Command-line LAWN

Logging into LAWN from a web browser

The usual method for logging into lawn is via a web browser — Firefox, Mozilla, Internet Explorer, etc. Users access and submit an HTML form containing their GT Account username and password, and are subsequently logged into LAWN.

LAWN via the command-line

If an automated method for logging into LAWN is desired, the solution is to automate a web client — that is, to use a command line tool to HTTP POST user credentials to the same action URL as the HTML form on the LAWN login page. Two popular command line HTTP tools are curl (available from: http://curl.haxx.se/ ) and GNU wget (available from http://www.gnu.org/software/wget/wget.html ). Instructions on using both curl and wget to log into LAWN are presented below.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

• Though your operating system may have wget and/or curl already installed, in order to post to the LAWN login URL, they must be compiled with SSL (https) support.
• True automation of the login process involves either passing your password as a command-line argument or storing it in a file local to your machine. Both options have important security considerations. Automating your LAWN login may place the security of your password at a greater risk.

Logging into LAWN

Logging into LAWN involves passing the following form fields via wget or curl:

Required Fields:

Optional Fields:

The output argument is optional and can be set to the following values:

If no argument is given, output=web is assumed.

Examples :: Assuming your account name is gb01 and your password is b@dD00d, you want to use Inbound Service Security, and you want to see the output as text (each example is to be typed on one line):

curl -s -f -F username='gb01' -F password='b@dD00d' -F iss='true' -F output='text' https://auth.lawn.gatech.edu/index.php

or

wget -q -O - --post-data='username=gb01&password=b@dD00d&iss=true&output=text' https://auth.lawn.gatech.edu/index.php

If you wish to store the arguments in a file instead of passing them on the command line, place the string username=gb01&password=b@dD00d&iss=true&output=text in file file named lawnlogin :

curl -s -f --data '@lawnlogin' https://auth.lawn.gatech.edu/index.php

or

wget -q -O - --post-file=lawnlogin https://auth.lawn.gatech.edu/index.php

If you want to log a device in that is not the one you are authenticating from (i.e. a Sony PSP), you would use the device_login.php URL and specify a mac address:

curl -s -f -F username='gb01' -F password='b@dD00d' -F iss='true' -F output='text' -F mac='9a:18:f2:06:19:71' https://auth.lawn.gatech.edu/device_login.php

or

wget -q -O - --post-data='username=gb01&password=b@dD00d&iss=true&output=text&mac=9a:18:f2:06:19:71' https://auth.lawn.gatech.edu/device_login.php

Checking login status

If you wish to check the status of your login to LAWN — that is, to see if you are still logged into LAWN — you can use wget or curl, and using the same output options as above (but no username or password):

curl -s -f https://auth.lawn.gatech.edu/login_status.php?output=text

or

wget -q -O - https://auth.lawn.gatech.edu/login_status.php?output=text

Logging out of LAWN

You are logged out of LAWN when your machine fails to renew its DHCP lease (presumably because you've shutdown, put your machine to sleep, or you are out of range of the wireless network). If you want to log out of LAWN manually, you can access:

curl -s -f https://auth.lawn.gatech.edu/logout.php?output=text

or

wget -q -O - https://auth.lawn.gatech.edu/logout.php?output=text