NAME

       upscmd - UPS administration program for instant commands

SYNOPSIS

       upscmd -h

       upscmd -l ups

       upscmd [-u username] [-p password] ups command

DESCRIPTION

       upscmd allows you to invoke "instant commands" in your UPS hardware. Not all hardware
       supports this, so check the list with -l to see if anything will work on your equipment.

       On hardware that supports it, you can use this program to start and stop battery tests,
       invoke a front panel test (beep!), turn the load on or off, and more.

OPTIONS

       -h
           Display the help message.

       -l ups
           Show the list of supported instant commands on that UPS. Some hardware may not support
           any of them.

       -u username
           Set the username for the connection to the server. This is optional, and you will be
           prompted for this when invoking a command if -u is not used.

       -p password
           Set the password to authenticate to the server. This is also optional like -u, and you
           will be prompted for it if necessary.

       ups
           Connect to this UPS. The format is upsname[@hostname[:port]]. The default hostname is
           "localhost".

UNATTENDED MODE

       If you run this program inside a shell script or similar to invoke a command, you will
       need to specify all of the information on the command line. This means using -u and -p.
       Otherwise it will put up a prompt and your program will hang.

       This is not necessary when displaying the list, as the username and password are not
       required for read-only mode.

       Moreover, if you run this program inside a shell script or similar, you should only
       consider using output from stdout, not stderr.

DANGEROUS COMMANDS

       Some drivers like apcsmart(8) have built-in paranoia for the dangerous commands like
       load.off. To make them actually turn off the load, you will have to send the command twice
       within a short window. That is, you will have to send it once, then send it again after 3
       seconds elapse but before 15 seconds pass.

       This paranoia is entirely defined within the driver. upsd and upscmd have no control over
       the timing.

DIAGNOSTICS

       upscmd won’t work unless you provide a valid username and password. If you get "access
       denied" errors, make sure that your upsd.users(5) has an entry for you, and that the
       username you are using has permissions to SET variables.

BUGS

       There is currently no way to tell the user when the driver requires confirmation to invoke
       a command such as load.off. Similarly, there is not yet a way to tell the user if a
       command succeeds or fails.

       This is on the list of things to fix in the future, so don’t despair. It involves magic
       cookies.

SEE ALSO

       upsd(8), upsrw(8)

INTERNET RESOURCES

       The NUT (Network UPS Tools) home page: http://www.networkupstools.org/