BEEPAGED(8) RSUG BEEPAGED(8)
Jan99
NAME
beepaged - text pager protocol daemon
SYNOPSIS
beepaged [ -V ] [ -c ] [ -d ] [ -r ] [ -M maildomain ] [ -p port ] [ -b
backlog ] [ -q max-queue-size ] /dev/modem-tty ...
DESCRIPTION
Beepaged receives text pages using the Text Paging Protocol (TPP) and
delivers pages to an alpha-numeric paging service provider using TAP.
On startup beepaged checks :ETCDIR:/services :ETCDIR:/users and
:ETCDIR:/aliases for syntax errors, changes directory to
/var/spool/beepaged and begins listening on the ``tpp'' port (by
default 6661) for incoming connections. If there are pages waiting to
be delivered, beepaged forks a child for each service-queue until
there are no more modems available. As page-delivery children
terminate, freeing modems for re-use, the next pending queue is
serviced. A separate child is also forked for each network
connection. The file :ETCDIR:/services contains the list of paging-
service providers, one per line. Each line contains the symbolic
service name, the phone number, and an optional maximum length. The
service name must exist as a directory in the beepaged spool area,
/var/spool/beepaged/service. Lines beginning with ``#'' are ignored.
The file :ETCDIR:/users contains a list of users, one per line. Each
line contains a user name, flags, the corresponding paging-service
provider, PIN and an optional email address. The paging-service
provider must be listed in :ETCDIR:/services. Valid flags are ``M''
send email confirmation, ``K'' require Kerberos authentication, and
``-'' nothing, a place-holder. If the email address is provided, email
confirmation will be sent to the specified address. Lines beginning
with ``#'' are ignored. The file :ETCDIR:/aliases contains a list of
aliases, one per line. Each whitespace delimited line contains an
alias name and any combination of users, aliases, or files. Users
must be listed in :ETCDIR:/users, aliases must not be users, and
aliases cannot contain themselves. A file contained in an alias must
be readable when the daemon is started. Files can contain users or
aliases. Lines in the files and lines in :ETCDIR:/aliases beginning
with ``#'' are ignored.
OPTIONS
-V displays the version of beepaged and exits.
-d debug mode. Does not disassociate from controlling
tty.
-c checks all configuration files for syntax errors
and exits.
-r checks for syntax errors in :ETCDIR:/services ,
:ETCDIR:/users and :ETCDIR:/aliases and restarts
the currently running beepaged.
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BEEPAGED(8) RSUG BEEPAGED(8)
Jan99
-M maildomain specifies the domain for email confirmation, e.g.
user@maildomain. By default no mail domain is
used.
-p port specifies the port beepaged listens on, by default
6661.
-b backlog defines the maximum queue of pending connections
to listen(2), by default five.
-q max-queue-size defines the maximum number of queued messages
beepaged will accept before refusing new
connections. By default, this is set to zero,
disabling the feature.
EXAMPLES
The following example of :ETCDIR:/services defines two service
providers, pagenet and ameritech. pagenet has a smaller than default
maximum page length.
#
# service phone maxlen
#
pagenet 1-800-955-7243 245
ameritech 1-800-734-3503
This example :ETCDIR:/users defines three users. Those wishing to
page ann must first authenticate with Kerberos. Both ann and bob
receive email confirmation when they are sent pages, However, bob's
confirmation mail will be sent to ``robert@service.com''. Note that
carol has the flag ``-''. This flag is necessary, since carol has no
other flags.
#
# User Flags Service PIN EMAIL
#
ann KM ameritech 1234567
bob M pagenet 54321 robert@service.com
carol - ameritech 0011223
This example :ETCDIR:/aliases defines 3 aliases containing users,
aliases and files.
managers ann bob
oncall /usr/local/etc/oncall
meeting managers carol oncall
The following example starts beepaged on a typical Linux machine.
Users that receive email confirmation of pages are addressed as
user@example.org.
beepaged -M example.org /dev/ttyS0
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BEEPAGED(8) RSUG BEEPAGED(8)
Jan99
PROTOCOL
The Text Page Protocol (TPP) is a very simple protocol for queuing
pages from users over the network. The current revision, 1.0, uses
the following verbs:
AUTH type credentials
Authenticate using method type, with the following credentials.
Currently, NONE and KRB4 are valid types. The credential for
NONE is simply the sending user's name. The credential for KRB4
is a hexidecimal encoded Kerberos authenticator.
PAGE user
Specify the recipient of the page. This command may be repeated.
DATA After the server responds with a go-ahead, enter the text of the
page, terminating the page with a ``.'' on a line by itself.
QUIT Terminate the session. Responses are similar to SMTP.
SEE ALSO
beep(1), http://www.pcia.com.
- 3 - Formatted: October 24, 2025
