The Hacker's Encyclopedia 1998

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THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO THE WELL (WHOLE EARTH LECTRONIC LINK) Written by Mick Winter TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction Why the WELL? How much is it? WELL etiquette Hints on using this manual and The WELL Logging on to The WELL (including UNINET) Pacific Telephone packet-switching network Helpful Hint: Bailing out of whatever you're doing Logging off General information Changing your password Viewing one screen at a time If you accidentally logged on in uppercase Checking your storage space Checking your bill Getting help Conferences Finding out current conferences Current conference list Conference hosts Going to a conference Seeing the name of the conference you're currently in Participating in a conference Topics and Responses Browsing topics Searching topic headers for a certain word or phrase Searching topics and responses for a certain word or phrase Seeing topics Skipping topics Seeing responses Seeing responses over a period of time Responding to topics Entering topics Practicing entering topics and responses Pseudonyms Mail Receiving mail Reading mail Responding to mail Deleting mail you've read Sending mail Sending mail with headers Finding out someone's userid If you send mail to a non-person Seeing mail that's been stored in your mailbox Making your mailbox private Sending mail you've already prepared with a word processor Secret mail Online mail help Chat If somebody wants to chat with you Send How one chatter knows when the other chatter is done Online chat help Group chat WELL user information Finding out who is registered on The WELL Finding out who is a participant in a conference Checking on a particular person's conference participation Finding biographical information on a particular WELL user Changing your biographical "finger file" Editing Creating a file named "newfile" Editing "newfile" Uploading and downloading files with XModem Other networks USENET UUCP Quick Command Cards Options at Ok: prompt Options at Respond or pass? prompt Questions & Answers Advanced Features Making your own conference scanner (.cflist) Using a .profile file Using a .cfonce file Using a .cfrc file Changing how a prompt appears Moving files around Seeing what's in your private file directory Placing restrictions on files you've created Advanced Conference Commands Calendar Display Display seen Last Print Set Unix Macros Defining Macros Creating a macro which lets you see which conferences you haven't visited lately Well Command List Unix Command List INTRODUCTION The WELL is a low-cost, computerized conferencing system centered in the San Francisco Bay Area with international access through UNINET. The system runs on a VAX minicomputer with a capacity of 40 phone ports at the offices of the Whole Earth Catalog and Whole Earth Review in Sausalito. The service is co-developed with NETI (Network Technologies, International), of Ann Arbor, Michigan. The WELL includes private electronic mail, computerized public and private conferencing, storage of files, and online "chat." With electronic mail, users can instantly transmit information to one another without fear of a busy signal or the other frustrations of "telephone tag." A special "secret mail" option lets you ensure the security of your messages. Conferences cover a rapidly growing variety of subjects -- online computer user groups, movie reviews, local politics, national politics, science fiction, stock market, local gardening, spirituality, business, even The WELL itself. Groups can establish private conferences to which only group members and authorized guests have access. There is no extra charge for this service. "Chat" lets you talk to any other person online at the same time you are. You can also use a public "group chat" with more than two people. WHY THE WELL? Many people have been exposed to, and moved by, the Whole Earth Catalog "experience". Most of these people have no prior computer experience. The people at The WELL believe it can be the influence that brings this large non-computing WEC population and their talents and resources into the telecommunications universe. HOW MUCH IS IT? The WELL costs $8 per month plus $3 per hour. There is no charge for disk storage up to 256K bytes. Above that there is a monthly charge of $1 per 10K. This charge is based on a daily average of storage in your home directory. These charges are billed monthly to the user's credit card -- MasterCard or Visa. Pacific Telephone's access charges appear on your regular phone bill. If you reach the WELL through UNINET, those charges will appear as WELL charges on your credit card bill. WELL ETIQUETTE _________________________________________________________ | | | **** NOTICE **** | | | | As a user of the WELL, | | you own the words you write. | | | | That means you are the publisher. You take | | responsibility for their content, and no one may | | reuse them without your permission. | | | | Hosts of conferences, in the community interest, | | may delete a comment but may not amend it. | | | | Hosts are also empowered, under duress, to ban a | | nuisance member from their conference. | | Nevertheless, because hosts are not always | | "present", or necessarily knowledgeable, they | | cannot be held responsible for damaging comments | | that appear in their conferences. Responsibility | | rests with the writer. | | | |________________________________________________________| The WELL is a community of people which functions on mutual respect and cooperation. Computer conferencing is a totally different medium from FTF (face-to-face) communication. The facial expressions, tones of voice, and other nuances we use in live conversations are totally lost on The WELL. All that travels over the phone lines is words. Please pay careful attention to how you use those words. Sarcasm, for example, doesn't travel well. Which is why people frequently use such symbols as :-) (Look at it sideways) when they want to let someone know that what they have just entered was meant to be humorous. Remember that words you might enter in a burst of inspired passion or indignant anger will be there for you (and everyone) to read long after your intense feelings have disappeared. This isn't meant to discourage spontaneity and the expression of feelings on The WELL. It's merely to remind you to be aware of the long-term existence and effects of what you write. (Some conferences have a special "flame" topic where members can rant and rave to their heart's content.) Please remember that it's safer, more polite, and more persuasive to attack a person's comments rather than the person him/herself when you find you disagree with what they've said. People on The WELL generally avoid "obscene" language (no, we're not going to try to define that here) except in conferences where such language is acceptable - or even encouraged. There are no rigid rules about this. Just remember we are a heterogeneous community of individuals with varying standards. Naturally, information on passwords for this and other systems, credit card numbers or any other information which was gained or can be used illegally is not allowed. It's very helpful to make full use of the Help and Test conferences during your first days on The WELL. Don't leave requests for help (and complaints about The WELL) in every conference you enter. The Help conference is for asking questions, the Test conference for practicing entering items and responses and editing them. If you have any questions on what's appropriate in a particular conference, just ask the conference host(s). All hosts are volunteers who are very willing to help out new users on The WELL. HINTS ON USING THIS MANUAL AND THE WELL Note: Whenever you log on to The WELL or give a command at a prompt in The WELL, make sure you type the command in lowercase. Uppercase can cause problems such as slashes interspersed throughout your onscreen text. When you see this: <cr> in the manual or onscreen help information, it means "carriage return". You should press the Return key on your computer. This key may say "return", "enter", or simply have an arrow like this: <--'. Example: When you see something like this: At the prompt, type mail <cr> It means type the word "mail" and then do a Carriage Return by pressing the Return or Enter key. LOGGING ON TO THE WELL (including UNINET) If you're logging on for the first time to register with The WELL, you'll need to have your credit card number (Visa or MasterCard) and its expiration date available. You'll choose a user identification (userid) and a temporary password during the registration procedure. 1. Make sure your computer system, communications software, and modem are properly installed and operating. For full information, see their respective instruction manuals. 2. In the San Francisco Bay Area Dial The WELL's Sausalito number (332-6106) or the packet-switching number (440-1444). (More on the packet later in this manual.) Through UNINET (across the U.S. and in 50 countries) Note: To reach UNINET outside the U.S., contact your local postal, telephone, and telegraph (PTT) administration. Tell them you want to link up with UNINET and ask them what procedure to follow. To find out your local UNINET number, call UNINET at 800-821-5340. Then dial the number you're given. You'll see: L? (If the L? appears garbled, perhaps as XXX, just continue. It means the network hasn't yet determined your terminal's operating speed.) Type <cr> period <cr> You'll see: uninet pad xxxxxx port yy service: Type well <cr> 3. When you connect with The WELL, you'll see a prompt something like this: Welcome to the WELL--lower case input only, please... Type User I.D. or "newuser" login: 4. If you are not yet registered with The WELL, type newuser <cr> You'll see a series of questions which lead you through registering with The WELL. If you have already registered with The WELL, type youruserid <cr>. (The userid is the identification you are given when you register with The WELL. Make sure you use lowercase letters.) 5. Next you'll see the password prompt password: 6. Type your password <cr>. (You are given a temporary password when you first register with The WELL. When you type this password, it will not appear on your screen). Make sure you use lowercase letters. 7. If you have entered the right userid and password, you'll see a greeting something like this: Welcome! You are now logged in to the WELL. PicoSpan T3.2; designed by Marcus Watts copyright 1984 NETI; all rights reserved Welcome to the Entry conference After a series of text, you'll see this prompt: Ok: You're now ready to begin. PACIFIC TELEPHONE PACKET-SWITCHING NETWORK If you live anywhere in the 415 or 408 area codes, you can reach The WELL more cheaply through a special Pacific Telephone number. At the time of this manual update, there was no charge for using this number as Pacific Telephone was still beta testing this service. In the near future, rates will be set and approved by the Public Utilities Commission. These rates will be considerably cheaper than current long distance rates to The WELL's Sausalito number. To use the packet, do the following: 1. Dial 440-1444 2. When your communications software indicates that you have made connection, type: <cr> . <cr> (Return period Return). You'll then see something like this: PPS*NET: 495 271 1444 3. Type: 4954611199 <cr> You'll then be connected to The WELL. *************************************************************** HELPFUL HINT: BAILING OUT OF WHATEVER YOU'RE DOING To get out from anything, any place on The WELL, type Control-C (hold down the Control key and press C). This will stop whatever action you are doing or command you have given, and take you back to whatever you were doing prior to that. **************************************************************** LOGGING OFF To log off The WELL, type quit at the Ok: prompt. You'll be officially logged off. You can now disconnect your phone or do whatever is necessary through your software to break the connection with The WELL. GENERAL INFORMATION CHANGING YOUR PASSWORD It's a good precaution to change your password occasionally, perhaps every few months. This is to help prevent anyone else discovering and using your password. To do this: At Ok: type: set passwd <cr> Type oldpassword <cr> then type newpassword <cr> (Your new password should have 6-8 characters). Next retype newpassword <cr> You'll return to the Ok: prompt. Note: If you forget your password, call The WELL at (415) 332-4335 and we'll give you a new one. VIEWING ONE SCREEN AT A TIME The WELL is set up so that you view 24 lines at a time on your screen. At the --More-- prompt, press <spacebar> to see the next 24 lines. (Press <cr> to see one just more line.) If you would rather see information displayed continuously, which you might want to do when viewing a long text file, type nopager at the Ok: prompt. To turn the pager back on, type define pager more IF YOU ACCIDENTALLY LOGGED ON IN UPPERCASE Uppercase makes The WELL do funny things, most of them undesirable, like lots of /backslashes/ To get out of this state, at the Ok: prompt, type !stty -lcase CHECKING YOUR STORAGE SPACE Your monthly WELL charge entitles you to 256K of free storage space. Excess storage space is billed at $1 per 10K. To check how much space you're currently using, type files -l at the Ok: prompt. You'll see the total amount of space used, and the size of each individual file. To remove a file, type !rm filename CHECKING YOUR BILL To see your WELL connect time and charges since the beginning of the month, type bill <cr> GETTING HELP For help information at any time from any prompt, type help or ? For help information on a specific command or topic, type help command/topic name Example: help mail or help conferences For very detailed help, type !man topic Example: !man mail Enter your selection or [return] to display menu; control-d to exit. : 2 CONFERENCES FINDING OUT CURRENT CONFERENCES ON THE WELL To see an up-to-date list of available conferences, type ? conf (or help conferences) at the Ok: prompt. CURRENT CONFERENCE LIST As of this update of The WELL Manual, there were the following conferences on The WELL: * * * * * * * Conferences on The WELL * * * * * * * ------------------------ The real world ----------------------------- Legal (go legal) Jokes (g jokes) Politics (g pol) Garage--autos (g gar) Music (g mus) Writers (g wri) Medical (g med) Spirituality (g spi) Science Fiction (g sf) Games (g game) Human Resources (g hum) Desktop Publishing (g desk) Gardening (g gard) Photography (g pho) Education (g edu) Movies (g mov) Sexuality (g sex) Women in Telecom (g wit) Business (g biz) Peace (g pea) The Corner Pub (g pub) The Examiner (g ex) Classifieds (g cla) Environment (g env) Earthstewards (g ear) Eating (g eat) Fun (g fun) Free U (g free) Calendar (g cal) Gay (g gay) Curious ?'s (g que) Video (g vid) Travel (g tra) Stock Market (g stock) Liberty (g liberty) One Person Business (g one) Library (g lib) Management (g mana) Philosophy (g phi) On The Air (g on) Space (g spa) Languages (g lang) Mind (g mind) Sports (g spo) Magazine Publishing (g mag) Parenting (g par) Psychology (g psy) Whole Earth Symposium (g wes) Electronics (g ele) Outdoors (g out) The Future (g fut) Success (g suc) Aging (g age) Technical Writers (g tec) Grateful Dead (g gd) Home Repair (g rep) Art Directions (g art Fine Arts (g fine) -------------------------- Computers -------------------------------- IBM PC (g ibm) Amiga (g amiga) Atari (g ata) Commodore (g com) Spreadsheets (g spr) Telecommunications (g tel) Macintosh (g mac) Databasics (g dat) Fido (g fido) Laptop (g lap) Programming (g prog) Hackers/Homebrew (g home) CP/M (g cpm) Unix (g unix) BMUGSIG (g bmug) Apple & Dtack (g app) Programmers Net (g net) Currents in the Well (g cw) MicroPro (g mic) AI (g ai) Packet Radio (g pac) Kaypro (g kay) Learning (g ed) Whole Earth Symposium (g wes) Power Users (g pow) Microtimes (g microx) Computer Books (g cbook) Forth (g for) Enable (g ena) Framework (g fra) ----------------------- The WELL Itself ----------------------------- System news (g news) Help (g help) Hosts (g hosts) Design (g des) Manual (g manual) Entry (g ent) CONFERENCE HOSTS Each conference has one or two hosts who have the responsibility of looking after the conference. A host's primary job is to keep people on track by encouraging useful responses and at the same time encouraging less useful discussions to move to other more appropriate conferences. A host can also kill topics, and maintain the greeting and farewell messages you see. If you have a question about the conference, contact its host. Type display fw at the conference prompt (Ok:) to see the name of the host(s). ("fw" stands for "fair-witness", which was an earlier term for hosts.) GOING TO A CONFERENCE At the Ok: prompt, type go conferencename Example: go movie (or simply go mov) Note: You can also type menu to use The WELL's menu system. Menus are a slower way to use The WELL, but are often easier for new users. Take your choice. This manual deals only with the command system, which does not use menus. If it's your first time at the conference you'll see a prompt something like this: You are not a member of /well/confs/movie_reviews Do you wish to: Join, quit or help? Type j so you become a member of the conference, and can read and respond to all messages. If you type q you return back to the Ok: prompt. If you type h you'll see information on the options available to you. After you type j you'll see a prompt that looks something like this: Welcome to the Movie Review Conference 1 brandnew topic First topic 1, last 108 Your name is John Fellows in this conference. Ok (? for help) : The Ok: prompt is the prompt for all conferences. You can now give any conference command. To see a list of the commands available at the Ok: prompt, type help To see a list of commands available throughout The WELL, type sum SEEING THE NAME OF THE CONFERENCE YOU'RE CURRENTLY IN Sometimes it's easy to forget which conference you're in. To find out, type g at the Ok: prompt. You'll see the name of the conference. For more information, type display conference You'll see the conference name, your participation file in that conference, how many topics are currently in the conference, and various other information. PARTICIPATING IN A CONFERENCE A conference is a series of numbered topics, all related to the general subject of the conference. Each topic has a series of numbered responses. These are people's comments about the topic. Any member of the conference can start a new topic or respond to existing topics. At the conference prompt (Ok:), you can type help to see a list of commands (instructions you give to The WELL) available at this prompt. TOPICS AND RESPONSES BROWSING TOPICS To see only the topic headers, type b (for browse) to see all topic headers or b n (for browse new) to see all new topic headers in the conference. A topic header includes the topic number, the date entered, the author, and the subject of the topic. Browse does not show the entire topic. Use the See command to look at the entire topic. To see the header for a specific topic (or topics), type b topic# (Example: b 12) (or b 1-5) EXAMPLE: At Ok: type b You'll see a list of topics under discussion in this conference. It will look something like this: item nresp header (means= Topic # Number of Responses Header) 1 12 Holy Mountain on Fri Mar 29 16:25:40 1985 2 7 They Might Be Giants on Fri Mar 29 18:32:12 1985 3 8 The Escape Artist on Sat Mar 30 21:15:00 1985 4 22 Mary Poppins on Mon Apr 1 00:30:22 1985 SEARCHING TOPIC HEADERS FOR A CERTAIN WORD OR PHRASE To search for a particular word or phrase in the topic headers, type b "string" (quotes are needed). String is whatever you're looking for in the header of a topic. For example, to look for all headers containing the word "music", type b "music" The WELL ignores case (upper or lower) when it searches. You cannot search for author names. SEARCHING TOPICS AND RESPONSES FOR A CERTAIN WORD OR PHRASE To search for a particular word, phrase, or string (sequence) of characters Type f (for find) <range> "string" Example: To search for the word "duck" throughout an entire conference, type f "duck" To search for the word "duck" in only the first five topics, type f 1-5 "duck" You'll see each line that contains the word "duck", and the item number, response number, and line number where the word occurs. SEEING TOPICS To see all topics and responses, type s a (for see all) (Note: This could show you thousands of topics and responses) To see all new topics and new responses ("new" means all topics and responses which have been entered since you were last in the conference), type s To see a specific topic only, type s topic# (Example: see 7). To see a series of topics, type s topic# - topic# (Example: s 1 - 5) Note: When you go to a conference for the very first time, only the single most recent topic is presented as new. You can then browse the conference to see past topics. EXAMPLE: Type s 3 and you'll see: Topic 3: The Escape Artist by: Mick Winter (mick) on Sat, Mar 30, '85 3 responses so far Next you'll see the text of the topic and then its responses, like this: #1 username: [a response] #2 another username: [another response] #3 another username: [another response] SKIPPING TOPICS If a topic doesn't interest you, and you don't want to see future responses to the topic, type forget at the Respond or pass? prompt or forget topic# at the Ok: prompt. (Example: forget 4) From now on the topic and its responses will be passed over when you give b (browse) or s (see) commands. You can always "remember" the topic again later by typing remember topic# at the Ok: prompt. Example: remember 4 You can also see a "forgotten" topic by requesting it specifically. Example: s 4 To remember all forgotten topics in a conference, you can use an asterisk as a "wild card". Example: remember * SEEING RESPONSES When you see a topic, you'll automatically see its responses. NOTE: To get to the end of the responses for a topic without seeing them all, press Control-C (hold down the control key and press C). You'll see a Respond or pass? prompt, where you have these options: Type <cr> to pass and see the next topic r to respond to the topic or its responses q to go to the Ok: prompt again to see the previous text displayed again forget to skip this topic in the future unless you specifically request it by number, or you use the "remember" command to bring it back into the normal flow of read and browse new to make anything you just saw new again postpone to leave the topic new and go to the next topic response# to see that response (Example: 5) l to see the last response + to see the next response - to see the previous response -2 to move back two responses +3 to move forward three responses since -32 to see all responses in the past 32 days 0 to see the initial text of the topic only response# to see a specific response only Note: To go from the Ok: prompt to the end of the last response of a topic, type s topic# nor (for "no response"). Example: s 4 nor To see all new items in a conference without the program stopping at the Respond or pass? prompt, type s n pass SEEING RESPONSES OVER A PERIOD OF TIME You can see all responses which have been made over a particular period of time. For example, if you'd like to see responses entered over the past 15 days, do the following at the Ok: prompt: 1. Type seen <cr> This makes the WELL think you've read all responses. 2. Type see all since -15 <cr> To see all responses entered on the entire conference over the past 15 days. OR Type see 3 since -15 <cr> To see all responses entered in topic 3 over the past 15 days. OR Type see since 5/15/86 <cr> To see all responses entered in the conference since 5/15/86 RESPONDING TO TOPICS To respond to a topic, at the Respond or pass? prompt, type r You'll see: Use "." or ^D to end. 1: Type your text. There is no word wrap on The WELL, so you have to end each line with <cr>. It's generally best if each line is no longer than 70 characters. When you're finished typing your text, type a period by itself at the beginning of a line and press <cr>, or just press Control-D. You'll then see: Edit command (? for help): Type s (for send). Your response is then entered into the topic. ENTERING TOPICS To enter a new topic which can be read and responded to by everyone in the conference, at the Ok: or Respond or pass? prompt, type e (for enter) You'll see: Use "." or ^D to end. 1: Now follow the procedure previously shown for Responding to Topics. After you've typed s for send, you'll see: Enter a one line header or ":" to edit Type up to 70 characters which summarize your topic. Do not use all upper case. (It's hard to read.) When users browse topics, they'll see only this heading, so make sure it tells them what the topic's about. When you're finished, press <cr>. You'll see: OK to enter this item? Type y <cr> You'll see: Saving as topic 24...saved. PRACTICING ENTERING TOPICS AND RESPONSES Most of us feel a little uneasy at first about entering topics or responses, particularly if we're unfamiliar with the procedure for doing this. That's the purpose of the Test Conference. If you want a place to practice where nobody will care how sloppy your message looks, type go test at any Ok: prompt. Once you're in the Test Conference, you can practice writing topics, and responses, and editing those items. PSEUDONYMS To use a name other than your own as the author of the response, type pseudo (for "pseudonym") at the Respond or pass? prompt. You'll see: What's your handle? Type the pseudonym you want to use and press <cr>. You'll then see the standard prompt for beginning a response. Note: Even when you use a pseudonym, your real userid still appears in the response. MAIL To exchange private messages with other people using The WELL. RECEIVING MAIL You'll be told if you have any mail each time you log on to The WELL or join a conference ("You have mail"), or if new mail arrives while you are on ("You have more mail"). READING MAIL If there is a message that you have mail, type mail at the Ok: or Respond or pass? prompts. You'll see information about your mail including who it is from and when it was mailed. Next, at the & prompt, type ? for help information p (for print) x (where x is the number of the message you want to see) (Example: p 3 or prints message number 3) t (for type) x <cr> to see the first message help to see a list of mail options After you've seen the message, you can type any of the following: q Quit - messages are filed as read and you return to the conference prompt x Exit - all messages are considered unread p Print the same message again s [file] save (Example: s george saves the message you just read to a file named george. w [file] save (without header) - Print previous (scroll backward one message) d Delete current message u Undelete a message you just deleted h lists the messages in your mailbox by number + Next (scroll forward one message without deleting) n Show next message m userid begin a message to userid !cmd Execute command while remaining in mail f Print headers of all messages r To reply to the message with a copy of your reply going to every person who received the original message pre To have the message kept in your list of unread mail <cr> Your message will be kept in your mailbox top # Prints the first few lines of the message number given Note: The simplest thing to do after typing mail is to answer each prompt with a <cr>. You'll see all your messages in order, and they'll all be saved in your "mailbox" for future viewing. When you see the message At EOF (End Of File) you'll know there are no more messages for you to read. If mail you receive was sent to more than one addressee, replying with r sends your response to all addressees. If you reply with R your response goes to only the original sender. RESPONDING TO MAIL To respond to a letter, type r at the & prompt. Type your letter, then close with a Control-D on a line by itself. DELETING MAIL YOU'VE READ After you've read a message, you'll still be at the & prompt. Type d <cr> The message you just read will be deleted. (To have the message automatically saved in your mailbox, just go on to the next letter or type q (for quit) if there are no more letters). To delete more than one message, type d 1 2 3 or d 1-3 To delete all messages, type d* After deleting messages, press q (for quit). If you press "x" (for exit) instead of "q", the messages are not deleted. They remain in the mailbox and reappear at the next mail check. Note: If you'd like to empty your entire mailbox, at the Ok: prompt type !rm mbox All messages that were in the mailbox are then gone for good. SENDING MAIL To send mail, type mail userid <cr> at the OK: or Respond or pass? prompts. Example: mail mrc <cr> You'll see: Use "." or ^D to end. 1: The number and colon (1:) is the prompt for you to write a line of text. Type no more than 70 characters to a line and finish each line with a <cr> just as you would with a typewriter. When you've finished typing your mail, press Control-D, or type a period by itself at the beginning of a line and press <cr>. You'll see: Edit command (? for help): Type s for send. You'll see: Mail sent. Another recipient (or <return>)? If you want to send the same mail to another recipient, enter their userid here and press <cr>. Suggestion: If you want to make sure The WELL delivered the message, send the message to your own userid as well. (The WELL's mail system cannot tell you if the recipient has read the mail you sent.) SENDING MAIL WITH HEADERS You can send mail with subject (Subject:) or copy (Cc:) headers, or even "blind" copies. To do this, at any line number prompt while you're writing your letter, do the following: o To type a subject header, type ~s (The "~" is the tilde character). Then, on the same line, type the subject of the letter. Press <cr> and begin (or continue) the text of the letter on the next line. o To send a "carbon" copy, type ~c Then, on the same line, type the userid of the person you want to receive a copy. All other recipients will see that the person received a copy. o To send a "blind" copy, type ~b Then, on the same line, type the userid of the person you want to receive a blind copy. No other recipients will know the person received a copy. FINDING OUT SOMEONE'S USERID You must use a person's exact userid when sending mail. To find out an individual's userid, type !finger <lastname> or !finger <firstname> at any Ok: prompt. Examples: !finger sullivan or !finger aaron IF YOU SEND MAIL TO A NON-PERSON If you mail a message to a non-existent userid, you'll see: Ok:<baduserid>...User unknown You have more mail Ok: Type: mail You'll see information something like this: >N 1 MAILER-DAEMON [date] "Returned mail: User unknown" & Type: d to delete the mail To mail a returned letter to the correct address (or to forward any letter you've just read), type m correctuserid. Then, at the line number prompt, type ~f <cr> You can then continue writing or end your letter in the usual way. SEEING MAIL THAT'S BEEN STORED IN YOUR MAILBOX When you read mail and don't delete it, that mail is stored in your mailbox (called "mbox" in your personal directory). To see stored mail, type !mail -f You can then read the mail in the normal way by requesting specific message numbers (Example: p 3) or by simply pressing <cr> to see the next message. MAKING YOUR MAILBOX PRIVATE When you first join The WELL, your private mailbox (a file called "mbox") is open to anyone on The WELL. To make it private so that only you and the system operator have access to it (and the system operator has other things to do), at the Ok: prompt type !chmod go-rwx mbox SENDING MAIL YOU'VE ALREADY PREPARED WITH A WORD PROCESSOR You can upload prepared text into a letter. You'll need to know the uploading procedure for your particular communications software. 1. First, after using the mail userid command, write your introductory message, if any. Then, on a line by itself, press ^D. 2. At the edit prompt, type u <cr> (u is for upload) 3. You'll now be in edit mode without line numbers. Upload your file according to your software instructions. When the file is finished uploading, press ^D. 4. At the edit prompt, type s <cr> as you normally would to send mail. Remember that different word processors use different control characters for formatting. Before you upload your text, make sure you've printed it to disk or used a "strip" program to remove all control characters and limited it to ASCII characters. For more information on ASCII characters and other esoterica, see your communications software manual. NOTE: To read a file from your WELL directory into a message, at the beginning of a line, type ~r <filename> <cr> Example: ~r resume SECRET MAIL This is just like "mail" but no one can read the messages except the intended recipient. To use secret mail: Type !enroll at the Ok: prompt. You'll see instructions "Gimme key". This asks for a password (key) that you must subsequently quote in order to receive secret mail. To send secret mail type: !xsend followed by a userid in the same manner as the ordinary mail command. (You can send secret mail to only one userid). Example: !xsend mrc To receive secret mail: If there is secret mail for you, you'll see a message that you have mail. When you ask to see the mail, you'll be told it's secret. Type !xget Give your password when asked, and you'll then see your secret mail. ONLINE MAIL HELP For online information about mail, type help mail or !man mail Enter your selection or [return] to display menu; control-d to exit. : 3 CHAT Chat lets you talk with another person who is logged on to the system at the same time you are. To find out who is currently logged on to The WELL, type !u at the Ok: prompt. You'll see a list of all currently logged users. To chat with another user, type chat userid at the Ok: prompt. Example: chat mrc If the person has not blocked the chat command (by previously typing set nochat at the Ok: prompt), they'll hear a beep and see a message that you're contacting them, and you'll be put into the chat mode. Every line you type is then sent to that person's terminal. When you want to stop chatting, press Control-D. IF SOMEBODY WANTS TO CHAT WITH YOU If you get a message like; Message from <who><where>.... along with a beep, and you want to chat with the person, type a Control-C to stop what you're doing. Then, at the Ok: or Respond or pass? prompts, type chat <who> <who> is the userid of the person who wants to chat with you. If you don't want to chat with other people, type set nochat at the Ok: prompt. Other people will then see "Permission denied" when they try to chat with you. SEND Some people consider "chat" a little abrupt. Another way of immediately contacting someone is with the "!send" command. Type !send userid <cr> then write the message you want to send them as you would with mail. The addressee will receive the full message immediately rather than just notification that you want to talk to them. They can reply at their convenience. HOW ONE CHATTER KNOWS WHEN THE OTHER CHATTER IS FINISHED When you're chatting, at the end of each remark, type o by itself on a new line and press <cr>. This corresponds to "over" (as in radio talk) and the other person will know it is their turn to make a remark. At the end of your last remark in a conversation, type oo by itself on a new line, as in "over and out", and press <cr>. Then press Control-D and you'll leave "chat mode" and return to the conference. ONLINE CHAT HELP For online information about chat, type help chat at the Ok: prompt. GROUP CHAT Group Chat lets you chat with more than one person at a time. To see who is already holding a group chat, type !gcwho at the Ok: prompt. If you want to join them, type !gchat When you're ready to send a message to other chatters, press s (or the spacebar). You'll then see this prompt: > Type your message. Do not press <cr> at the end of each line. Text wordwraps here. Wait until you've finished typing your message, then type <cr>. The other chatters will then see your message, just as you see theirs on your screen. For a list of available commands while you're in group chat, type ? To invite someone into your group chat, type p (for page). You'll see a list of userid's currently logged onto The WELL and their "job numbers". Type the number of the person you want and that person will be paged and invited to the group chat. Their invitation includes instructions on how to join the group chat. To leave group chat, type q You'll return to the conference prompt. WELL USER INFORMATION FINDING OUT WHO IS REGISTERED ON THE WELL At the Ok: prompt, type dir After a minute or so, you'll begin to see a list of all members of The WELL in alphabetical order by last name. FINDING OUT WHO IS A PARTICIPANT IN A CONFERENCE At the Ok: prompt for the conference, type p (for participants) You'll see a list of all participants, their user id's, and the date and time of their most recent visit to the conference. (Note: This can take a while!). CHECKING ON A PARTICULAR PERSON'S CONFERENCE PARTICIPATION To see the last time a person visited the conference, type p userid To see all recent times, type !last userid FINDING BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION ON A PARTICULAR WELL USER At Ok:, type !finger userid Note: You can also type who -m userid CHANGING YOUR BIOGRAPHICAL "FINGER FILE" To change your "finger file" that anyone can read to find information about you, type makeplan at any prompt. You'll see The WELL editor answer back with this: Edit command (? for help): Type p <cr> to see your file This file was created for you when you registered with The WELL. You can edit it to make any changes you want. You have up to 15 lines of screen to type whatever you want other users to know about you (it can be longer if you don't care if the information doesn't fit on one screen). When you're finished, type a period on a line by itself and <cr>, or Control-D. You'll see: Edit command (? for help): Type s for send. You now have a biographical file which others can see by typing !f <youruserid> EDITING The following procedure shows how to edit on The WELL. We'll use the example of creating and editing a new file, but the procedure works also with mail, and entering and responding to topics. CREATING A FILE NAMED "NEWFILE" At the Ok: prompt, type ed newfile You'll see: Use "." or ^D to end. 1: This tells you that you can stop writing text at any time by typing a period on a line by itself and pressing <cr>, or simply by pressing Control-D. It also shows that you are ready to enter text on line number 1 of the file you are creating. Write several lines of text remembering to press <cr> every 70 characters or so. Your screen will look something like this: Use "." or ^D to end. 1: This is my first line of text. It is going to say things like 2: this or rather like this. On the other hand, it could also say 3: something more like this. Press <cr> to start a new line, then press Control-D. You'll see this: Edit command (? for help): Type ? and you'll see something like this: -------------------------------------------------------------------- Options at Edit command (? for help): prompt TO DO: TYPE: Continue entering text at next line c Abandon the text you've written and quit a (or q) Send the text you've written and quit s (or w) Delete line d Edit line e Insert new line i List all text with line numbers l (from line 6 only) l6 Print all text without line numbers p (from line 4 only) p4 See this help information ? Upload text without seeing prompts u (you won't see every line number) Read an existing WELL file r Find a particular word or phrase f Shortcut: Enter several commands at one time separated by semicolons. Example: e12;can't;won't gives the command to edit line 12 and replace "can't" with "won't". ------------------------------------------------------------------ EDITING "NEWFILE" To change a line of text, type e at the edit command prompt. You'll see: Line to edit? Type the line number, for example 3. You'll see: Line to edit: 3 Line 3: something more like this. String to replace: Type the text you want to replace, for example this You'll see: String to replace: this New string: Type the new replacement text, for example that You'll see: String to replace: this New string: that New line 3: something more like that. Edit command (? for help): Type s for send and the new text will permanently replace the old text. OTHER EXAMPLES To see your entire file, type p at the Edit command prompt. To see your entire file line number by line number, type l To see a particular line, type llinenumber (ex: l4) To delete a line, type d You'll be asked which line you want to delete. Note: To abandon any text you've typed or changes you've made, type a at the Edit command prompt. You'll be asked if you want to Abandon text. Type Y if you still do, and you'll return to the previous prompt. UPLOADING AND DOWNLOADING FILES WITH XMODEM XModem is an error-checking procedure for transmitting files to and from The WELL. It can be used for binary file transfer as well as text files. NOTE: It's easiest to download files from a conference that is using the "lib" function (such as Amiga, Kaypro, Atari, Computer Books, etc.) You can also download text files by having The WELL display them on your screen while you have a session or capture file going. CP/M NOTE: The xmodem function of The WELL does checksum, not CRC, file transfers. You may have to check your modem software to see if it can handle checksum (the older of the two protocols.) The command to transfer a file using xmodem looks like this: !xm [rRsS] filename "filename" is the full pathname of the file. You use this and one of the [rRsS] commands. Lowercase r or s refers to text files Uppercase r or s refers to program (binary) files r or R stands for receive (The WELL receives a file from you) s or S stands for send (The WELL sends a file to you) NOTE: You can learn more about this function by typing !man xm at the Ok: prompt. Examples: To download a file named zzz.bin which has been stored in the directory of public domain Commodore 64 files, type the following: !xm S /well/publicdomain/c64/zzz.bin To upload a text file named "reviews.txt" into the same directory, type: !xm r /well/publicdomain/c64/bforth/reviews.txt OTHER NETWORKS USENET (Users' Network) is a bulletin board shared among many computer systems around the world. These systems exchange messages on a regular basis about a variety of subjects. The best way to learn to use USENET is to go to the Entry Conference on The WELL (type go entry at any Ok: prompt). At the Ok: prompt in the Entry conference, type s 19 You'll then see information on how to use USENET. UUCP UUCP (UNIX-to-UNIX Communication Protocol) is a network of UNIX-based computers in the United States and other countries. The WELL's VAX computer is in regular contact with other members of the network so that messages can be sent literally throughout the world. To send a message to someone on the UUCP network, you first need to know their particular network and userid. You'll have to find that out from them. To find the "path" from The WELL to their network, at the Ok: prompt, type !look theirnetworkname /well/news/lib/paths <cr> Suppose your friend's userid is "uriel" and the network your friend is on at work is "westlabs". To find the path, type !look westlabs /well/news/lib/paths <cr> You might see something like this: westlabs sun!meta!westlabs!%s So to send a message to your friend, at the Ok: prompt you type, !mail sun\!meta\!westlabs\!uriel NOTE: Make sure you include the backslashes. It won't work without them. QUICK COMMAND CARDS OPTIONS AT Ok: PROMPT To see this list, type help at the Ok: prompt. See a list of all conferences ?conf Go to a conference g Browse conference topic headings b See specific topic/responses s # (Example: s 4) See all new responses and topics s (with no topic number) Enter a new topic e See who belongs to conference p See who's on line now !w Leave The WELL exit Display the WELL manual manual See a full list of commands help commands To stop reading a topic or responses and go to Respond or pass? prompt Ctrl-C Receive mail mail Mail an electronic letter mail <userid> (Example: mail trob) Talk with someone on line chat <userid> (Example: chat tims) Join a group chat !gchat Stop whatever you're doing, including mail, chat, or entering topic or response Ctrl-D OPTIONS AT Respond or pass? PROMPT To see this list, type help at the Respond or pass? prompt Go to next topic pass (p) or <cr> Make a comment respond (r) Display last response last (l) Read specific response # (Example: 5) Repeat topic text 0 Make what you just read "new" new (n) Skip this topic in future forget (f) Enter a new topic enter (e) Go to Ok: prompt quit (q) See a full list of commands help commands Receive mail mail Mail an electronic letter mail <userid> (Example: mail lila) Talk with someone on line chat <userid> (Example: chat mojo) QUESTIONS & ANSWERS GENERAL 1. What's the WELL's phone number? (415) 332-6106 (To find your local UNINET number, call UNINET at (800) 821-5340. 2. How do I log off The WELL? Type exit at the Ok: prompt. 3. How do I change my password: Type set passwd at the Ok: prompt. 4. How do I check how much space I'm using on The WELL? Type ls -l at the Ok: prompt. You'll see the answer in kilobytes. 5. How do I remove a file I don't want anymore? Type !rm filename at the Ok: prompt. 6. How do I check my current WELL bill? To see your charges from the beginning of the month, type bill at the Ok: prompt. HELP 7. How do I know what I can enter at a prompt? To see a list of available commands at a prompt, type help at the prompt. To find information on a specific command or topic, type help command or help topic Example: help mail or help browse For *very* detailed information, type !man command Example: !man mail 8. How do I get information about a conference? First, browse the conference and look at the topic headers. Frequently Topic #1 will have general information about the conference. If you still need more information, ask the host. Type display fw at the conference's OK: prompt to find out the userid of the host. Then send mail to the host with any questions you might have. 9. How do I ask questions about using The WELL? Go to the Help conference (go help). Browse through the topics to see if someone has already asked the question. If not, enter a new topic with your question or problem. Someone is sure to come to your rescue. 10. How can I practice using The WELL without bothering anybody? Go to the Test conference (go test). You can enter topics and responses there to your heart's content. The conference is designed for experimentation so it doesn't matter how many mistakes you make. USER INFORMATION 11. How do I find someone's userid? Type !f lastname at the Ok: prompt. 12. How do I find if someone is a member of The WELL? Type !f lastname at the Ok: prompt. 13. How do I find biographical information on a WELL member? Type !finger userid or who -m userid at the Ok: prompt. CONFERENCES 14. How do I find out what conferences are available? Type ? conf at the Ok: prompt. 15. How do I find the name of a conference's host? At the conference's Ok: prompt, type display fw You'll see the host's userid. 16. How do I find a particular topic in a conference? Type b at the conference's Ok: prompt. (You can do a more detailed search with b "searchword" Example: b "modem" 17. How do I find all the new topics I haven't read in a conference? Type b n at the Ok: prompt. 18. How do I seYou have mail e a specific topic? Type s topic# at the Ok: prompt. 19. How do I find a certain word in a conference? Type find "searchword" at the conference's Ok: prompt. You'll see a list of every place that word appears in the conference. 20. How do I avoid seeing a particular topic in the future? At the topic's Respond or pass? prompt, type forget If you later change your mind, type remember topic# MAIL 21. How do I find my mail messages? Type mail at the Ok: prompt. 22. How do I find a particular mail message? Type mail at the Ok: prompt, then type h to see the first few lines of each message. 23. How do I find a piece of previously seen mail? Type !mail -f You'll then see how many messages have been stored in your mailbox. See the Mail section of this manual for your options at this point. 24. How do I put a subject header in my mail? Type ~s at the beginning of a line. What follows on that line will be the subject header. 25. How do I make my mailbox private? Type !chmod go-r mbox at the Ok: prompt. CHAT 26. How do I start a chat with someone? Type chat userid at the Ok: prompt. 27. How do I find out who is currently on The WELL? Type !u at the Ok: prompt. 28. How do I find my place after a chat interrupt? Type r this nor at the Ok: prompt. 29. How do I keep from getting interrupted by chat? Type set nochat at the Ok: prompt. When you're ready to receive chat invitations again, type set chat 30. How do I see who's already in a group chat? Type !gcwho at the Ok: prompt. To join them, type !gchat MISCELLANEOUS 31. How do I stop in the middle of writing mail, a topic, or a response? Press Control-C and everything will go away. 32. How do I see a list of editing commands while I'm editing a file? At the line number prompt, type Control-D. At the edit prompt, type ? You'll see a list of the available edit commands. Enter your selection or [return] to display menu; control-d to exit. : 4 ADVANCED FEATURES Warning: Information in the following section is not presented in as much detail as the previous area of the manual. You do not need to know or use any of the Advanced Features to use The WELL. We assume that if you're interested in the Advanced Features, you're probably an experienced enough computer user to be able to figure out how they work. If not, the Help Conference is an excellent place to ask questions about this or any other material concerning The WELL. MAKING YOUR OWN AUTOMATIC CONFERENCE SCANNER (.cflist) When you have a .cflist, each time you visit The WELL you're automatically led, in the order you indicate, through the conferences you list in the file. To create this file, type listadd at the Ok: prompt. You'll see: Which conference would you like to add to your list? Type the name of the conference you want to add to the list, and press <cr>. You can also remove a name from your conference list by typing listrm To add or move a name to the top of the list, type listtop Each time you change the list, you end up back at the Ok: prompt. Next time you log in you'll be shown those conferences in that order. When you finish with each conference, type n (for "next" at the Ok: prompt). You'll automatically move to the next conference on your list. To see this list at any time, at the Ok: prompt type cat .cflist Once you've created your .cflist file, to see a list of all the conferences you specified in your file which have new topics, type check at the Ok: prompt. An asterisk indicates which conference you entered first, and an arrow indicates which conference you're currently in. Note: You can also put check in the .cfonce file in your directory (see separate listing in this manual) and have it execute every time you log on. Do not put check in your .cfrc file (another one discussed elsewhere in this manual) or you'll get a listing every time you move to another conference. USING A .profile FILE The .profile file performs certain useful functions for you every time you log on to the WELL. It was created for you by the WELL system administration when you first got your userid. You may want to add things to this file for specific purposes, such as automatically controlling text scrolling, but you should be careful not to remove this file, or change anything that was put there by the system administrator (unless you're absolutely sure you know what you're doing). The profile file initially "belongs" to the system administrator. To take control of it yourself, do the following: Type !cp .profile temp !rm -f .profile !mv temp .profile which translates to: 1) make a copy of the .profile file, 2) remove the old one, (the -f eliminates a query from rm about the fact that you don't own the file), and 3) rename your temporary file to .profile. USING A .cfonce FILE A .cfonce file is an optional file you can create to execute some commands once The WELL boots up. Use this for some things you want done only once. If you want certain things done each time you enter a new conference, put those commands in your .cfrc file (next section). For example, this is where you would put check so that as soon as you log on to The WELL, you can see which conferences have new items. USING A .cfrc FILE A .cfrc file is a file that executes commands every time you go to a new conference. For example, if you put "see" in your own .cfrc file, every time you go to a new conference, you'll automatically be shown everything new without having to type "see" every time. You can also: define your own editor set "date" in response and topic headers on and off define your own pager define how topic and response headers will look to you define how prompts will look to you define your own Picospan and Unix command macros automatically execute Picospan commands set usrid on (this makes it possible to always know who is really entering a pseudononymous response) and lots of other stuff. CHANGING HOW A PROMPT APPEARS You have the option of changing how the Ok: prompt appears to you (and only to you). At the Ok: prompt, type define prompt "newprompt" (make sure the new prompt is in quotation marks). You'll get that new prompt for the duration of the session. Note: To define a prompt continually, place it in your .cfonce file. Any time you want to again use OK: as the prompt, type define prompt (with no new prompt specified). This returns to the default, which is "Ok:". MOVING FILES AROUND You have your own private directory on The WELL. To see its name, at the Ok: prompt, type pwd (for "present working directory"). To upload a file into this directory, at Ok:, type cat > <filename> Finish uploading by pressing Control-D. At the first > prompt, type :read <filename> to read the file you uploaded. SEEING WHAT'S IN YOUR PRIVATE FILE DIRECTORY At OK? or Respond or Pass?, type ls -al to list all files in the current directory. The numbers you see will be the size of each file. This is useful in seeing which files to remove if you don't want to be charged by The WELL for excess storage space. Type cat filename or type filename to read a text file. Type ed filename to edit a file Type !rm filename to remove a file PLACING RESTRICTIONS ON FILES YOU'VE CREATED You can determine what other users can do with files that you've created. To do this, use the "chmod" command. First, to see what users are currently allowed to do with the file, type files -l <filename> Example: files -l manual You'll see something like: -rw-r--r-- 1 mick 84312 May 4 1986 manual EXPLANATION: -rw-r--r-- 1 mick 84312 May 4 1986 manual 123456789x 1 is normally a hyphen for most files ("d" if a directory) 2,3,4 are user permissions (2=read, 3=write, 4=execute) 5,6,7 are group permissions (5=read, 6=write, 7=execute) 8,9,x are "all others" permissions (8=read, 9=write, x=execute) So for the file named "manual", the user (mick) can read the file and write to (change) the file. Everyone else can only read the file. To have other users not be able to change a file, type !chmod go -w <filename> Note: !chmod +w <filename> will again let all users write to the file The full form for this is: !chmod who opcodepermission <filename> who: u user g group o all others a all (default) opcode: + add permission of files - remove permission of files = assign absolute permission for file permissions: r read w write x execute !chmod go-r payroll_data Now no one else except the user can read the file named "payroll_data". For full online information on permissions, at the Ok: prompt type !man chmod ADVANCED CONFERENCE COMMANDS CALENDAR "calendar" checks for a file in your directory named either for today or tomorrow and prints any that it finds. DISPLAY At the Ok: prompt, type display <command> where <command> is one of the following: forgotten forgotten topics retired retired topics new new topic status conference information on this conference user, name your name in this conference seen seen topic status time, date the current time or date who who is on the system fws, fairwitnesses fairwitnesses to current conference login login message in this conference logout logout message in this conference logmessages both login and logout messages index index conference index created by fairwitness list display current .cflist participants participants definitions definitions strip,dot,meto,stay, chat,default,mailtext say where the flags are on size superuser fds assorted random debugging info DISPLAY SEEN To see a list of every topic in a conference, the number of responses made to each topic, and the last time you saw the topic, type display seen at the conference Ok: prompt. LAST !last shows you who has called into the system recently. It lists userid, port#, and date and time of last access. To see the last times a particular user logged on to The WELL, type !last userid To see a specific number of times, for example the last two times a user was on, type !last -2 userid PRINT Type: print This command works much like read, except it automatically bypasses the Respond or pass? prompt. It also starts each new topic at the top of a page. If you don't want to read an entire topic, press Control- C. SET (As a shortcut you only need to type those letters indicated here in uppercase) Type: set [option] where [option] is one of the following: Example: set nochat or set noch CHat,NOCHat allow (don't allow) other people to chat with you this session. DATE, NODate ask that The WELL display(or not) dates on response this session DOT,NODOT otherwise, will period end text mode, or just ^D only? EDalways,NOEDalways will I go directly to the editor upon text entry (respond, enter, mail)? MAiltext, NOMAiltext let the send mail program collect text instead of us MEto,NOMEto will I see my responses as "new" after someone else responses? NAme, USer change your name in the current conference NEWResponses,RELoad reload participation file, forgetting what I've seen in this conference since the last session NODEfault, DEFAULT join the default conference when starting up. Only useful in a .cfonce file NUmbered,NONUmbered, UNNumbered number, don't number text in responses PAssword, PAsswd change your Unix password RELOAD set reload at the Ok: prompt works as a conference-wide "new". If, for example, you have viewed a number of new entries in a conference and you want to see a response again but you didn't know where it was, just set reload and everything you just saw will be new again. RESIGN zap my participation file and leave me an observer STrip,NOSTrip The WELL will (won't) strip control characters out of text typed in STAy, NOSTAy should RFP stay on current topic after a response is made? UID, NOUid do (don't) display uids on responses UNIX To exit from The WELL to the Unix system, type unix You can give a Unix command from the Ok: prompt. Type !unix-command (Example: !finger tkr) You can use Unix to upload and download files, access C and other languages, access word processors, and so on. Exit Unix with a Control-D or return to the conferences by typing bbs MACROS DEFINING MACROS A macro is a shortcut -- a short command which causes a longer series of commands to take place. Type define display current macros define name remove name from macro table define name "string" define a variable define name mask "string" define a command The form of this command is; define <name> <mask> <list of commands> <name> = whatever combinations of letters numbers or whatever you use here will be what you type at the Ok: prompt to execute the specified command <mask> - can be one of the following; 1 - for command macros which will work at the Ok: prompt 2 - for variables 4 - for command parameters (such as topic ranges) 8 - for command macros which will work at the Respond or pass? prompt or combinations of the above, such as; 9 - for commands that will work at both the Ok: and the Respond or pass? prompt (8 + 1 = 9) <list of commands> - this is whatever command you want executed Examples: define haha 9 "join jokes" when you type haha at either the Ok: or Respond or pass? prompt, the command join jokes is executed. The "mask" 9 is used so the macro will work at both prompts. The command "join jokes" must be in quote marks. define toc 9 "browse all short" Typing the macro name "toc" at either the Ok: or Respond or pass? prompt will execute the command, browse all short. define copytext 9 "cat /usr/guest/plum/pudding" Typing the word "copytext" at either the Ok: or Respond or pass? prompt will copy a file named "pudding" located in the home directory of /usr/guest/plum. CREATING A MACRO WHICH LETS YOU SEE WHICH CONFERENCES YOU HAVEN'T VISITED LATELY At Ok:, type define oldest 9 "ls -ltr .*.cf*" Now when you type oldest, you'll see when you last visited all conferences on The WELL in reverse order, so that the conference you've been away from the longest will be at the top of the list. To have this available at all times, define the macro in your .cfrc file. WELL COMMAND LIST Conference commands (Ok:) Abort get out quick from conference and The WELL Amsuperuser abort macros & scripts if not a fairwitness Async turn party topic back into a normal topic Browse scan headers Cd, pwd, cat, files, unmask, ed file operations Change change them (same as Set) Chat chat with other users Check check status of a list of conferences Define define variables or abbreviations Define nopager defines nopager Define pager more - turns pager back on Display display various parameters Echo type short messages out Enter create new topics Find look for "string" Fixseen pretend you've seen everything Forget forget topics Freeze stop responses on a topic Help get help on topics ("help" alone shows list of all commands) Join join a new conference Kill kill (remove permanently) topics Leave leave current conference, but not The WELL Mail send or receive mail Next join the next new conference Participants display participants here Quit exit conference: also use stop, exit Read read topics (same as See) Remember remember forgotten topics Retire retire a topic from general circulation See see topics (same as Read) Source source PicoSpan commands from a file Sync make a party topic Thaw allow responses again on a topic Unix exit to Unix or execute a Unix command Unretire unretire a topic from general circulation Who who is on the system !unixcommand execute one Unix command underneath PicoSpan UNIX COMMANDS !"file1". This can be used to locate a subject in one of the conferences, as well. !cal # year print calendar for month (Example: cal 4 1985 !cal year print calendar for entire year, (ex. cal 1985 prints the calendar for April 1985) !cat concatenates files and prints them out !cat filename type a file in your directory !cd go to home directory !cd change directory !cp file1 file2 - makes a copy of file1 and names it file2 !date print current time and date !ex text editor !finger user information lookup program !grep 'string' /usr/bbs/conference/_* will display each occurrence of 'string' within any topic in the named conference and show you the line it's on. It also displays the file name, which is the topic number preceded by '_'. !grep 'string' file1 - this locates a string within the file !grep 422 /etc/passwd tells you who uid 422 is !grep nnn /etc/passwd tells you who the possessor of uid nnn is !learn command run tutorial on the command (Example: learn vi runs a tutorial teaching how to use the "vi" editor) !ls list a directory of files in your account !mail send and receive mail !man -k keyword lists commands relevant to keyword !man command prints out manual for a command !mv file1 file2 change name of file1 to file2 !pwd print working directory !rm filename remove a file in your directory !sort sorts input into alphabetical order !spell [file] find spelling errors !tail prints last 10 lines of file (has options) !wc -w [filename] count words in a file !who who is on the system !whoami to see your login name * any string of characters > redirects output >> add to the end of < take the input for a program from the following file To see more on-line information, use the "!man" command: Example: To find programs about mail, type !man -k mail To print out mail command documentation, type !man mail -- END OF MANUAL -- Downloaded From P-80 Systems......