NAME

       pmsd  -  Periodically  Manic  System  Daemon.  Manages  the  bizzare and sometimes unexplainable behavior
       exhibited by computers.

SYNOPSIS

       pmsd [-bcfmp]

DESCRIPTION

       pmsd is a rogue daemon that is spawned on a semi-regular schedule by init(8).  Most of  the  unusual  and
       quirky behavior associated with misbehaving computers can be attributed to pmsd.

       pmsd  has  a  number  of  command-line  options,  invoked at run-time by init(8).  The ps(1) command will
       occasionally display the current options, but only if pmsd feels like revealing them. This is usually not
       the case. pmsd can be manually invoked by the pms(8) command. Make sure  there  is  not  a  pmsd  process
       already  running  when  you  use pms(8); you don't want to be on a system with multiple instances of pmsd
       running.

       With no flags, pmsd runs with the default -m option, and any others it feels like using.

OPTIONS

       -b     Bloat. Files randomly grow in size, filling up filesystems and causing quotas to be exceeded.

       -c     Craving. System becomes hungry, eating magnetic tapes, CD-ROM discs, floppies, and anything else a
              hapless user loads into a removable media drive.

       -f     Fatigue. System will pause for a random period of time. It is important to leave the system  alone
              during  this  time. Attempts to coax the machine into normal operation could cause the spontaneous
              activation of all command-line switches. This is to be avoided.

       -m     Mood swings. Process priorities and nice values are altered randomly. Swapping usually occurs with
              no warning, even when memory is available. This is the default behavior.

       -p     Peeved. One or more users are selected as targets of the system's anger.  Files  are  deleted,  e-
              mail  copied  to  /etc/motd,  and  any  Usenet  articles  posted by the targets are crossposted to
              misc.test and alt.flame.

NOTES

       When pmsd is invoked by using the pms(8) command, pmsd ignores any command-line switches and does what it
       damned well pleases.

SEE ALSO

       pms(8)

BUGS

       There are no bugs; how could you ask that?

HISTORY

       Written by Eric L. Pederson <eric@bofh.org.uk>.

                                                  25 March 1996                                          PMSD(8)