Provided by:
whereami_0.3.32_all 
NAME
whereami — non-interatively ascertain the location of the computer and
reconfigure the system appropriately.
SYNOPSIS
whereami [--debug ] [--scriptdebug ] [--syslog ] [--noactions ]
[--nolocking ] [--mapping ] [--basedir directory ] [--statedir
directory ] [--from location_list ] [--run_from calling_program_tag ]
[location_list]
DESCRIPTION
‘whereami’ provides a configurable and extensible framework for auto‐
matic location-detection and reconfiguration of computers, typically
laptops.
Detection
Detection is handled through the use of various network and hardware
probing tools. These tools have been wrapped in small shell scripts to
interface them to whereami, but the end-user with different require‐
ments may wish to extend these in some situations.
whereami processes the file /etc/whereami/detect.conf performing the
tests specified in there in order to decide which location the computer
is currently located at.
For full detail on the discovery process, you should read the
detect.conf (5) manpage.
Configuration
Configuration is handled through standard shell scripting. A variety
of small utility scripts are provided and the author is always willing
to accept more.
The file /etc/whereami/whereami.conf is parsed and a script built con‐
taining the actions specified there which are associated with the loca‐
tions found during the detection phase. Actions may be configured for
when leaving, remaining, or arriving at a location.
Once the script has been built, it is run to effect the necessary
changes to the system configuration.
OPTIONS
This program follows the modern command-line syntax preceding each
option with a double dash (‘--’). Short form options are also avail‐
able, but are not documented (RTFC :-)
--debug Run in debugging mode. A verbose output is provided and the
resulting script is output to the screen and not executed.
--scriptdebug
Run in script debugging mode. Each script supplied with
‘whereami’ will ‘set -o xtrace’ if the environment variable
‘DEBUGWHEREAMI’ is set to non-blank. This parameter will set
that variable. The script which is built by whereami will
also respond to the environment variable.
--syslog Output some logging information to syslog. The ’user’ facil‐
ity is used for this, and it provides an insight into which
locations whereami has chosen, and why.
In combination with --scriptdebug above, this can be very
useful for debugging your configuration. Also note that the
default installation turns this on for apm and init actions.
--noactions
Just do the detection and print the location name. Don’t
build and run the script from whereami.conf.
You might do this if you wanted to use whereami’s detection,
but use something else for configuration. Perhaps you could
achieve the same end with a very simple whereami.conf, but
there should always be two ways to do anything :-).
--nolocking
whereami won’t normally let two copies of whereami run at the
same time. Use this option if you can come up with a sce‐
nario where you should allow this to happen!
--mapping This will persuade whereami to do only the detection stage,
and output a list of the detected locations, suitable for use
as a mapping script with ifupdown.
--hint locations
Provides some hints to the detection process. The locations
set by this parameter (a comma-delimited list) may be refer‐
enced by rules in your detect.conf.
--basedir directory
Specifies the base directory which will contain both the
detect.conf and whereami.conf. The default is ‘/etc/where‐
ami’ which should be right for normal use.
--statedir directory
Specifies the state directory in which whereami will write
files indicating the current and previous locations (iam ,
iwas) and the script which is run for this environment
(whereiam.sh).
--from location_list
Overrides whereami’s knowledge of where you have come from.
The location_list will be a comma-separated list of the loca‐
tions which you are leaving.
Normally ‘whereami’ maintains a history of locations, so that
it knows where you have come from (and what might conse‐
quently have to be de-configured) as well as knowing that
your location has changed.
--run_from calling_program_tag
This provides a mechanism for calling software, such as init
scripts, pcmcia startup or apm events, to pass some of that
source information to whereami, where it is promptly ignored,
at present.
I have a possibly misguided idea that this might be useful
somehow, but I can’t think of any application of it at this
point!
location_list
Overrides whereami’s testing of where you are. The loca‐
tion_list will be a comma-separated list of the locations
which you are now at.
You might use this if you wished to bypass the detection
phase, using some other package to handle that.
detect.conf (5), whereami.conf (5)
There is some further documentation in HTML available in
/usr/share/doc/whereami/manual
FILES
/etc/whereami/detect.conf
Defines the process of detection.
/etc/whereami/whereami.conf
Defines the actions performed as a result of entering, leav‐
ing, or remaining within a particular location.
This man page only documents the current perl version of whereami. For
backward compatibility with people’s setups, it is possible to config‐
ure your system to run the older shell-script, which is currently
undocumented.
If you wish to switch from the shell script to the new perl program you
will need to create an appropriate ‘detect.conf’ file to define your
location detection parameters. Your existing whereami.conf file should
be compatible with this version. Once you have created a detect.conf
file in /etc/whereami you should run ‘dpkg-reconfigure whereami’ and
respond to the questions.
AUTHOR
This manual page was written by Andrew McMillan <debian@mcmil‐
lan.net.nz> for the Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be used by oth‐
ers). Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
document under the terms of the GPL version 2.
whereami(8)