Content-type: text/html
Manpage of sysinfo
sysinfo
Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: 6 April 2003
Index
Return to Main Contents
NAME
sysinfo - MagniComp(TM) SysInfo(TM) command displays system information in a platform neutral manner
DOCUMENTATION GUIDE
sysinfo(1) Overview and Command Line Interface (CLI)
mcsysinfogui(1) Graphical User Interface (GUI)
mcsysinforeport(1) Description of "-format report" output
mcsysinfoc(3) C API
mcsysinfoperl(3) Perl API
mcsysinfocf(5) Configuration file specification
mcsysinfod(8) SysInfo(TM) Protocol (SSP) server
SYNOPSIS
sysinfo
[
--background|--bg
color
]
[
--cachedir
DirName
]
[
--configdir
DirName
]
[
--configfile
FileName
]
[
--copyright
]
[
-c|--class
item1,item2,...
]
[
--danger
]
[
--display
name
]
[
-d|--debug
]
[
--democheck
]
[
-e|--encode
EncodeType
]
[
--expiretime
seconds
]
[
--font
name
]
[
--foreground|--fg
color
]
[
-f|--format
FormatType
]
[
--geometry
geometry
]
[
-h|--host
hostname|IP
]
[
--iconic
]
[
-i|--infile
file
]
[
-P|--licports
start-end,start-end,...
]
[
-C|--msgclass
msgclass1,msgclass2,...
]
[
-L|--msglevel
msglevel1,msglevel2,...
]
[
--name
name
]
[
--noserial
]
[
-W|--nw
]
[
--offset
amount
]
[
-o|--output
file
]
[
-p|--password
pwd
]
[
--port
port#
]
[
--refresh
]
[
-s|--repsep
string
]
[
--siepath
path
]
[
--show
item1,item2,...
]
[
--siedirect
]
[
+|--swfiles
]
[
--title
string
]
[
-t|--type
type1,type2,...
]
[
-U|--unknown
]
[
--unused
]
[
--useconfig
]
[
--useprom
]
[
-u|--username
username
]
[
--xrm
X11resource
]
sysinfo
-l|--list
[
class|format|msgclass|msglevel|show|type
]
sysinfo
-H|--help
sysinfo
--license
sysinfo
--rtplatform
sysinfo
--version
DESCRIPTION
MagniComp(TM)'s
SysInfo(TM)
provides Unix/Linux System Administrators with extremely detailed,
platform independent
hardware,
software, and OS configuration data for most Unix/Linux platforms.
SysInfo(TM)
enables System Administrators to quickly see a high level view of a
system's configuration or dive deeply into very low level
configuration data. You can see something as "simple" as a system's
model name or you can plunge down to detailed information on disk
drives to view a drive's serial number and RPM speed.
SysInfo(TM)
supports both a sophisticated Command Line Interface (CLI)
for consumption by both humans and programs,
as well as a Graphical User Interface (GUI) to browse the volumes of
data available.
Here is just some of the types of information that may be provided:
-
- Extremely detailed hardware (device) information
- Kernel parameters
- System configuration parameters
- Installed software packages
- Host name
- Host name aliases
- Host network addresses
- Host ID
- System serial number
- Manufacturer of the system's hardware
- System model name
- CPU type
- Application architecture
- Kernel architecture
- Amount of main memory
- Operating system name
- Operating system version
- Kernel version
The detail of information varies according to the underlying abilities of
each OS, but the
data is provided in a consistant manner.
SysInfo(TM)
provides information about either the local system (by default)
or about a remote system if the
--host
system
option is specified.
If
--host
is not specified,
the local system is scanned by directly calling the
SysInfo Engine (SIE)
which is a program installed as part of the
SysInfo(TM)
distribution.
If the
--host
option is used,
SysInfo(TM)
will connect to the
mcsysinfod(8)
server agent on the specified
Host
to retrieve the requested information.
The
mcsysinfod(8)
agent is not used (and therefor does not need to be enabled) to scan
the local system.
By default
SysInfo(TM)
will start it's Graphical User Interface (GUI) if
the
$DISPLAY
environment variable is set.
If
$DISPLAY
is not set
or
the
--nw
option is specified,
SysInfo(TM)
will output to the command line.
See
mcsysinfogui(1)
for details on GUI usage.
When command line output is used,
SysInfo(TM)
will
display
by default
a "medium" level of output suitable for a quick glance at
system configuration information.
The
--msglevel all --class all
options may be used to enable the maximum amount of system information.
The scope of the information presented can by limited to specific
SysInfo(TM)
data
classes
using the ``--class Name''
option.
Further selection can by made specifying the class of information and
a specific item using ``--class Name --show Item''
The default command line output format is suitable for most humans.
If you want to quickly retrieve a few bits of information, try using
the
--msglevel terse
and the
--show
variable
option. i.e.
-
set SystemModel=`sysinfo --msglevel terse --show model`
A program parsable output format is also available for more
detailed needs by specifying:
-
--repsep '|' --format report
See
mcsysinforeport(1)
for a description of the output from this option.
A Perl API which provides an object tree of
SysInfo(TM)
data is also available (see
mcsysinfoperl(3) ).
Please also see
mcsysinfoc(3)
for a description of the C API.
INITIALIZATION
Upon startup,
SysInfo(TM)
searches for a configuration file to parse.
If the
--configfile
option is given, the specified configuration file will be used.
Otherwise
SysInfo(TM)
will search for a suitable configuration file.
Searching stops when the first configuration file is found.
The following search order is used:
- /etc/sysinfo.cf
ConfDir/${OSname}_${OSver}.cf
ConfDir/${OSname}_${OSmajver}.cf
ConfDir/${OSname}.cf
RunDir/../config/${OSname}_${OSver}.cf
RunDir/../config/${OSname}_${OSmajver}.cf
RunDir/../config/${OSname}.cf
ConfDir/Default.cf
where
RunDir
is the runtime directory where
SysInfo(TM)
was invoked from and
ConfDir
is
/opt/sysinfo/config
by default, but can be overridden with the
--configdir
option or by specifying
- ConfDir Dir
in the
/etc/sysinfo.cf
file. See
mcsysinfocf(5)
for more information.
If the file
/etc/sysmodel
exists, the first line of the file is read and used as the
system model name.
OPTIONS
The following options are valid for all invocations except as noted:
- --cfdir DirName
-
This option is deprecated by the
--configdir
option.
- --cffile FileName
-
This option is deprecated by the
--configfile
option.
- --cachedir DirName
-
Use
DirName
as the top level cache directory.
The default is
/tmp.
- --configdir DirName
-
Specify the name of the directory to use to find
sysinfo.cf
format configuration files.
- --configfile FileName
-
Specify the name of a
sysinfo.cf
format configuration file to use.
If the specified
FileName
cannot be opened for any reason, an error message is displayed and the
program will exit.
- --copyright
-
Print the software's copyright message and exit.
- --class Name1,Name2,...
-
Limit information to a specific class or classes of information.
The default class is
General.
- --danger
-
Normally
SysInfo(TM)
checks upon startup to make sure it's running on the same platform
(OS Name, OS Version, CPU Type, and CPU Architecture (on some platforms))
as it was built on. This option overrides/disables this check.
Using this option usually means that the information provided may be
false or incomplete.
- --encode EncodeType
-
Encode output in the specified manner
where
EncodeType
is one of the following:
-
- html
-
Encode as HTML.
- text
-
Encode as ASCII text.
This is the default.
- --expiretime seconds
-
Expire cached data after
seconds.
- --format FormatType
-
Specify the format layout and display of requested data.
Valid
FormatType
values are:
-
- columns
-
Data is formated in columns. The output is suited for viewing in
terminal windows set to a minimum width of 80 characters. Output will be
adjusted if the terminal width is greater than 80 characters. Terminal
width is determined by first looking for the environment variable
COLUMNS.
If not set,
the output stream
associated with standard output is checked for terminal width.
- pretty
-
(DEPRECATED)
Same as
tree
- report
-
Output is in a format suitable for parsing by a program.
Entries are printed one per line with fields separated by ``|''
(vertical pipe) by default.
The
--repsep
option can be used to change this value.
- tree
-
Output in hierarchical tree format
suitable for human viewing.
This is the default.
- -H|--help
-
Print help (usage) information and then exit.
- -h|--host host
-
Retrieve information from
host
which may be either a hostname or IP address.
The
host
must be running the
mcsysinfod(8)
SysInfo server agent.
If this option is not specified,
SysInfo scans the local system directly without talking to any
mcsysinfod(8).
- -i|--infile file
-
Use
file
as the source of data to display instead of probing system for data.
The
file
should contain data in
sysinfo -format report
format
(see
mcsysinforeport(1) )
This option is only used when using the
SysInfo(TM)
GUI.
- -P|--licports start-end,start-end,...
-
Specify the range of ports to scan for license servers where
start
is the port number to start with and
end
is a port number to end at.
i.e.
7100-7200,9000-9200
specifies to scan ports 7100 to 7200 and 9000 to 9200.
Applies to class
license
only.
Default is
7100-7999.
- -C|--msgclass msgclass1,msgclass2,...
-
Specify which class of messages should be output.
The default value for
--msgclass
is
info,warn,cerror.
The list of possible
msgclass
values are:
-
- all
-
All of the below classes except for
debug.
- info
-
Display normal informational messages.
All the actual useful bits of
information about your system are output as msgclass info.
- warn
-
Display warning messages about any condition that occurred while
SysInfo(TM)
is running which may affect what information is found.
Normally these are problems such as
SysInfo(TM)
not running with the right permissions or certain things are missing from
the system which are not required, but may result in incomplete information.
- gerror
-
Display general error messages.
These are non-fatal errors which are usually quite normal.
For instance, a certain type of query (such as a ioctl() call) of a device
fails because it's not supported on that particular model.
- cerror
-
Display critical errors which prevent
SysInfo(TM)
from continuing further.
- debug
-
Print debugging information.
Lots of information you normally don't want to see, but which is very
valuable for debugging problems with
SysInfo(TM).
- -L|--msglevel msglevel1,msglevel2,...
-
Set the level of messages that are shown.
msglevels
is a comma separated list of values used to determine what
levels of message will be displayed.
The list of possible
msglevel
values are:
-
- all
-
All possible levels of information.
This option provides the maximum amount of detailed information about a
system.
- terse
-
Display output in terse format.
The affect of this option is dependent on the
Class
of information being displayed.
It usually results in the labels for each output value being suppressed.
This is useful if you are running
SysInfo(TM)
from a script
to obtain a few specific values (e.g. System Model, CPU Architecture, etc).
- brief
-
More than
terse
but less than
all.
- general
-
General level of information useful for a quick look at overall system
configuration.
This is the default.
- descriptions
-
Like
general
but with more descriptive information.
- config
-
Similar to
general
and
descriptions
- --noserial
-
Disable checking for duplicate devices using serial numbers.
Normally
SysInfo
will check each device's serial number (if known) against the serial
number of each previously detected device of the same class and type.
If the serial numbers
match, the new device is ignored.
This check prevents devices which are dual-ported,
such as storage arrays,
from being shown more than once.
- --nw
-
No windows.
Force
SysInfo(TM)
to use it's command line interface (CLI) even if the environment is capable of
running the
SysInfo(TM)
GUI.
- -l|--list [ class|format|msgclass|msglevel|show|type ]
-
List the possible values that may be used with an option.
With no arguments are specified, a list is valid arguments is
displayed.
When an argument is supplied, the information specific to that
argument
is displayed.
- --offset amount
-
Set the number of spaces to offset (indent) when printing
device information.
- -o|--output file
-
Write content output to
file.
Errors and warnings are output to
standard error.
The default is to output content to
standard output.
- -p|--password pwd
-
Use
pwd
as the plain text password when user
authentication is required by
mcsysinfod(8).
This option is only needed when used with
--host
and
--username
options.
- --port port#
-
Use
port#
as the port that
mcsysinfod(8)
is listening on.
This option is only applicable with
the
--host
option.
- \--refresh
-
Refresh cached data.
Data is read directly from the requested sources instead of from the
cache.
As the data is read, the cache is updated.
- -s|--repsep string
-
Change the field separator string used with
--format report
to be
string.
The default is ``|''
(vertical pipe).
- --siepath path
-
Use
Path
as the pathname to the SysInfo Engine (SIE).
- --siedirect
-
Invoke the
SysInfo Engine (SIE)
directly with all other applicable command line arguments.
- --show item1,item2,...
-
Show information only about each comma separated item.
Run
sysinfo --list show
for a list of valid item arguments.
If the
--class
option is not specified, then the
General
class is assumed.
- +|-swfiles
-
When
+swfiles
is specified and
software
class information is being displayed, a list of files and file data is
displayed for all files belonging to each package.
The default is
(--swfiles)
not to display file data.
- -t|--type item1,item2,...
-
Limit information to a specific type of item as specified by
item1,item2,...
Run
sysinfo --list type
for a list of valid item arguments.
- -U|--unknown
-
Enable (+unknown) or disable (--unknown) showing devices
that appear to be present on the system, but are not "known" to
SysInfo(TM).
This option is disabled by default.
- --unused
-
Enable (+unused) or disable (--unused) showing partitions
that do not appear to be in use.
The default is
--unused.
- --useconfig
-
Enable (+useconfig) or disable (--useconfig) use of
configuration files. This option is useful if you want to run
SysInfo(TM)
without having the configuration files installed.
Note that only certain types of information - such as some of the
General
values - will be available without use of configuration files.
The default is
+useconfig.
- -u|--username username
-
Use
username
as the username to authenticate with when
authentication is required by
mcsysinfod(8).
This option is only needed when used with
--host
and
--password
options.
- --useprom
-
Enable (+useprom) or disable (--useprom) using values
obtained from the system PROM instead of interpreting values obtained
directly from the kernel.
Certain values are normally obtained by looking up a variable in
the kernel and checking the result against a table of values compiled
into
SysInfo(TM).
By enabling this option,
SysInfo(TM)
will attempt to obtain certain values from the system PROM.
This support is currently limited to the
System Model
value.
Support is also limited to those machines which support such
a system PROM.
- --version
-
Show version
information for
SysInfo(TM)
and then exit.
GUI OPTIONS
The following options apply only when the
SysInfo(TM)
GUI is invoked:
- --background|--bg color
-
Set the window background to
color
where
color
is a system defined name such as
orange
or a numeric representation as supported by the
X(1)
RGB specification.
- --display name
-
Name of display to output to.
Default is current display.
- --font name
-
Set default font for text to be
name.
Default is
arial.
- --foreground|--fg color
-
Similar to
--background
but sets the window foreground color instead of the background color.
- --geometry geometry
-
Specifies an
X(1)
geometry defining the size and/or location of the window.
The
geometry
is of form
Hx[XY]
(i.e.
400x600+20+25
which creates a 400 x 600 window at location 20x25)
where:
-
- H
-
Height in pixels.
- W
-
Width in pixels.
- X
-
The X (horizontal) offset in pixels preceded by a
+
to indicate positive offset or a
-
to indicate negative offset.
- Y
-
Same as with
except this value indicates Y (vertical) offset.
- --iconic
-
Start the application iconified.
- --name name
-
Specify the name of the application used for option database lookup.
The default is
sysinfo.
- --title string
-
Specify the window title to be
string.
- --xrm resource
-
Specify the X11 resource pattern as
resource.
ENVIRONMENT
The following environment variables are used:
- SYSINFO_CACHE_DIR
-
The name of the directory to read/write cache files.
The default is
/tmp.
- SYSINFO_USERNAME
-
The username to use when contacting a
SysInfo(TM)
server. The
----username
option overrides this value if present.
- SYSINFO_PASSWORD
-
The password to use when contacting a
SysInfo(TM)
server. The
----password
option overrides this value if present.
- SYSINFO_PORT
-
The port number that the
mcsysinfod(8)
server is listening on for connections.
EXAMPLES
The following command displays the maximum amount of information about
a system:
-
sysinfo --msglevel all --class all
This command shows the maximum amount of information about a system
called
maximus
which has the
mcsysinfod(8)
agent enabled:
-
sysinfo --msglevel all --class all --host maximus
The following command formats data as
a hierarchical tree,
encodes the output as HTML,
and places it in a file called
result.html:
-
sysinfo --format tree --encode html --output result.html
This command does the same as the previous example, but provides much
more detailed information:
-
sysinfo --format tree --encode html --output result.html --msglevel all
The following command formats data in columns and rows
and
encodes the output as text (the default):
-
sysinfo --format columns
The following command formats all classes and levels of
data in columns and rows,
encodes the output as HTML,
and
writes the results to a file called
result.html:
-
sysinfo --class all --msglevel all --format columns --encode html --output result.html
This command is very useful when debugging
SysInfo(TM)
itself:
-
sysinfo --debug
The following example outputs just the System Model:
-
sysinfo --msglevel terse --show model
This command will limit the output to just information about
Kernel
variables:
-
sysinfo --class kernel
The following command provides the maximum amount of data in a
software parsable format:
-
sysinfo --msglevel all --format report -repsep '|'
CACHING
SysInfo(TM)
caches each class of requested data in seperate files under
/tmp/mcsysinfoui.cache.UID
as the data is read.
The cached data is used on future requests.
The cache data expires 5 minutes after the last update.
The
--refresh
option can be used to refresh the
data immediately.
AUTHOR
MagniComp
http://www.MagniComp.com
URL
http://www.magnicomp.com/sysinfo
FILES
/opt/sysinfo/config -- Directory of config files
/etc/sysinfo.cf -- Master configuration file
/etc/sysmodel -- Explicitly set the CPU model name
/tmp/mcsysinfoui.cache.UID -- Data cache directory
SEE ALSO
mcsysinfogui(1),
mcsysinforeport(1),
mcsysinfoc(3),
mcsysinfoperl(3),
mcsysinfocf(5),
mcsysinfod(8),
gethostid(2), gethostname(2), gethostbyname(3)
DIAGNOSTICS
- %x: Unknown CPU type.
-
The CPU model for the current host could not be determined.
- (unknown)
-
Information could not be determined for this item.
BUGS
Not all operating systems support interfaces to various pieces of
information that
MagniComp(TM)
SysInfo(TM)
supports.
Some devices, mostly devices that use
removable media such as
tape drives and floppy disks, are only indicated (shown) as
present if media is loaded in the device and it's on-line.
This occurs because the OS does not provide a software
interface to query the device when media is not loaded.
SunOS
allows only one process at a time to have
/dev/openprom
open.
This may result in certain pieces of information
not always showing up consistently. When in doubt,
enable debugging
(--msgclass debug).
Under
SunOS 5.4
the
ROM Version
field is blank.
This is due to a change made by Sun in
libkvm.
Sun patch
102555-01
is suppose to fix this problem.
MagniComp(TM)
Sysinfo(tm)
uses a new OBP interface in
SunOS 5.5
that by-passes this problem.
Under
SunOS 4.x
the
Serial Number
field
is left blank since the kernel usually returns incorrect information.
Under
SunOS 5.x
the
Serial Number
field
will show the serial number as obtained from the system's
IDPROM.
This serial number has no correspondence with the system serial
number that appears on the back of your machine.
Under
SunOS
there is no way to tell the difference between an MC68020 (like the
3/60) and MC68030 (like the 3/80)
based machine.
Index
- NAME
-
- DOCUMENTATION GUIDE
-
- SYNOPSIS
-
- DESCRIPTION
-
- INITIALIZATION
-
- OPTIONS
-
- GUI OPTIONS
-
- ENVIRONMENT
-
- EXAMPLES
-
- CACHING
-
- AUTHOR
-
- URL
-
- FILES
-
- SEE ALSO
-
- DIAGNOSTICS
-
- BUGS
-
This document was created by
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Time: 19:53:48 GMT, April 09, 2003