Nut upsdev - Nov 2005 - telling apart USB devices

I just noticed the following curious behavior when using newhidups
with upsdrvctl and two different USB devices:

My ups.conf contains two devices, both using newhidups:

[belkinusb]
        driver = newhidups
        port = auto
        desc = "Belkin UPS, USB interface"
        vendorid=050d

[mgeusb]
        driver = newhidups
        port = auto
        desc = "MGE UPS, USB interface"
        vendor = "MGE.*"

If I start one of them, say belkinusb, with upsdrvctl,

$ upsdrvctl start belkinusb

then *both* "upsc mgeusb@localhost" and "upsc
belkinusb@localhost" give
the same output:

$ upsc mgeusb@localhost
battery.charge: 100
...
driver.name: newhidups
driver.parameter.port: auto
driver.parameter.vendorid: 050d
driver.version: 2.1.0
driver.version.data: Belkin HID 0.1
driver.version.internal: 0.28
...

$ upsc belkinusb@localhost
battery.charge: 100
...
driver.name: newhidups
driver.parameter.port: auto
driver.parameter.vendorid: 050d
driver.version: 2.1.0
driver.version.data: Belkin HID 0.1
driver.version.internal: 0.28
...

On the other hand, if I assign two different dummy "ports" to these
devices:

[belkinusb]
        driver = newhidups
        port = auto1
        desc = "Belkin UPS, USB interface"
        vendorid=050d

[mgeusb]
        driver = newhidups
        port = auto2
        desc = "MGE UPS, USB interface"
        vendor = "MGE.*"

then the two devices will be distinguished correctly. Is this behavior
documented? The man page currently says:

IMPLEMENTATION
       newhidups only support 1 UPS at this time. You can put the
"auto" value
       for port in ups.conf, i.e.:

            [newhidups]
                 driver = newhidups
                 port = auto

This is now most definitely outdated. But the fact that the "port" is
used in this way, although it does not mean anything, should probably
be documented.

Arnaud, any thoughts on this? -- Peter

Hi there,

I just got a bit of time to see this mail... still late (and busy) as always

2005/11/6, Peter Selinger
<selinger@mathstat.dal.ca>:
>
> I just noticed the following curious behavior when using newhidups
> with upsdrvctl and two different USB devices:
>
> ...
>
> On the other hand, if I assign two different dummy "ports" to
these
> devices:
>
> [belkinusb]
> driver = newhidups
> port = auto1
> desc = "Belkin UPS, USB interface"
> vendorid=050d
>
> [mgeusb]
> driver = newhidups
> port = auto2
> desc = "MGE UPS, USB interface"
> vendor = "MGE.*"
>
> then the two devices will be distinguished correctly. Is this behavior
> documented? The man page currently says:
>
> IMPLEMENTATION
> newhidups only support 1 UPS at this time. You can put the "auto"
value
> for port in ups.conf, i.e.:
>
> [newhidups]
> driver = newhidups
> port = auto
>
> This is now most definitely outdated. But the fact that the
"port" is
> used in this way, although it does not mean anything, should probably
> be documented.
>
> Arnaud, any thoughts on this? -- Peter


yep, 2 in facts:
1) the above problem is due to the state sockets and driver pidfile naming.
These are currently build using "drv-name"-"port" (adding
".pid" for the
pidfile).
This is, as you stated, not enough now with the newhidups case and its
"auto" port probing!
I've thinked about that when starting newhidups, and come to the conclusion
that using the ups definition name (ie belkinusb and mgeusb) would be
sufficient. A good way to ensure a unique filename. A special case is when
the driver is launched manually (ie just with a port, no -a and not with
upsdrvctl). In that case, we'll use the current behavior.
I'm preparing that for the cvs Dev. Watch the commit list this evening...

2) having the above done, newhidups manpage can be updated, and the problem
solved. Peter, I let you handle this part.

Arnaud
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