(R) RELEASE NOTES for PEEK & SPY VERSION 5.4.06 --------------------------------------------- PROPRIETARY RIGHTS NOTICE: This material contains the valuable properties and trade secrets of Networking Dynamics Corporation (NDC) of Clearwater, Florida, United States of America embodying substantial creative effort and confidential information, ideas and expressions, no part of which may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, or otherwise, including photocopying and recording or in connection with any information storage or retrieval system without permission in writing from NDC. The information in this document is subject to change without notice and should not be construed as a commitment by NDC. NDC assumes no responsibility for any errors that may appear in this document. COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Copyright (c) 1983, 1987-2010 an unpublished work by Networking Dynamics Corporation. All rights reserved. PEEK & SPY, MultiSessions, and KeyCapture are trademarks of Networking Dynamics Corporation. Alpha, VAX and VMS are registered trademarks of Hewlett-Packard Company. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Version Information: ------------------- Version 5.4.06 is a maintenance release of Peek & Spy. Customers should upgrade to version 5.4.06 at their earliest convenience to avoid any possibility of the need for an emergency upgrade of Peek & Spy should there be a license failure in their existing version of Peek & Spy. ------------ Version 5.4.05 corrected some memory-alignment issues which can degrade system performance on Alpha and especially on IA64. Version 5.4.05 also corrected a sychronization problem in the watch-across-the- network feature which could leave a terminal hung if a watcher loop was detected where a terminal tried to watch someone across the network who was already watching them. ------------ Version 5.4.04 has added a $ PEEK/SHOW ACTIVE command to show information on all active watchers using Peek, and a $ SPY/SHOW ACTIVE command to show all active watchers using either Peek or Spy. Since this command falls into the realm of system management, it requires SYSPRV and SECURITY privileges to use it. -- Version 5.4.04 has added a $ PEEK/CONTROL=pid command. Note that this command does not accept nodenames or wildcards in the Process-ID specification. There are situations where one may want to control another terminal which is already being watched by someone else and one does not want to be a secondary watcher who must explicitly request keyboard control. In a situation like this, one solution is to watch the terminal of the user who is watching the terminal you want to control. E.g.: TNA5 <-- watched by TNA13 becomes TNA5 <-- watched by TNA13 <-- watched by you TNA5 is being watched by TNA13, so you watch TNA13. You can then take over the keyboard of TNA13 and use it to enter input for TNA5. One could also then do an End-Watch for TNA13, so one can then start directly watching TNA5 as the primary watcher. There could be a whole chain of watchers and the $ PEEK/CONTROL or SPY/CONTROL command will automatically add one to the end of the primary-watcher chain. TNA5 <-- watched by TNA13 <-- watched by LTA44 <-- watched by you For controlling the watched-terminal's keyboard, $ PEEK/CONTROL works best when all watchers are using simultaneous input. If simultaneous input is not in effect then one would need to toggle input in order to enter input for the terminal being watched. Any hot-keys you want to enter on behalf of the watcher whom you are watching must be quoted (using the QUOTE hot-key). Quoting a hot-key tells Peek to pass it on, instead of immediately acting upon it. See the Peek manual for details on the use of the Quote hot-key. Enter the correct sequence of Quote hot-keys when there is a chain of watchers can get very complex. It is far easier if all watchers in the chain are using simultaneous input. With everyone using simultaneous input, one can type for the end-user without bothering about entering the toggle-input hot-key or quoting the toggle-input hot-key to get it to operate for some other watcher in the chain. Everyone could use a $ PEEK xxx/SIMULTANEOUS_INPUT command, or better yet in this case, set WATCHER$SIMULTANEOUS_INPUT to TRUE in PEEK_DEFAULTS.COM or define WATCHER$SIMULTANEOUS_INPUT as TRUE in the process, job, group or system logical name tables. Note that proper etiquette should be used when simultaneous input is in effect since everyone in the chain will be able to type input for the end-user without restrictions. -- Version 5.4.04 fixes a use-count problem which could cause a secondary watcher's terminal to hang when an End-Watch was done if the secondary watcher had been automatically promoted to being the primary watcher during watching (because the original primary watcher stopped watching). -- Version 5.4.04 fixes a synchronization problem that could occur if an End-Watch was done in the middle of the initial-screen refresh. In earlier versions of Peek & Spy, it was possible that the watcher's terminal would end up hung due to this synchronization problem. ------------ Version 5.2.09 Adds the /TIME_OF_DAY qualifier for the /REOPEN option. ------------ Version 5.2.06 fixes a bug found in Peek & Spy on VMS V8 where terminals with unit numbers > 9999 weren't recognized unless explicitly specified with the /TERMINAL= qualifier. ------------ Version 5.2.05 fixes a critical problem discovered in Peek & Spy on Alpha which can cause a system crash on a system that is doing a lot of paging. A file from the port of Peek & Spy to Itanium was incorrectly included in the Alpha build of Peek & Spy, which caused this bug. Anyone using Peek & Spy or KeyCapture on VMS-Alpha should immediately upgrade to the 5.2.05 version of these products to eliminate a possible system crash in earlier 5.2 versions of Peek & Spy on VMS-Alpha. ------------ Version 5.2.04 fixes a critical problem in Peek & Spy on VMS-Alpha Version 8 when Peek & Spy is used with with NDC's MultiSessions product or with permanently-connected terminals such as TTAs or TXAs. (Please note that this potential crash with Peek & Spy on VMS-Alpha V8 was discovered during NDC's own testing of Peek & Spy. NDC has not received any reports of customer systems having been affected.) Anyone using Peek & Spy or KeyCapture on VMS-Alpha version 8 should immediately upgrade to the 5.2.04 version of these products to eliminate a possible system crash in earlier 5.2 versions of Peek & Spy on VMS-Alpha version 8. ------------ Version 5.2.03 fixed a synchonization issue which could cause the NDC2ACP process to abort if the terminal being tracked went away mid a logfile write or extend. (An NDC2ACP process abort requires a system reboot before Peek & Spy will again function on the system concerned.) Version 5.2.03 also fixed a possible problem with terminal typeahead. This problem had only actually appeared on VMS-Itanium, but the offending code is now fixed for all versions of VMS. ------------ Version 5.2.02 was the original release for VMS 8.2 and 8.3 on Alpha. With the release of PEEK & SPY version 5.1, all input-logging has been split out of PEEK & SPY into our greatly-enhanced companion product, KeyCapture. Due to security considerations regarding passwords, the previous rudimentary input-watching capability of SPY has now been disabled. All input-logging is now handled by KeyCapture. See the KeyCapture release notes for more details. For security reasons, KeyCapture now requires a license key from NDC. It will not automatically demo when installed on a system. ------------ Version 5.1.17 contains a fix for a rare but serious problem which could occur during an RTA unit ^Y^Y disconnect. Version 5.1.16 contains a fix for a rare but serious problem which could occur on a system doing a lot of paging. Version 5.1.15 contains a fix for a rare problem in the RTA terminal interface that could cause the NDC2ACP process to abort. Version 5.1.14 implemented a change that allows Peek & Spy to be shut down and restarted on VMS version 7.3-2. (Due to a change in a VMS data structure, earlier versions of Peek & Spy get a DUPLNAM error on VMS 7.3-2 if you do a PEEK_STARTUP after doing a PEEK_SHUTDOWN.) Beginning in version 5.1.14, PEEK_STARTUP.COM checks for an incomplete shutdown of an earlier version of Peek & Spy. Even though PEEK & SPY has never been a heavy consumer of system resources, a new kernel architecture implemented with version 5.1 dramatically reduces the CPU time used by PEEK & SPY's ACP process. The ACP and error reporting processes have been renamed from PEEKACP and PEEKERR to NDC2ACP and NDC2RPT since these processes are now used by both PEEK & SPY and KeyCapture. A security hole regarding VTAs has been addressed in version 5.1. Disconnecting from and then reconnecting to a VTA no longer disables output logging. Non-permanent log files are now supported on terminals that have done a PEEK/SAVE/PERMANENT. To create a permanent log file, use the command PEEK/SAVE/LOG/PERMANENT. Security has been increased on permanent log files (log files created with the /PERMANENT qualifier). PEEK & SPY now suspends terminal input/output if any errors occur when permanent logging is in effect. File version numbers are no longer allowed in log file specifications. The next version number is used. Privileges are now checked as part of PEEK_SHUTDOWN.COM. PEEK_SHUTDOWN.COM now also ends permanent logging (logging started with the /PERMANENT qualifier). SPY_ONLY systems may now use the PEEK/SAVE_SCREEN command to start screen-saving so SPY users have an initial screen refresh available when the start watching someone with SPY. This allows screen-saving to be started by users who do not have the necessary access and/or privileges to run the SPY program. ACCPORNAM has been added to PEEK & SPY's "In a moment you will begin watching" informational screen. ACCPORTNAM has also been added to the available journaling formats for use with PEEK & SPY program usage journaling. The /TRACE qualifier has been renamed to /TRCLEN to make the first four characters of the KeyCapture /TRACK qualifier unique. For Alpha-VMS systems using NDC's MultiSessions product, a new version of MultiSessions (Version 3.6) is now available which automatically turns on screen-saving/terminal-logging for the first NDC unit, if screen-saving/ terminal-logging was turned on for the physical terminal using the /BACKGROUND (or /SINGLE_WINDOW or /WINDOW) qualifier. This feature is now automatic when using Peek & Spy version 5.1 with MultiSessions version 3.6 (or later). Change to the ALLOW command and PEEK$ALLOW_username and SPY$ALLOW_username -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The PEEK ALLOW command and the PEEK$ALLOW_username and SPY$ALLOW_username feature found in PEEK_DEFAULTS.COM all now accept a minus before each individual allow specification. The minus means disallow this user. E.g. PEEK/ALLOW -J_BOND,-H_POTTER,* This command disallows J_BOND and H_POTTER, but allows anyone else to watch the user with PEEK. The allow data is scanned from left to right and terminates on the first match, so the * must come last in the above example. Changes in PEEK & SPY version 4.8: --------------------------------- Version 4.8.21 fixed some display problems with the RTA interface discovered during extensive testing of version 4.6.18. In particular, the performance of the VAX RTA interface with MS 2.8 was improved. The PEEK & SPY version number was bumped from 4.7 to 4.8 to match the 2.8 for VAX MS. The PEEK/FORMAT command on Alpha was enhanced so that a user-specified page length or screen width does not get overridden by page-length or screen-width data in the log file being formatted. Version 4.6.18 fixed a rare bugcheck in the converted-RTA code which could occur on a fast SMP machine. Version 4.6.16 fixed a rare bugcheck which could occur following an initial screen refresh. Version 4.6.15 fixed an extremely rare bugcheck which could occur on an Endwatch on an SMP machine. Version 4.6.14 fixed a serious problem which was accidentally introduced into the PEEK/DISALLOW code starting in version 4.6.08. This problem occurred when the DISALLOW command was used while being watched by someone and is now fixed in version 4.6.14. Version 4.6.12 fixed the RTA interface so it now handles unsolicited terminal input and broadcast mailboxes properly. It also improved the RTA interface's handling of control characters such as Ctrl-Z and Ctrl-T, etc. Version 4.6.10 fixed a CPU loop which sometimes occured during an abnormal exit from the PEEK program. Version 4.6.09 fixed a rare bugcheck which could possibly occur if a terminal being watched disconnects while the watcher is typing input for that terminal. Version 4.6.09 also fixed some problems in 4.6.08 with the PEEK/ALLOW command. The ALLOW command will now accept full wildcards for usernames or terminal names (Terminal names must start with an _ and end with a :). Wildcards in the ALLOW command are not check against Rights-list identifiers. Version 4.6.08 introduced multiple, simultaneous watchers. More than one watcher may now watch the same terminal all at the same time. The first watcher is designated the primary watcher. The primary watcher has the same behavior which a PEEK & SPY watcher has always had. A second, third, etc watcher watching the same terminal are all designated secondary watchers. Secondary watchers may watch, but other hot-keys do not function for a secondary watcher, except as noted below. When the primary watcher stops watching, the first secondary watcher in line becomes the new primary watcher. Several new hot-keys and qualifiers have been added in support of multiple- watchers: 1. A PERMIT_INPUT hot-key for permitting a watcher to temporarily provide input when that watcher wouldn't otherwise be allowed to control the watched-user's keyboard. 2. A REQUEST_INPUT hot-key for requesting this ability to provide input. 3. The SIMULTANEOUS_INPUT and NOBEEP qualifiers for the WATCH command now have cousins PSIMUL and PNOBEEP which are used when the watcher is a secondary watcher who is temporarily permitted keyboard control via the PERMIT_INPUT and REQUEST_INPUT hot-keys. This allows for different default settings for these qualifiers depending on whether one is a primary or secondary watcher. See the PEEK_DEFAULTS.COM file for a description of the behavior and use of these new hot-keys and qualifiers. As part of adding multiple-watcher support to PEEK & SPY, we have now also incorporated more of the formerly AXP-only PEEK & SPY features into the VAX version of PEEK & SPY. In particular on VAX, PEEK & SPY 4.6.09 now has the terminal-logging features previously only available with PEEK & SPY on AXP, such as: 1. Ability to watch a terminal which is also doing terminal-logging. 2. Ability to periodically re-open terminal log files based on elapsed time or log-file size. Changes in PEEK & SPY version 4.6: --------------------------------- The PEEK$ALLOW_username and SPY$ALLOW_username lists in PEEK_DEFAULTS.COM now allow use of wildcards in any usernames specified in the list. (Previously wildcards were functional in terminal-names in the list, but not in usernames.) A problem in version 4.5 with protections on converted RTA terminals has been corrected. Changes in PEEK & SPY version 4.5: --------------------------------- Version 4.5.04 of PEEK & SPY provides fully-functioning RTA terminal support for both AXP and VAX. This includes initial-screen-display and watcher-keyboard- control for RTAs on both AXP and VAX. Version 4.5.04 contains some fixes to earlier versions. Anyone using earlier versions should upgrade to 4.5.04 as soon as possible to avoid hitting any of the problems in earlier versions which are now corrected in 4.5.04. Version 4.5 introduced the PEEK_LOGIN.COM command procedure. It is recommended that any commands for starting up PEEK & SPY screen-saving or terminal-logging be placed in this command procedure. Then PEEK_LOGIN.COM can be invoked during login, instead of placing PEEK & SPY commands directly into LOGIN.COM or SYLOGIN.COM. PEEK_LOGIN.COM contains various examples of commands to use for starting screen-saving or terminal-logging. A command file CHECK_TERMINMALS.COM has been added to the distribution. It will check all terminal devices on the system and report on whether or not they are fully compatible with PEEK & SPY. It is also possible to use the mask value displayed by CHECK_TERMINALS.COM to selectively disable certain terminal validations which are done by PEEK & SPY, thus allowing PEEK & SPY to access these terminals. (Note the cautions mentioned by CHECK_TERMINALS.COM.) Extensive modifications were made to the PEEK_DEFAULTS.COM file for version 4.4. A file called PEEK_DEFAULTS.PRE-44 is included in the distribution for customers who are upgrading from a version of PEEK & SPY earlier than 4.4. You may do a VMS DIFFERENCES command between your existing pre-version 4.4 PEEK_DEFAULTS.COM file and the PEEK_DEFAULTS.PRE-44 file provided. Then edit the changes found over into the new 4.6 version of PEEK_DEFAULTS.COM. Users upgrading from PEEK & SPY version 4.4 to 4.6 can do a DIFFERENCES command on their existing PEEK_DEFAULTS.COM against the version of PEEK_DEFAULTS.TEMPLATE which came with version 4.4, and then edit any customizations they've made into the new PEEK_DEFAULTS.COM for version 4.6. In Version 4.4 on AXP, the use of PEEK & SPY with MultiSessions was improved as covered below. Other improvements incorporarted into PEEK & SPY version 4.5.04 are also covered below. PEEK 4.5.04 works on VAX VMS version 5.5 through 7.2, and on AXP VMS version 6.1 through 7.2. New Features: ------------- RTA terminals are now fully-supported on both AXP and VAX, including initial full-sceen display and watcher keyboard control, etc. For AXP, RTA terminal support is incorporated into the PEEK/SAVE_SCREEN command. For VAX, RTA terminal support is incorporated into the PEEK/RT_ENABLE command. With this new RTA support for VAX, the VAX PEEK & SPY INSTALL and REMOVE commands are now obsolete. --------------------- Version 4.5 introduced the PEEK_LOGIN.COM command procedure which contains examples of commands for use in starting screen-saving and terminal-logging. It is now recommended that such commands be placed in this command procedure, instead of directly in LOGIN.COM or SYLOGIN.COM. See the PEEK_LOGIN.COM file for more information. --------------------- The command file SET_TERM_PAGE.COM has been provided for use in setting the terminal page length. Using this command procedure to set the terminal page length (instead of just doing a $ SET TERM/PAGE=n) informs the PEEK & SPY screen-saver of the change in page size so that a watcher will get a correctly-sized initial-screen display when watching the terminal which has changed its page length. --------------------- A command file CHECK_TERMINMALS.COM was added to the distribution. It checks all terminal devices on the system and report whether or not they are fully compatible with PEEK & SPY. It is also possible to use the mask value displayed by CHECK_TERMINALS.COM to selectively disable certain terminal validations which are done by PEEK & SPY, thus allowing PEEK & SPY to access these terminals. (Note: the cautions mentioned by CHECK_TERMINALS.COM.) --------------------- Version 4.6 correctly restores the watcher's light/dark screen background and printer-port form-feed setting after watching someone. --------------------- The PEEK/FORMAT command's /PAGE and /WIDTH qualifiers now default to the current terminal screen size if they are present but without any values specified. (If these qualifiers are not present at all, they still default to 24 and 80.) --------------------- Logical name defaults were added for the WATCH command's /INIT_SEQUENCE and /FINISH_SEQUENCE qualifiers. --------------------- Staring in Version 4.4, better feedback-loop detection was added to PEEK & SPY. This detects attempts to watch someone who is already watching you, possibly via other intermediate watchers, or across the network, etc. --------------------- For variable-page-length terminals, beginning in version 4.4, PEEK & SPY correctly adjust the length and width of the watcher's screen to match the size of the terminal being watched. --------------------- Version 4.4 improved the system nonpaged memory pool usage. Prior versions of PEEK & SPY allocated a large piece of nonpaged memory and then freed it in several pieces. This caused nonpaged memory fragmentation on some system depending on how the pieces were utilized by VMS after they were freed by PEEK & SPY. PEEK & SPY now frees the memory all at once, to avoid the possible memory fragmentation. --------------------- Version 4.3 was the network/cluster release of PEEK for AXP and VAX. One can watch users/terminals across the network by including nodenames in the specifications of whom to watch. --------------------- Version 4.4 tightened security on the control and use of PEEK & SPY. In this version, we disallow any re-definition by unauthorized users of the LNM$PEEK_DEFAULT logical name table which is created by PEEK_DEFAULTS.COM. In earlier versions, unauthorized re-definition of PEEK_DEFAULTS.COM could be accomplished by a user defining his own LNM$PEEK_DEFAULT table in his LNM$PROCESS_DIRECTORY prior to running PEEK & SPY. PEEK & SPY now delete any defintion of LNM$PEEK_DEFAULT out of the LNM$PROCESS_DIRECTORY before using any values from LNM$PEEK_DEFAULT. --------------------- The LNM$PEEK_TABLE_SEARCH_LIST defined in PEEK_DEFAULTS.COM is now fully implemented as the search list used for default values. This search list definition is now done in EXEC mode in PEEK_DEFAULTS.COM, so by default, unprivileged users may not re-define the system-wide definition of this search list. Users may still define their own private version of LNM$PEEK_TABLE_SEARCH_LIST in their LNM$PROCESS_DIRECTORY. --------------------- Use of PEEK & SPY with MultiSessions on AXP has been improved: Version 4.5.04 on AXP automatically sets /NOEXCLUDE when one specifies /BACKGROUND to watch MultiSessions background sessions. Use of the AXP /BACKGROUND qualifer (also called /SINGLE_WINDOW or /WINDOW) has been extended to apply to the ALLOW, DISALLOW, NOSAVE_SCREEN, SAVE_SCREEN and SHOW commands in addition to the WATCH command. This means one can now issue a PEEK/ALLOW command from a MultiSessions session which allows the specified users to watch one's MS Server process, not just the single MultiSessions session from which the command is issued. The /BACKGROUND qualifier should be used on AXP with PEEK/ALLOW to specify that the ALLOW command will only apply to the single session from which the PEEK/ALLOW is issued. --------------------- Version 4.5.04 corrected a CPU loop which could occur with the PEEK & SPY process during an abnormal exit from PEEK & SPY when the watcher did not have CMKRNL privilege. --------------------- Version 4.5.04 has the input-only-watching feature introduced in 4.2.06. This release of the input-only-watching feature is very rudimentary. When watching or logging input-only, one sees only the keystrokes entered by the terminal being watched. You can chose the format in which control characters are displayed or logged during input watching. Keypad and cursor keys etc can appear as the actual sequence of character which these keys generate, or in hexidecimal or character format. See the online help or new PEEK_DEFAULTS.COM file for more information. One can still watch another with PEEK & SPY when input-logging is in effect, but there will not be any initial-screen display available for terminals doing input-logging. For this first verions of input-watching/logging, the keystrokes watched/logged include those which are not echoed back to the terminal, such as passwords. Because of the potential security problems with passwords, this input-only feature must be turned on with a special license key before it can be used. Input-logging on AXP can be done with either PEEK or SPY, but input-watching is only available with SPY. On AXP, to do terminal-logging of input to a file (which could contain passwords), the user must have been granted the Rights ID of PEEK$INPUT_LOGGER. Anyone using the input-watching feature to watch another with SPY must have been granted the Rights ID of SPY$INPUT_WATCHER, and the user being watched must have been granted the Rights ID of SPY$INPUT_WATCHEE. See the PEEK online help topic INPUT-ONLY_watchging_and_logging for details on how to set up these rights-ids for use with the INPUT_ONLY feature. Input-only logging on AXP is started using the command PEEK/SAVE_SCREEN/LOG/INPUT_ONLY or SPY/SAVE_SCREEN/LOG/INPUT_ONLY. Watching another user input-only is done with SPY/INPUT_ONLY. This is also how input-logging is done on VAX systems, using TERMINAL_LOGGER.COM. GREAT CARE SHOULD BE USED WHEN LICENSING THE INPUT-ONLY FEATURE, OR GRANTING THE INPUT-ONLY RIGHTS-IDS, SINCE THIS ALLOWS THE WATCHING OR LOGGING OF PASSWORDS AND OTHER NON-ECHOED INPUT. _____________ PEEK 4.5.04 gives the person being watched the option of having the warning messages displayed on the bottom line of the screen, instead of on the top. This is recommended only for installations where the bottom line of the screen is the only line available for message display. The logical name USER$BOTTOM_LINE can be defined as either "TRUE" or "1". This causes the PEEK warning messages to be displayed on the bottom line of the user's screen, instead of on the top line. This logical name can be defined in any of the logical name tables specified in the LNM$PEEK_TABLE_SEARCH_LIST defined by the PEEK_DEFAULTS.COM file. _____________ Beginning with version 4.1, PEEK & SPY allows transparent watching of processes across the network, via DECnet, through the use of node names in the specifications of who is to be watched. PEEK & SPY V4.6 allows watching across the network from AXP to AXP, or VAX to VAX, or AXP to VAX, or VAX to AXP. Any of these systems can be running any of VMS Versions 5.5 through 7.2. In the past in order to watch someone on another node, one needed to SET HOST to that node, log in, and then run PEEK on that node. Instead, one can now watch processes on other nodes directly from PEEK. One can even mix nodes in the same PEEK command. (Standard VMS * and % wildcards in node specifications are also supported.) All of the usual DECnet security features, such as access control strings and proxies, apply to the use of PEEK for watching processes across the network. PEEK 4.6 must be properly installed and started on the target node, as well as on the source node, in order for this inter-system watching to work. PEEK must also be correctly defined as a network object using NCP before watching across the network can succeed. For DECnet Phase V, the command file PEEK_SPY_NET$NCP_APPLICATIONS.COM is provided in the distribution. This defines the PEEK and SPY network applications for DECnet Phase V as per the DECnet Phase IV commands give below. For DECnet Phase IV, the basic NCP command to temporarily define PEEK as a network object with proxy access is: NCP> SET OBJECT PEEK NUMBER 0 FILE PEEK$LOCATION:PEEKNET_Vx.EXE PROXY BOTH For SPY use the command: NCP> SET OBJECT SPY NUMBER 0 FILE PEEK$LOCATION:SPYNET_Vx.EXE PROXY BOTH The basic NCP command to permanently define PEEK as a network object with proxy access is: NCP> DEFINE OBJECT PEEK NUMBER 0 FILE PEEK$LOCATION:PEEKNET_Vx.EXE PROXY BOTH For SPY use the command: NCP> DEFINE OBJECT SPY NUMBER 0 FILE PEEK$LOCATION:SPYNET_Vx.EXE PROXY BOTH (Note that the correct VMS version number for your system (_V5 _V6 _V7) must replace the _Vx in the file specification. Also note that the .EXE is required syntax on the file specification. See the appropriate VMS Networking manual for more information about granting access to PEEK as a network object, and for the appropriate NCP commands for doing this, depending on your system security requirements.) --------------------- The PEEK/SHOW USERS command now also takes a node name specifier, and allows wildcards in the node name specification, based on the logical name PEEK_WILDCARD_NODES. --------------------- The logical name PEEK_WILDCARD_NODES can be defined by the PEEK_DEFAULTS.COM file when starting up PEEK. This logical name can also be superceded in any of the logical-name tables listed in the LNM$PEEK_TABLE_SEARCH_LIST defined at the beginning of PEEK_DEFAULTS.COM. This allows customization of the nodes used during wildcards for individual users or groups of users. When using wildcards in node names, PEEK & SPY will skip accessing the network to watch processes on the current node. An exception to skipping network access for the local node is when there is an access control string, in the wildcarded nodename specification, which does not match the current user name. In this case, because the access requests a different user name to do the watching, PEEK will use network access to PEEK on the local node. One can also force access across the network for the local node during a wildcarded nodename operation by specifying /FORCE_NETWORK_ACCESS on the command line or by specifying the logical name WATCHER$FORCE_NETWORK_ACCESS as TRUE in any of the watcher's LNM tables defined in LNM$PEEK_TABLE_SEARCH_LIST, --------------------- This version has added a PEEK/SHOW PEEK command for clusters which displays any nodes in the cluster which currently have PEEK started on them. This can be useful information especially when shutting down or upgrading PEEK. --------------------- 4.3.05 fixed a problem where the numeric/application keypad setting wasn't being tracked or restored properly. 4.5.04 will ensure that the watcher's terminal is not left in insert mode after watching someone whose terminal was in insert mode. The TYLOG.EXE program, which can be used to type out log files, had some enhancement a while back, including an option to control the speed of the playback of the log file. Try $ TYLOG:==$PEEK$LOCATION:TYLOG and $ TYLOG/HELP. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Known Problems and Restrictions ------------------------------- The following are known problems in the current version of PEEK: 1. The /MAIL qualifier for the journaling feature has been disabled since, as currently implemented, it requires a subprocess and, if no subprocess is available, it will fail. Since journaling is a security feature it must work reliably and thus the /MAIL qualifier will be re-enabled once it has been made to work reliably. 2. In PEEK 4.5.04 for AXP, there are some display problems with the initial- screen refresh when watching terminals with advanced-memory features (VT330, etc). These occur when the watching terminal does not have as many pages of memory available in the terminal as the victim's terminal does. This mainly occurs when the watcher has his terminal set-up for dual sessions and the terminal being watched is running in single session mode. This usually means that the watcher's terminal has only 3 pages of terminal memory available per session, whereas the terminal being watched will have 6 pages. This results in inaccurate tracking of the victim's screen when he switches between terminal memory pages. The rule for successful watching with PEEK & SPY is that the watcher's terminal should have the most-advanced features. This rule also applies to the number of terminal-memory pages available. The watcher should have a greater or equal number of terminal-memory pages available as that of any terminal he wants to watch. 3. Beginnig with Peek 4.1.15 for AXP, you can turn on screen-saving for another terminal using SPY, but this cannot be used to also start a terminal-log file along with the screen-saving. (Terminal-logging for PEEK on AXP can be turned on when the process logs in, by placing the appropriate commands in LOGIN.COM or SYLOGIN.COM.) One can SPY on the terminal with logging and create a log file that way. Where possible, these problems and restrictions will be fixed in the next release of PEEK. Please feel free to report any other difficulties which you may encounter, or suggestions for improvements or new features to: Product Support Manager Networking Dynamics Corporation 101 N. Garden Ave, Suite 220 Clearwater, Florida 33755 Phone: (727) 446-4511 FAX: (727) 446-4252 Email: support@networkingdynamics.com Website: www.networkingdynamics.com