="v6lf"

# SITES - This is the site address where you want information to be sent to. 
# You can enter a full  address using intermediate machines e.g. 
# bdsl!bdsedin. This will use bdsl as a stepping stone to get to bdsedin. 
# Only MAIN site should specify multiple site names, 
# remote machines only need specify the main site.   
SITES="branch1 branch2"

# FLAGS - These are the control flags passed to uucp 
# when the files are transferred. The only change
# you may want to do is to remove the 'r' so that UUCP kicks
# in straight away rather than wait for daemon program to run.
FLAGS="-Cr"

# Who to notify if XUD has failed? 
# If commented out it will default to root
MAILTO="sysadmin"

Cron is a very versatile utility for scheduling work, it is a 'daemon'. This is a program that runs all the time on a Unix machine, without any intervention from the user, and schedules specified programs to run at specific times. Cross updating makes use of cron to transfer log files automatically.

For a full description of cron please refer to your Unix manuals. There are six sections to a cron entry:

e.g. 12 3 * * * Command

 
12     3      *         *         *         Command
^      ^      ^         ^         ^            ^
|      |       |        |         |            |
Mins Hours  Day of    Month of  Day of      Command to  
            month      year      week         run

The * means any valid time/date, so this sample command will run at 3.12am every day of the week. Some examples:

12 18-06 * * * Command	Runs at 12 mins past the hour, between 6pm and 6 am the next day.
12 3 * * * 1-5 Command	Runs once a day (3:12am) Mon - Fri

Note: Sunday is 0, Monday 1, Tuesday 2 etc.

The commands for cross-updating are:

/usr/utilities/x_send	- The sending program
/usr/utilities/x_check	- The checking program

You should use the 'Edit cron option' to add these two commands with the appropriate times. e.g.

15 10,12,16,20 * * * /usr/utilities/x_send
30 6-20 * * * /usr/utilities/x_check

The above will, run x_check once an hour between 6am and 8pm (on the half hour) and x_send will run 4 times a day at 10:15, 12:15, 16:15 and 20:15.

Cron is not just limited to cross updating, it can, and does, get used for a range of other activities. In other words, when making changes to cron DO NOT touch any lines if you are not sure do of their purpose.

To confirm the settings use 'View cron settings' to list them.

The Automation Manager can be used to add/edit/list current cron jobs that affect Premvet.

/usr/lib/uucp/Systems and /usr/lib/uucp/Devices

These are the two main UUCP control files.

Devices relates to the modem device - it contains instructions such as how the computer should communicate with it, and what speed it is set too. You should only edit this file when directed to do so by support.

Systems relates to the other systems to call e.g. the branch. You will only need to edit this file if the modem number changes. The layout of the file is as follows:

bdsedin Any ACU 38400 01315578243 ogin:-BREAK-ogin: uucp
bdsedin Any ACU 38400 01315563480 ogin:-BREAK-ogin: uucp

There is usually one entry per site being called. The only area you may need to alter is the telephone number, which should be obvious.

Altering dialout times

Usually the 2nd field of the Systems file will either contain:

It may be that you only want to try a modem connection between certain times. You can specify this in this field as follows:

Edit xc phonelist

xc is a communication program that is very useful when dialing into remote machines. The full manual for xc is included in the documentation center. This option allows you to edit the dialing directory that xc uses.

Prepare technical report

Once you have cross updating configured to your liking you can run this report which will give you a printout of all the relevant settings.

Switch background integration ON

Background integration allows the machines to automatically process incoming work. This work will be added to the client's cards automatically. This is discussed in more detail later.

Kill ALL queued work

Compare data with other sites

See the separate section on this options.