🚀 go-pugleaf

Hello All!

I have written a utility called BOUNCER, and I want to give it away to
anyone who would like to maintain it in the future....

The reason for giving it away is that we are going to close down our
VM-system (sigh)....

I think it would be nice if BOUNCER some time in the future would end up
in the VM-UTIL FILELIST, but to get there it needs to be tested in other
installations, and it needs to have someone to maintain it -- and
unfortunately this person cannot be me. BOUNCER has been my "toy", and I
would be happy if I could find it a new home now that its' old home is
condemned... :-)

Now I'd better tell you what BOUNCER actually does, and I'll do that by
citing from the documentation that I just finished:


> 1. GENERAL DESCRIPTION
> ----------------------
>
> The BOUNCER exec is run in a server machine, and is used to kick
> off users that are inactive. Some installations use SMART for
> this, but SMART is actually not very smart! The problem is that
> SMART has only one time-limit, and only two classes of users:
> those to be kicked off and those not to be kicked off. BOUNCER on
> the other hand has a configuration file, in which you specify
> different time intervals for different types of users.
>
> BOUNCER works with TWO time-limits: online & total. When your
> online-idle-time runs out BOUNCER will try to force you into
> disconnect, and later when your total-idle-time runs out you will
> be forced completely off.
>
> At Aarhus Technical College we use BOUNCER with a configuration
> file in which highly privileged users (A- & B- and DIRMAINT-privi-
> leges) gets disconnected after 10 minutes, but never gets FORCED
> completely (to keep temporary disks, etc.). Service machines are
> never disconnected nor forced. General users have limits of 30
> minutes online and 60 minutes total.
>
> One of the core elements of BOUNCER is the WAKEUP module from IPF.
> By using WAKEUP with the FILE-option, it is possible to make
> BOUNCER wake up at certain intervals -- as well as on specific
> times during the day.
>
> The usefulness of BOUNCER is very dependent on the ability to
> force a user into DISCONNECT. As there is no VM command that will
> do this you have to implement it in another way. BOUNCER calls a
> user exit to do the job, and in the last section of this document
> you will find some suggestions on how to do this.
>
> BOUNCER looks at the "TOD-timestamp on queue entry" in the VMBLOK
> when it wants to find out how long a user has been idle.  To peek
> into the VMBLOK BOUNCER must be run from a user having either A-
> or E-privileges. I do not know if this will work on VM/XA or
> VM/ESA.


We have BOUNCER running here right now, and it does a fine job.

-- anybody interested in taking over?

---------------
Anders Bandholm
   Computer Department
   Aarhus Technical College

Telephone . . . . . . : +45 86 16 61 00 ext. 458
Mail  . . . . . . . . : Halmstadgade 6, DK-8200 Aarhus N, DENMARK
Current e-mail  . . . : edbab@dkjau11.earn
New e-mail  . . . . . : aba@aarhuts.dk