tkping(8)

NAME

tkping -- network monitoring tool

SYNOPSIS

tkping [options]

DESCRIPTION

tkping is intended primarily for system administrators and

network administrators so that they can see when crucial hosts

and other network nodes go down.

tkping is typically left running for days. The user can

see all nodes are green meaning that all are OK. After being

away from the display for a period of time, the user returns and

looks at the display. If any of the nodes are not green, then

the user knows that those have either "gone missing" for a short

period of time or have rebooted (The color tells the user which).

Either way, the user knows to log onto these machines to see what

happened or to look into the status of the network/subnet to

which the failing machines are connected. Overall, this saves

the user time, as there is no reason to check into the health of

the machines which remain green.

DETAILS OF OPERATION

tkping is a tool that runs under the X Window System to

display the status of internet nodes.

tkping displays a grid of node buttons, one for each node

being monitored. The name of the node represented by the button

is displayed on the face of the button.

This grid can be laid-out automatically by tkping or the

layout can be controlled by the user from the command-line or by

settings in a control file (See: -rows, -columns).

tkping also supports additional layout control inter

spersed within the nodes file. (See: <blank>, <message>, and

<nextcolumn>.)

At specified intervals, tkping will generate a number of

ICMP echo packets (similar to the ping(8) program) and send them

to each of the specified nodes. tkping displays the results of

its pings by coloring the button associated with the node based

on the status of the returned pings.

The grid of buttons supports a couple styles of interac

tion. The user may select a menu operation affecting all of the

nodes, or the user may click on one or more buttons and then se

lect a menu operation which affects only those selected. Final

ly, a right-click operation on a button is supported. This pops

up a list of operations one can do against that specific button.

The button color represents current status of the node.

The user can recheck a node, mark it a down, or get info regard

ing details of the history of ping attempts against this node.

To recheck a node, simply click on the button correspond

ing to the desired node. The color will change, indicating that

the node has been selected. Picking ``Recheck'' from the menu

will then check the node again. During the time that a node is

being rechecked, the cursor will change to an hourglass. All

button and/or keypress events sent to tkping will be ignored un

til the pinging is complete and the cursor is restored.

If a node is selected and ``Down'' is picked, then the

node is marked as ignored and the color of the button is changed

to represent this status. When tkping next traverses the grid,

this node will not be checked. This is useful when the user

knows a node to be down and does not want to waste any time

checking it.

If a node is selected and ``Info'' is picked, a pop-up di

alog will display statistics about that node. Currently, tkping

will print out the total number of times the node returned none,

some, or all of the packets sent out, the total number of packets

sent to and received from the node, and the average packet round

trip time sampled over the last 5, 50, 100, and 200 grid traver

sals.

Multiple nodes may be rechecked, or marked as down. If

``Info'' is then picked, only the first node will have its infor

mation displayed.

OPTIONS

The following are the command-line arguments understood by

tkping:

-rows {nbr}

This option is used to specify the number of

rows in the host grid. Entries in the node file will then be

loaded top to bottom. (Resource name: rows).

-columns {nbr}

This option is used to specify the number of

columns in the host grid. Entries in the node file will then be

loaded left to right. (Resource name: columns)

-wintitle {titleStr}

Specify the text to put on the application ti

tlebar (as opposed to the window manager's titlebar). (the de

fault is ``tkping'' followed by a version string). (Resource

name: wintitle)

-nodes {fspec}

Specify a name of a file which contains the

hosts to put on the grid. If this option is given, the default

file ~/.tkpingrc will not be loaded. (No associated resource)

-xdefs {fspec}

Name of the file which contains option settings.

Use in place of discrete command-line options, an X resources

file, or the system-wide defaults file /etc/tkping/tkping.conf.

(No associated resource)

-logfile {fspec}

Specifies the log file to which diagnostic out

put will be sent. ()

-packets {nbr}

Number of packets to send to each node (default

5). (Resource name: numberPackets)

-sleep {secs}

Interval between traversals of the grid (default

120 seconds). (Resource name: sleepDelay)

-timeout {secs}

How long to wait for each packet before assuming

the node is not responding (default 0.5 seconds). (Resource

name: timeout)

-ignore In certain circumstances, it may be preferable

that tkping not immediately attempt to ping all the nodes on the

grid. When this option is set, all nodes will act as though they

had been selected and the ``Down'' menu item picked.

-debug Turn on debugging. Used primarily by developer

of tkping.

-verbose Show more detailed info regarding application

state.

-h --help

Show summary of options.

COLORS

tkping uses colors to indicate the status of each node.

The standard color codes along with the X-default codes are as

follows:

#00C000 allPacketsBackColor

Host returned all packets sent.

#DAFF00 somePacketsBackColor

Host returned some of the packets sent.

#C00000 noPacketsBackColor

Host returned none of the packets sent.

Orange ignoredColor

The node is to be ignored.

LightGrey changedColor

The node changed its status from either return

ing no packets or from an error to returning all packets. The

cell will remain in this color or pattern until reset by manually

checking the node (see above).

Black errorColor

An internal error has occurred. This should on

ly occur if the host name cannot be found in either the name

server or system host table.

white messageTextColor

The text headings for groups of nodes (buttons)

should be displayed in this color.

FILES

~/.tkpingrc

File containing nodes to check as well as labels

to display amongst the node buttons.

/etc/tkping/tkping.conf

File containing settings default values for

timeouts, ping counts, etc.

FILE FORMATS: NODES

To Be Added. See /usr/share/doc/tkping/exam

ples/tkping.hosts for now.

SEE ALSO

fping(8).

AUTHOR

This manual page was written by Stephen M Moraco

stephen@debian.org for the Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be

used by others). Permission is granted to copy, distribute

and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Docu

mentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by

the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no

Front-Cover Texts and no Back-Cover Texts.

Excerpts are taken from the xping(1) manpage written by

Jeff Okamoto of Hewlett-Packard

NOTE1: (xping) From a program originally written for X10

by Mike Harris and converted to the X11 HP Widget Set and en

hanced by Jeff Okamoto and Ken Stone. Converted to run under HP

UX 8.0 and use the Motif 1.1 Widget Set by Jeff Okamoto.

NOTE2: tkping is a complete rewrite of xping in perl/TK.

The author had no access to original source code, only the man

page accompanying the xping program. The input file format is

not the same and this manpage has been written to speak to the

new input file format and the specific operation of tkping.

TKPING(8)