Keep the terminal connected
After installation the client keeps a background connection to your account, so a paired computer can receive work without anyone opening a terminal on it.
How the connection starts
| System | What the installer sets up |
|---|---|
| Linux | A user service, elowen-connect.service, enabled for every start of the computer. |
| macOS | A login item that starts with your session. |
| Windows | An entry in your account's startup programs, started hidden at every sign-in. |
The connection comes back by itself after a lost network connection or a restart.
When the installer cannot set it up
On Linux, if your system does not allow a user service for your account, the installer says so. The connection then runs only while you are logged in.
On macOS, when there is no user service manager, for example over SSH without a desktop session, the installer says so. Run elowen connect in a terminal and keep that terminal open.
On Windows, if the connection stops while you are signed in, it starts again at your next sign-in, or run elowen connect.
What the Computers page shows
Account → Computers lists your computers, one row each: whether it is connected, when it was last online, since when it is paired, its system and client version, and its live CPU, memory and disk load when there is room.
Open a row to see its turns, commands and cost over a period you choose beside the chart. That period then applies to every computer. The row also shows the current load in larger rings.
If the computer shows as offline
- On that computer, open a terminal and run
elowen connect. Keep the terminal open. - Reload Account → Computers. The row turns to connected.
On Windows the connection also writes a log to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Elowen\client\logs\connect.log. Linux and macOS keep no separate log; their system logs hold what the connection prints.
What the client may do on the computer
Allowed file and shell actions run with the authority of your operating-system account on that computer. They can reach everything that account can access, not only the folder you started the terminal in.
On Windows the agent runs Bash commands in PowerShell: PowerShell 7 (pwsh) when it is installed, otherwise the Windows PowerShell 5.1 that Windows includes. Chetty is told which one it has, so it writes PowerShell commands and Windows paths there.
Work while the computer is offline
Work for a computer that is offline fails with an error. It is never moved to the server, so nothing runs in the wrong place.