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.

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>