plcwait.1
Author: cmaier@cmassoc.net

    plcwait(1)                                   Qualcomm Atheros Open Powerline Toolkit                                  plcwait(1)

    NAME
           ampwait - Qualcomm Atheros Powerline Procrastinator

    SYNOPSIS
           ampwait [options] [device] [device] [...]

    DESCRIPTION
           Poll  a  Qualcomm  Atheros powerline device, waiting for one or more events to occur before continuing or returning.  The
           events include reset or power off, restart or power on and network association.  It is used to  pause  shell  scripts  at
           critical points where a device must be in a known state before continuing.

           This  program  is  part of the Qualcomm Atheros Powerline Toolkit.  See the plc man page for an overview and installation
           instructions.

    OPTIONS
           -a     Poll the device every few seconds using VS_NW_INFO messages until the device indicates that a networks exists  and
                  has  at  least  one  station.   This option can give false readings if other devices have dropped off-line and the
                  device bridging table still holds information about them.  The program always checks for this event last if  other
                  event options are specified.

           -e     Redirects  stderr messages to stdout.  By convention status and error messages are printed on stderr while primary
                  program output is printed on stdout.  This option prints all output on stdout in cases where this is desired.

           -f firmware
                  The identification string for firmware that should be running after the device starts.  This option can be used to
                  detect a failed firmware load.  If the actual identification string does not match this one once the device starts
                  then an error is reported.  If option -x is present then the program terminates with a non-zero exit  code.   This
                  option    has    no   effect   unless   option   -s   is   present.    An   identification   string   looks   like
                  "INT6000-MAC-3-1-3143-1690-20071107-FINAL-B" and can be obtained using int6k -r.

           -i     Select the host Ethernet interface.  All requests are sent via this host interface and only reponses received  via
                  this host interface are recognized.  The default interface is eth1 because most people use eth0 as their principle
                  network connection; however, if environment string "PLC" is defined then it  takes  precedence  over  the  default
                  interface.  This option then takes precedence over either default.

           -p seconds
                  Fixed  pause  time  in  seconds.   This adds an fixed delay after the other events have occured.  A pause does not
                  occur if any of the specified events timeout.  When no other events  are  specified  this  option  is  effectively
                  equivalent  to sleep.  This option can be used to allow the device or the network to settle.  For example, a nomi‐
                  nal 5 second wait is recommended after a device successfully associates before attempting to transfer data.

           -q     Enter quiet mode.  Progress messages are suppressed.

           -R     Reset the device then check return status.  Exit program on error if option -x is present; otherwise,  repeat  the
                  reset request until the device either accepts the request or the wait time is exceeded.

           -s     Poll  the  device  every few seconds using VS_SW_VER messages until the bootloader or runtime firmware responds or
                  the poll count exhausts.  The presence of a response indicates that the device has either connected to  the  host,
                  received power or finished reboot.

           -t milliseconds
                  Channel  read/write  timeout  in  milliseconds.  This is the maximum time allowed for a confirmation or a response
                  from a powerline device before abandoning a read/write operation.  Permitted values range from 0 through  UINT_MAX
                  as defined in limits.h.  The default is 50 milliseconds.

           -v     Enter verbose mode.  All Etherenet frames sent or received by the program are displayed on stdout.

           -w seconds
                  Wait  timeout in seconds.  This is the maximum time that this application will wait for an event to occur where an
                  event is reset, start or assoc.  If an event does no occur within this time, the program proceeds to wait for  the
                  next  specified event.  This timeout applies to each event in turn when more than one event is specified.  Permit‐
                  ted values are 0 through 86400 seconds which is 24 hours.

           -x     Exit program on first error with a non-zero exit code.  This option allows  shell  scripts  to  detect  failed  or
                  incomplete operations and take the appropriate action.

           -y     Display actual wait times on stdout.

           -?, --help
                  Print program help summary on stdout.  This option takes precedence over other options on the command line.

           -!, --version
                  Print program version information on stdout.  This option takes precedence over other options on the command line.
                  Use this option when sending screen dumps to Atheros Technical Support so that they know exactly which version  of
                  the Linux Toolkit you are using.

    ARGUMENTS
           device The Media Access Control (MAC) address of some device.  Addresses are 6 hexadecimal octets optionally separated by
                  colon.  For example, the addresses "00b052000001", "00:b0:52:00:00:01"  and  "00b052:000001"  are  all  valid  and
                  equivalent.   For  convenience,  the  symbolic  address  "local"  resolves to "00:b0:52:00:00:01" and the symbolic
                  addresses "all" and "broadcast" both resolve to "ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff".

    REFERENCES
           See the Qualcomm Atheros HomePlug AV Firmware Technical Reference Manual for more information.

    DISCLAIMER
           Atheros HomePlug AV Vendor Specific Management Message Entry structure and content is proprietary  to  Qualcomm  Atheros,
           Ocala FL USA.  Consequently, public information may not be available.  Qualcomm Atheros reserves the right to modify mes‐
           sage structure and content in future firmware releases without any obligation to notify or compensate users of this  pro‐
           gram.

    EXAMPLES
           The  following  command  polls  the local device until firmware stops running then polls the device until firmware starts
           running again.  This command can be inserted into a shell script at a point where the device must reset and reboot before
           proceeding.   Observe  that the program waits up to 60 seconds for each event, in turn, because 60 seconds is the default
           wait period.  If an event occurs before the specified timeout the program will move on to the next event.

              # ampwait -rs
              eth0 00:B0:52:BA:BA:01 Allow 60 seconds for Reset
              eth0 00:B0:52:BA:BA:01 Allow 60 seconds for Start

           The following example waits up to 30 seconds for the local device to reset (-r) then up  to  50  seconds  for  the  local
           device to start (-s).  This is the same as above but we have specified 30 seconds using option -w.

              # ampwait -r -s -w 30
              eth0 00:B0:52:BA:BA:01 Allow 30 seconds for Reset
              eth0 00:B0:52:BA:BA:01 Allow 30 seconds for Start

           The  next  example  reports the actual amount of time taken for each event to occur.  Observe that the last event, device
           association, did not occur within the allotted time.

              # ampwait -rsay
              eth0 00:B0:52:BA:BA:01 Allow 60 seconds for Reset
              etho 00:B0:52:BA:BA:01 Waited 22 seconds to Reset
              eth0 00:B0:52:BA:BA:01 Allow 60 seconds for Start
              etho 00:B0:52:BA:BA:01 Waited 4 seconds to Start
              eth0 00:B0:52:BA:BA:01 Allow 60 seconds for Assoc
              etho 00:B0:52:BA:BA:01 Waited 60 seconds for Assoc
              etho 00:B0:52:BA:BA:01 Device did not Assoc

           The following example illustrates use of the revision string to detect mismatched firmware.  In this  example,  we  reset
           the  device  first,  using program amptool, then wait for it to reset then start up again.  There are also operation that
           can cause the device to reset.

              # amptool -R
              # ampwait -xrsf INT6000-MAC-3-1-3143-1690-20071107-FINAL-B
              eth0 00:B0:52:BA:BA:01 Device started wrong firmware

           Immediately after a reset we wait for the firmware to stop responding, with option -r, and then  start  responding,  with
           option  -s,  and  then  perform  a string comparison against the actual firmware revision string, with option -f.  If the
           strings do not match then an error is reported.  In this case, the program will exit with a non-zero  return  code  since
           option -x is present.

    DISCLAIMER
           Atheros  HomePlug  AV  Vendor Specific Management Message Entry structure and content is proprietary to Qualcomm Atheros,
           Ocala FL USA.  Consequently, public information may not be available.  Qualcomm Atheros reserves the right to modify mes‐
           sage  structure and content in future firmware releases without any obligation to notify or compensate users of this pro‐
           gram.

    SEE ALSO
           amp(1), amptool(1), amphost(1), amprate(1), ampid(1), ampstat(1)

    CREDITS
            Charles Maier <cmaier@qca.qualcomm.com>

    open-plc-utils-0.0.3                                        Mar 2014                                                  plcwait(1)

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