lafe(6)

NAME
lafe - Latency Free Empire client

SYNOPSIS
lafe country [password [host [port]]]

DESCRIPTION
lafe is an empire client optimized for high latency links. You can type in, edit, and send several commands before the server replies with output from the first command. This allows you to make better use of the existing bandwidth than most other clients. pei and eif are particularly susceptible to latency, as they require a complete exchange of data before prompting again. lafe could also be called LAg Free Empire. Empire 2 asynch features are supported. Empire 3 C_SYNC isn't supported, as this is a rather dumb client (in between emp_client and eif) and C_SYNC was removed from Empire 4 (Wolfpack). Readline is supported, and at the moment required. If you want lafe without readline, use emp_client instead.

  Parameters

country
    If the only parameter this is use as a key to look up the game name as specified by the addgame commands in the $HOME/.laferc file. Otherwise it is used as the country name on the server. Defaults to 'visitor' if unspecified.

password
    defaults to 'visitor' if unspecified.

host
    defaults to 149.84.128.9 if unspecified.

port
    defaults to 6667 if unspecified.

  Local commands

help
    print syntax summary of local commands.

addgame
    game country password host port logfile directory
    add a game definition for the "lafe game" startup method.

execute
    Handles exec scripts locally

runfeed
    Runs the argument as a shell command, and sends the output to the server shell Run the argument as a shell script

alias
    Print, delete, or define an alias. Use single quotes around the alias definition to protect $*, $1, $2, ...

setvar
    Set, delete, or print local variables.

shell
    Run parameters in a subshell.

history
    print the previous commands.

verbose
    toggle verbosity of message. "verbose on" if you want all the error messages, C_SYNC messages, etc. Off by default.

waitsync
    Wait for all responses from server before proceeding. Useful in scripts before a runfeed or shell command.

ENVIRONMENT
Environment variables are supported for backward compatibility with emp_client. This information is best placed in the $HOME/.laferc file using the addgame command.

EMPIREHOST
    hostname of server

EMPIREPORT
    TCP/IP port number of server

COUNTRY
    Country name to log in as

REPRESENTATIVE
    Password for country

FILES

$HOME/.laferc
    contains any valid local commands to run before connecting to a server.

SEE ALSO
emp_server(6), emp_client(6), emp_hub(6), pei(6), eif(6), http://wolfpackempire.com/

BUGS
Output redirection does not work with aliases and internal commands. Simultaneous connection to multiple servers is not yet supported. Version 1.0 addresses both of these issues, but has stalled due to lack of time.

When typing well ahead of the server, lafe must guess whether a local command should be parsed locally or forwarded to the server (as part of a telegram for instance). It guesses local, which is not always correct. This is the price you pay for speed.

AUTHOR
This manual page was written by Drake Diedrich <dld@debian.org>