contrib

NAME

SYNOPSIS

AVAILABILITY

DESCRIPTION

It is possible to write this commands as a separate program (a contributed command) and place it into the edrc/contrib/edrc directory. From then on the new contributed command can be called as if it is an edrc internal command. It is then listed in the section CONTRIBUTED COMMANDS when the help command in edrc is invoked.

This will protect you from loosing your work after an upgrade of edrc, simplifies the development of additional functionality for edrc and will keep the edrc command itself stable.

CONVENTIONS

A contributed command has to comply with some conventions:

-

If the command is limited to be started on certain operating systems only, use osid(3) or is_osid(3) to ensure the startup on the designated operating systems only.

-

Don't use absolute pathnames. If you have to resolve something within WA2L/edrc, use approot(3) and the environment variables provided. See also section ENVIRONMENT.

-

To save persistent information, use the $EDRC_CONTRIB_VARDIR environment variable to do so. You should add the name of the contributed command as prefix to ensure a unique filename.

Example:

date > $EDRC_CONTRIB_VARDIR/my_command.begin

-

If a man page is written for a contributed command, the manpage name convention is contrib.my_command.1m and it has to be placed into the man page directory man/all/man1m.

-

If a contributed command provides functionalities that can be denied from execution, the @PROVIDES@ tag has to be used in the file header and the functionality has to be listed.

Example:

# @PROVIDES@ view display more grep tail head 

This results in the contributed functionality being listed in the output of the edrcperm command within edrc in the form contrib.my_command.functionality .

Example:

   EDRC PERMISSIONS / FUNCTIONALITIES

     All:
        :
        contrib.logs.display  contrib.logs.grep     contrib.logs.head
        contrib.logs.more     contrib.logs.tail     contrib.logs.view
        :

To handle the denial of a functionality startup in a contributed command, the is_permitted(3) command has to be used.

Example:

if [ `is_permitted view` = True ]; then
        view $log >`tty`
fi

FILE STRUCTURE

A contributed command consists of the following file structure:

my_command

The new contributed command. This file has to have appropriate execute permissions.

my_command.nolog

This is a flagfile. If this file exists the output sent to stdout is not saved to a designated logfile in var/log. This file should only be created if the contributed command creates a continuous output that ends only by user intervention. This is to avoid file system fill ups.

OPTIONS

As all edrc commands, the contributed commands do not receive command line options. All options have to be queried by the contributed command using for example the input(3) or choice(3) commands. See example 2) in the EXAMPLES section to see how to query user input.

ENVIRONMENT

See section ENVIRONMENT in the edrc(1m) manpage for a complete explanation of all exported environment variables.

EXIT STATUS

FILES

contrib/edrc/

location of all contributed commands to edrc.

contrib/edrc/my_command

the executable of a contributed command. This file has to have appropriate execute permissions.

contrib/edrc/my_command.nolog

if this file exists, the output sent to stdout is not logged in a logfile in var/log. This file should only be present for contributed commands creating a permanent output to avoid filesystem fill up caused by endless growing logfiles. This is the case if the contributed command monitors a certain system state and only stops monitoring after a user intervention. If the contributed command creates no such continuous output the my_command.nolog should not be created.

man/all/man1m/contrib.my_command.1m

man page of a contributed command.

EXAMPLES

1) the logtail contributed command

This contributed command provides the logtail(1) functionality within edrc.

The contributed command logtail :

        #!/bin/sh
        #
        # logtail - start logtail
        #
        # [00] 08.08.2004 CWa   Initial Version
        # [01] 25.01.2006 CWa   chg: command name ltail -> logtail      
        #

        test "$DEBUG" = True && set -x

        logtail

The nolog file logtail.nolog (the content of the logtail.nolog is not important. edrc only checks if the logtail.nolog file exists or not):

        #
        # logtail.nolog - flag file to prevent output logging
        #
        # [00] 26.01.2006 CWa   Initial Version
        #
        # If this file exists, the output of the relating
        # contributed command is not logged to a logfile.
        # 
        # This make sense if the contributed command
        # generates continuous output which would generate
        # very large logfiles.
        #

2) the cmviewcl contributed command

This contributed command provides the cmviewcl(1) functionality to edrc. cmviewcl is a command to display the state of a MC/ServiceGuard cluster as available on HP-UX. Therefore it only makes sense to allow the startup of this command on HP-UX.

The contributed command cmviewcl :

        #!/bin/sh
        #
        # cmviewcl - MC/ServiceGuard state
        #
        # [00] 08.02.2003 CWa   Initial Version
        # [01] 18.03.2003 CWa   +opt    
        # [02] 10.05.2003 CWa   fix: DEBUG      
        # [03] 24.07.2003 CWa   +is_osid
        #

        test "$DEBUG" = True && set -x

        is_osid -s $0 -o HP-11,HP-11i || exit $?

        opt=`input "options" "" `

        msg INFO "MC/ServiceGuard state:"

        cmviewcl $opt | more

SEE ALSO

NOTES

In addition some additional functionality that does not support the basic edrc functionality is first implemented as a contributed command and probably later integrated if all bugs are fixed and the decision is made to include it. In general there is no disadvantage to have some functionality available as contributed commands and not as a core edrc command.

The complete list of all contributed commands distributed with WA2L/edrc is given in the man page contrib.edrc(1m).

BUGS

AUTHOR

COPYRIGHT

This is free software; see edrc/doc/COPYING for copying conditions. There is ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.