Basic Client

The basic client, called layer_athena takes all of its arguments on the command line. The command format is:

layer_athena command [options]

where there are six different commands defined and a number of options depending upon the command.

The set command will set options that apply to all of Layered Athena. Any of these settable options may also be used with the other commands listed below. Root privileges are necessary to set any options other than in a use command. The available options are:

 layer_athena set autoupdate|noautoupdate

			owner=email@address

			location=roomnumber

			monitor|nomonitor

			syspack=path

			save=path|nosave

			register|noregister

			custom=script

If an option is not specified, it will retain its previous value. The autoupdate flag controls whether this workstation will automatically take new software as Athena releases it. Autoupdates default to being enabled. The owner specifies the email address used for notifications about this workstation. The location is purely informational. The monitor flag specifies that it is OK for the configuration of this workstation to be retrieved via SNMP. This defaults to being enabled. Use syspack to indicate the mount point for the Athena system pack if it is different from /srvd. The save option records where an extra copy of the workstation configuration should be kept. The register flag indicates that I/S should be notified about configuration changes to this workstation. This also defaults to being enabled. The custom option indicates a customization script that should be run whenever Layered Athena changes anything on the workstation.

The install command indicates the configuration of individual subsets. Root privileges are necessary to use this command.

layer_athena install subset=local|remote|ignore

This command indicates, for each subset listed, whether they should be copied to the local disk, setup so that the subset can be used remotely, or not used at all. Many subsets may be specified on the same command line. Any subset not mentioned will keep its previous status.

The update and autoupdate commands have no options. Root privileges are necessary to use these commands. They cause the workstation to update any loaded subsets to newer versions if they are available. An update will always do this for all loaded subsets. An autoupdate will check if autoupdates are allowed. If they are, it will update. If not, it will send an email message to the owners of the workstation informing them that an update is necessary. It will record when it sent this message so that duplicate messages are not sent, although after each week that the update is overdue it will generate another message.

The use command allows a non-privileged user to use some subsets without installing them on the workstation. The options and syntax are the same as the install command. When a user issues this command, layer_athena will store its state for this in /usr/tmp instead of the regular path, and will verify that everything is in place to get some functionality from the requested subsets. Status messages will be printed to stderr, and a series of csh commands will be printed to stdout which when sourced will setup the user's environment.

The status command reports on the current configuration of the workstation. It has two options:

layer_athena status verbose|brief

If verbose is specified, it will print out several lines of information that are self-explanatory. In brief mode, it will display a compressed version of this information on one line. This command defaults to verbose mode.

When layer_athena runs, it will first update any configuration options. Then it will compare the requested configuration with what is on the machine, and the version numbers of the available subsets. From this it will determine if it needs to perform an update. If so, it will first run the macro processor to generate a synctree configuration, then run synctree to put the files in place, and finally run any necessary installation scripts. If it is asked to perform an auto-update, it will check if anyone is logged in first, and create /etc/nologin to make sure that no one logs in during the update. If any of the installed subsets indicate that a reboot is necessary after update, layer_athena will then reboot the workstation.