THE RIVER USER'S MANUAL Table of Contents INTRODUCTION CONVENTIONS PRELIMINARIES -- GETTING SET UP LOGIN ID PASSWORD THE BASIC PROMPTS THE RIVER IN A NUTSHELL MORE DETAILS IMPORTANT SETUP FILES YOUR LOGIN ID, YOUR PSEUD AND YOUR REAL NAME FINDING REAL NAMES YOUR BIO (.plan) DISPLAY BIO INFORMATION CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD TO BANG OR NOT TO BANG I'VE FORGOTTEN MY PASSWORD! ACTIONS FROM THE OK PROMPT LIST CONFERENCES MORE DETAILS ON CONFERENCES - CONFINFO GO TO A CONFERENCE WHO IS THE HOST OF THIS CONFERENCE? PARTICIPANTS LIST TOPICS IN A CONFERENCE - BROWSE READ TOPICS - SEE MORE FIXSEEN FORGET A TOPIC REMEMBER A TOPIC START A NEW TOPIC - ENTER FREEZE A TOPIC THAW A TOPIC WHO IS ONLINE? QUIT YAPP ACTIONS AT THE RESPONSE PROMPT READ A RESPONSE MAKE A POST RESPONDING TO A SPECIFIC POST HIDE A POST UNHIDE A POST READ A HIDDEN POST SCRIBBLE A POST KEEP TOPIC NEW - PRESERVE RIVER PRACTICES SLIPPAGE RIVER CONFERENCING STYLE RIVER DISCUSSIONS AND CULTURE HOSTS LOGIN/LOGOUT BANNERS LAUNCH LINKED TOPICS SUGGEST A CONFERENCE PRIVATE CONFERENCES THE TEST CONFERENCE RIVER META CONFERENCES: RIVER, LAUNCH, HOSTS, BOD HELP SCREENS REAL TIME COMMUNICATIONS PUBLIC SOFTWARE BOZOFILTER WEB SITE EXTRA RIVER FEATURES LOGOFF APPENDIX A DIRECTORIES, FILES AND PERMISSIONS GENERAL HOME DIRECTORY CHANGE DIRECTORY MAKE A NEW SUBDIRECTORY REMOVE A SUBDIRECTORY COPYING FILES FILE SECURITY - PERMISSIONS DIRECTORY SECURITY SHELL ACCESS DOWNLOAD/UPLOAD APPENDIX B TEXT EDITORS HOW TO FIND HELP FOR EDITORS APPENDIX C MAIL DO I HAVE MAIL? MBOX CAN I TELL IF SOMEONE RECEIVES MY MAIL? QUIT MAIL ----------------------------- THE RIVER USER'S MANUAL INTRODUCTION This manual provides descriptions of some common River practices, and instructions for using Yapp, the River conferencing system. It contains enough detail to let you use most of Yapp's features; to find your way around, read topics in conferences and post your own responses. The manual begins with information about typographical conventions, preliminary setup steps, and what the basic prompts look like. This is followed by a River-in-a-Nutshell section that gives an overall view of how the River is organized, where the basic prompts show up, and the most common commands at each prompt. Then comes the main body of the manual, with details about command usage, personalizing your environment, less common Yapp features and general River practices. Additional information is available, often with much more detail, in the Yapp manual, from command-line help screens and man pages, and in several River conferences. CONVENTIONS Throughout the manual what you are asked to type as a command is either on a line by itself or surrounded by quote marks. If there is a short version of the command it is shown in parentheses. For example: Type "(b)rowse fruitcake" means that "b fruitcake" does the same thing as "browse fruitcake". Do not type the quote marks. It is necessary to press ENTER after each command; this is omitted from the instructions. The terms "press ENTER" and "press RETURN" are used interchangeably. The terms "post" and "response" are used interchangeably. The notation Ctrl-d (or ^D) means hold down the control key and type "d". This does the same thing as period on a line by itself. Login IDs are often shown in either parens () or left/right carets <>. PRELIMINARIES -- GETTING SET UP LOGIN ID You created your unique login ID when you signed up for the River through the New User registration program. Your login ID will show at the top of each post, topic and email you create. Your login ID is permanent, and is always linked to your real name. No one is anonymous on the River. PASSWORD As part of New User registration you also established your password. It is very important that you keep your password private. It is recommended that you change your password routinely. It is also recommended that you use a password which isn't a real word or a number like your birthday. Choose something alphanumeric and meaningless, like "48Nq7pv!". Passwords are case-sensitive. THE BASIC PROMPTS login: The login prompt. Password: The password prompt. loginID river 1: The system prompt. Ok (? for help): The OK prompt. --More--[Press space to continue, 'q' to quit.] The more prompt. Respond (r), pass (Return), or help (?): The response prompt. (or) Response not possible. (Return) or (?): if the topic is frozen. Enter message, '^D' to end, or :? for help. At the start of a post. Ok to enter this response? At the end of a post. THE RIVER IN A NUTSHELL Here is a minimal set of instructions. This is all you need to find your way around and post responses. The simplifications and refinements can come later. At the system prompt: loginID river 1: Type "logout" or "exit" to leave the River. Type "yapp" to enter the conferencing system. (This takes you to the OK prompt in the Launch conference.) River Conference Topic 1 ______________________________ Response 1 | | Response 2 | Here is the basic layout of | Topic 2 | conversations on the River. | Response 1 | The largest subject division | Response 2 | is the Conference. Each | Response 3 | Conference is broken down | News Conference | into Topics. Each Topic | Topic 1 | may have many Responses. | Response 1 | Sometimes a group of related | Response 2 | Responses is referred to as | Topic 2 | a "thread". | Response 1 |______________________________| Response 2 Response 3 At the OK prompt: Ok (? for help): Type "list" or "confs" to see a list of conferences. Type "g river" to go to the River (or whatever) conference. Type "b" to see a list of topics within a conference. Type "s" to read new posts in all topics in numerical order. Type "s 1" to read posts in Topic 1 (or whatever topic). Type "s 1 n" to read new responses in Topic 1 (or whatever topic). Type "quit" to leave the Yapp conferencing system. At the Response prompt: Respond (r), pass (Return), or help (?): Press ENTER to move on to the next topic without responding. Type "q" to quit looking at topics and go back to the OK prompt. Type "r" to post a response. The system responds: Enter message, '^D' to end, or :? for help. Type your post. Type "." (or Ctrl-d) on a new line to end your post. The system responds: "Ok to enter this response?" Type "y" to post your response. Type "n" to cancel your response. MORE DETAILS The preceding sections provided the briefest possible summary of how to use the River. Now we will go back over this, in roughly the same order, and give more details. In the following sections we talk about creating FILES in your HOME DIRECTORY (and its subdirectories), changing PERMISSIONS of files, and using an EDITOR. If you need help with any of this, refer to Appendices A and B at the end of the manual. Refer to Appendix C for information about MAIL. IMPORTANT SETUP FILES In your home directory and in your .cfdir subdirectory, there are several files that control how your screen looks, which editor or mail program you use, and other aspects of your River environment. Permissions must be set so these files are executable by all. .login - Resides in the home directory. When you login, the system goes to your .login file and starts executing commands found there. This is similar to the autoexec.bat file for DOS systems. When the River sets up a new user account a simple .login file is automatically put in place. Here is an example of a .login file: stty erase ^H #Makes backspace work as an erase key yapp #Takes you immediately to Yapp when you log in logout #When you quit Yapp, bypasses the shell and takes #you back to your ISP .cflist - Resides in the .cfdir subdirectory. Here you create a list of conferences that you want to visit regularly. When you enter Yapp you are taken to the first conference on your .cflist. To go to the next conference on your .cflist, type "n" at the OK prompt. This is simpler than typing "g conference" each time, and helps ensure that you keep current with your favorite conferences. You can still use "g conference" to visit conferences that are not in your .cflist. Each new user is provided with a simple .cflist file to begin with. .cfonce - Resides in the .cfdir subdirectory. This file is created to change YAPP settings. A couple of possibilities are: set stay #Go back to the Response prompt after #entering a post instead of going to the #next topic define mail 9 system pine #Changes the default mail program to Pine .cfrc - Resides in the .cfdir subdirectory. This file is created to apply changes to conferences and what you see when you go to them. For example: display name #display your pseud when you enter a conference #(See the discussion on pseuds below.) There are many other commands which can be put in these files. Please ask for help in Launch before changing these files if you are not familiar with this sort of thing. YOUR LOGIN ID, YOUR PSEUD AND YOUR REAL NAME Your login ID has been mentioned above. This stays with you all the time, and appears in parentheses in the header of anything you post. At the left of your login ID appears a name you can change at will; this is your pseud. Until you change it, your pseud defaults to your full name. For example: Dr. Stamen Petalbore (buttercup) If Dr. Petalbore wants to change his pseud to "Peanut", it would then look like this: Peanut (buttercup) In this case, Peanut is the pseud that user (buttercup) has temporarily chosen. There are two ways to change your pseud: the "ps" command and the "c n" command (for change name). The "c n" command is used at the OK prompt, and lets you change the pseud you wish to use every time you come to the conference you are presently in. Yes, (buttercup) can be Peanut in one conference and Sweet Little in another conference. Example: Ok (? for help): c n Your old name is: Peanut Enter replacement or return to keep old? Sweet Little Ok (? for help): The "ps" command is used at the Response prompt, and lets you change your pseud temporarily while you remain in that conference. As soon as you go to another conference that pseud is forgotten. Example: Respond (r), pass (Return), or help (?): ps What's your handle? Golden Enter message, '^D' to end, or :? for help. Now for this post, and subsequent posts until you leave this conference, your pseud is Golden. FINDING REAL NAMES The command "name" is used to see the connection between login IDs and real names. For example: Ok (? for help): name jerry jerry Jerry Shifman spiff Jerry Michalski And it works the other way, too: Ok (? for help): name Michalski spiff Jerry Michalski The "name" command is not case sensitive. YOUR BIO (.plan) River folks will want to get to know you. One way they can do this is from the information in your .plan file, which resides in your home directory. During new user registration you provided certain information, some of which will show up in your .plan file automatically. Nothing private from your registration, such as your address or phone number, is shown. Your real name is shown, however, because it is River policy that no participant may be anonymous. You are free to edit this file to add whatever information about yourself you wish people to know. Refer to Appendix A for information about text editors. DISPLAY BIO INFORMATION At the OK prompt type "bio buttercup" to see buttercup's .plan file. The command "finger buttercup" does the same thing. CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD At the OK prompt type "!passwd". You will be asked to type your old password, then your new password, then your new password again for verification. The new password takes effect the next time you log in. TO BANG OR NOT TO BANG Note the bang (!) in the command shown above. This is used because "passwd" is a Unix command, not a Yapp command. When using a Unix command from inside Yapp, type "!" before the command. Refer to Appendix A for more on this point. I'VE FORGOTTEN MY PASSWORD! It happens. Email support03@river.org for help. ACTIONS FROM THE OK PROMPT When you enter the Yapp conferencing system you are immediately at the OK prompt. It looks like this: Ok (? for help): The most common actions from the OK prompt are described below. LIST CONFERENCES Conferences are the main reason the River exists. Each conference has a specific theme, such as Media, or News. Type "list" to see a list of all conferences. The command "(d)isplay conferences" does the same thing, as does the command "confs". MORE DETAILS ON CONFERENCES - CONFINFO To get a more in-depth view of the conferences on The River, type "confinfo" at the OK prompt. You will be led into a series of text-based web pages (via the "lynx" program) with details on all conferences. You navigate this utility by hitting the enter key when the cursor is at the underlined word indicating your choice. You can leave this utility at any time by typing "q" (for quit). If you have a graphical web browser, you can access the same pages at the address: http://www.river.org/confs GO TO A CONFERENCE To go to a conference, type "(g)o conference" at the OK prompt. For instance, to get to the conference about movies, type "g movies". Type "g" by itself to see what conference you are presently in. The command "(j)oin" is the same as "(g)o". WHO IS THE HOST OF THIS CONFERENCE? To find out who the conference host is, type "(d)isplay (f)air(w)itness". Short version: "d fw". PARTICIPANTS Type "(p)articipants" to get a list of the users who have been to the conference and the last date they visited. If you want to know if a certain user has been in a conference, type "p loginID". LIST TOPICS IN A CONFERENCE - BROWSE To see a list of topics, type "(b)rowse" at the OK prompt. Each topic has a number. You can search for topics on a specific subject by typing "b keyword". This lists all topic headers that contain the keyword. b word1 gets all topics with word1 in the header b word1 word2 gets all topics with either word1 or word2 in the header b "word1 word2" gets all topics with the exact string word1 word2 in the header (in this case the quotes *are* part of the command) The "browse" command can be used in several other ways. At the OK prompt type "help browse". This tells you that the "browse" command can be used with "range". Type "help range" to find out about that. The "browse" command is not case sensitive. READ TOPICS - SEE Type "(s)ee" to read all responses in all topics. Type "(s)ee 13" to read only the responses in topic 13. Yapp keeps track of which responses you have read, and the next time you come to the conference the "(s)ee" command will show you only topics that have new responses you have not yet read. As with "browse", the "see" command can be used with "range". For example, type "s 41-50" to read responses in topics 41 through 50. Another use of range is "s since -2". This shows you responses that have been posted in the last two days. Type "help range" for more information. The "(r)ead" command is the same as "(s)ee". MORE While you are reading a topic with several posts, YAPP will give you the first 23 lines and then the More prompt. It looks like this: --More--[Press space to continue, 'q' to quit.] If you want to read on, press the spacebar for the next 23 lines. If you do not wish to read further, type "q" to quit. This will take you to the Response prompt. FIXSEEN If it's been awhile since you've visited a conference and you do not want to read all of the posts that have been made during that time, type "(fix)seen" at the OK prompt. YAPP will mark all responses in all topics as already read, and they will not show up as new posts the next time you enter the conference. The "fixseen" command also works with "range", so "fix 41-50" marks all responses in topics 41 through 50 as read. FORGET A TOPIC If there is a certain topic in a conference that doesn't interest you, type "forget #" -- where # is the topic number. Yapp will stop showing you this topic. The "forget" command works with "range". The command "forget" without a # will cause all topics in that conference to be forgotten -- probably not what you intended to do. To see a list of topics you have forgotten type "(b)rowse for". To see a list of all topics, forgotten or not, type "(b)rowse nof". REMEMBER A TOPIC The "(rem)ember" command undoes the "forget" command, and it is used in the same way. START A NEW TOPIC - ENTER River users are encouraged to start topics in conferences as a way of contributing to the discussion. It is a good idea to browse the topics already in the conference to see if another similar topic is already under discussion. To enter a topic, type "(e)nter" at the OK prompt within the conference. You will be taken to the text editor so that you can type what will become response 0 in that topic. When you have finished your message, exit the text editor by typing a period on a blank line. You'll then be asked: Ok to enter this response? Type "y" for yes. The next prompt will be: Enter a one line header or ':' to edit. At this point, you can go back to the message by typing ":" if you wish to edit your response 0. If you're happy with response 0, type the header you wish to give the topic. You will see: Ok to enter this item? Type "y" to finish creating the topic. It is customary to have a short introduction to a topic in response 0, and then to further expand on your subject in response 1. Here is how this entire sequence looks: Ok (? for help): e Enter message, '^D' to end, or :? for help. In this topic we will discuss pine trees. . Ok to enter this response? y Enter a one line header or ':' to edit ? Conifers R Us Ok to enter this item? y Saving as item 55...saved. FREEZE A TOPIC The person who starts a topic or the conference host can end the topic by "freezing" it. To freeze a topic, type "freeze #" where # is the topic number. The respond prompt then becomes: Response not possible. (Return) or (?): The main reason for freezing a topic is conference housekeeping. A host may want to keep a topic from going over a certain number of posts. Or a host may see a topic which was started by someone who didn't know that there was already a topic on the same subject. THAW A TOPIC Type "thaw #" to unfreeze a topic. WHO IS ONLINE? To get a list of who is online while you are, type "u" at the OK or Response prompt. You can also type "w" at either prompt and get more information about who is online in terms of how long they've been online, where they are logged in from, and other details. QUIT YAPP Type "quit" or "exit" to leave the Yapp conferencing system. ACTIONS AT THE RESPONSE PROMPT When you finish reading the posts in a topic, you reach the Response prompt. It looks like this: Respond (r), pass (Return), or help (?): Several of the most common actions from the Response prompt are described below. READ A RESPONSE Type "10" to read the 10th and subsequent responses. Type "23-30" to read responses 23 through 30. MAKE A POST Type "(r)espond" to start a post. The system responds: Enter message, '^D' to end, or :? for help. At this point you are in your text editor. See Appendix A for information about editors. Type your post. Exit from the editor by typing a period (or CTRL-D) on a blank line. You will see this prompt: Ok to enter this response? Type "y" to post, or "n" to stop the post if you change your mind. RESPONDING TO A SPECIFIC POST If you wish to call attention to the fact that you are responding to a specific earlier post, say response 23, type "r 23". The first line of your new post will automatically be, . HIDE A POST It is sometimes useful to "hide" a post so that the body of the post does not show up unless the user specifically asks to see it. If a post is very long, for instance, it is considered polite to hide it so that people don't have to scroll through all of it. To hide a post, type "hide #", with # being the number of the response. UNHIDE A POST To unhide a post, type "unhide #", with # being the number of the response. Users can hide and unhide their own posts, but not the posts of others. Conference hosts can hide and unhide any post in their conference. READ A HIDDEN POST To read a hidden post, type "(o)nly #", with # being the number of the response. (That's a small letter o, not the zero.) SCRIBBLE A POST If you post something and aren't sure you want to leave it there after all, you can scribble the post. This deletes the post completely from the topic. People scribble posts for different reasons. They might have re-read their post and found formatting problems in it, so they scribble the post and rewrite it. They could have had a change of mind about the wisdom of making that post. Sometimes people feel they have been too hard on someone else, and will scribble a post for that reason. Please keep in mind that the real value of the River is the content of the conferences -- this is what we are all building together. If key posts are missing, it may make the flow of the conversation difficult to follow, since posts generally relate to earlier posts. It is your right to scribble your posts, but please do so with great care -- once scribbled, it cannot be unscribbled. To scribble a post, type "(scr)ibble #", with # being the number of the response. KEEP TOPIC NEW - PRESERVE Yapp keeps track of which topics you have read, and when you come back to a conference Yapp will take you to topics with responses which are new since your last visit. But what if you are reading a great topic and want to respond, but you don't have the time? In that case you will want to see the responses again later to spark your memory. Type "(pr)eserve" at the Response prompt. That topic will be shown to you the next time you read the conference, just as though it had not been read. YAPP then takes you to the next topic in that conference. Alternatively, type "(n)ew" at the Response prompt. This works the same as "(pr)eserve", except that Yapp returns you to the OK prompt instead of going on to the next topic in the conference. RIVER PRACTICES The foregoing portion of the User Manual is mostly about how to use specific commands. But that is really just mechanics. The real value of the River is in the content of the conversations. What follows is mostly about accepted conventions, practices and jargon. SLIPPAGE "Jerry slipped" or "Cynthia slipped in" may seem weird to read in a topic; it means that while a post was being written, someone else posted first. When this happens Yapp warns you and gives the number of their post. It is a good idea to go to that post and read what was posted, especially if you thought you were responding to the post you thought was immediately before yours. If your post doesn't make as much sense after someone slips in with their post, or gives redundant information, you might make another post to show you know someone slipped in and that you were responding to something else. When a topic is particularly popular or has a lot of activity, there can be a lot of slippage. It's part of the charm of linear conferencing. RIVER CONFERENCING STYLE Some BBS or conference software is organized by "threads" where people respond to a specific person within a subject. YAPP organizes things differently, and it's this difference that helps define the style of interaction on the River. Our topics flow in a linear manner. Each post is numbered in sequence as the conversation flows from one post to another. For instance, the first post in a topic about the 60s might ask for memories of what it was like during that time. The first post is created when the topic is created, and it is numbered as response 0. Response 1 might be from another Riverite who writes about her memories of music from that time. Response 2 might come from someone else who remembers TV jingles during that era. Response 3 might react to the first two posts or might continue to come up with other comments related to the topic. Response 4 might be about someone's bell-bottom jeans. Each of these posts will probably spark an idea in someone else, who will add to the conversation. We don't automatically respond to an individual like you would in a threaded system. If you wish to do this, you must say so in your post: "David, that's great, I didn't know you were into Herman's Hermits, too!" "I love watching reruns of Gilligan's Island, Martha." We do not have offline readers onthe River. You can also flag your post as a response to a specific earlier post, as described above. RIVER DISCUSSIONS AND CULTURE No manual can prepare you for all the nuances of River culture and no one is a definitive authority on River culture. You could read a hundred posts about how to post or what the River is like, and no two would say the same thing. This manual mentions some customs and guidelines, but it certainly isn't a complete education in being on the River. You'll have to experience that for yourself. HOSTS Each conference is hosted. A conference might have a single host, or might have several co-hosts. The hosts are responsible for keeping the conversation moving and encouraging participation in the conference. If you have a question about anything pertaining to a specific conference, the host is the person to ask, either in email or in the conference. The River gives hosts a great deal of authority in their own conferences. You will find that most hosts guide their areas with a very light touch. You are still free to speak as you wish on the River in any conference, but a host might ask you to take your comments to a different topic and/or conference so as not to disrupt a discussion. You'll still see "topic drift" in various River topics. Topic drift can, at times, take on a life of its own. While drift is part of our culture, it is considerate to try to keep on track. River hosts are as commited to your right to speak your mind as you wish, so you'll find that they rarely intercede. Some hosts are more concerned than others if a conversation gets combative or insulting. Our commitment to free speech means that Gilligan has every right to tell Mr. Howell that his ideas aren't worth what he paid for a three-hour tour. Mr. Howell might come back and suggest uses for a coconut that Gilligan may not like. Hosts do have the authority to limit personal insults or attack, but you'll find most of them will ask you to take things to email, and many will let a thrash continue and then die in its own time. There are no hard and fast rules other than what you received in the User Agreement. LOGIN/LOGOUT BANNERS Most conferences have a screen of information or welcome when you go to that conference. This is called the login banner. Some conferences use this screen to update users on what is happening, and most will tell you who the conference host is. There is also usually a logout banner as you leave the conference to go elsewhere. LAUNCH Launch is a conference for newcomers to the River and beginners online. Please check in there if you need assistance or want to meet the people who are coming to the River at the same time you are. If you have any questions, great or small, don't hesitate to ask in Launch. LINKED TOPICS Sometimes you will see a message at the beginning of a topic that indicates it is "linked." This means that the topic is seen in another conference. A topic can be linked to several conferences. Linking a topic is done by the hosts of one conference in agreement with the hosts of another conference. This enables greater participation in a topic without duplicating discussion in related conferences. SUGGEST A CONFERENCE Suggestions for new conferences are welcome. A committee of three Riverites, appointed by the Board of Directors, oversees the process. Go to the Hosts conference to make your suggestion. Or write directly to the Group of Three by sending email to "confteam". PRIVATE CONFERENCES The River has private conferences that are accessible only by specific users approved by the host. Some private conferences are listed, like ROW (River of Women) or Recovery. Other private conferences include those where River volunteers gather to work on various projects. You must ask the hosts of these conferences for admission. Any River user can have a private conference. Send email to "confteam" and they will let you know if the name you have selected for your conference is available. You will need to learn a few commands to set up your conference. You can ask for help in Hosts. You may invite anyone into your conference to talk in a more private setting. Each private conference has its own rules and guidelines set down by the host(s). If a host in a conference asks that everything in that conference, including the names of the people in the conference, be kept confidential, it is considered extremely rude to give out that information. The host will probably take you out of the conference, and you might have a very hard time getting into any other private conference. If you feel the request for confidentiality is not one you can keep, you may choose to decline the offer to join a private conference. THE TEST CONFERENCE Need to experiment with creating topics, posts, using the editors, etc? Go to the Test conference and have at it. Please try to do your experiments there, and not in the other conferences. RIVER META CONFERENCES: RIVER, LAUNCH, HOSTS, BOD A number of conferences deal with River news, policy, announcements and what is generally called meta-discussions. River is the main conference for River news and policy discussions. It is a must-have on your .cflist. Launch assists new users. Hosts is all about conferences and hosting. BOD95 is a read-only conference where the Board does some discussion and makes some announcements. HELP SCREENS YAPP provides many help screens. Type "help" or "?" at the OK prompt to get reminders of the commands you can use. Type "help command" for more information about a specific command. For instance "help enter" gives details about the "(e)nter" command. At the More and Response prompt, you can type "help" or "?" for assistance. REAL TIME COMMUNICATIONS There is a direct way to talk to another user if you are both online at the same time. You can "send" a message, or "reply" to a message you've been sent. To send, type "send loginID" at the OK or Response prompt. Enter your message, and then a period on a new line, to finish it. The period must be in the first column of that new line. Once you finish it, the other person sees the message immediately on their screen. To respond, type "reply" at the OK or Response prompt. Be *sure* to type "reply" and not "re" or "r" if you are reading in a topic or at the Response prompt, or your message back to someone will be posted instead. Depending on what you are talking about, this can be embarrassing or amusing.) This can get confusing if you are in the middle of typing a post or email. The send you receive will sometimes cause what you are typing to look odd. Your formatting is still there, though. You might need to clear the screen before continuing. The help screens in your editor can give you information on how to do this. There are several ways to answer send, or to make one, while you are in the middle of writing a post. The easiest way is to temporarily go back to the shell by typing CTRL-Z. When you are finished, type "fg" (for foreground) to return to where you were before. If you were in the middle of a post, that's where you will return, but you won't see the beginning of your post. Don't let this confuse you, you can continue typing your post where you left off. If you are very busy online and do not want to be interrupted by sends, type "mesg n". If someone tries to send you a message, they will be told you aren't available. When you are ready to receive sends again, type "mesg y". If you exit the River without turning sends back on you will still be back in receive mode when you next log in. PUBLIC SOFTWARE There are many talented programmers on the River who have written programs that add to the functionality of the system. In order to keep the system as flexible as possible, and allow for easy changes and updates, these programs are part of what we call "Public Software" and are stored separately from the basic YAPP and UNIX files. While these programs are available to all River members, information about their use and support for them are not handled by the regular support volunteers. Please go to the Public Software conference to learn about the various tools available. To get there, type "g public". WEB SITE The River Web site is at http://www.river.org. EXTRA RIVER FEATURES If your Internet Service Provider only offers a Slip/PPP account, you have probably used graphical interface programs to do various things on the net. A bonus of being on the River is a shell and command line interface for those who prefer them. Once you are on the River, you can use telnet, FTP, ping, gopher, and other net commands. LOGOFF All good things must come to an end. When you are finished with your session on the River, type "exit" at the OK prompt, and another "exit" at the shell prompt. And don't stay away too long. APPENDIX A DIRECTORIES, FILES AND PERMISSIONS GENERAL This Appendix contains information that is more closely related to operating systems than to Yapp. Although we can't cover very much of that sort of information in this manual, we can try to give you just enough information to help you with the basics. Yapp runs under Unix, and makes use of certain Unix commands. As a general rule, when a Unix command is invoked from inside Yapp it is preceded by a bang (!). In a few cases the ! is not required: ls,pwd and cd for instance; however, even in those cases the ! is permitted -- so if in doubt, bang. HOME DIRECTORY You automatically arrive in your home directory when you log in. At the OK prompt, type "pwd" (print working directory) to display your home directory. Example for user jerry: Ok (? for help): pwd /users/j/jerry Certain setup files must be in your home directory or in your .cfdir subdirectory. You are free to use your home directory to store other files if you wish; however, disk space is limited, so please do not archive massive amounts of stuff here. When you go into YAPP, you remain in your home directory unless you change directories. CHANGE DIRECTORY cd .cfdir go to the .cfdir subdirectory from your home directory cd .. go back up one directory from where you are cd go back to your home directory from anywhere MAKE A NEW SUBDIRECTORY !mkdir juicy create a subdirectory named juicy REMOVE A SUBDIRECTORY !rmdir juicy deletes directory juicy (must be empty first) FILES Your home directory has several files and subdirectories in it. Here are a few OK prompt commands to see your files and subdirectories. For a complete list of parameters for the ls command, type "man ls". ls see regular files and subdirectories ls -a see files, subdirectories and .files which the system uses ls -al see files and subdirectories with detailed information You can delete a file by typing "!rm filename". Be careful -- there is no failsafe prompt to ask if you are sure you want to do this. A safer way is "!rm -i filename". In this case the system asks you to confirm the file deletion. This is particularly useful when you use wildcard notation to delete an entire set of files. The command "!rm -i file*" will remove all files with names beginning "file", and you will be asked to confirm the deletions file by file. COPYING FILES To copy a file, type "!cp filename destination". If you want to copy a file named gilligan to a subdirectory named Store, type: !cp gilligan Store/gilligan FILE SECURITY - PERMISSIONS When you create a file, by default it can be read by anyone. But you can change this by changing the file's "permissions." Let's suppose you have a file named secrets. Type "ls -l secrets". You get: -rw-r--r-- 1 jerry users 2307 Dec 6 08:22 secrets The business in the left column is the file's permissions. It is made up of four parts. The first character is - for a file or d for a directory. The next three characters control permissions for yourself, in this order: r (for read), w (for write) and x (for execute). The next three characters control permissions for a "group" -- but this is irrelevant here. The last three characters control permissions for everyone else. So, looking at the secrets file permissions: - it is a file, not a directory rw- you have read and write permission, not execute permission r-- the group has read permission, not write or execute r-- everyone else has read permission, not write or execute To change permissions use the chmod command. !chmod [u][g][o] [+]or[-] [r][w][x] filename u means user (that's you) g means group (ignore for now) o means other (everyone else) + means add permission - means subtract permission r means read w means write x means execute Examples: !chmod u+x filename make filename executable for yourself !chmod go-w filename no one but you can now write to this file !chmod go-r filename no one but you can now read this file !chmod ugo-r filename no one at all can read this file (dumb!) !chmod ugo+rwx filename everyone can read, write and execute this file So, to hide secrets from everyone: !chmod go-r secrets Then use the ls command to verify what you just did. ls -l secrets -rw------- 1 jerry users 2307 Dec 6 08:22 secrets There, now your secrets are safe. DIRECTORY SECURITY When you create a directory with the mkdir command, by default it is executable by everyone. That is, everyone can get a list of files in that directory. If you want the directory to be hidden from everyone, use the chmod command: !chmod go-rwx juicy no one but you can see what's in the juicy directory SHELL ACCESS Type "csh" to leave Yapp temporarily and go to the Unix shell. The prompt is %. This provides access to most Unix features. This manual won't even *attempt* to discuss this. DOWNLOAD/UPLOAD Here is how you download a topic to read offline. Type "s 15 p > filename" to put everything in topic 15 of the conference you are in into a file named filename. Then use your communication program's download feature to copy the file to your own computer. If you've composed a message offline, you can use your communications program to upload it to your River home directory, then put it in your message. After starting your message, on a new line type ":r filename" to put the text from the file into your message. Another easy way to get conference messages is to turn on the logging feature in your communication program. APPENDIX B TEXT EDITORS There are several text editors that can be used for making posts, sending email, creating files, and editing the setup files mentioned at the beginning of the manual. By default, your first text editor is red. Also available are pico, vi/ex, emacs and jove. Since you are already on the net when you join the River, we presume you have some experience with a text editor. If that isn't the case, this section can get you started with one, but the best way for you to use an unfamiliar editor is to get into one and experiment in the Test conference. The help screens for these editors are fairly simple for most users who have net experience or experience with a plain text (ascii) editor. HOW TO FIND HELP FOR EDITORS red: There is a man page for red, type "man red" at the OK prompt to review it. This is the default editor. pico: Pico is a menu-driven text editor. By following the menu selections, it's fairly easy to find your way around. Pico also has abundant help screens. vi/ex: There is a man page for these editors. Type "man vi" to see the page. To change your default editor, you need to change the appropriate command in your .login file. You'll see a section in .login about your editor. If you want to change it to pico, for instance, this is what it should say: # Yapp should be handling this for us. If you need an EDITOR and aren't # in Yapp, then uncomment this. setenv EDITOR /usr/bin/pico setenv VISUAL /usr/bin/pico To uncomment a line, remove the # sign and start the text flush left. One more word about pico. As you exit it after typing a post, you'll end up with several prompts to navigate. You can make that process easier by putting this line in your .cfonce file: define editor 'pico -t -z' If you want to use vi as your default editor, these lines should look like this: # Yapp should be handling this for us. If you need an EDITOR and aren't # in Yapp, then uncomment this. # setenv EDITOR /bin/red setenv VISUAL /usr/bin/vi Please be sure you understand the changes you make. You can get help in Launch with this. The YAPP manual is an excellent resource which lists every possible command and variable permitted. APPENDIX C MAIL As with the text editors, you probably already have some experience with email. Our mail programs are started from the OK or Response prompt. From the prompt, type "mail" to enter the default mail program. It is a very simple program with a lot of help available by typing ":?" flush left on a line by itself. You can also send email by typing "mail gilligan" at the OK or Response prompts. You will automatically be taken to the default editor for the mail program. To send email to more than one person, type: mail gilligan skippertoo millionaire wife and your mail will go to each of those people. To see how to send email from within the mail program, type ":?" and read all about it. To end your mail message, type . on a line by itself and press ENTER. You can send email within the River by addressing it to the login ID of the person(s) you wish to contact. It isn't necessary to use the full address. For example, send email to gilligan instead of gilligan@river.org. You can also send email to people who are not on the River, but you must use the full address: king@netcom.com. There is another mail program called "Pine" that is available on the River. Since it is menu driven, you might find it easier to use. To use Pine, type "Pine" at the OK or Response prompt. DO I HAVE MAIL? When you log in, you will see a message that tells you if you have mail. "You Have Mail" means there is still mail that you have read but not deleted. "You Have New Mail" tells you that new mail has arrived for you. While you are on the River, you will be notified if you receive new mail by a "You Have New Mail" message. If you've checked mail during your session online, YAPP sends "You Have More Mail." MBOX If you read mail and do not delete it, it is saved in the Mbox. To read that mail, type "mail -f" or "m -f". It's easy to read mail and forget to delete it, so your mbox could get rather large if you aren't careful about deleting mail. When you read the mbox and have deleted all messages in it, YAPP removes the mbox. One way a mail box can grow quickly is by receiving a lot of messages from mailing lists. The River suggests you receive mail from such lists at your ISP address. It would be helpful in conserving resources for our fledgling system. CAN I TELL IF SOMEONE RECEIVES MY MAIL? No, there is no facility for receiving a notification that your mail was received and/or read. QUIT MAIL Type "q" to leave the mail program.