.\" -*- nroff -*-
.\" $Cambridge: hermes/src/prayer/man/prayer-session.8,v 1.3 2009/10/16 14:57:04 dpc22 Exp $
.Dd 17 August 2008
.Os "The Prayer Webmail Interface"
.ds volume-operating-system
.Dt PRAYER-SESSION 8
.Sh NAME
.Nm prayer-session
.Nd Prayer user session backend daemon
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm
.Oo Fl -config-file 
.Ar file Oc
.Oo Oo Fl -config-option
.Ar name Ns = Ns Ar value Oc
.Ar ... Oc
.Op Fl -foreground
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Nm
is the backend process in the Prayer Webmail system. A fresh
.Nm
backend is forked off whenever a user logs in.
.Pp
This process contains all of the permanent state associated with that login
session including one or more connections to a IMAP server and possibly
connections to accountd servers. prayer-session communicates with the user
using HTML over HTTP connections via the 
.Xr prayer 8 proxy. Each login has a session ID that the front end processes
use to find the correct backend.
.Pp
Backend server processes move into a dormant state after a certain period
of inactivity, shutting down IMAP and accountd connections which can be
easily resuscitated when the session wakes up. After a long period of
inactivity, typically several hours the session process shuts down.
.Pp
.Nm
accepts the following command-line options:
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It	Fl -config-file Ar file
Reads configuration from 
.Ar file
instead of the default
.Pa /etc/prayer/prayer.cf .
.It Fl -config-option Ar name Ns = Ns Ar value
Sets (overrides) the configuration option
.Ar name 
to 
.Ar value .
Any number of options can be specified in this manner.
.It Fl -foreground
Debug mode. Run a single process in the foreground.
.El
.
.Sh ENVIRONMENT
.
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Ev PRAYER_CONFIG_FILE
Can be set to specify the configuration file to use. The
.Fl -config-file
option takes precedence over this variable.
.It Ev PRAYER_HOSTNAME
Local hostname. Overrides the
.Cd hostname
setting in the configuration file as well as on the command line.
.El
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Pa /usr/local/prayer/etc/prayer.cf
Default configuration file.
.It /usr/local/prayer/templates/
Location of standard templates. The templates are compiled into
.Nm 
for performance reasons, so the template files are actually not
used, but they are available for customization.
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.
.Xr prayer 8 ,
.Xr prayer.cf 5
.
.Sh AUTHORS
.
This manual page was put together by
.An "Magnus Holmgren" <holmgren@debian.org>
using documentation written by
.An "David Carter" <dpc22@cam.ac.uk> .
.\" .Sh BUGS