README
1README for Cricket version 1.0.5
2================================
3
4This is Cricket. It is a configuration, polling, and data-display
5engine wrapped around the RRD tool by Tobias Oetiker. There are
6three user-visible pieces to Cricket: the collector, the grapher, and
7the config tree. The collector runs from cron and fetches data
8from a number of devices according to the info it finds in the
9config tree. The grapher is a CGI application that allows users to
10traverse the config tree from a web browser and see the data that
11the collector recorded. To use Cricket you need to do these things:
12
13 * make a config tree
14 * setup the collector to run on a regular basis
15 * setup the grapher to let you look at the data
16
17Installing
18----------
19
20If you are a brand new Cricket user, you should read and
21closely follow the directions in doc/beginner.html.
22
23Upgrading
24----------
25
26(1) Read the CHANGES file to see what's new with this version.
27(2) Install this version to a separate directory from your
28existing version.
29(3) Copy subtree-sets and cricket-conf.pl from the existing
30version to this installation. Alternatively, rename this version
31cricket-conf.pl.sample to cricket-conf.pl and edit the file
32to match your settings from the cricket-conf.pl existing version.
33(4) Other potential pitfalls: If you use subtree timing info, you
34will need to edit collect-subtrees to set $subtreeTimes = 1. If
35you have placed custom images in cricket/images, you will need to
36copy these files from the existing version to this installation.
37(5) Cutover to this installation from your existing one by swapping
38the $HOME/cricket softlink to this version.
39(6) Recompile your config tree.
40(7) Run the collector or collect-subtrees by hand once to make certain
41it's still working.
42(8) Now you are ready to start experimenting with the new features
43described in the CHANGES file.
44
45Documentation
46-------------
47
48Point your web browser at the doc/index.html file and choose
49the most appropriate document from there.
50
51Patches
52-------
53
54If you manage to add a useful feature to the code (or need to
55make a bugfix just to get it running) please share a patch with
56the Cricket community, or consider becoming a Cricket developer
57and adding your code in to the next release.
58
59You can generate a patch like this:
60
61 tar xvf cricket.tar
62 mv cricket my-changes
63 # make your changes to this this copy
64 tar xvf cricket.tar
65 gnudiff -u -r cricket my-changes
66
67This will create a unified context diff from the dist directory
68to the "my-changes" directory. It will allow people to apply
69your changes to their copies of Cricket.
70
71You can find out more about contributing to Cricket development
72here:
73
74 http://cricket.sourceforge.net/devel
75
76Support
77-------
78
79You can find the most recent version of Cricket at:
80
81 http://cricket.sourceforge.net/
82
83There is information about how to get help with Cricket
84online here:
85
86 http://cricket.sourceforge.net/support/
87
88At that website, you can find the FAQ, mailing lists
89to join, mailing list archives to search, and other useful
90information about how other people are using Cricket.
91
92License
93-------
94
95Cricket is covered by the GNU General Public License.
96See the file COPYING for copying permission.
97
98Cricket is Copyright (c) 1998-2004 by Jeff Allen
99
100Individual pieces are copyrighted by their contributors, though
101they are covered by same license as Cricket, namely the GPL.
102