[wpkg-users] creative ideas to spread out the running of wpkg installs?

[Dr. Frank Lee]

> The idea of having a central program monitoring all client requests may 
> sound fine, but is totally unrealistic (at least, with the manpower we 
> have).

Um, is it?

<thinking mode=aloud>
wpkg.js has a function which displays debug messages to screen or event 
viewer. Could that be adapted to optionally open HTTP connections? We 
might assume that the wpkg file server has an httpd running and so making 
connections like:
http://wpkg.server.org/wpkg-log.php?client=%HOST%&message=Installing%20Word
could be made. If we felt so inclined, this could be logged somewhere nice 
like an SQL database but even doing nothing with the data other than 
logging it in the httpd access logs would provide useful information for 
people to grep. The actual wpkg-log.php doesn't need to return anything 
and wpkg.js doesn't need to do anything with the returned data (if any). 
If the page is 404, who cares? Data will just get logged to error_log 
instead. If the httpd isn't running, we'll have to wait for a TCP timeout 
for each connection attempted, which is a bore but not a show-stopper.

A command-line option could be 
/httplog=http://wpkg.server.org/wpkg-log.php - if set, try http logging. 
If not, continue as normal.
</thinking>

Just a thought...

F