THE BIG BROTHER SYSTEM AND NETWORK MONITOR
==========================================
Version 1.9c
May 15th, 2002

(c) Copyright Quest Software, Inc.  1997-2002  All rights reserved.

      Questions? Contact:
      BB4 Technologies Inc.
      E-mail: info@bb4.com
      Tel: +1 (514) 996-INET


Please read the LICENSE agreement before using this package.


For installation instructions please refer to the README.INSTALL file.


For documentation, consult the install/README file, better yet the
complete documentation is available in HTML format
in www/help/bb-man.html, www/help/bb-faq.html & www/help/bb-info.html
or point your browser at http://bb4.com/ and hit the "HELP" button

*** READ THE README.SECURITY FILE BEFORE INSTALLING ***

If you're new to BB, we suggest that you subscribe to the
BB mailing list.  To do so, follow these instructions:

Send an e-mail to MajorDomo@bb4.com
In the body of the e-mail message (not the Subject line),        
place the statement:        

    subscribe bb            

We have searchable archives of the mailing list available
at http://support.bb4.com.  Thanks to Nick Silberstein 
for initially creating and housing it.

When you have finished installing BB on all of your
monitored hosts, you might want to check out the FTP archive
that contains many contributed scripts.  Adam Goryachev
house them at ftp://ftp.deadcat.net/pub/BB, better
yet try http://www.deadcat.net/


Changes (for more details see the README.CHANGES file)
=======
new in 1.9c
	LARRD graph integration in status logs. Fixed a
	performance problem in bb-network.sh.
new in 1.9b
	bbrun is now compiled C program. Escalated/delayed
	recipients with large intervals are now notified
	properly. Reuse ACK id when pagetype is EVENT.
	Timestamp qualifiers s/m/h/d are now available
	in status messages.
new in 1.9a
	Fix for SuSE ping bug in 1.9 wasn't complete
new in 1.9
	Color and minutes are configurable for server
	reboot check.  Generated HTML pages in pages/subpages
	can have their own header/footer and rep_header/rep_footer
	files based on the page/subpage.  Fixes misc bugs: red
	warning instead of yellow in process check, SUSE ping bug,
	log file subset name problem, HTTP test with & in the name,
	don't match noconn and dialup on hostnames.
new in 1.8d4
	fix in 1.8d3 wasn't complete...
new in 1.8d3
	Correct mistake introduced in 1.8d2: bb-combo.sh not counting
	bytes in current message correctly.
new in 1.8d2
	Fixed bugs with "subpage" directive. BB can now safely check
	local tests in bb-procs.sh. Added WCC and MAILC paths. Misc
	bug fixes and display issues.
new in 1.8d1
	Fixed multiple subpage bug: top directory
	would be lost after 1st subapge.
new in 1.8d
	Added subpage keyword to bb-hosts. Darwin
	support added.  Fixed misc. bugs.
new in 1.8c
	Minor bug fixes
new in 1.8b4
	summary directive now sends color of given URL so a
	subpage summary can be sent to a remote BBDISPLAY.
	Improve handling of large files in bb-msgs.sh. 
	Added script to backup BB data. New network test
	name is defined in bbdef.sh not bb-network.
	Added numerous HTML anchors in generated web pages.
	Minor changes to SUN, AIX, OSF and Linux platforms.
	Minor fixes: bbmv, bbrm, mkbb.cols, mkbb.page.
new in 1.8b3
	Combo messages weren't properly relayed.
new in 1.8b2
	Minor bug fixes to message checking, notification
	http testing and installation script.
new in 1.8b1
	Aestetic change to bb-replog.sh. BBRELAY check
	in bbchkhosts.sh.
new in 1.8b
	Fixed Messages file test. Time Non-Critical wasn't
	displayed proprely in bb-replog.sh.  Minor changes
	of HTML pages.
new in 1.8a
	Fix handled of undefined red/yellow strings in bb-msgstab
new in 1.8
	Added SuSE installation support.  Network and local
	tests now use combo message to send status logs.
	Location of BBPID & BBOUT are now user definable.
	WAP displays also acknoledgements. BBRELAY implemented:
	messages can be forwarded to another BBDISPLAY/BBPAGER.
	bbmv/bbrm can be used to work on a single service.
	PINGWARN defines how many failed pings before yellow
	status is reached.  Minor display changes. Introduced
	etc/bb-msgstab and etc/bb-bbexttab: defines parameters
	for logs file checking and external scripts execution.
new in 1.7b4
        WAP acks were always sent to BB4 ...
new in 1.7b3
	Added support for &CGIBINRUL in headers, small changes
	to mail acknowledgements, modified installation script
	when checking validity of user ID.
	Misc bug fixes: Wap page generation, regular expressions
	in SCO, sendpage integration, wrong background colors
	in reporting, manual notification.
new in 1.7b2
	Number of pings and sleep factor in connectivity test,
	and default external test values are now configurable.
	Bugs: removed unecessary sleep in bb-ping.sh, unitialized
	variable in dohostsvc.c and out of scope variable in bbsend.c
new in 1.7b1
	Changed over how sms-<rcpt> was modifed in 1.7b ;)
new in 1.7b
	Introduced bb-cputab, WAP Acknowledgements. bb.wml
	an bb2.wml can span multiple pages to circumvent
	WAP device cache size. Real load average can be
	displayed in CPU test.  An hostname alias can be used.
	minor display bug fixes.
new in 1.7a
	minor fixes to eventlog.sh and acklog.sh
new in 1.7
	Checkmark image appears for events that are current
	and that are acknowledged.  Combo message type
	introduced. Process test can now check for the
	number of instances is running.  Yellow/Red thresholds
	are now user-definable for SLA reporting. Options
	for the bbnet executable can now be defined in the
	bb-hosts file. Messages file(s) check can now
	use old method or new method (msg exipry).
	Misc bug fixes: SMS message length, briefrcpt message,
	WML generation.  Added more descriptive comments on
	certain error messages.
new in 1.6e1
	Fixed compilation problem under non-gcc compilers
new in 1.6e
	Added: TOP support in CPU check, event counts in
	stats reporting.  Fixes to: notifications, network
	testing and subpage display.
new in 1.6d
	Fixed missing recoveries on certain OSes
new in 1.6c
	Added a change that should have made it in 1.6b
new in 1.6b
	Fixed improper handling of ! rules and recipients.
	Changed how putenv() is handled. Corrected incorrect
	status when disabling local tests. 
new in 1.6a
	Fixed "invalid time range" error.
new in 1.6
	Final release from betas. new "bbd" test.
	fixed bug in bb-hist.sh, connectivity and
	string replacement function. Specific port # can
	be defined for TCP network tests.
new in 1.6beta3
	Fixes to 1.6beta2. Added /bin/ln. Ack script
	C-fied. added index.wml. minor changes to
	bb-network.sh
new in 1.6beta2
	Proper bbnet error messages, TCP code displayed
	properly in error message.
new in 1.6beta1
	Some code fixes, debugging set with -DDEBUG=1,
	local tests can be disabled
new in 1.6beta
	Notification feature rewritten in C. Some SCO changes.
	Mail acknowledgements for events now available. Misc
	bug fixes.
new in 1.5d3
	Fixed low-priority security issue 
new in 1.5d2
	Fixed reenabling hosts bug.
new in 1.5d1
	Fixed RedHat ping problem. Removed additional characters
	from incoming message. Changed function name in bbd.c to
	prevent name clash with external lib.
new in 1.5d
	briefrcpt can be specified with a regular expression. minor
	coding cleanup.
new in 1.5c2
	Misc bug fixes. Security fix. Unsupported SNMP trap support.
new in 1.5c1
	More bug fixes
new in 1.5c
	Fix to acknowledge output, HTML generation bug fix
new in 1.5b
	Bug fixes: Report generation in Solaris and in historical data
new in 1.5a
	Performance enhancements to HTML generation(3x to 5x faster).
	<BASE> tag removed; URL paths relative to /.  Reporting
	script merged with HTML generating script.  Local tests
	modularized. Bug fixes: HTTP tests now handled properly
	if ? or | is part of URL, pg- recipient escalation, SMTP
	test fix, error handling in reporting.
new in 1.5
	Availability reporting. WAP enabled display (optional).
	?ftp describes a dialup service (returns clean on failure).
	Implemented new structure.  Fixed bugs: recovery handling,
	no paging when using status+feature.
new in 1.4h
	dialup host's local test turn to clear instead of purple
	when the log expires. Fixed duplicate offline/online
	messages. Optional message in disable request.
	Parallelized network tests. dialup hosts are tested only
	once. Sleep interval is adjusted to script run time.
	Fixed touchtime bug on Alpha Linux.
new in 1.4g
	fix handling of enable/disable of all hosts.
	Added group-only directive. Fixed potential
	security problem. Fixes to LYNX. Added sanity checks
new in 1.4f
	corrected documentation for failover. Fixed a bug
	in security file handling where on Solaris bbd
	would core dump.

new in 1.4e
	Maintenance release. Fix a fgets call. that's all.

new in 1.4d
	Fix bug in security file handling..., bug where temporary files
	were left around, proper status color match, neon yellow remove
	from history, fixed erroneous purple reports. Other misc changes.
	Introduced failover mode for BBPAGER and BBNET.
new in 1.4c
	bug fixes (especially a nasty notification bug),
	minor tweaks and mandrake support.
new in 1.4b
	fixes to 1.4, 1.4a
new in 1.4a
	fixes to 1.4
new in 1.4
	Clean 64-bit networking code
	enable/disable of paging
	messages now can be valid for a predetermined amount of time
	basic support for skins (different looks)
	Added 'data' & 'notes' message types
	Added Caldera support
	Self-correcting installation procedure
	Event logs by host and install (all hosts)
new in 1.3a
	HTML status logs can be created dynamically. Many
	OS specific changes.  Updated the installation
	procedure, again.  bug fixes.  Code is more modular
	for the display of status logs.
new in 1.3
	Support for multiple BBDISPLAY and BBPAGERS, totally new
	look and feel, much of it user configurable.
new in 1.2b
	Partial support for https, multiple http tests for same 
	host, logs of notification & recovery msgs, added brief option
	for specific recipients, group of hosts and recipients to simplify
	notification rules setup.  Specific fix in bbnet for Linux users.
	Usual tidying up of code and fixing up minor bugs and annoyances.
new in 1.2a
	Fixed subpages bugs: subpage don't required groups and
	don't repeat the last line of the last subpage in the
	main page.  runbb.sh output should always go to
	$BBHOME/BBOUT.  Also fixed bb-network.sh which didn't
	always send back the proper status.
new in 1.2
	Escalation & initial delay for notification. Notification
	on recovery of problem. Option to create display subpages.
	Added new exclude rule in bbwarnrules.cfg. Certain messages
	can be ignored in system messages file check.
	BBDISPLAY/BBPAGER can be on DHCP systems ! External
	programs easily integrated now. Startup is now much simpler
	and flexible (start/restart/stop).  It's even more lynx
	friendly.  Minor cosmetic changes.
New in 1.09d
	Fixed security problem
New in 1.09c
	Addes dgux support, some cosmetic changes, changed the color
	of the text from white to FFFFCC to be printer-friendly.  Also
	fixed buglet with alarm timeouts in bbnet.
New in 1.09b
	HTMLized history.  bbnet less prone to false alarms.
	Added options to touchtime. Fixed bugs: buffer overflow,
	summary handling, ...  Added IMAP support, custom service
	checking.  Dynix support.
New in 1.09a
	Oops ! forgot to add anything :)
New in 1.09:
	Status file are HTMLized. Notifications are sent with an
	ticket number of seven digits. Using this number the 
	notification can be acknowledged and won't be repeated for
	a specified amount of time.  Notifications can be sent for
	any level (not just red). Default is now notify on red/purple.
	Mail only notifications can also be sent on a specified alert
	level(s). bbnet can now send an initialization string.

New in 1.08b:
	Official support for BDSI from Matt Simerson <matt@michweb.net>
	BBWARN (notification matrix: see Sept '98 SysAdmin Mag) merged
	in. Added scripts to verify validity of hosts and config files.

New in 1.08a:
	Support for multiple disk partition level monitoring, using the
	etc/bb-dftab file, kermit version 6 numeric pager support, fixes 
	for AIX and some Web display cleanup.

New in 1.08:
	Groups that don't have data for all the columns in a BB display
	can remove those columns by using the keyword "group-compress"
	in the etc/bb-hosts file.  The BB summary display now only
	displays columns that contain non-green data.

New in 1.07c:
	The most significant change in this release is that more info
	is being sent to the BB server - full df output as well as 
	the entire HTTP server responses.  

New in 1.07b:
	Now all internet services are paged on if they fail.  If you don't
	want to be paged, add the service to NONETPAGE in etc/bbdef.sh.
	Thanks to Patrick Hopewell <p.hopewell@utoronto.ca> for pointing
	out this problem.

New in 1.07a:
	Better testing for services in bb-network.sh - no more can't shift errors.
	Less obscure error messages from bb and bbnet

New in 1.07:
	The MacLawran Group Inc now has a proper server on the net.
	All addresses have changed to http://MacLawran.ca/bb-dnld.

	New bb-hosts keyword - "noping" if you want to disable the
	ping test.  DNS failures now mention where from, and the

	Subject line of BB mail has been made more concise.

New in 1.06e:
	No more touch command!  touchtime has been modified to
	create files all by itself.  Fixes bugs created by 1.06d.
	Dialup hosts now generate clear dots when network tests 
	fail and a minor change to bb-local.sh for process paging.

New in 1.06d:
	Bugfix and y2k change to touchtime.c.  Arguments returned
	now include a 2 digit year.  Fix to ping parameters for
	hpux 10.X from Steve Bonds <sbonds@agora.rdrop.com>

New in 1.06c:
	dns server testing from Frank Kujawski <frank@bluegrass.net>
	A DNS server running on a host can be tested by putting the
	keyword 'dns' on the corresponding host line in etc/bb-hosts.

	Corrected a bug where 'dialup' connections paged when they
	shouldn't.  Found by rpeiffer@smacek.com (Rich Peiffer)  .

New in 1.06b:
	NT client now available (not included here)

	Minor change to support Roxen proxy server testing.

	Support for proxy calling in bb-hosts file.  If you're 
	using a proxy server, specify it in the hosts file as 
	follows: http://proxy.com:port/http://check-this-addr.com

	Better security in bbd.c: bounds checking, better handling of 
	etc/security file, better error messages and immediate
	restart on Solaris (SO_REUSEADDR).

	Better support for Redhat, better error messages

New in 1.06a:
	Big Brother now supports display grouping of machines.
	Just put the word "group" on a line in etc/bb-hosts and
	a new table will be created with the contents of that
	line.  i.e. the following line in bb-hosts:

	group <H3><I>Web Servers</I></H3>

	will create a new table called "Web Servers". The table
	will contain every line up until the next group directive
	or summary/dialup lines, that have their own syntax.  These
	lines can contain HTML commands, at your own risk.

	The generated pages are now a little cleaner in terms of
	HTML syntax, and will load *much* faster if grouping is 
	enabled.

Additions for 1.06:
	Copyright clearly asserted just about everywhere.  New
	and clearer license agreement.

Fixes for 1.05a:
	Improved redhat support (finally) and fixed PAGINGLOCK
	call in runbb.sh.  From Martin Richard <martin@europa.collegebdeb.qc.ca>

New Features in 1.05:

	Added security feature to allow bbd to control incoming
	requests.  If the file $BBHOME/etc/security exists, only 
	those systems whose network or IP addresses listed will
	be considered.  Others are ignored.

	Make BB Explorer friendly by adding HEIGHT and WIDTH tags
	notes file can now be .html / .htm / or no extension

	touchtime can now return arbitrary times
	New default minimum time between pages

	Preliminary support for groups within BB
	Support for polling IP addresses only
	Support for devices that aren't always present
	Bugfix in web/mkbb2.sh (Ruediger.Schuetz@Munich.Netsurf.DE)

Have fun.
--
Sean MacGuire					sean@bb4.com
