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support-pack

Name

support-pack - Generate a tech support package

Synopsys

support-pack [-o output_path] [--notgz] [config_file]

Description

support-pack generates a tech support package that contains various information about the current state of the machine. It is designed with embedded systems in mind, with the goal that a non-technical user can launch the program and send the result to a "tech support" team.

support-pack needs a configuration file placed in /etc/support-pack/support-pack.conf, unless a config path is passed as a command line argument. This configuration file is a shell script that must obey some specific rules and tells support-pack which command should be run and where to store the output.

Config file syntax

The /etc/support-pack/support-pack.conf file is a shell script that should make use of the following commands:

  • support_cmd <command>: Execute a shell command while adding some introduction text before running the command. The output of support_cmd should be piped into support_log_file.
  • support_log_file <filename>: Create <filename> into the tech support archive and accept any amount of text from stdin to be logged into the file.
  • support_copy_file <src> [dest]: Copy a file from <src>, a regular file present on the system to <dst>, a relative path in the tech support archive. If <dst> is omitted, the destination is a file of the same name of <src> stored at the root of the tech support package.
  • support_copy_dir <src> [dest]: Copy a directory structure <src> to the tech support archive. <dest> can be omitted to store the directory <src> at the root of the support archive. <dest> can be used to specify a directory in the tech support archive into which the <src> directory should be stored.
  • support_info <text>: log a string to the support-pack.txt file
  • support_error <text>: log an error message to the support-pack.txt file

Use a shell pipe (|) to forward the output of a support_cmd to a support_log_file:

support_cmd dmesg | support_log_file dmesg.txt

Use shell braces ({}) to group multiple support_cmd into a single subprocess piped into a support_log_file:

{
    support_cmd cat /etc/os-release
    support_cmd cat /proc/cmdline
    support_cmd date
    support_cmd uptime
    support_cmd free -m
    support_cmd df -h
    support_cmd mount
    support_cmd ls -la /run
    support_cmd ps
    support_cmd top -b -n 1 -d 1
} | support_log_file "system.txt"

Output

As shown below, support-pack will output various informations about the commands it executes and the files it creates.

[INFO ] Fetching system infos..
[INFO ] Exec command "cat /etc/os-release"
[INFO ] Exec command "cat /proc/cmdline"
[INFO ] Exec command "date"
[INFO ] Exec command "uptime"
[INFO ] Exec command "free -m"
[INFO ] Exec command "df -h"
[INFO ] Exec command "mount"
[INFO ] Exec command "ls -la /run"
[INFO ] Exec command "ps"
[INFO ] Exec command "top -b -n 1 -d 1"
[INFO ] Created file "system.txt"
[INFO ] Fetching kernel dmesg..
[INFO ] Exec command "dmesg"
[INFO ] Created file "dmesg.txt"
[INFO ] Fetching network infos..
[INFO ] Exec command "ifconfig"
[INFO ] Exec command "netstat -ant"
[INFO ] Created file "network.txt"
[INFO ] Archiving files..
[INFO ] Archive "/tmp/support-pack-20221223-141651.tar.gz" (48K) has been created.
/tmp/support-pack-20221223-141651.tar.gz

All the information produced by support-pack is outputed on stderr. This information, up to the archiving step, is also available in the support package itself in a file named support-pack.txt.

If support-pack exits with a zero return code, the only line produced on stdout will be the name of the archive that was produced or the name of the support-pack directory if the archiving step was skipped.

License

Copyright (C) 2021-present Savoir-faire Linux Inc.

Support-pack is released under the Apache 2 license.

About

CISCO routers contained a show tech-support command that would output lots of information about the system state. This text would be retrieved via SSH, telnet or a serial port, dumped to a file and sent to the support team for further investigation. support-pack goal is to provide a modernized and configurable version of this tool for embedded Linux systems.