----- Original question -----
Is there a way to save the output from a command entered at the SRM console to
a file which I can access while DU is running?
------------------------------
Many thanks to:
Paul Kitwin
Dr. Tom Blinn
Thomas Leitner
All 3 suggested connecting the serial port of a PC or another Alpha to the
serial console port of the system in question and running terminal
emulation software on the second system, then using that system to log the
output to a file. Dr. Blinn's response is included below, as well as an
additional suggestion from Mr. Leitner.
----- Dr. Blinn's response -----
Sure. Using some other system (such as a DIGITAL UNIX system or a PC) that
has the ability to do terminal emulation through a serial port (e.g., tip or
some PC software), connect the other system's serial port to the serial
console port on your system where you want to capture the SRM console output,
using 8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit, 9600 baud line parameters. Then enter a
carriage return while the system under test is in the SRM console, and you'll
get an SRM console prompt (unless the SUT is a really old system, such as the
DEC 3000 family, in which case you may need to set a hardware switch and then
power cycle the system to get the console to run serial). Enter the command
"set console serial" and then "init" and you'll be running serial console. As
long as you are logging this to a file on the other system (the driver), you
can then enter SRM console commands, capture the output to a file, and then
when you boot the SUT, you can (through magic you provide, such as FTP or NFS
or even a serial transfer) access the file.
There is no way, with the SRM console, to have it directly access a file to
log information. For the most part, it doesn't understand any file systems
(although some SRM consoles do know how to access named files on a MS-DOS FAT
formatted floppy) and doesn't have a facility, in general, for writing a log
of the command outputs to a file. (This isn't strictly true, but you don't
want to deal with the limitations of what it really does, which boils down to
an in-memory file system of sorts.)
Tom
Dr. Thomas P. Blinn, UNIX Software Group, Digital Equipment Corporation
110 Spit Brook Road, MS ZKO3-2/U20 Nashua, New Hampshire 03062-2698
Technology Partnership Engineering Phone: (603) 884-0646
Internet: tpb_at_zk3.dec.com Digital's Easynet: alpha::tpb
ACM Member: tpblinn_at_acm.org PC_at_Home: tom_at_felines.mv.net
------------------------------
----- Additional suggestion from Mr. Leitner -----
<snip>
If you got two alphas, you could as well check out the program called
"console manager" which basically provides central access to the consoles
of different alphas.
Tom
--------------------------------------------------
Mike Dudley
Technical Support Specialist (and VM bigot)
State of New Hampshire
Dept. of Employment Security
mdudley_at_nhes.state.nh.us
Received on Wed Feb 25 1998 - 14:06:28 NZDT