sshconsole [-v] [-hdDuVwx] [-b message]
We can use sshconsole without actually logging in to do a number of things, seeing who is attached to which consoles, console status, broadcasting messages and information about the daemons
The -u, -w and -x commands provide information about the status of the consoles, who is attached and what consoles are active respectively.
examples
[marmion]iainr: ./sshconsole -u servers are:claise minibw1 up <none> minibw2 up <none> heather up iainr@ deadhost up <none> Connection to claise closed. [marmion]iainr: ./sshconsole -w servers are:claise iainr@ attach 0:00 heather Connection to claise closed. [marmion]iainr: ./sshconsole -x servers are:claise minibw1 on /dev/ttyS0 at 9600p minibw2 on /dev/ttyS1 at 9600p heather on /dev/cub0 at 9600p deadhost on /dev/cub31 at 9600p Connection to claise closed. |
sshconsole will show the servers it is polling for information, if it fails to connect you will get an error message. NB the "up" reported by -u refers to the port connection within conserver, not to whether there is anything active on the port. In the example above there is nothing connected to /dev/cub31.
we can send short messages using the -b option, these should be quoted. The message will be broadcast on all consoles on all servers (that sshconsole can find in lcfg), there is currently no way of sending messages to a specific console or user. sshconsole will pooll servers in turn attempting to send the message, you will get error messages if it cannot connect but won't stop until it has tried all servers.
[marmion]iainr: ./sshconsole -b "this is a test" servers are:claise Connection to claise closed. [marmion]iainr: |
Anyone attached will see
Red Hat Linux release 6.2 (Zoot) Kernel 2.2.16_public-3.dcs.9 on an i686 minibw1.dcs.ed.ac.uk login: [-- Console server shutting down --] Connection to console closed. [magrathea]iainr: sshconsole heather Enter iainr's password: [Enter `^Ec?' for help] heather console login: [Broadcast: this is a test] |