Warden 1.0 -- 19.10.2026
WHAT IT IS
Warden is a commodity that watches your Amiga while you work, and tells
you when something is about to go wrong rather than after it has: free
memory running out, a volume filling up, a background task that has died,
a drawer that changed behind your back, a board getting hot.
It has no window and no screen of its own. It starts with Workbench, sits
in Exchange like any other commodity, and costs no processor time at all
between events.
WHAT IT WATCHES
* Free memory, chip memory and fragmentation -- and an allocation that
has really failed, which the system itself reports to Warden, and
which names the program whose request could not be met
* Free space on every volume, in per cent or in KB, and disks
appearing, going away, turning write-protected or being validated.
A full volume you know about is answered with "I know" and stays
quiet, across reboots, until it loses another percent
* Drawers and files you name: something added, deleted, renamed, or the
file rewritten. Nothing is polled -- the file system says when
* Assigns appearing and going away, and changes under ENV:
* Named tasks and public ports that ought to be running, with a command
of yours to start one again, a capped number of times
* Temperature, fan speed, voltage, current, power, air pressure and
humidity -- through i2csensors.library where the hardware has it, or
through any command that prints a number. Up to sixty-four, and it
will find them for you
WHAT IT DOES ABOUT IT
* A notification through Herald, when Herald is installed
* A line in a log file, always, whether anything was shown or not
* An AmigaDOS command or ARexx script of yours, with the event's
subject, class, severity and text put into the command line
* A requester -- never for good news, and by default only when there is
no notification server to take the message
A rule fires once, then stays quiet until the value has come well clear of
the limit again, and even then waits for a quiet time you set. A reading
that wanders across a limit all day produces one warning, not a stream.
The settings are a real FORM PREF file under ENV: and ENVARC:, written by
WardenPrefs -- a ReAction editor with Save, Use and Test, the usual
menus, and the manual on the Help key. Ctrl + Left Alt + W opens it from
anywhere, and its title bar says so. A running Warden notices a change by
itself; there is nothing to restart and nothing to tell it.
WHAT YOU NEED
AmigaOS 3.9 with Boing Bag 2 (V45) or AmigaOS 3.2 (V47), and a 68000. The
commodity is about 48 KB while resident and opens no ReAction class at all.
The settings editor needs the ReAction classes of AmigaOS 3.9 or 3.2. If
one of them is missing it names it and stops rather than drawing half a
window; the watching is unaffected, and every setting can also be made as
a tool type on the icon.
ARexx (rexxsyslib.library) carries the notifications to Herald and the
WARDEN port. Without it Warden still watches, still writes its log and
still puts up its requesters.
Herald is optional, and is a separate program. When its port is not there
-- not installed, or being restarted -- nothing is sent, nothing waits and
nothing fails: the event goes to the log and, if you asked for one, to a
requester.
Hardware sensors need i2csensors.library by Henryk Richter, which is not
part of this archive. It comes with Henryk's Sensei package, whose installer
puts it in place:
https://aminet.net/package/driver/other/Sensei
The sensors also need an i2c interface with its own i2c.library. Most
Amigas have none at all, and on those Warden never mentions it.
LANGUAGES
Warden and WardenPrefs speak English and German, and the AmigaGuide manual
comes in both. Which language is used follows the Locale preferences: with
German before English there, the notifications, the log's text, the
settings window and the manual the Help key opens are German. What scripts
compare -- the port's replies, the log's severity column, the values handed
to a command of yours -- is the same in every language.
INSTALLING
Unpack, open the drawer and double-click Install.
Everything goes into one drawer, SYS:Tools/Warden by default: the
commodity, its settings editor, its picture for Herald, the German catalogs
and, if you like, the manual in both languages. The installer offers to
copy the program alone into SYS:WBStartup, so it starts with Workbench, and
to add an assign called Warden: to S:User-Startup, through which that copy
finds the rest. Settings live in ENVARC:Warden.
To remove it: Remove Warden in Exchange, delete the drawer, delete
SYS:WBStartup/Warden if you installed it, delete ENV:Warden and
ENVARC:Warden, and remove the ;BEGIN Warden block from S:User-Startup.
If the manuals went into HELP: or a drawer of your own, delete
Warden.guide from its english and deutsch drawers too.
FOR SCRIPTS
While it runs, Warden offers a public port called WARDEN that speaks
ARexx:
rx "options results; address WARDEN 'STATUS'; say result"
STATUS, SENSORS, QUERY, SNOOZE, TEST, RELOAD, SAVE, VERSION and QUIT. A
program written in C can send the same commands without ARexx running.
SNOOZE is the polite way to work undisturbed for a while -- the watching
goes on and the log is written throughout, so nothing is lost.
The whole interface is in the AmigaGuide manual, and once more in
Warden-AI.md beside the Installer: one plain text file -- the port, every
event a command can be run for, the rules for a sensor command, the
log's layout, examples -- written to be handed to a coding assistant
together with what a script should do.
HISTORY
1.0 (19.10.2026)
- initial release
LICENCE
Copyright (C) 2026 Marcus Gerards. All rights reserved.
This covers the commodity, its settings editor and their documentation,
icons and the other files supplied with them.
You may download, install and use the Software free of charge for your own
private and personal purposes.
It may NOT be sold or otherwise distributed commercially, in whole or in
part. It may NOT be bundled or combined with any other software, hardware,
magazine, cover disk, collection or product. It may NOT otherwise be
published, redistributed or mirrored, in any form, whether modified or
unmodified. Each of these requires the author's prior written permission --
please ask first:
Marcus Gerards
marcus.gerards@googlemail.com
The Software is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind, express or
implied, including but not limited to the warranties of merchantability,
fitness for a particular purpose and noninfringement. In no event shall the
author be liable for any claim, damages or other liability arising from, out
of or in connection with the Software or its use.
All rights not expressly granted above are reserved by the author. The full
text is in the manual, under "License".
THANKS
Martin "Mason" Merz drew the icons. Each GlowIcon shipped is Warden's
own classic icon with his colour imagery appended, so AmigaOS 3.5 and
newer show his artwork while everything older shows the plain one; the
Installer offers both sets. His thermometer also rides along with a
temperature warning.
Hardware sensors are read through i2csensors.library by Henryk Richter,
which itself uses i2c.library by Brian Ipsen and Wilhelm Noeker. Those are
separate works under their own licences: Warden ships no part of them and
contains no code from them -- it opens the library at run time if you have
installed it, and does without it when you have not. The library comes
with Henryk's Sensei package; its sources are on his GitLab:
https://aminet.net/package/driver/other/Sensei
https://gitlab.com/HenrykRichter/i2csensors
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