SYNOPSIS

pingd start

pingd stop

pingd process

pingd add address [address ...]

pingd delete address [address ...]

pingd disable address [address ...]

pingd enable address [address ...]

pingd set option=value [option=value..] address [address ...]

pingd setremailercaps capsstring

pingd deleteremailercaps address

pingd getkeyconf [address [address ...]]

pingd sendpings [address [address ...]]

pingd sendchainpings address:address [address:address ...]

pingd buildstats

pingd buildkeys

pingd buildthesaurus

pingd buildfromlines

pingd summary

pingd dumpconf

DESCRIPTION

A Pinger in the context of anonymous remailers is a program that regularily sends messages through remailers to check their reliability. It then calculates reliability statistics which are used by remailer clients to choose the chain of remailers to use.

Additionally it collects configuration parameters and keys of all remailers and offers them in a format readable by remailer clients.

When called without parameters pingd schedules tasks like sending pings, processing incoming mail and requesting remailer-xxx data and runs them at configurable intervalls.

COMMANDS

start

Start the ping daemon.

stop

Send the running pingd process a SIGTERM.

process

Sends a HUP signal to the daemon which instructs it to process the commands.

For other effects of sending the HUP Signal see the SIGNALS section below.

add address [address ...]

Add address to the list of remailers to query for keys and confs.

delete address [address ...]

Delete address from the list of remailers to query for keys and confs. Delete all statistics and keys for that remailer.

Note that echolot will add back this remailer if it learns of it from other remailers again. If you do not want that, use the disable command.

disable address [address ...]

Shorthand for set showit=off pingit=off fetch=off. This makes echolot completely ignore that remailer, until you enable it again.

enable address [address ...]

Shorthand for set showit=on pingit=on fetch=on.

set option=value [option=value..] address [address ...]

Possible options and values:

showit={on,off}

Set showit (show remailer in mlist, rlist etc.) for remailer address to either on or off.

pingit={on,off}

Set pingit (send out pings to that remailer) for remailer address to either on or off.

fetch={on,off}

Set fetch (fetch remailer-key and remailer-conf) for remailer address to either on or off.

setremailercaps capsstring

Some remailers (Mixmaster V2 - currently lcs and passthru2) don't return a useable remailer-conf message. For such remailers you need to set it manually.

For instance:

    ./pingd setremailercaps '$remailer{"passthru2"} = "<[email protected]> mix middle";'
    ./pingd setremailercaps '$remailer{"lcs"} = "<[email protected]> mix klen1000";'

deleteremailercaps address

Delete remailer-conf data for address. The config data will be reset from the next valid remailer-conf reply by the remailer.

getkeyconf [address [address ...]]

Send a command to immediatly request keys and configuration from remailers. If no addresses are given requests will be sent to all remailers.

sendpings [address [address ...]]

Send a command to immediatly send pings to the given remailers. If no addresses are given requests will be sent to all remailers.

sendchainpings address:address [address:address ...]

Send a command to immediatly send chain pings to the given chains. A chain is two remailer addresses seperated by a colon.

buildstats

Send a command to immediatly rebuild stats.

buildkeys

Send a command to immediatly rebuild the keyrings.

buildthesaurus

Send a command to immediatly rebuild the Thesaurus.

buildfromlines

Send a command to immediatly rebuild the From Header lines page.

summary

Print a status summary of all known addresses to the log (level notice).

dumpconf

Dumps the current configuration to standard output.

OPTIONS

--basedir

The home directory to which everything else is relative. See the BASE DIRECTORY section below.

--verbose

Verbose mode. Causes pingd to print debugging messages about its progress.

--quiet

Quiet mode. Be even quieter than normal.

--help

Print a short help message and exit sucessfully.

--version

Print version number and exit sucessfully.

--nohup

Usefull only with the add, set, setremailercaps, deleteremailercaps, getkeyconf, sendpings, sendchainpings, buildstats, buildkeys, buildthesaurus, buildfromlines, or summary command.

Don't send a HUP signal to the daemon which instructs it to process the commands after adding the command to the task list.

By default such a signal is sent.

--process

Usefull only with the start command.

Read and process the commands file on startup.

--detach

Usefull only with the start command.

Tell pingd to detach.

BASE DIRECTORY

Basedir defaults to whatever directory the pingd binary is located. It can be overridden by the ECHOLOT_HOME environment variable which in turn is weaker than the --basedir setting.

This directory is then used to locate the configuration file pingd.conf (see FILES below).

The homedir setting in pingd.conf finally sets the base directory.

FILES

the file pointed to by the ECHOLOT_CONF environment variable

<basedir>/pingd.conf

$HOME/echolot/pingd.conf

$HOME/pingd.conf

$HOME/.pingd.conf

/etc/echolot/pingd.conf

/etc/pingd.conf

AUTHOR