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NAME

       lg_intro - introduction to the looking glass

INTRODUCTION

       The  looking  glass  offers  a  web based interface to routers to users
       without their needing permission to login to the router.  This may be a
       perfect  interface  for  customer support or less savvy folks, and many
       ISPs have given public access to such an interface as a "route server."

DESCRIPTION

       The  looking  glass  consists  of  two  CGI perl(1) scripts, lg.cgi and
       lgform.cgi, and the lg.conf(5) configuration file.

       Both of these scripts begin with reading the  configuration  file.   If
       there is an error in the file’s syntax or if the file can not be found,
       error messages will be displayed on standard-error.   The  Apache  http
       server redirects standard-error to its error log file by default.

       lgform.cgi displays a html form consisting of a list of possible router
       commands that can be run and a scrolling list  of  routers  that  these
       commands may be run on.  When the form is submitted, lg.cgi is run.

       lg.cgi  begins  by performing some basic checks on the arguments passed
       to it.  If these checks pass, lg.cgi either displays cached data from a
       previous  invocation,  if  that  data  exists  and  is within the cache
       interval, or uses clogin(1) to login to  the  device  and  execute  the
       command.   The  results  of  the  command  are cached if applicable and
       displayed for the user.

GETTING STARTED

       Besides lg.conf(5), additional instructions for setting up the  looking
       glass  can be found in the README file under /var/lib/rancid/README.lg.

       Note that the looking glass scripts require  a  few  perl  modules  not
       included  with  rancid.   Rancid’s configure process does not check for
       these.  See the README file.

SEE ALSO

       cloginrc(5), clogin(1), lg.conf(5)

HISTORY

       Rancid’s looking glass is based on Ed Kern’s (included  by  permission,
       thanks Ed!), which could once be found on http://nitrous.digex.net/ but
       has apparently been removed.  Support for Juniper and Foundry  devices,
       use  of  rancid’s  device  login  scripts,  and additional commands and
       checks have been added to the original.

                                  24 Jan 2001                      lg_intro(1)