FAM-2.6.10

Introduction to FAM

The FAM package contains a File Alteration Monitor which is useful for notifying applications of changes to the file system.

Package information

FAM dependencies

Required

portmap-5

Installation of FAM

Install FAM by running the following commands:

Note: You will get warnings about make install being unable to merge entries in /etc/rpc. These can be ignored, along with any IMON or inetd.conf warnings, as we will be configuring these files after installation.

patch -Np1 -i ../fam-2.6.10-dnotify.patch &&
libtoolize --force &&
aclocal &&
automake --add-missing &&
autoconf &&
./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc &&
make &&
make install

Command explanations

patch -Np1 -i ../fam-dnotify.patch: This patch causes FAM to use the Linux kernel dnotify mechanism to inform the calling process of file modifications, rather than polling the file system for modifications.

libtoolize --force
aclocal
automake --add-missing
autoconf
These commands are necessary since the patches affect the configure.in file. They regenerate a new configure command with the necessary changes.

Configuring FAM

Config files

/etc/rpc, /etc/fam.conf, /etc/inetd.conf, /etc/xinetd.d/fam or /etc/xinetd.conf

Configuration Information

Configuring the file alteration monitor.

If you use inetd, add the FAM entry to /etc/inetd.conf with the following command:

echo "sgi_fam/1-2 stream  rpc/tcp wait root /usr/bin/fam fam" >> /etc/inetd.conf

If you use xinetd, add an entry to /etc/xinetd.conf with the following command (be sure the "nogroup" group exists):

cat >> /etc/xinetd.conf << "EOF"
    # description: FAM - file alteration monitor
    service sgi_fam
    {
        type            = RPC UNLISTED
        socket_type     = stream
        user            = root
        group           = nogroup
        server          = /usr/bin/fam
        wait            = yes
        protocol        = tcp
        rpc_version     = 2
        rpc_number      = 391002
    }
EOF

Contents

The FAM package contains fam and libfam libraries.

Description

fam

fam is the file alteration monitor.