aclient(1)

1aclient(1)                  General Commands Manual                 aclient(1)
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NAME

6       acl (done) A standard Client
7                           (Rev. 05-March-2010)
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SYNTAX

10       aclient [-%] [-b blocksize] [-bsk socket_size] [-p prompt] host service
11       [-U name] [-Ppassword] [command...]
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DESCRIPTION

14       aclient is a client application of the sk(3)  functions.  It  transmits
15       commands  to  aserver(1) running the specified service on the specified
16       host, and receives the result.
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OPTIONS

19       -%   asks to encode the shell-specific characters < > & ? * [ ] (  )  ;
20       (see also the Escaping conventions below)
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22       -b blocksize  defines the size of logical blocks read from the standard
23       input and transferred to the server. The default is 4k.
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25       -bsk socket_size  defines the physical size of socket  blocks  used  in
26       data transmission. The default can be specified via the SK_bsk environ‐
27       ment variable; if SK_bsk is not defined, the  default  depends  on  the
28       socket standards, generally 4K.
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30       -p  prompt   defines  the prompt to be displayed in case of interactive
31       mode. The default is
32       host/service.
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34       host  designates the name of the host where the  specified  service  is
35       available.
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37       service   designates  the  service,  either  as a name appearing in the
38       /etc/services(5) file, or as a number in the 1024-2047 range. The  same
39       service must be used by aserver.
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41       -Uname   specifies  a  name  that  can be recognized by the Server (see
42       sk(3), authorisation file).
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44       -Ppassword  specifies the password  associated  to  the  -U  name  (see
45       sk(3), authorisation file).
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47       command   specifies what has to be executed by service at host; a semi-
48       colon (;) may be used as a separate argument to delimit commands.  When
49       no  command  is  given  as arguments, aclient waits for commands in the
50       standard input.
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52 SENDING OR CAPTURING THE DATA
53       Data are normally transferred via the standard  input  and  output.   A
54       first  solution  therefore  consists in specifying the command for data
55       transfer as options, e.g.
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57       aclient host service_file Write /tmp/copy < myinput
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59       There are redirection possibilities but unlike sh(1) these redirections
60       must  be  specified before the command. The example above could be exe‐
61       cuted as:
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63       aclient host service_file
64       host/service_file> <myinput Write /tmp/copy
65       host/service_file> ...
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67       Note that file names may be replaced by pipes for names  starting  with
68       the | character; if blanks are embedded, the command have to be quoted.
69       For instance, to write the list of files to  a  foreign  file:  aclient
70       host service_file
71       host/service_file><"|ls -l" Write /tmp/copy
72       host/service_file> ...
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ESCAPING CONVENTIONS

75       Since  aclient connects to aserver where a shell is executed, a special
76       convention (similar to http queries) is  available  to  escape  special
77       characters  and  define arguments with special characters to the server
78       program. This convention uses %{...} to define parameters with  special
79       characters (like blank, asterisks, etc).
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ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

82       SK_bsk is used by aclient as the default -bsk option.
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EXAMPLES

85       1.  Query a catalog on cocat1:
86           aclient cocat1 1660 gsc1.2 -c 123.12-78.12 -r 1.5 -sr
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88       2.  Copy a file to cocat1
89           aclient cocat1 1660 save < /etc/passwd
90           returns the name of the remote file
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92       3.  List remote files having a name wich contains an asterisk:
93            aclient cocat1 1660 ls *%{*}*
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95       4.  Find the star  ** STT 82AA' in the last version of edited simbad:
96            aclient -% newviz 1660 sim.arg 0 "** STT 82AA'"
97           which gives the same result as
98            aclient newviz 1660 sim.arg 0 "%** STT 82AA'"
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100       5.  Rewind the tape /dev/nrst0 and get its status on the foreign
101            host using the rtape(4) service.
102           aclient  foreign  rtape setenv TAPE /dev/nrst0 \; mt stat \; mt rew
103           \; mt stat
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