Contents
========

1. Compiling the sources
2. Installing the binaries
3. Editing your system startup files
   a) Creating the boot id at startup
   b) Running Uptimed in the background
4. Configuration of Uptimed
5. Examining the logfiles

1. Compiling the sources
========================

Type './configure && make'. This should create two binaries, 'uptimed' and
'uprecords'. Make sure you use GNU make on BSD systems, often installed as
'gmake'.

If the source does not compile, send a message to
uptimed-devel@lists.capsi.com with the compile errors. Of course you are
free to send some patches as well.

2. Installing the binaries
==========================

As root, type 'make install'. This will create a spool directory for Uptimed
and place the Uptimed binary in /usr/local/sbin, and the uprecords binary in
/usr/local/bin. If you are upgrading from a previous version, read the
INSTALL.upgrade file too.

3. Editing your system startup files
====================================

a) Creating the bootid at startup
---------------------------------

To start the program automatically every time you start up your computer, add
the following lines to your computers startup file for runlevel S.

echo "Creating unique uptime daemon bootid..."
/usr/local/sbin/uptimed -b

The right procedure varies per platform and distribution:

- Slackware Linux:
  Add it somewhere in /etc/rc.d/rc.S

- RedHat Linux:
  Add it somewhere in /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit

- Debian Linux:
  Put it in a file in /etc/init.d/ and symlink it from /etc/rc.S

- Solaris:
  Put it in a file in /etc/init.d/ and symlink it from /etc/rcS.d

- HP/UX and BSD:
  See README.unsupported file.

The -b flag is essential: it updates the /var/spool/uptimed/bootid file
resulting in a unique id per boottime. This must be done in rc.S and not in
rc.local to make sure the bootid stays intact even when switching runlevels.
When using the -b flag, Uptimed exits on purpose.

b) Running Uptimed in the background
------------------------------------


To make sure you always have Uptimed running during normal system operation, add the following lines
to your systems multi-user runlevel configuration file:

echo "Starting uptime daemon..."
/usr/local/sbin/uptimed
   
- Linux:
  Add it somewhere in /etc/rc.d/rc.local

- Solaris:
  Put it in a file in /etc/init.d/ and symlink it from /etc/rc2.d

- HP/UX and BSD:
  See README.unsupported file.

The reason there are two steps is because the boottime for most platforms is
calculated as system time minus uptime. This, unfortunately, is not a
constant. The current system time might be updated by applications such as
ntpd or rdate and timezone changes, making it unreliable as part of a unique
id. Therefore it must be stored at boot time, once, for later use.

The actual daemon however should not be started at only at boot time, because
you will want it up and running again when for example you come back from
single user mode.

So far having the -b switch and using a two-part startup process is the only
solution I have come up with that works - apart from kernel patches to have
a constant (and not calculated) boot time entry, which wouldn't be very
cross-platform.

4. Configuration of Uptimed
---------------------------

The installation process installs a file called 'uptimed.conf-dist'. Edit
its entries to your own satisfaction and save your changes as
'uptimed.conf'.

Uptimed will run perfectly with default configuration values without a
'uptimed.conf' configuration file and also accepts various command-line
arguments to overwrite both default values and configuration options.

5. Examining the logfiles
-------------------------

To see the records, type 'uprecords'. The current session will be
highlighted. You will probably only see one entry the first time you run the
program. If that bothers you, reboot a few times. ;-)