.TH lafe 6
.\" NAME should be all caps, SECTION should be 1-8, maybe w/ subsection
.\" other parms are allowed: see man(7), man(1)
.SH NAME
lafe \- Latency Free Empire client
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B lafe
.I "country [password [host [port]]]"
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.BR 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.  
.B pei
and 
.B eif 
are particularly susceptible to latency, as they require a complete
exchange of data before prompting again.  
.B 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 
.B lafe 
without readline, use 
.B emp_client 
instead.

.SS "Parameters"
.PD
.TP 10
.TP
.B 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.
.TP
.B password
defaults to 'visitor' if unspecified.
.TP
.B host
defaults to 149.84.128.9 if unspecified.
.TP
.B port
defaults to 6667 if unspecified.
.PD 0

.SS "Local commands"
.PD
.TP 10
.TP
.B help
print syntax summary of local commands.
.TP
.B addgame
game country password host port logfile directory
.br
add a game definition for the "lafe game" startup method.
.TP
.B execute
Handles exec scripts locally
.TP
.B runfeed
Runs the argument as a shell command, and sends the output
to the server shell Run the argument as a shell script
.TP
.B alias
Print, delete, or define an alias.  Use single quotes around
the alias definition to protect $*, $1, $2, ...
.TP
.B setvar
Set, delete, or print local variables.
.TP
.B shell
Run parameters in a subshell.
.TP
.B history
print the previous commands.
.TP
.B verbose
toggle verbosity of message.  "verbose on" if you want all the
error messages, C_SYNC messages, etc.  Off by default.
.TP
.B waitsync
Wait for all responses from server before proceeding.  Useful in
scripts before a runfeed or shell command.
.PD 0

.SH ENVIRONMENT
Environment variables are supported for backward compatibility with
.B emp_client.
This information is best placed in the $HOME/.laferc file using the addgame
command.
.PD
.TP 16
.B EMPIREHOST
hostname of server
.TP
.B EMPIREPORT
TCP/IP port number of server
.TP
.B COUNTRY
Country name to log in as
.TP
.B REPRESENTATIVE
Password for country
.SH FILES
.PD
.TP 14
.B $HOME/.laferc
contains any valid local commands to run before connecting to a server.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
emp_server(6), emp_client(6), emp_hub(6), pei(6), eif(6),
http://wolfpackempire.com/

.SH 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.
.PP
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.
.SH AUTHOR
This manual page was written by Drake Diedrich <dld@debian.org>