MODULEPROPAGATIONMONITOR.CONF(5)

💖 MODULEPROPAGATIONMONITOR.CONF — the manual, but make it make sense 💖

okay bestie, this is ModulePropagationMonitor.conf(5) from the File Formats section of the manual, and it's literally the config file for the SvxLink server's PropagationMonitor module. yes it's a mouthful. no we're not renaming it. let's go 🦋

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✨ NAME ✨

ModulePropagationMonitor.conf — it's the configuration file for the SvxLink server PropagationMonitor module. that's it, that's the name, slay 💅

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

svxlink is a general purpose voice service system for ham radio use. iconic behavior honestly. and this man-page? it describes the SvxLink server configuration for the PropagationMonitor module.

so what does PropagationMonitor actually do? it announces propagation alerts that come in from vhfdx.info or gooddx.net. 👑

⚠️ big important thing: the whole process of receiving those emails is outside of this module. it is not this module's job. you have to arrange that separately, yourself, no cap.

here's the deal — this module expects to find new emails under the spool directory. and the vibes have to be specific:

• messages from VHFDX go in a vhfdx subdirectory
• messages from GoodDX go in a dxrobot subdirectory

and listen — this module must have write access to the subdirectories under the spool directory, because it moves processed messages into an archive directory. so if you don't give it write permission it's just gonna sit there like 🙈 and not do its job. give the girl her permissions. periodt.

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🎀 CONFIGURATION VARIABLES 🎀

there are a couple of configuration variables that are common to all modules — the docs for those live over in the svxlink.conf(5) manual page, go check her out.

and here's the full rundown of all the module specific configuration variables that the SvxLink PropagationMonitor module understands. every single one. we don't skip. 💖

🌈 ModulePropagationMonitor

• SPOOL_DIR — tell it which directory to read incoming emails from. the default is /var/spool/svxlink/propagation_monitor. that's the one it'll use if you don't say otherwise, bestie.

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💌 RECEIVING THE ALERT EMAILS 💌

okay so setting up the flow of alert emails is a whole little journey and step one is: actually get those emails to the computer running SvxLink, and on that computer, to the user that SvxLink runs as. and there are two ways to do it, pick your fighter:

1. forward emails directly via SMTP to the computer — this one's for you if you have that possibility. fancy. 💅
2. fetch alert emails using POP from some email account — this is propably the more common case (their spelling, not mine, love that for them). you can do this with the fetchmail(1) utility, for example.

step two: store those incoming emails in files under the propagation monitor spool directory. this is done using the procmail(1) utility. here's how it works — when an incoming email arrives, the mail server calls procmail, which goes looking for a configuration file in the destination user's home directory.

for SvxLink, that home directory should be set to /etc/svxlink. and in that directory a procmail configuration file, .procmailrc, is installed by default. ✨ the syntax is a bit cryptic ngl, but the file has some helpful comments in it to help you understand what's going on. for more details go read the procmailrc(5) and procmailex(5) manual pages.

step three: and of course, obviously, you need to actually register with the vhfdx.info and/or gooddx.net site, and set up what geographic area and which bands you want to receive alert emails for. no registration, no emails, no alerts. the math is mathing. 🧮

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🛡️ SELINUX 🛡️

some Linux distributions have the SELinux security framework enabled. this is true for RedHat based distributions, like Fedora for example.

and here's the thing — SELinux will by default deny procmail to write the mail files in the propagation monitor spool directory. 💀 so to fix this, run the following commands:

semanage fcontext -a -t user_home_t \
         "/var/spool/svxlink/propagation_monitor(/.*)?"
restorecon -r /var/spool/svxlink/propagation_monitor

and that's the fix, you're welcome, go touch grass 🌱

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📁 FILES 📁

• /etc/svxlink/svxlink.conf (or deprecated /etc/svxlink.conf) — the system wide configuration file.
• ~/.svxlink/svxlink.conf — per user configuration file.
• /etc/svxlink/svxlink.d/ModulePropagationMonitor.conf — global modularized configuration file. depends on the CFG_DIR configuration variable setting.
• ~/.svxlink/svxlink.d/ModulePropagationMonitor.conf — per user modularized configuration file. depends on the CFG_DIR configuration variable setting.
• /var/spool/svxlink/propagation_monitor — spool directory for alert mails. this is the default path. what path is actually used is determined by the SPOOL_DIR configuration variable.
• /etc/svxlink/.procmailrc — the configuration file for procmail. procmail is used to write incoming alert emails into files in the spool directory.

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

Tobias Blomberg (SM0SVX) <sm0svx at svxlink dot org>

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🐛 REPORTING BUGS 🐛

found a bug? bestie, report it using the issue tracker at: https://github.com/sm0svx/svxlink

🙅‍♀️ but listen — questions about SvxLink should NOT be asked using the issue tracker. that's not what it's for, don't do it, i'm begging. instead use the group set up for this purpose at groups.io: https://groups.io/g/svxlink

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🔗 SEE ALSO 🔗

svxlink.conf(5), procmail(1), procmailrc(5), procmailex(5), fetchmail(1)

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and that's the whole page, bestie 🫶 this one came from the Linux manual, APRIL 2021 edition, filed under MODULEPROPAGATIONMONITOR.CONF(5). go set up your propagation alerts and live your main character ham radio era 🌈✨💜