[arm-allstar] CAUTION if using macros or scheduler

[Doug Crompton]

It has come to our attention that the way the setup procedure works may be
causing some problems in certain situations.

When you first setup your node the prototype makes the first node your
assigned node number. It also assigns much of the context mapping to the
name followed by the node number of the first node like
functions=functions40000. It then changes the functions stanza to, in this
example, using a first node number of 40000 -

[functions40000]

This is fine BUT it also changes several of the context mappings in the
second [1999] node to match the first node. The problem is in the mapping
for the scheduler and the macro contexts is is also changed in the second
to to the node number of the first node. In this case the second node would
have the same context mapping for the scheduler and macro and it would also
react to any macro or schedule which is probably not what you would want.
Here is an example:

; Node 40000 stanza
[40000]
macro=macro40000
...lots more configuration

; Node 1999 stanza
[1999]
macro=macro40000
...lots more configuration

[macro40000]
1=*340001#

So in this case if the user sent the macro command *51 Allstar would
initiate a connect from BOTH 40000 and 1999 to 40001 which is not what you
would want.

The answer is to change the macro=macroFIRSTNODE in the 1999 node stanza to
macro=macro1999 and the scheduler=schedulerFIRSTNODE in the 1999 stanza to
scheduler=scheduler1999. After doing this it would solve the problem but
there would be no definition for either the macro or scheduler for the 1999
node. This is OK if you are not going to use them for the 1999 node but If
you needed them you would have to create unique macro and scheduler stanza
for the second node. So in that case if the first node was 40000 you would
have -

[scheduler40000]
node 40000 schedule data

[scheduler1999]
node 1999 schedule data

[macro40000]
node 40000 macro data

[macro1999]
node 1999 macro data

The reason for these context mapping statements is to allow the user the
flexibility of defining different parameters for nodes on a server. BUT If
you use more than one node on a server you need to be aware of this mapping
(see context mapping segment in each node stanza in rpt.conf) so that there
is no confusion as to how each nodes context statements are processed.

Note this would also be a problem if you redefined the second 1999 node or
or added nodes in rpt.conf. Make sure the macro and scheduler mappings are
unique to each node or you might have things going on that you do not
expect!


*73 Doug*

*WA3DSP*

*http://www.crompton.com/hamradio <http://www.crompton.com/hamradio>*