IRIX™ Admin: System Configuration and Operation Document Number 007-2859-001 CONTRIBUTORS Written by Jeffrey B. Zurschmeide Edited by Christina Cary Cover design and illustration by Rob Aguilar, Rikk Carey, Dean Hodgkinson, Erik Lindholm, and Kay Maitz Document Production by Lorrie Williams © Copyright 1992 - 1996 Silicon Graphics, Inc.— All Rights Reserved The contents of this document may not be copied or duplicated in any form, in whole or in part, without the prior written permission of Silicon Graphics, Inc. RESTRICTED RIGHTS LEGEND Use, duplication, or disclosure of the technical data contained in this document by the Government is subject to restrictions as set forth in subdivision (c) (1) (ii) of the Rights in Technical Data and Computer Software clause at DFARS 52.227-7013 and/or in similar or successor clauses in the FAR, or in the DOD or NASA FAR Supplement. Unpublished rights reserved under the Copyright Laws of the United States. Contractor/manufacturer is Silicon Graphics, Inc., 2011 N. Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View, CA 94043-1389. Silicon Graphics and IRIS are registered trademarks and CHALLENGE, Onyx, IRIX and Trusted IRIX/B are trademarks of Silicon Graphics, Inc. Ethernet is a registered trademark of Xerox Corporation. FrameMaker is a registered trademark of Frame Technology, Inc. Macintosh is a registered trademark of Apple Computer Corporation. MS-DOS is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Sun and RPC are registered trademarks and NFS is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc. Tektronix is a trademark of Tektronix, Inc. The X Window System is a trademark of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. UNIX is a registered trademark of UNIX System Laboratories. IRIX™ Admin: System Configuration and Operation Document Number 007-2859-001 Contents List of Figures xxi List of Tables xxiii About This Guide xxv IRIX Admin Manual Set xxvi What This Guide Contains xxvii Conventions Used in This Guide xxix How to Use This Guide xxx Target Audience of This Guide xxx Additional Resources xxxi The IRIX Reference Pages xxxi The IRIX Release Notes xxxii The IRIX Help System xxxii The Silicon Graphics World-Wide Web Site xxxiii iii Contents 1. Introduction To System Configuration and Operation 1 Principles Of Good System Administration 2 Accounts and Passwords 2 Superuser (root) Account 2 Access to the root Account 2 User Privacy 3 Checking the Password File 3 Hardware Affects Software 3 Software Upgrades Affect Users 4 Notifying Users of Scheduled Maintenance 4 System Shutdown Procedures 4 Malicious Activities 5 Maintaining a System Log Book 6 Collecting User Requests 7 Tasks of the System Administrator 7 Administration Tools 8 2. Making the Most of IRIX 11 IRIX Shell Shortcuts 11 Using Regular Expressions and Metacharacters 11 C Shell Shortcuts 13 Tcsh Shell Shortcuts 16 Bourne Shell Shortcuts 16 Korn Shell Shortcuts 17 iv Contents General IRIX Shortcuts 18 Displaying Windows on Alternate Workstations 18 Creating a Custom Shell Window 19 Finding and Manipulating Files Automatically 20 Using find to Locate Files 21 Using find to Copy Directories or Directory Hierarchies 23 Automated Editing with sed 23 Recursive Commands Under IRIX 23 Automating Tasks with at(1), batch(1), and cron(1M) 24 at(1) Command 24 batch(1) Command 25 cron(1M) Command 25 The /etc/nologin File 26 Using Mouse Shortcuts 26 Using the Mouse to Copy and Paste Text 27 Using the Mouse to Create a New Shell Window 28 Creating New Reference Pages 29 Creating a Pure-Text Reference Page using vi 29 Individual System Monitoring Tools 30 The savecore Utility 30 The icrash Utility 31 The fru (Field Replacement Unit) Analyzer 32 Viewing Your System Log With sysmon 34 v Contents Monitoring Systems with Availmon 35 Registering and Configuring availmon 36 Configuring an availmon Site Log File 37 Running availmon On Other Systems 38 Administering availmon 38 Using availmon with Automatic Reporting 38 Using availmon at Secure Sites with Internal Report Mailing 39 Using availmon at Secure Sites without Report Mailing 39 availmon Reports 40 Mailing availmon Reports 41 Viewing availmon Reports 41 3. System Startup and Shutdown 45 Starting the System 45 Shutting Down the System 46 Shutting Down from Multiuser Mode 46 Turning Off from Single-user Mode 47 IRIX Operating Levels 48 How init Controls the System State 50 Entering the Multiuser State from System Shutdown 52 Powering Up the System 52 Early Initialization 52 Preparing the Run Level Change 53 Changing Run Levels 54 Run-level Directories 54 Going to Single-user Mode From Multiuser Mode 55 /etc/inittab and Power Off 56 vi Contents 4. Configuring The IRIX Operating System 59 Checking System Configuration 59 Checking Installed Hardware With hinv 59 Checking Installed Software With versions 61 Checking Graphics Hardware With gfxinfo 62 Basic System Identification With uname 63 Getting Printer Status With lpstat 63 Checking Options With chkconfig 63 Altering the System Configuration 67 Setting Options With chkconfig 67 Changing Other System Defaults 68 Setting the System Display 69 Changing Processors on Multi-Processor Systems 69 Changing the Name of a System 70 Setting the Network Address 71 Setting the Default Printer 71 Setting the Time Zone 72 Changing the Date and Time 75 vii Contents 5. Configuring User Accounts and Managing User Issues 79 User Login Administration 79 User ID Numbers 79 Group ID Numbers 79 Adding User Accounts Using Shell Commands 81 Adding User Groups Using Shell Commands 84 Changing a User’s Group 85 Deleting a User from the System 85 Deleting a Group from the System 86 Locking a User Account 86 Temporarily Changing User Groups 87 Changing User Information 88 Changing a User’s Login Name 88 Changing a User’s Password 89 Changing a User’s Login ID Number 90 Changing a User’s Default Group 90 Changing a User’s Comments Field 91 Changing a User’s Default Home Directory 91 Changing a User’s Default Shell 92 Configuring The User’s Environment 93 Available Login Shells 93 C Shell Configuration Files 94 Bourne and Korn Shell Configuration Files 96 Configurable Shell Environment Variables 97 Configuring Default File Permissions With umask 100 Configuring Special Login Shells 101 viii Contents Communicating with Users 102 Electronic Mail 102 Message of the Day 102 Creating a Message of the Day 102 Remote Login Message 103 Creating a Remote Login Message 104 News 104 Write to a User 105 Write to All Users 106 6. Configuring Disk and Swap Space 109 Useful Disk Usage Commands 109 The du(1) Command 109 The df(1) Command 109 The quot(1M) Command 110 The diskusg(1) Command 110 File Compression and Archiving 110 The quotas(4) Subsystem 110 Managing Disk Space with NFS 112 Managing Disk Space with Disk Partitions 113 Reducing Wasted Disk Space 113 Swap Space 114 Adding Virtual Swap Space 115 Listing Swap Space With The swap -l Command 115 Checking Swap Activity With The swap -s Command 116 Negative swap space 117 Increasing Swap Space on a One-Disk System 118 Increasing Swap Space on a Multidisk System 119 ix Contents 7. Managing User Processes 123 Monitoring User Processes 123 Monitoring Processes With top 124 Monitoring Processes With osview 124 Monitoring Processes With sar 124 Monitoring Processes With ps 125 Prioritizing Processes With nice 126 Changing the Priority of a Running Process 127 Terminating Processes 127 Killing Processes by Name with the killall(1M) Command 128 8. Managing cadmin 131 Administering the CADMIN Object System 131 The cadmin Object System 132 The Objectserver 132 The Directoryserver 132 The File Manager 133 The Desks Overview 133 The Media Daemon 133 The Soundscheme Audio Server 133 Starting the cadmin Daemons 133 Stopping the cadmin Daemons 135 Stopping the Objectserver 135 Stopping the Directory Server 136 Stopping the File Manager 136 Stopping the Desks Overview 137 Stopping the Media Daemon 137 Stopping the Soundscheme Daemon 138 Troubleshooting the cadmin Object System 138 Troubleshooting the Objectserver 138 Troubleshooting the Directoryserver 140 x Contents 9. Maintaining the File Alteration Monitor 145 Troubleshooting fam 145 Basic fam Troubleshooting 146 If You Are Using a Foreign NIS Master 147 10. Using The Command (PROM) Monitor 151 How to Enter the Command (PROM) Monitor 152 Summary of Command Monitor Commands 154 Getting Help in the Command Monitor 156 Using Command Monitor Commands 156 Using the Command Line Editor in the Command Monitor 156 Syntax of Command Monitor Commands 157 Syntax of Command Monitor File Names 157 Syntax of ARCS PROM File Names 159 Running the Command Monitor 159 Reinitializing the Processor from the Command Monitor 160 Setting a PROM Password 160 Copying Hard Disks From the Command Monitor 161 The Command Monitor Environment 162 Displaying the Current Environment Variables 168 Changing Environment Variables 168 Setting the Keyboard Variable 169 Removing Environment Variables 170 Booting a Program from the Command Monitor 170 Booting The Default File 170 Booting a Specific Program 170 Booting the Standalone Shell 171 Booting across the Network 173 Booting across the Network with bootp 174 Booting Across A Larger Network 175 Booting from a Disk or Other Device 176 xi Contents 11. System Performance Tuning 181 Theory of System Performance Tuning 181 Files Used for Kernel Tuning 182 Overview of Kernel Tunable Parameters 182 The Types of Parameters 183 Application Tuning 184 Checking Application Performance 184 Tuning an Application 185 Looking At/Reordering an Application 187 Analyzing Program Behavior with prof 187 Reordering a Program with