northrup@loudcloud.com (Dylan Northrup) writes
I got this reply to my query. Thanks to Britt for the fast reply with this information.
[...]
This is the condensed output of the availtime command.
Try running 'availtime full' (with a wide terminal!) it gives a more verbose output.
Basically it tells you how many planned (P) and unplanned (U) downtimes the filer has had, how long those downtimes lasted, and when and how long the longest down time was.
Ah ha! YAUC [Yet Another Undocumented Command]
Now at last I understand what that mysterious file /etc/.avail is for. One can even guess roughly how it is encoded by comparing it with the "availtime" command output.
Due to a small [umm...] accident this file got removed on my filer early this year, and didn't reappear until the next reboot. I imagine that is why "availtime" thinks we had nearly 42 days of unplanned downtime then. :-)
Chris Thompson Email: cet1@cam.ac.uk