============================================================================ EIF (Empire InterFace) General Syntax ============== There are 2 types of input. First, command level. This is the normal input. The second is "secondary" input, in which a command asks you a question. Such as doing a "map" command without specifying a range. Command Level ------------- Any line with a "#" as the first non-space character is a comment line, and is ignored. Any line with a "&" as the first non-space character is marked as only for secondary input, and is ignored. More on this later. "$var"s are replaced with the value of the variable "var". See below. Leading spaces on a command line are ignored, and not sent to empire. Multiple commands may be entered on the same line, with the commands seperated by a ";" character. IE, "nation ; power" will perform a nation, then a power command. ";"s inside of quoted strings (") are ignored for this. (NOTE that ";" will not seperate lines inside of telegrams and announcements. Otherwise you can't get ";" into them. Not sure if this is proper, but....) Output is redirected using ">". ">fname" - direct this command's output into the file "fname". File must NOT exist. Command aborted if it does. ">>fname" - this command's output is appended to the file "fname". The file may or may not exist. ">!fname" - this command's output written to the file "fname". Any existing data in the file is wiped. Redirection supports ~/filename. Piping is supported, through the "|" type syntax. "list | more" will pipe the list command into more. Piping supports ~/filename. Aliases are supported. If the first non-space string on a command line matches an alias, the string is replaced with the alias. NOTE that string in this context can have any characters but spaces, not withstanding any other special characters. (#,&,!!,^) Command history is supported. "^p" - moves backwards in command history. "^n" - moves forewards in command history. "!!" - repeat last command. "!str" - repeat last command which started with "str". "!?str?" - repeat last command which contained "str". "!n" - repeat the nth command, where n is a number. "!-n" - repeat the nth previous command, where n is a number. "^s1^s2" - repeat the previous command, replacing string s1 with string s2. Other variants. Read the "history.texinfo" in the readline directory. And "readline.texinfo". Exec files are supported, along with exec's inside of execs. Secondary Input --------------- This is input that commands request. IE, asking questions that you didn't answer in the command line, or were unable to answer until the command was started. This creates problems for exec files, aliases, etc, since you are not always sure how many questions will be asked. Thus, you can mark secondary input lines with a leading "&". This prevents the secondary input lines as being attempted as commands. IE, "read >>read ; &y ; &n" will avoid that annoying problem of telegrams arriving while reading. And, "build plane 16,2 ; &fighter 2 ; & " fixes the problem of not being able to specify multiword entries in a single line. (Typing "build plane 16,2 fighter 2 100" will try to build you a 'fighter 1' at tech 2.) Preconditioning: - leading spaces are removed. Spaces after the "&", as well as the "&", are removed. - trailing spaces are removed. ("ssm 2 " is not == "ssm 2".) This preconditioning is not done for telegrams and announcements, through a special case which examines the prompt string. Aliases ------- 'alias' - list all the aliases 'alias word' - show what alias 'word' is. 'alias word command' - create/change alias 'word' to command. 'alias word "command"' - ditto, but the "s are removed. Allows embedding of several commands inside one alias. ie, 'alias dd "dump #0 >!dmp; map #0 >!map"' 'unalias word' - delete the alias for 'word', if it exists. The variables $0, $1, $2, ... are supported for aliases. They are the "words" in the command that the alias is working on. Also, these variables can be conditional. ${N:-word} uses "word" if argument N does not exist. ${N:?word} prints out "word" and aborts command if N does not exist. ${N:+word} uses nothing if argument N does not exist. "words" are space delimited, or surrounded by "s. Example: local% alias tt "echo 0-$0 1-$1 2-$2" local% tt a b c d e f 0-tt 1-a 2-b c d e f local% tt "a b" c d e f 0-tt 1-a b 2-c d e f EXEC ---- exec filename - execute the commands in "filename". exec's are allowed to be recursive, but at this time there is a minor bug when the exec file ends on secondary input. Input is redirected to stdin, and not the calling exec file. Fixed some day. output redirection handles recursive execs. VARIABLES --------- $$ - process id. $< - read from stdinput. ${<:%word} - read from stdinput, using "word" as a prompt. $%name - retrieve "name" from the runtime environment, using getenv(). $name - replace with value of "name". ${name} - replace with value of name. ${name:-word} - if name is not set, or null, use "word" instead. ${name:=word} - if name is not set, or null, use "word", and set variable to "word". ${name:?word} - if name not set, or null, print "word" and abort command. ${name:+word} - if name not set, or null, substitute nothing. ${name:%word} - use "word" as prompt if "name" == "<". ":%word" ignored elsewhere. setvar name string setvar name "string" setvar name unsetvar name COMMANDS -------- The current list of commands are: alias - setting aliases. unalias - remove an alias. echo - print out the rest of the line. beep - make a beep. games - show the games that are configure in. addgame - add a game. connect - connect to a game. kill - kill a hung game process. (Only works if server supports it.) try - try a country/rep at a given game. trykill - kill a hung game process for a country/rep at a given game. exit - quit the program cmdlist - list these commands exec - exeute a file. Supports ~/filename. runfeed - exeute a program, and use its output as eif commands. history - display a listing of the command history. setvar - set a variable. unsetvar - delete a variable. @ - pass the rest of the command off to the system to execute. if - Uses /bin/test, and stops at endif. Disables command if test returns false. Can be nested. Cannot span exec files. elseif - Next case in an if sequence, same testing as 'if'. else - Last case in an if sequence. endif - Ends an 'if' sequence. The file "$HOME/.eifrc" is read in and executed as an exec file. AUTOCONNECTION -------------- The variable "AUTOGAME" is set if there is a game name specified in the runtime options. I.E., "eif mygame" would be equivalent to "setenv AUTOGAME mygame" With the last line in the .eifrc file is: "connect ${AUTOGAME:?}" an autoconnect function is served. RUNTIME OPTIONS --------------- There is currently only 2 useful runtime options: -D varname value Which is equivalent to "setenv varname value". -r Which disables reading in of ~/.eifrc at startup. OTHER THINGS ------------ When "connecting" to a game, the program does a chdir to the directory specified in the "addgame" command. Thus, you can have multiple games, in multiple directories, so that your data files for things like "ve" don't get messed up. NOTE that the directory name in "addgame" is relative to your home directory. ============================================================================