1BLINKENLIGHTS(1) User Contributed Perl Documentation BLINKENLIGHTS(1)
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6 blinkenlights - DNSSEC-Tools rollerd GUI
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9 blinkenlights <rollrec-file>
10
12 blinkenlights is a GUI tool for use with monitoring and controlling the
13 DNSSEC-Tools rollerd program. It displays information on the current
14 state of the zones rollerd is managing. The user may control some
15 aspects of rollerd's execution using blinkenlights menu commands.
16 blinkenlights creates a window in which to display information about
18 each zone rollerd is managing. (These zones are those in rollerd's
19 current rollrec file.) As a zone's rollover status changes, blinken‐
20 lights will update its display for that zone. Skipped zones, zones
21 listed in the rollrec file but which are not in rollover or normal
22 operation, are displayed but have very little useful information to
23 display.
24 The user may also select a set of zones to hide from the display.
26 These zones, if in the rolling state, will continue to roll; however,
27 their zone information will not be displayed. Display state for each
28 zone will persist across blinkenlights executions.
29 Menu commands are available for controlling rollerd. The commands
31 which operate on a single zone may be executed by keyboard shortcuts.
32 The zone may be selected either by clicking in its "zone stripe" or by
33 choosing from a dialog box. Display and execution options for blinken‐
34 lights are also available through menu commands. More information
35 about the menu commands is available in the MENU COMMANDS section.
36 blinkenlights is only intended to be started by rollerd, not directly
38 by a user. There are two ways to have rollerd start blinkenlights.
39 First, rollctl may be given the -display option. Second, the -display
40 option may be given on rollerd's command line.
41
43 The blinkenlights window is laid out as a series of "stripes". The top
44 stripe contains status information about rollerd, the second stripe
45 contains column headers, and the bulk of the window consists of zone
46 stripes. The list below provides more detail on the contents of each
47 stripe.
48 See the WINDOW COLORS section for a discussion of the colors used for
50 the zone stripes.
51 · rollerd information stripe
53 The information stripe contains four pieces of information:
55 rollerd's current rollrec file, the count of rolling zones, the
56 count of skipped zones, and the amount of time rollerd waits
57 between processing its queue. Coincidentally, that last datum is
58 also the amount of time between blinkenlights screen updates.
59 · column headers stripe
61 This stripe contains the column headers for the columns of each
63 zone stripe.
64 · zone stripes
66 Each zone managed by rollerd (i.e., every zone in the current roll‐
68 rec file) will have a zone stripe which describes that zone's cur‐
69 rent state. The stripe is divided into four sections: the zone
70 name, the current rollover state, and the zone's DNSSEC keys.
71 The zone name section just contains the name of the zone.
73 The rollover state section contains the rollover phase number, a
75 text explanation of the phase, and the amount of time remaining in
76 that rollover phase. The phase explanation is "normal operation"
77 when the zone isn't currently in rollover.
78 The DNSSEC key section contains two subsections, one for the zone's
80 ZSK keys and another for the zone's KSK keys. Each subsection con‐
81 tains the names of the signing sets active for the zone. The ZSK
82 subsection lists the Current, Published, and New ZSK keys; the KSK
83 subsection lists the Current and Published.
84 See the WINDOW COLORS section for a discussion of the colors used
86 for the zone stripes.
87
89 The default blinkenlights configuration uses window coloring to provide
90 visual cues and to aid in easily distinguishing zone information. The
91 default window coloring behavior gives each zone stripe has its own
92 color and the rollover state section of each zone stripe is shaded to
93 show the zone's phase. Window coloring can be turned off (and on) with
94 configuration options and menu commands.
95 Color Usage
97 The two window coloring behaviors are discussed more fully below:
99 · zone stripe colors
101 Each rolling zone's stripe is given one of three colors: blue,
103 red, or green. The color is assigned on a top-down basis and the
104 colors wrap if there are more than three zones. So, the first zone
105 is always blue, the second zone red, the third zone green, the
106 fourth zone blue, etc.
107 The colors do not stay with a particular zone. If a rolling zone
109 becomes a skipped zone, the zone stripes will be reassigned new
110 colors to account for that skipped zone.
111 Skipped zones are not colored with these three colors. Stripes for
113 skipped zones are colored either grey or a color set in the config‐
114 uration file. If you choose to use a non-standard color for
115 skipped zones your should ensure that it is not one of the colors
116 used for rolling zones' stripes. Modifying the skipcolor configu‐
117 ration field allows the skipped-zone color to be changing.
118 The colors configuration field can be used to turn on or off the
120 use of colors for zone stripes. If stripe coloring is turned off,
121 then every stripe will be displayed using the skipcolor color.
122 · rollover-state shading
124 The only portion of a zone stripe that changes color is the status
126 column; the color of the rest of the zone stripe stays constant.
127 Before a zone enters rollover, the status column is the same color
128 as the rest of the stripe. When the zone enters rollover, the sta‐
129 tus column's color is changed to a very light shade of the stripe's
130 normal color. As the rollover phases progress towards rollover
131 completion, the status column's shade darkens. Once rollover com‐
132 pletes, the status column returns again to the same shade as the
133 rest of that stripe.
134 The shading configuration field can be used to turn on or off the
136 use of shading in the rollover-state column. If shading is turned
137 off, then the zone stripe will be a solid color.
138 See the CONFIGURATION FILE section for information on setting the
140 configuration fields.
141 Colors Used
143 The color names are taken from the X11 rgb.txt file (X11 1.1.3 -
145 XFree86 4.4.0 for MacOS X.) If these aren't available in your rgb.txt
146 file, similar names should be selected. The actual red/green/blue val‐
147 ues used are given below to assist in finding suitable replacements.
148 These values were taken from the rgb.txt file.
149 Blue Shades:
151 blue 0 0 255
153 lightblue2 178 223 238
154 darkslategray1 151 255 255
155 skyblue1 135 206 255
156 steelblue1 99 184 255
157 turquoise1 0 245 255
158 cornflower blue 100 149 237
159 dodger blue 30 144 255
160 Red Shades:
162 red 255 0 0
164 pink 255 192 203
165 lightsalmon1 255 160 122
166 tomato 255 99 71
167 indianred 205 92 92
168 violetred1 255 62 150
169 orangered1 255 69 0
170 firebrick1 255 48 48
171 Green Shades:
173 green 0 255 0
175 darkseagreen1 193 255 193
176 darkolivegreen1 202 255 112
177 lightgreen 144 238 144
178 seagreen1 84 255 159
179 spring green 0 255 127
180 greenyellow 173 255 47
181 lawngreen 124 252 0
182
184 A number of menu commands are available to control the behavior of
185 blinkenlights and to send commands to rollerd. These commands are dis‐
186 cusses in this section.
187 File Menu
189 The commands in this menu are basic GUI commands.
191 · Quit
193 blinkenlights will stop execution.
195 Options Menu
197 The commands in this menu control the appearance and behavior of
199 blinkenlights.
200 · Row Colors (toggle)
202 This menu item is a toggle to turn on or off the coloring of zone
204 stripes. If row coloring is turned off, zone stripes will all be
205 the same color. If row coloring is turned on, zone stripes will be
206 displayed in varying colors. See the WINDOW COLORS section for a
207 discussion of row coloring.
208 · Status Column Shading (toggle)
210 This menu item is a toggle to turn on or off the shading of the
212 zone status column. If shading is turned off, the zone stripes
213 will present a solid, unchanging band of color for each zone. If
214 shading is turned on, the color of the zone status column will
215 change according to the zone's rollover state.
216 · Skipped Zones Display (toggle)
218 This menu item is a toggle to turn on or off the display of skipped
220 zones. If display is turned off, zone stripes for skipped zones
221 will not be displayed. If display is turned on, zone stripes for
222 all zones will be displayed.
223 · Modification Commands (toggle)
225 In some situations, it may be desirable to turn off blinkenlights'
227 ability to send commands to rollerd. This menu item is a toggle to
228 turn on or off this ability. If the commands are turned off, then
229 the "Zone Control" menu and keyboard shortcuts are disabled. If
230 the commands are turned on, then the "Zone Control" menu and key‐
231 board shortcuts are enabled.
232 · Font Size
234 This menu item allows selection of font size of text displayed in
236 the main window.
237 Normally, changing the font size causes the window to grow and
239 shrink as required. However, on Mac OS X there seems to be a prob‐
240 lem when the size selected increases the window size to be greater
241 than will fit on the screen. If the font size is subsequently
242 reduced, the window size does not shrink in response.
243 General Control Menu
245 The commands in this menu are GUI interfaces for the rollctl commands
247 related to general zone management.
248 · Roll Selected Zone
250 The selected zone will be moved to the rollover state. This only
252 has an effect on skipped zones. A zone may be selected by clicking
253 on its zone stripe. If this command is selected without a zone
254 having been selected, a dialog box is displayed from which a cur‐
255 rently skipped zone may be chosen.
256 · Roll All Zones
258 All zones will be moved to the rollover state. This has no effect
260 on currently rolling zones.
261 · Run the Queue
263 rollerd is awoken and runs through its queue of zones. The opera‐
265 tion required for each zone is then performed.
266 · Skip Selected Zone
268 The selected zone will be moved to the skipped state. This only
270 has an effect on rolling zones. A zone may be selected by clicking
271 on its zone stripe. If this command is selected without a zone
272 having been selected, a dialog box is displayed from which a cur‐
273 rently rolling zone may be chosen.
274 · Skip All Zones
276 All zones will be moved to the skipped state. This has no effect
278 on currently skipped zones.
279 · Halt Rollerd
281 rollerd's execution is halted. As a result, blinkenlights' execu‐
283 tion will also be halted.
284 KSK Control Menu
286 The commands in this menu are GUI interfaces for the rollctl commands
288 related to KSK-specific zone management.
289 · DS Published Selected Zone
291 This command is used to indicate that the selected zone's parent
293 has published a new DS record for the zone. It moves the zone from
294 phase 6 to phase 7 of KSK rollover.
295 · DS Published All Zones
297 This command is used to indicate that all the zones in KSK rollover
299 phase 6 have new DS records published by their parents. It moves
300 all these zones from phase 6 to phase 7 of KSK rollover.
301 Zone Display Menu
303 The commands in this menu are GUI interfaces parts of the zone display.
305 There are commands for displaying and hiding both zone stripes and key
306 columns. The commands allow all, some, or none of the zone stripes and
307 key columns to be displayed. Undisplayed rolling zones will continue
308 to roll, but they will do so without the blinkenlights window indicat‐
309 ing this.
310 · Zone Selection
312 A dialog box is created that holds a list of the zones currently
314 managed by rollerd. The user may select which zones should be dis‐
315 played by clicking on the zone's checkbox. Zones with a selected
316 checkbox will be displayed; zones without a selected checkbox will
317 not be displayed.
318 · Display All Zones
320 All zones will be displayed in the blinkenlights window.
322 · Hide All Zones
324 No zones will be displayed in the blinkenlights window.
326 · KSK Sets (toggle)
328 This menu item is a toggle to turn on or off the display of KSK
330 signing set names. If display is turned off, the columns holding
331 the KSK signing set names and labels will be removed from the dis‐
332 play and the display window will shrink. If display is turned on,
333 the columns holding the KSK signing set names and labels will be
334 restored to the display and the display window will be expanded.
335 When displayed, KSK signing sets will always be the right-most col‐
337 umns.
338 · ZSK Sets (toggle)
340 This menu item is a toggle to turn on or off the display of ZSK
342 signing set names. If display is turned off, the columns holding
343 the ZSK signing set names and labels will be removed from the dis‐
344 play and the display window will shrink. If display is turned on,
345 the columns holding the ZSK signing set names and labels will be
346 restored to the display and the display window will be expanded.
347 When displayed, ZSK signing sets will always be immediately to the
349 right of the zone status column.
350 · Hide All Keysets
352 Turns off display of the KSK and ZSK signing set names.
354 · Show All Keysets
356 Turns on display of the KSK and ZSK signing set names.
358 Help Menu
360 The commands in this menu provide assistance to the user.
362 · Help
364 Display a window containing help information.
366
368 Several aspects of blinkenlights' behavior may be controlled from con‐
369 figuration files. Configuration value may be specified in the DNSSEC
370 Tools configuration file or in a more specific rc.blinkenlights. The
371 system-wide blinkenlights configuration file is in the DNSSEC-Tools
372 configuration directory and is named blinkenlights.conf. Multiple
373 rc.blinkenlights files may exist on a system, but only the one in the
374 directory in which blinkenlights is executed is used.
375 The following are the available configuration values:
377 colors Turn on/off use of colors on zone stripes
379 fontsize The size of the font in the output window
380 modify Turn on/off execution of rollerd modification commands
381 shading Turn on/off shading of the status columns
382 showskip Turn on/off display of skipped zones
383 skipcolor The background color used for skipped zones
384 The rc.blinkenlights file is only searched for in the directory in
386 which blinkenlights is executed. The potential problems inherent in
387 this may cause these blinkenlights-specific configuration files to be
388 removed in the future.
389 This file is in the "field value" format, where field specifies the
391 output aspect and value defines the value for that field. The follow‐
392 ing are the recognized fields:
393 Empty lines and comments are ignored. Comment lines are lines that
395 start with an octothorpe ('#').
396 Spaces are not allowed in the configuration values.
398 Choose your skipcolors carefully. The only foreground color used is
400 black, so your background colors must work well with black.
401
403 blinkenlights is implemented in Perl/Tk, so both Perl and Perl/Tk must
404 be installed on your system.
405
407 blinkenlights has several potential problems that must be taken into
408 account.
409 development environment
411 blinkenlights was developed and tested on a single-user system run‐
412 ning X11. While it works fine in this environment, it has not been
413 run on a system with many users or in a situation where the system
414 console hasn't been in use by the blinkenlights user.
415 long-term performance issues
417 In early tests, the longer blinkenlights runs, the slower the
418 updates become. This is probably a result of the Tk implementation
419 or the way Tk interfaces with X11. This is pure supposition,
420 though.
421 This performance impact is affected by a number of things, such as
423 the number of zones managed by rollerd and the length of rollerd's
424 sleep interval. Large numbers of zones or very short sleep inter‐
425 vals will increase the possibility of blinkenlights' performance
426 degrading.
427 This appears to have been resolved by periodically performing a
429 complete rebuild of the screen. blinkenlights keeps track of the
430 number of screen updates it makes and rebuilds the screen when this
431 count exceeds a threshold. The threshold is built into blinken‐
432 lights and stored in the $PAINTMAX variable. This threshold may be
433 adjusted if there are too many screen rebuilds or if blinkenlights'
434 performance slows too much. Raising the number will reduce the
435 screen rebuilds; lowering the number will (may) increase perfor‐
436 mance.
437
439 Copyright 2006-2007 SPARTA, Inc. All rights reserved. See the COPYING
440 file included with the DNSSEC-Tools package for details.
441
443 Wayne Morrison, tewok@users.sourceforge.net
444
446 rollctl(8), rollerd(8), zonesigner(8)
447 Net::DNS::SEC::Tools::timetrans(3)
449 Net::DNS::SEC::Tools::keyrec(5), Net::DNS::SEC::Tools::rollrec(5),
451perl v5.8.8 2007-09-14 BLINKENLIGHTS(1)