lg_intro(7)

📦
version 3.14 · 4 versions
, in alpine 3.24, epel 9, fedora 43, fedora 44

💖 NAME 💖

okay bestie, welcome to lg_intro(7) — literally the intro to the looking glass. 🫶

✨ INTRODUCTION ✨

so the looking glass is a web based interface to routers that hands users access even when they don't have permission to login to the router themselves. no cap, it's giving perfect interface for customer support or less savvy folks, and lots of ISPs have given public access to one as a "route server." 💅

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

the looking glass is made of two CGI perl(1) scripts — lg.cgi and lgform.cgi — plus the lg.conf(5) configuration file. 🌸

both scripts start by reading the configuration file. if there's a syntax error in the file, or the file can't be found, error messages show up on standard-error. the Apache http server redirects standard-error to its error log file by default. 😭

lgform.cgi displays an html form: a list of possible router commands that can be run, and a scrolling list of routers that these commands may be run on. when the form is submitted, lg.cgi is run. ✨

lg.cgi starts by doing some basic checks on the arguments passed to it. if those checks pass, lg.cgi either shows cached data from a previous invocation — if that data exists and is within the cache interval — or it uses clogin(1) to login to the device and execute the command. the results of the command are cached if applicable and displayed for the user. 🔥

🦋 GETTING STARTED 🦋

besides lg.conf(5), additional instructions for setting up the looking glass can be found in the README file under /usr/share/rancid/README.lg. 📚

⚠️ heads up: the looking glass scripts require a few perl modules not included with rancid. Rancid's configure process does not check for these. see the README file. 💀

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

💫 HISTORY 💫

Rancid's looking glass is based on Ed Kern's (included by permission, thanks Ed!), which could once be found at http://nitrous.digex.net/ but has apparently been removed. Support for Juniper and Foundry devices, use of rancid's device login scripts, and additional commands and checks have been added to the original. 👑

okay that's the whole vibe check, bestie — this was lg_intro(7) from the Miscellaneous Information Manual, dated 24 Jan 2001. periodt. 💖✨

📦 where this page comes from