The River
User's Manual

Section 1--The Basics

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.

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 <>.

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.

 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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

At the OK prompt type "bio buttercup" to see buttercup's .plan file. The command "finger buttercup" does the same thing.

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.

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.

It happens. Email support03@river.org for help.

If your question has not been answered by these manuals, you can send mail to (support03@river.org).

This Manual was prepared by a team of River volunteers, under the leadership of Elizabeth Lipson. Send comments or revisions about manual content to (support03@river.org).

These web pages are maintained by webmaster03. Send notes about the page coding itself to (webmaster03@river.org)