CONSOLEFS man page on Plan9

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CONSOLEFS(4)							  CONSOLEFS(4)

NAME
       consolefs, C, clog  - file system for console access

SYNOPSIS
       aux/consolefs [ -m mntpt ] [ -c consoledb ]

       C system

       aux/clog console log system

DESCRIPTION
       To  ease	 administration	 of  multiple  machines	 one might attach many
       serial console lines to a single computer.  Consolefs is a file	system
       that  lets  multiple  users  simultaneously access these console lines.
       The consoles and permissions to access them are	defined	 in  the  file
       consoledb (default /lib/ndb/consoledb).	The format of consoledb is the
       same as that of other /lib/ndb files, ndb(6).  Consoles are defined  by
       entries of the form:

	    console=dirty dev=/dev/eia205
		 uid=bignose
		 gid=support
		 speed=56200
		 cronly=

       Each  console/dev  pair represents the name of a console and the device
       associated with it.  Consolefs presents a single level  directory  with
       up  to  three  files per console: console, consolectl, and consolestat.
       Writes of console are equivalent to writes of dev and reads and	writes
       of  consolectl  and  consolestat	 are equivalent to reads and writes of
       devctl and devstat respectively.	 Consolectl and consolestat  will  not
       exist  if  the  underlying dev does not provide them.  Consolefs broad‐
       casts anything it reads from dev to all readers of console.  Therefore,
       many users can con(1) to a console, see all output, and enter commands.

       The  cronly=  attribute causes newlines typed by the user to be sent to
       the console as returns.	The speed=x attribute/value pair  specifies  a
       bit rate for the console.  The default is 9600 baud.  The openondemand=
       attribute causes the console device (dev) to be opened  only  when  the
       corresponding mntpt/console file is open.

       Access to the console is controlled by the uid and gid attributes/value
       pairs.  The uid values are user account names.  The gid values are  the
       names of groups defined in consolefs by entries of the form:

	    group=support
		 uid=bob
		 uid=carol
		 uid=ted
		 uid=alice

       Groups  are  used to avoid excessive typing.  Using gid=x is equivalent
       to including a uid=y for each user y that is a member of x.

       To keep users from inadvertently interfering with one another,  notifi‐
       cation  is  broadcast  to  all  readers whenever a user opens or closes
       name.  For example, if user boris opens a console that users  vlad  and
       barney have already opened, all will read the message:

	    [+boris, vlad, barney]

       If vlad then closes, boris and barney will read:

	    [-vlad, boris, barney]

       Consolefs  posts the client end of its 9P channel in /srv/consolefs and
       mounts this locally in mntpt (default  /mnt/consoles);  remote  clients
       must mount (see bind(1)) this file to see the consoles.

       The rc(1) script C automates this procedure.  It uses import(4) to con‐
       nect to /mnt/consoles on the machine connected  to  all	the  consoles,
       then  uses con(1) to connect to the console of the machine system.  The
       script must be edited at installation by the  local  administration  to
       identify the system that holds /mnt/consoles.

       Aux/clog	 opens	the  file  console and writes every line read from it,
       prefixed by the ASCII time to the file log.

       An example of 2 consoles complete with console logging is:

	      % cat /lib/ndb/consoledb
	      group=sys
		   uid=glenda
	      console=bootes dev=/dev/eia0 gid=sys
	      console=fornax dev=/dev/eia1 gid=sys
	      % aux/consolefs
	      % ls -p /mnt/consoles
	      bootes
	      bootesctl
	      fornax
	      fornaxctl
	      % clog /mnt/consoles/fornax /sys/log/fornax &
	      % clog /mnt/consoles/bootes /sys/log/bootes &

       The console server's default name space must mount the consoles	for  C
       to import.  This can be arranged by adding

	      mount /srv/consoles /mnt/consoles

       to /lib/namespace.$sysname.

FILES
       /srv/consoles
	      Client end of pipe to server.

       /mnt/consoles
	      Default mount point.

       /lib/ndb/consoledb
	      Default user database.

SOURCE
       /sys/src/cmd/aux/consolefs.c
       /rc/bin/C
       /sys/src/cmd/aux/clog.c

BUGS
       Changing	 the  gid's or uid's while consolefs is running is detected by
       consolefs.  However, to add new consoles one must restart consolefs.

								  CONSOLEFS(4)
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