RE: Data capture from a serial port

Richard: For the first part, ESQL/C may be a good candidate, but depends on the = format of the serial output. I don't know hardware well, does it come = out in binary or ascii or something called postscript? I only try to answer your 2nd question, as I used to work as a unix = admin. On most of the Unix system, a file '/etc/nologin' is created = when the system is shut down normally, and will be removed as the last = step in your startup script -- so user can then log in. As an administrator, you can create this file while the system is = running, but that has no effect on users who have already logged in. = You can also put something to this file, e.g. a message, so when user = try to log in, they will be acknowledge by the message. Unfortunately, hp-ux and sco-unix ignore this file...but there is always = a way: you can modify your '/etc/profile' and insert a test statement = there, and then create the '/etc/nologin' file on before Friday 8:00am. = Is it enough or do you need more detail? For those who are on the system already, you can only brutally kill = them. The other way is to bring the machine to a single user mode Sean Wong -------------------------------------------------------------------------= ----- \\\\|||// | "A person who knows won't talk (o|o) | "A person who talks won't know //|||\\\\ | "I am the person who talks....... -------------------------------------------------------------------------= ----- ---------- From: Richard Thomas[SMTP:richardt@themusicstore.co.uk] Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 1997 8:26 AM To: informix-list@rmy.emory.edu Subject: Data capture from a serial port ......snip.... We want to get this data into our OnLine database (5.0.3 on SCO 5.0.0) = without having to key it in from the printout. ..... The question is, is anyone else capturing data from a serial output, formatting it and inserting it into tables. The options open to us are = shell scripts, awk, SQL, ACE and PERFORM. ie NO 4GL or C/C++ :-( ....snip.... PS I need to stop our users logging in on Friday morning (call centre = opens at 8am, I arrive and essential maintenance starts at 9am). Telling them = not to log in doesn't seem to work :-) On Solaris, I seem to remember you could put a file somewhere called 'nologin' which did exactly what I = want. Can't find any mention of it on SCO. Any ideas, other than threats/ disconnection of terminals?!