tacme.4 - plan9port - [fork] Plan 9 from user space
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tacme.4 (10506B)
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1 .TH ACME 4
2 .SH NAME
3 acme \- control files for text windows
4 .SH SYNOPSIS
5 .B acme
6 [
7 .B -f
8 .I varfont
9 ] [
10 .B -F
11 .I fixfont
12 ]
13 [
14 .I file
15 \&... ]
16 .SH DESCRIPTION
17 The text window system
18 .MR acme (1)
19 serves a variety of files for reading, writing, and controlling
20 windows.
21 Some of them are virtual versions of system files for dealing
22 with the virtual console; others control operations
23 of
24 .I acme
25 itself.
26 When a command is run under
27 .IR acme ,
28 a directory holding these files is posted as the 9P service
29 .B acme
30 (using
31 .MR 9pserve (4) ).
32 .PP
33 Some of these files supply virtual versions of services available from the underlying
34 environment, in particular the character terminal files in Plan 9's
35 .IR cons (3).
36 (Unlike in Plan 9's
37 .IR rio (1),
38 each command under
39 .I acme
40 sees the same set of files; there is not a distinct
41 .B /dev/cons
42 for each window.)
43 Other files are unique to
44 .IR acme .
45 .TP
46 .B acme
47 is a subdirectory used by
48 .B win
49 (see
50 .MR acme (1) )
51 as a mount point for the
52 .I acme
53 files associated with the window in which
54 .B win
55 is running.
56 It has no specific function under
57 .I acme
58 itself.
59 .TP
60 .B cons
61 is the standard and diagnostic output file for all commands
62 run under
63 .IR acme .
64 (Input for commands is redirected to
65 .BR /dev/null .)
66 Text written to
67 .B cons
68 appears in a window labeled
69 .IB dir /+Errors\f1,
70 where
71 .I dir
72 is the directory in which the command
73 was run.
74 The window is created if necessary, but not until text is actually written.
75 .TP
76 .B consctl
77 is an empty unwritable file present only for compatibility; there is no way
78 to turn off `echo', for example, under
79 .IR acme .
80 .TP
81 .B index
82 holds a sequence of lines of text, one per window. Each line has 5 decimal numbers,
83 each formatted in 11 characters plus a blank\(emthe window ID;
84 number of characters (runes) in the tag;
85 number of characters in the body;
86 a 1 if the window is a directory, 0 otherwise;
87 and a 1 if the window is modified, 0
88 otherwise\(emfollowed by the tag up to a newline if present.
89 Thus at character position 5×12 starts the name of the window.
90 If a file has multiple zeroxed windows open,
91 only the most recently used will appear in the
92 .B index
93 file.
94 .TP
95 .B label
96 is an empty file, writable without effect, present only for compatibility with
97 .BR rio .
98 .TP
99 .B log
100 reports a log of window operations since the opening of the
101 .B log
102 file.
103 Each line describes a single operation using three fields separated by single spaces:
104 the decimal window ID, the operation, and the window name.
105 Reading from
106 .B log
107 blocks until there is an operation to report, so reading the file
108 can be used to monitor editor activity and react to changes.
109 The reported operations are
110 .L new
111 (window creation),
112 .L zerox
113 (window creation via zerox),
114 .LR get ,
115 .LR put ,
116 and
117 .LR del
118 (window deletion).
119 The window name can be the empty string; in particular it is empty in
120 .L new
121 log entries corresponding to windows created by external programs.
122 .TP
123 .B new
124 is a directory analogous to the numbered directories
125 .RI ( q.v. ).
126 Accessing any
127 file in
128 .B new
129 creates a new window. Thus to cause text to appear in a new window,
130 write it to
131 .BR /dev/new/body .
132 For more control, open
133 .BR /dev/new/ctl
134 and use the interface described below.
135 .LP
136 .PP
137 Each
138 .I acme
139 window has associated a directory numbered by its ID.
140 Window IDs are chosen sequentially and may be discovered by the
141 .B ID
142 command, by
143 reading the
144 .B ctl
145 file, or
146 indirectly through the
147 .B index
148 file. The files in the numbered directories are as follows.
149 .TP
150 .B addr
151 may be written with any textual address (line number, regular expression, etc.),
152 in the format understood by button 3 but without the initial colon, including compound addresses,
153 to set the address for text accessed through the
154 .B data
155 file.
156 When read, it returns the value of the address that would next be read
157 or written through the
158 .B data
159 file, in the format
160 .BI # m ,# n
161 where
162 .I m
163 and
164 .I n
165 are character (not byte) offsets. If
166 .I m
167 and
168 .I n
169 are identical, the format is just
170 .BI # m\f1.
171 Thus a regular expression may be evaluated by writing it to
172 .B addr
173 and reading it back.
174 The
175 .B addr
176 address has no effect on the user's selection of text.
177 .TP
178 .B body
179 holds contents of the window body. It may be read at any byte offset.
180 Text written to
181 .B body
182 is always appended; the file offset is ignored.
183 .TP
184 .B ctl
185 may be read to recover the five numbers as held in the
186 .B index
187 file, described above, plus five more fields: the width of the
188 window in pixels; the name of the font used in the window;
189 the width of a tab character in pixels; a 1 if there is undo history, 0 otherwise;
190 a 1 if there is redo history, 0 otherwise.
191 Text messages may be written to
192 .B ctl
193 to affect the window.
194 Each message is terminated by a newline and multiple
195 messages may be sent in a single write.
196 .RS .5i
197 .TF limit=addr
198 .TP
199 .B addr=dot
200 Set the
201 .B addr
202 address to that of the user's selected text in the window.
203 .TP
204 .B clean
205 Mark the window clean as though it has just been written.
206 .TP
207 .B dirty
208 Mark the window dirty, the opposite of clean.
209 .TP
210 .B cleartag
211 Remove all text in the tag after the vertical bar.
212 .TP
213 .B del
214 Equivalent to the
215 .B Del
216 interactive command.
217 .TP
218 .B delete
219 Equivalent to the
220 .B Delete
221 interactive command.
222 .TP
223 .B dot=addr
224 Set the user's selected text in the window to the text addressed by the
225 .B addr
226 address.
227 .TP
228 .BI dump " command
229 Set the command string to recreate the window from a dump file.
230 .TP
231 .BI dumpdir " directory
232 Set the directory in which to run the command to recreate the window from a dump file.
233 .TP
234 .B get
235 Equivalent to the
236 .B Get
237 interactive command with no arguments; accepts no arguments.
238 .TP
239 .BI font " path
240 Equivalent to the
241 .B Font
242 interactive command with a single (required) argument.
243 .TP
244 .B limit=addr
245 When the
246 .B ctl
247 file is first opened, regular expression context searches in
248 .B addr
249 addresses examine the whole file; this message restricts subsequent
250 searches to the current
251 .B addr
252 address.
253 .TP
254 .B mark
255 Cancel
256 .BR nomark ,
257 returning the window to the usual state wherein each modification to the
258 body must be undone individually.
259 .TP
260 .BI name " name
261 Set the name of the window to
262 .IR name .
263 .TP
264 .B nomark
265 Turn off automatic `marking' of changes, so a set of related changes
266 may be undone in a single
267 .B Undo
268 interactive command.
269 .TP
270 .B put
271 Equivalent to the
272 .B Put
273 interactive command with no arguments; accepts no arguments.
274 .TP
275 .B show
276 Guarantee at least some of the selected text is visible on the display.
277 .RE
278 .PD
279 .TP
280 .B data
281 is used in conjunction with
282 .B addr
283 for random access to the contents of the body.
284 The file offset is ignored when writing the
285 .B data
286 file; instead the location of the data to be read or written is determined by the state of the
287 .B addr
288 file.
289 Text, which must contain only whole characters (no `partial runes'),
290 written to
291 .B data
292 replaces the characters addressed by the
293 .B addr
294 file and sets the address to the null string at the end of the written text.
295 A read from
296 .B data
297 returns as many whole characters as the read count will permit starting
298 at the beginning of the
299 .B addr
300 address (the end of the address has no effect)
301 and sets the address to the null string at the end of the returned
302 characters.
303 .TP
304 .B errors
305 Writing to the
306 .B errors
307 file appends to the body of the
308 .IB dir /+Errors
309 window, where
310 .I dir
311 is the directory currently named in the tag.
312 The window is created if necessary,
313 but not until text is actually written.
314 .TP
315 .B event
316 When a window's
317 .B event
318 file is open, changes to the window occur as always but the
319 actions are also reported as
320 messages to the reader of the file. Also, user actions with buttons 2 and 3
321 (other than chorded
322 .B Cut
323 and
324 .BR Paste ,
325 which behave normally) have no immediate effect on the window;
326 it is expected that the program reading the
327 .B event
328 file will interpret them.
329 The messages have a fixed format:
330 a character indicating the origin or cause of the action,
331 a character indicating the type of the action,
332 four free-format blank-terminated decimal numbers,
333 optional text, and a newline.
334 The first and second numbers are the character addresses of the action,
335 the third is a flag,
336 and the final is a count of the characters in the optional text, which
337 may itself contain newlines.
338 The origin characters are
339 .B E
340 for writes to the
341 .B body
342 or
343 .B tag
344 file,
345 .B F
346 for actions through the window's other files,
347 .B K
348 for the keyboard, and
349 .B M
350 for the mouse.
351 The type characters are
352 .B D
353 for text deleted from the body,
354 .B d
355 for text deleted from the tag,
356 .B I
357 for text inserted to the body,
358 .B i
359 for text inserted to the tag,
360 .B L
361 for a button 3 action in the body,
362 .B l
363 for a button 3 action in the tag,
364 .B X
365 for a button 2 action in the body, and
366 .B x
367 for a button 2 action in the tag.
368 .IP
369 If the relevant text has less than 256 characters, it is included in the message;
370 otherwise it is elided, the fourth number is 0, and the program must read
371 it from the
372 .B data
373 file if needed. No text is sent on a
374 .B D
375 or
376 .B d
377 message.
378 .IP
379 For
380 .BR D ,
381 .BR d ,
382 .BR I ,
383 and
384 .BR i
385 the flag is always zero.
386 For
387 .BR X
388 and
389 .BR x ,
390 the flag is a bitwise OR (reported decimally) of the following:
391 1 if the text indicated is recognized as an
392 .I acme
393 built-in command;
394 2 if the text indicated is a null string that has a non-null expansion;
395 if so, another complete message will follow describing the expansion
396 exactly as if it had been indicated explicitly (its flag will always be 0);
397 8 if the command has an extra (chorded) argument; if so,
398 two more complete messages will follow reporting the argument (with
399 all numbers 0 except the character count) and where it originated, in the form of
400 a fully-qualified button 3 style address.
401 .IP
402 For
403 .B L
404 and
405 .BR l ,
406 the flag is the bitwise OR of the following:
407 1 if
408 .I acme
409 can interpret the action without loading a new file;
410 2 if a second (post-expansion) message follows, analogous to that with
411 .B X
412 messages;
413 4 if the text is a file or window name (perhaps with address) rather than
414 plain literal text.
415 .IP
416 For messages with the 1 bit on in the flag,
417 writing the message back to the
418 .B event
419 file, but with the flag, count, and text omitted,
420 will cause the action to be applied to the file exactly as it would
421 have been if the
422 .B event
423 file had not been open.
424 .TP
425 .B tag
426 holds contents of the window tag. It may be read at any byte offset.
427 Text written to
428 .B tag
429 is always appended; the file offset is ignored.
430 .TP
431 .B xdata
432 The
433 .B xdata
434 file like
435 .B data
436 except that reads stop at the end address.
437 .SH SOURCE
438 .B \*9/src/cmd/acme
439 .SH SEE ALSO
440 .MR rio (1) ,
441 .MR acme (1)