Grex Oldcoop Conference

Item 217: Information on System Trends Requested

Entered by dpc on Mon Nov 29 21:31:38 2004:

Since I'm running for the Board, I thought I should get information on
System trends.  On November 19, I sent e-mail to "baff" asking if
there was an *easy* way to get year-by-year information on such things
as number of users, amount of text entered into the conferences,
number of items in Agora, and number of e-mails sent and/or received.

Since I have not received a reply, can anyone point me in the right
direction in this item?  Thanks!
9 responses total.

#1 of 9 by other on Mon Nov 29 21:54:22 2004:

I'm sure that information could be gathered manually.  To do it
efficiently would require an effort by someone with scripting skills and
a solid knowledge of Grex's configuration (i.e. where the relevant
information is stored).  That person would likely be a staff member,
whose energies on the system would be more appreciated if directed
toward bringing NextGrex online.

That being said, if anyone has insight into the best places from which
to gather this information, and is willing to share it, there might be
others willing to take on the task of scripting the aggregator.


#2 of 9 by tod on Mon Nov 29 23:05:19 2004:

Stop trying to pry into people's privacy, Dave. ;)


#3 of 9 by gelinas on Tue Nov 30 12:39:54 2004:

Generally, mail sent to a group is answered by the person best able to
answer it.  Apparently, those who read your message, David, didn't feel
competent to answer it.

The question was, "Is there an *easy* way to obtain year-by-year info on such
things as: . . . " (emphasis original).  

The only way I can think of to get the number of items entered in agora
is to list the files in the /bbs/agora* directories.  That list would
also indicate the size of the files.

The mail logs I've looked at in the past haven't offered counts of messages,
sent or received.  I've known sysadmins to gather those statistics, but I've
never bothered to ask how the statistics were generated.  On grex, we gather
disk-usage information from /var/spool/mail.

I got curious, though, and went poking.  Apparently, we do log the number
(and loginids) of people who log in each day.  Unfortunately, the script
we use appears to be *mis*used: it uses "today's date" (date +%h" "%d)
but is started at midnight.  So of late it generally reports that no one
has logged in.  I can't tell how long it has been in use, but I'd guess
its always gotten just those who log in at exactly midnight.

All in all, I'd say the answer to your question is "no."

The number of lines in the password file, as of 0300 each day, is recorded
in /var/stats/passwd_size.  That file begins at 1305, on Sep 23, 1998.


#4 of 9 by dpc on Tue Nov 30 14:41:37 2004:

Thanks, Joe!  Sometimes it's good to know that a question can't easily
be answered...


#5 of 9 by remmers on Tue Nov 30 17:52:21 2004:

Actually, I felt competent to answer *part* of what Dave asked in
his email, but with being out of town and general forgetfulness,
I didn't get a round tuit in a timely manner.


#6 of 9 by tod on Tue Nov 30 20:51:48 2004:

Dave. Would you like the stats on new members versus old members?


#7 of 9 by dpc on Tue Nov 30 22:07:34 2004:

Sure, tod.


#8 of 9 by tod on Tue Nov 30 22:14:30 2004:

Can you help us out, Mark?


#9 of 9 by jesuit on Wed May 17 02:15:20 2006:

TROGG IS DAVID BLAINE


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