Copyright: (c) Compulink Information eXchange Ltd, 1997


Contents
A

abbreviations

abort

absence

add

addpart

addprompt

all

allaboutme

ambiguous

ameol

ameol2

ansi

arcscratch

author

autorecent

B

backward

billing

binmail

break

buddy

bye

C

cancel

chat

checkpoint

cix

cixtest

clear

colour

commands

comment

comms

comod

confstat

connection

cookie

copy

crash

D

date

dejavu

delete

download

E

echo

edit

editor

editorb

editorc

era

erase

exmod

export

external mail

F

fal

fax

fdir

fdl

fexport

ffind

file

filepool

files

filestats

find

first

flist

flowcontrol

forward

ful

G

go

gobbler

H

handshake

header

help

I

internet

J

join

K

kermit

killarc

killscratch

L

last

level

line drops

line noise

login

logoff

M

macro

mail

mail commands

mail forward commands

mail read commands

mail send commands

mail withdraw

mailspeed

main commands

markunread

mnp

modems

moderate

N

netfind

new

newread

news

newsbytes

newsend

newsnet

next

nickname

note

O

olr

online

opt

option

order

orphans

P

participants

password

profile

protocol

prune

pss

Q

qed

quick

quiet

quit

R

rates

read

read add commands

read commands

read only

reference

remove

ren

reply

resign

restore

resume

rockwell

root

run

S

say

scgadd

scget

scpadd

scput

scratchpad

scratchsize

script

search

send

show

skip

squick

status

stay

store

substitute

switch

switchtopic

synonym

system

T

terminal

terminate

terse

time

tnext

to

topic

topicsize

tprev

type

U

unix

unread

upload

V

ved

verbose

vote

vt100

W

who

wildcards

withdraw

wordwrap

X

x25

xmodem

Y

ymodem

Z

zmodem


abbreviations

If you are abbreviating commands, you must be prepared to change your habitual abbreviations when new commands are introduced.  New commands may make old abbreviations ambiguous.

See also TERSE, VERBOSE


abort

To cancel a CIX command, enter <control>X.  For instance, if you have disabled the More? prompt by setting your terminal page length to 0, you could enter ^X to cancel a large volume of output.  Note that this will not take effect immediately, due to the buffering between the CIX software and your terminal.

To cancel your input at a prompt and start again, enter <control>U.  This may be more convenient than entering a number of backspace characters.


absence

COMMAND:	absence
PROMPT:	Main:  Read:  Mail:
FORMAT:	ABSENCE [FIRST <dd/mm/yy>] [LAST <dd/mm/yy>]
PURPOSE:	Notify someone who wants to send you mail of your absence
Usage

If you have no existing ABSENCE record, specify FIRST and/or LAST in either order.  If you specify FIRST only, you are absent from the specified date until further notice.  If you specify LAST only, you are absent from the current time until the end of the specified date.  If you specify both parameters, you are absent from the FIRST date till the end of the LAST date.

To delete your ABSENCE record, specify a LAST date before the current date, or any FIRST date.

To change your existing ABSENCE record, re-issue the ABSENCE command.  It is generally best to first delete your ABSENCE record, but you may safely update your existing ABSENCE record by specifying both FIRST and LAST.

To display your ABSENCE record, issue the ABSENCE command with no parameters.  This is a good candidate for your profile.

Example

absence last 25/7/96

Notes

Dates are inclusive (the time on the LAST date is 23:59), but see below.  Anyone who attempts to mail you when you are absent receives one of the following messages after issuing the TO command:

<username> is away from <date> to <date> - continue?

<username> is away from <date> until further notice - continue?

The default response is N (No).

However, if someone mails you by using a CIX script or OLR, the message is not displayed and the memo is always sent.

Users who send you binary mail (by using the BINMAIL command) are not notified of your absence.

Times are held in the ABSENCE record in GMT and adjusted to BST (British Summer Time) if necessary.  For example, if you enter:

ABSENCE FIRST 1/8/91 LAST 25/7/96

you are absent from 01:00 BST on the 1st of August (00:00 GMT) to 00:59 BST on the 26th (23:59 GMT on the 25th).


add

COMMAND:	add participant/topic
PROMPT:	Mod:
FORMAT:	ADD PARTICIPANT <username> [<username>...]
or
FORMAT:	ADD TOPIC
PURPOSE:	Join a new participant to a conference or add a new topic
Usage

When you enter the ADD TOPIC command, CIX prompts you for the name of the topic, asks if you want to keep files in the topic, and prompts you for the description of the topic.

Note

Certain topic names are reserved for CIX and cannot be used.

See also REMOVE, NOTE, ADDPART, ADDPROMPT


addpart

COMMAND:	add participant
PROMPT:	Mod:
FORMAT:	ADD PARTICIPANT <username> [<username>...]
PURPOSE:	Join new participants to a conference or topic
Usage

When you moderate a conference it is useful to be able to add participants yourself. This might be because the conference is closed, and thus potential participants cannot join themselves, or you might simply want to start a conference off with a few interested people.

Some people do not like to be joined to conferences without their permission, or might only wish to join certain types of conferences. For this reason every user can compose a note to be displayed to the moderator telling of their wishes. You should respect the contents of this note.

See also REMOVE


addprompt

Usage

After typing in the text of your message, you have the following options:

add	Add the text as a message (or comment), clear your scratchpad and return you to the Read: prompt.
clear	Clear your scratchpad and return to the Read: prompt.  No message will be added.
continue	Continue entering the message with the word wrapping entry program, and append new text to the end of the scratchpad.
edit	Invoke the text editor to edit or append text.
help	Displays a brief reminder of these commands.
list	Display the contents of the scratchpad.
quit	Return to the Read: prompt without adding a message.  Your scratchpad will be left intact.


all

COMMAND:	all
PROMPT:	Main: Mail: Read:
FORMAT:	FILE  [READ]  ALL
PURPOSE:	Marks all messages as read
Usage

The all option of read will display all unread messages in all conferences to which you are joined. The quick option makes read all not display the comments lines of the headers.

The all command at the Mail: prompt will display all of your unread mail messages in your outbasket and mark each message as read.

This command is of most use with the file command, which stops output being displayed and instead sends it to your scratchpad.

Example

FILE READ ALL	send all new messages to your scratchpad, ready for download.

Mail: FILE ALL	send all new mail to scratchpad.


allaboutme

COMMAND:	allaboutme
PROMPT:	Main:
FORMAT:	ALLABOUTME
PURPOSE:	List your billing details
Usage

ALLABOUTME lists the billing details supplied to CIX when you registered, and a few other items, such as the total number of calls you have made to CIX.


ambiguous

An abbreviation is ambiguous if it is a prefix of two different commands. If using verbose prompts you are told what the commands are.  If you are abbreviating commands, you must be prepared to change your habitual abbreviations when new commands are introduced.


ameol

Ameol and Ameol2 are the only officially supported Offline Readers for CIX.

The minimum system requirements for Ameol are Windows 3.1 (running in either Standard or Enhanced Mode), Windows NT 3.1, Windows 95, or IBM OS/2 2.1, and at least 4Mb RAM and 5Mb hard disk space.  There is a native 32-bit version of Ameol for NT and Windows 95.

Technical support and general administration questions should be directed to the ameol_reg or ameol32_reg conferences on CIX.

You will always find the latest 16-bit version of Ameol in ameol_reg/files, or 32-bit in ameol32_reg/files.


ameol2

Ameol and Ameol2 are the only officially supported Offline Readers for CIX.

Ameol2 is an all-in-one offline reader for your internet news, mail and CIX messages.  As it is an OLR, you can read and compose messages without being connected to your service provider or on-line service, so saving time and money.  Ameol2 can be used with an internet account to read usenet news and mail and also to read CIX messages.

The minimum system requirements for Ameol2 are Windows 3.1 (running in Enhanced Mode), Windows NT 3.50, Windows 95, and at least 4Mb RAM and 10Mb hard disk space.  There is a native 32-bit version of Ameol2 for NT and Windows 95.

Technical support and general administration questions should be directed to the ameol.support conference on CIX or by email to support@compulink.co.uk.


ansi

COMMAND:	ansi
PROMPT:	Opt:
FORMAT:	ANSI N Q	Do not use ANSI.
Or	ANSI Y Y Q	Use ANSI default codes.
Or	ANSI Y N	Use other ANSI codes.
	<codes>	Follow the prompts.
	Q	See below.
PURPOSE:	Allows ANSI if your terminal supports it
Usage

If your terminal can use ANSI or VT100 codes (for colour and other attributes), you may use the CIX command OPTION ANSI Y Y Q. (Meaning Yes, use ANSI codes and Yes, use the default codes).  This causes CIX prompts and message headers to stand out from the rest of the text.  To switch off ANSI codes, use the command OPTION ANSI N Q.

Please note that the ANSI option affects only the output from CIX. You cannot put ANSI characters into messages.

To use ANSI codes other than the defaults, use the command OPTION ANSI Y N. CIX then prompts you for the code that it should send before prompts and message headers:

PrePrompt code ESC[??m

You should enter only the ?? part, as explained below; CIX automatically sends the parts of the code which surround your entry. CIX then prompts you similarly for the code it should send after prompts and message headers; this code controls the display of text.

Finally, come out of the OPTION command by entering QUIT.

The ANSI attribute codes are:	The ANSI colour codes are:
	Foreground	Background
No attributes	0 or null	Black	30	40
High intensity or bold	1	Red	31	41
Underline	4	Green	32	42
Blinking	5	Yellow	33	43
Reverse	7	Blue	34	44
		Magenta	35	45
		Cyan	36	46
		White	37	47
Results depend on the capabilities of your terminal; for instance, it may not support the 'underline' code.  Your terminal should ignore any code it does not support.

To combine several values, separate them with a semicolon.  For instance:

;1;33;40	(PrePrompt)  Bright yellow on black

;37	(PostPrompt) White on black

These are the default codes which CIX normally uses when OPTION ANSI Y Y is in effect.  Notice that the first code for each string is null (the strings start with the semicolon separator).  This means the 'bright' attribute is switched off after prompts and message headers, so other text is displayed in normal intensity (the null code is not strictly necessary for the PrePrompt code in this instance).

If you change the codes, these are saved as the default values for your current CIX session: you cannot revert to the CIX defaults by using OPTION ANSI Y Y QUIT.  You may still, of course, switch off ANSI codes altogether by using OPTION ANSI N QUIT.

To set ANSI codes from your profile, you must put them on separate lines, just as if CIX were prompting you.  For instance:

OPTION ANSI Y N

33

34

QUIT


arcscratch

COMMAND:	arcscratch
PROMPT:	Main:
FORMAT:	ARCSCRATCH
PURPOSE:	Compresses your scratchpad to scratchp.arc
Usage

This command compresses the contents of your scratchpad using the ARC compression system, transferring the contents of your scratchpad to a 'scratchp.arc' file.  You can then download and unarc the file locally saving you download and online time.

Example

Main: arcscratch

Arcing... (to abort ^X^X^X)

.....

___Archived Scratchpad is **** characters

Your scratchpad has been deleted

Main:

Notes

Try this command with a small file first to ensure that it is compatible with your copy of ARC.  Arcing is extremely CPU intensive and will affect other users negatively.  If you have MNP5, do not ARC, please!  Once you have downloaded your archived scratchpad, you will receive the message:

OK to delete the downloaded scratchpad-file?

(y/n)?

Usage

If you already have an archived scratchpad file and you attempt to create another archive scratchpad, the old one will be deleted:

Main:arcscratch

Removed old ARChive

Arcing... (to abort ^X^X^X)

.....

___Archived Scratchpad is **** characters

Your scratchpad has been deleted

Main:

When you log off, you will be given the opportunity to delete your archived scratchpad:

Main:bye

OK to delete your scratchpad.arc? (y/n)? y

sthorn, you have been online 3:39 on ttya1

Goodbye from CIX     !!!HANGUP NOW!!!

Notes

If you have downloaded your archived scratchpad, then it is a good idea to delete it.  No charges are made for storage, so we do ask you delete your archived scratchpad before you log off.  When you have downloaded your archived scratchpad you will be asked if you wish to delete it, and also again before you log off.

See also FILE, KILLARC, KILLSCRATCH, SCRATCHSIZE, DOWNLOAD, UPLOAD


author

Alastair Mayer was largely responsible for the original system architecture and most of the original code.  Peter Jaspers-Fayer coded the help routine, and Bob McQueen coded the (original) verbose editor (with subsequent modifications by Greg Blair and A. Mayer). Overall system outline, and user interface design, was a collaboration between A. Mayer, B. McQueen, P. Jaspers-Fayer and Carl Mohan, who also wrote the users' manual.  The suggestions and complaints of the early users are also acknowledged.

Subsequent development (CoSy 3) was also largely done by Alastair Mayer, with additional coding by Tom Smith and Keith Winter.  Tom Smith is also responsible for automating several of the system manager functions, and the verbose interface for the new editor.

Again, the suggestions of users are acknowledged, as are the efforts of Bob McQueen, who 'ran interference' for us software gnomes. The current editor is based on one presented in Kernighan and Plauger's book, 'Software Tools in Pascal', but rewritten in 'C'.  The KERMIT file transfer utility was developed at Columbia University.

People who have worked on the code (in greater or smaller amount) at CIX:

Terry Thompson

DJ Walker Morgan

Frank Thornley

Anders Heerfordt

Giles Todd

Pete Bentley

Mike Rogers

Dave Johnson

Gordon Hundley

Matthew Sims

Paul Gardner


autorecent

COMMAND:	autorecent
PROMPT:	Opt:
FORMAT:	AUTORECENT YES | ON
PURPOSE:	Join a conf and skip to user defined date/message number
Usage

In conjunction with the RECENT command you can arrange for only the last x number of messages to be marked as new. This is particularly useful when using an OLR when rejoining a busy conference.

AUTORECENT should be set up in your profile - without it, the RECENT command will not work automatically.


backward

COMMAND:	read backward
PROMPT:	Read:
FORMAT:	READ BACKWARD [ <NUMBER> [ TO <NUMBER> ]]
PURPOSE:	The backward option of read allows you to reverse the order in which the messages are normally displayed.  To resume reading in the forward direction, use the forward command.


billing

COMMAND:	billing
PROMPT:	Main:
FORMAT:	BILLING, FILEBILLING, QUICK, FILEQUICK, QUICKNOW
PURPOSE:	To get a current CIX bill
Usage

To avoid drowning you (and us) in itemised bills, we have an online billing system.  This allows you to get the previous 3 month's bills and a bill for the present month up to 4:30am today.

Getting an itemised bill

At the Main: prompt, enter BILLING.  CIX asks you if you want the bill in ascii (continuous output, for logging to a disk file) or paged (for viewing online).  Once you have selected A or P, CIX then asks you for a month.  Just press the return key for the present month, or enter the month name, e.g., Jan Feb Mar Apr May etc.  CIX then asks you for a year; again, just press return for the present year.  The bill will then be displayed, itemised for every login.

To write the bill to your scratchpad instead of to your terminal, enter FILEBILLING.  CIX then prompts you for the month and year.

Getting a summary bill

At the Main: prompt, enter QUICK or FILEQUICK.  CIX asks you for the month and year -again, you may press return for the current month or year.  The summary bill is then either displayed on your terminal or written to your scratchpad.

To get a summary bill for the present month, enter QUICKNOW.  CIX then displays the bill without any further prompts.


binmail

COMMAND:	binmail
PROMPT:	Mail:
FORMAT:	BINMAIL <username> <filename>
PURPOSE:	Send a file from your directory to another user
Usage

BINMAIL is one of the most useful commands on CIX. It allows you to send files from your personal directory to that of any other user. These files can be anything at all - text, source code, complete programs etc. Files are stored in users binmail directories until their timestamp (you can see this when you use the DIR command) is more than 30 days old.

BINMAIL is not for sending Binary files in mail message out of CIX, across the internet. It is an internal to CIX thing only. Please see EXTERNAL MAIL for information on how to send a binary file outside CIX.

It is principally used in order to make downloading at the other end simple, or when the text file involved is rather larger than can comfortably be taken in at one reading.

You are not notified on receiving BINMAIL so it is a good idea to send a MAIL message too.  This will let the recipient know that they have received something, and the name of the file sent.

From the Mail: prompt:

BINMAIL <username> <filename>	send private file to user
DIR	show private files
FUL	upload private file(s)
FDL <filename>	download private file(s)
ERAse <filename>	erase private file(s)
REName <oldname> <newname>	rename private file
FAL <filename>	list contents of .ARC or .ZIP file
EXPORT <filename>	copy private file to conference topic
Sequence to send binary mail

MAIL	to enter mail system
DIR	to check the filename
FUL	to upload private file(s)
BINMAIL <user> <filename>	to send the file
MAIL <user>	to tell the recipient what you have sent
Sequence for receiver

MAIL	to enter mail system
DIR	to see received files
FDL <filename>	to download file(s)
ERAse <filename>	to delete file(s)


break

See CANCEL.


buddy

OPT BUDDY N Q	turn off buddy help

See also OPTION, LEVEL


bye

COMMAND:	bye
PROMPT:	Main:  Read:  Mail:
FORMAT:	BYE
PURPOSE:	Terminate your current CIX session
Usage

When you have finished your CIX session, enter bye.  If there is unread mail in your Inbasket, CIX asks you if you still want to log off.  If you have a scratchpad and/or an archived scratchpad, CIX asks you if you want to delete it.

Note

If you want to retain your connection to CIX, so that you may log in to another account, use the LOGIN command at the Main: prompt.


cancel

The 'cancel command' or 'interrupt character' is ^X. Previously it has been ^\ or ^|.

Most actions can be aborted with ^X, but the utility is not made fail-safe, which means that strange effects may infrequently result.

Of course in the full screen editor, ^X is used to move the cursor down.


chat

COMMAND:	chat
PROMPT:	Main: Read: Mail: Option:
FORMAT:	CHAT ON
PURPOSE:	Chat allows you to listen and talk to other users that are online at the same time as you, without using mail messages or conference messages
Usage

From the:

Main: prompt	type chat on

Read: prompt 	type chat on

Mail: prompt 	type chat on

Option: prompt 	type chat on

This will turn chat on for your current CIX session only.  If you always want to listen for Chat, add chat on to your profile.

CHAT ON will read your incoming chat, allowing people to say they want to chat with you or pass you a message.  The system will always check what messages are waiting before you are due to make enter a command at a prompt.  It will not interrupt you if you are doing something like reading a message or typing a reply.  Chat buts-in like this:

*CHAT*

.

.   The messages you have received

.

*ENDCHAT*

If nothing is waiting, Chat will stay quiet.

Chat messages

There are two varieties of Chat messages:

*username*:  is paging you for a chat

*username*:  is now only listening

These are 'system' messages.  The first one appears before a user can send you his first chat message.  It is usually followed by his first message.  The second message appears when a user has been talking to you but has now stopped.

<username>:  message

This is a message the user (username) has typed.

Talking to another user

To enter into conversation, type from the prompt, CHAT.  A list of users who are online (but who may or may not be listening) appears on your screen.  You may type in the name of one of them or press return, which redisplays an updated version of the list.  Once you have entered a name, the system will try and put you through.  If they are not listening or not logged on, you will be told that they are not available, and you will be returned to the prompt where you entered CHAT.  If you are responding to a paging message, you can just type CHAT <username>, which will put you through, unless the user has disconnected.

In Chat mode the prompt is

>

(There is no prompt in terse mode)

at which you may type any message.  Once you press RETURN, the message will be sent to the user you are talking to.

Every 10 seconds or so, the system will check for incoming messages and print them on your screen.  This may break up the line you are typing, but do not worry, it is still complete in CIX's memory.  If you use a communications program which has a CHAT mode, switch it on.  These modes usually split your terminal screen and make it easier to type messages.  See your programs documentation for more details.

You have a number of commands you may use in chat mode.  They are all preceded by the / character.  They can also be abbreviated to one character e.g. /help or /h.

/noecho	Will disable CIX from echoing back what you type.  (Note that this mode is AUTOMATICALLY turned back on when you quit chat).
/echo	Will re-enable echoing.
/help	Displays a quick list of commands.
/quit	Allows you to leave chat.  When you leave, it sends a message to whoever you were talking to that you are now only listening.  BUT remember that you will continue to receive chat until you either disconnect or type chat off.
/also username	Also sends any message you type to that username as well as whoever you are already chatting to.  For example, if you are chatting to fred, and bill pages you for a chat.  Type /also bill and your messages will go to fred and bill.  However, please note that unless fred types /also bill and bill types /also fred, fred and bill will not be able to hear each other.
/xclude username	Opposite of /also command, it stops sending messages to that username.
/list	Show's the list of people to whom your messages are going to.
/who	Shows you who is currently online.
/resume username	Shows you username's resume, e.g.:/resume fthorn
/msg username message	Sends a private message to <username>.  This message is ONLY sent to that user.  When it arrives, it is denoted as a private message, because instead of the <name>:  identifier, it appears as >name<:  .

If you just press return with a blank line, nothing is sent BUT your incoming chat will be checked.  After you /quit, you will continue listening until you type CHAT OFF.

Important - when in chat mode, auto disconnect is disabled!


checkpoint

COMMAND:	checkpoint
PROMPT:	Main:  Read:
FORMAT:	CHECKPOINT
PURPOSE:	Writes your current message pointers to disk
Usage

Basically, store does not store your CURRENT message pointers, it backs up the message pointers that are stored on disk.  This is to increase speed, as when you log in, CIX loads your pointers off disk into memory.  As you read messages or join and resign conferences, the pointers are changed in memory and NOT written to disk. Therefore when you use a STORE command CIX backs up your pointers stored on disk, not the changed ones in memory.

This is what the CHECKPOINT command is for, it writes your CURRENT message pointers (stored in memory) to disk so when you do a STORE, the message pointers you expected were backed up.

See also STORE, RESTORE


cix

A brief history of CIX - The Early Days

CIX started back in 1987 by Frank and Sylvia Thornley who are still the sole owners of the company and play an important role in the running of  CIX.  We had been running the Central UK hub for the FIDO BBS system, as well as the first shareware and public domain software library (since 1983).  The company (Compulink User Group as it was known then) was interested in the use of exchanging information via modems; wanting to provide an inexpensive environment by which people could talk to each other, exchanging information whether that be in the form of files, experiences, hints / tips or technical information, in a public forum, at a low cost.

When CIX started, we ran it free for a couple of months and gained a core userbase of around 400 users very quickly. CIX was the first online system of its type in the UK and so we got a good deal of interest from the computer / comms press who have always helped us immensely. We have never marketed or advertised CIX; most of our users have joined through word of mouth, or seeing editorial in magazines and more recently newspapers.  One of the reasons for this was the fact that we have built CIX by purchasing new hardware as and when required, financing it mainly from the profit the company makes.

For the first 3 years of operation, CIX was regarded as a purely technical information service, with most of our new users being experienced computer / comms users.  Over the past couple of years we have seen a gradual change in our userbase, as computers and modems have become less expensive. We now see a large proportion of our users as non technical, and why should they be.  We have attempted to encourage new non technical users onto CIX by providing easy to use environments, such as the Ameol product, which have the added benefit of making CIX less expensive use and easier to predict the cost.

As mentioned earlier, CIX started with a core userbase of around 400 users, many of whom still use CIX, at the moment we have just over 16,000 users and growing, without advertising.  We are planning a number of new facilities at the moment and have already started on a strategic upgrade path to cope with the number of users we expect over the coming years. We will begin advertising CIX in the near future and expect to double our userbase in the next 12 to eighteen months.

At the moment we are taking over 17,000 calls from over 5,500 different users every day.  We have around 60% of our userbase logging in each week, and 80% each month.  We are getting closer and closer to the day when the idea that online communities are different from terrestrial communities is finally dispelled.

At present CIX supplies the following services:

Public conference areas where users interested in a particular subject can interject their own opinions or questions into the discussions.  These can be anything from Technical support for various products, to social conferences, to closed conferences where people bounce ideas off each other to come up with a plan of action.

Private mail which allows users to communicate with other users, whether they be other CIX users, or users of other mail services world-wide, on a one to one, or one to many basis.

File libraries for users to distribute shareware / public domain / their own software to many others.

Indirect Internet facilities such as Usenet News which is basically a world-wide distributed conferencing system.

Direct Internet facilities such as:

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) to get access to the gigabytes (estimated at around 400 gigabytes at the moment) of files' libraries on other peoples' computers.

Telnet, to obtain interactive sessions with other peoples' computers for the retrieval of information.

IRC (Internet Relay Chat) which lets you have real time discussions with hundreds of other users worldwide.

WWW (World Wide Web) which is basically a hypertext driven front end to the Internet, bringing all the services together in a manageable friendly environment.

For those interested on what CIX runs on:

Sequent S2000/250 with 2 Intel 486DX50, 2 Intel Pentium P60, 256meg of main memory, and 16GB of local magnetic disk. Dynix/PTX 2.1 (Unix SVR3.2).

Sun SPARCStation 10 model 80 with 64MB of main memory and 12GB of local magnetic disk. Solaris 1.1 (SunOS 4.1.3).

Sun SPARCStation IPC with 48Mb of main memory and 18Gb of local magnetic disk. Solaris 2.5 (SunOS 4.1.3).

Computers are connected by a 10Base-T ethernet network. Routing is provided by a Cisco 4000 router supporting internal and Internet leased lines. Internet service provision is by BT Internet. Integration to the CIX Internet service is provided by Cisco 2500 routers.

Modem access is through Xylogics Annex 2 terminal servers supporting up to 96 US Robotics Courier V.34 modems, and 4 ISDN TA's, 2 Dataflex V24's and 2 Hayes ISDN TA's.

We have many other Sun SPARCStation computers which are mainly deployed on the CIX Internet service, though around 4 are counted as spare / development machines.


cixtest

COMMAND:	cixtest
PROMPT:	Main:
FORMAT:	CIXTEST
PURPOSE:	Test the communication path between your terminal and CIX
Usage

CIX presents you with the following menu:

MENU

1)  Loopback received characters

2)  Redisplay results from 1)

3)  Display one received character as hex and ASCII

4)  Display many received characters as hex

5)  Send XON

6)  Send XOFF

7)  Send received hex value as one character

8)  Send all 256 possible characters

9)  Quit

10)  Send lots of text output (with XON/XOFF flow control)

11)  Send received hex values as characters

Choice?


clear

COMMAND:	clear
PROMPT:	Mail:
FORMAT:	CLEAR INBASKET [FROM number][TO number][QUICK]
	CLEAR OUTBASKET [FROM number][TO number][QUICK]
PURPOSE:	Tidy up your in or out mailbaskets
Usage

If you have a lot of mail your mailbox soon becomes rather full. After several weeks, CIX automatically deletes old mail from your mailbox, but it is a good idea to get rid of your unwanted correspondence voluntarily.

Do not forget you can use the FILE command to copy mail messages to your scratchpad for subsequent downloading if there is anything that you need to retain for the future.

The clear command allows you to quickly tidy up your mail baskets. It will display all the read messages and ask you whether you want to delete them or not. The syntax is:

CLEAR INBASKET	Clear read messages in inbasket

CLEAR OUTBASK	Clear read messages in outbasket

By appending the word QUICK to this command, it will automatically delete ALL read messages. i.e. CLEAR INBASK QUICK.

You can also specify a range of messages to be tidied and worked on, for example:

CLEAR INBASKET FROM 621000 TO 623000 QUICK

This would delete all read mail messages in the inbasket from mail message 621000 to mail message 623000 and it would NOT confirm each deletion.

CLEAR OUTBASKET FROM 623000

This would delete all read mail messages from the outbasket from mail message 623000 to the last mail message and would ask for confirmation of each deletion.


colour

OPT ANSI Y Y Q turns on colours in CIX.  You will have to set your terminal to accept ANSI codes.  To set other colours than the default:

OPT ANSI Y N

33

34

Q

It will not work if put on a single line, unfortunately.  This will result in ESC[33m being sent before the prompt, and ESC[34m being sent after the prompt.  Default settings are ;1;33;40 and ;37, resulting in these codes being sent:

Before prompt	ESC[;1;33;40m	Bright Yellow on Black
After prompt	ESC[;37	White on Black

The ANSI colour codes are something like this:

	Foreground	Background
Black	30	40
Red	31	41
Green	32	42
Yellow	33	43
Blue	34	44
Magenta	35	45
Cyan	36	46
White	37	47

To combine several values, separate with ;

5;30;47	Blinking Black on White
4;33;44	Underlined Yellow on Blue

The ANSI attribute codes are something like this:

1 High intensity

4 Underline

5 Blinking

7 Reverse


commands

Command	Sub-Commands
bye
billing	(online billing).
edit	resume, scratchpad, profile, workfile.
file	<CoSy command>.
help	<item to get help on>.
join	<conference name>.
mail	to, read, status.
moderate	add <participant>, add <topic>, new <conf name>, terminate.
noecho
read	all, backward, comment, first, forward, header, last, quit, reference, say, skip, <number> to <number>, resign.
show	all, new, participant, resume <name>, who <name>, <conf name>.
terse
time
verbose


comment

If there is a message that you want to comment on, then, after you have read the message, you can type comment. CIX/CoSy will then put you into the text gobbler where you can type your comment.  To finish your comment, type a full-stop, after which you will be at the Add/Action: prompt where you may add, edit or discard your message.

The difference between saying and commenting is that when you comment, a pointer to your new message is added to the message you were commenting on. These pointers are automatically followed when you are reading messages by reference mode (see also READ REF).

Note

If you already have text in your scratchpad, then you will be put straight into the editor.


comms

There have been recent questions about making your modem go as fast as possible.  You need a number of things to ensure fast downloads:

Zmodem (or Ymodem-G but let's not confuse things) as a file transfer protocol

If you have an error correcting modem (MNP1-5 or V42 - bis) then ensure the data compression is turned on.

RTS/CTS

Sometimes called hardware handshaking, or flow control, whatever it is turn it on. You will often find this under the Terminal Options section of your comms package setup. You should also check your cable is capable of doing rts/cts. Pins 4 and 5 handle this but and will either be crossed 4 to 5 and 5 to 4 or will be straight though.  How can you tell if yours need to be crossed or straight though, if pins 2 and 3 are crossed then so should pins 4 and 5.

An Unclogged PC

It easy to clog up a PC, just run a program which steals interrupts. If downloading within windows you may have problems, watch out for running a mouse driver on the same serial port you use the modem with. I have even heard of people having problems with the Keyb program in Dos 5.

The rest

There are various other little things to do with the modem many of which are diagnostic and will help you find where things are going wrong, or at least cut out the complications.

a) Ensure you have the modem set to tell you what speed you have connected at, as well as if you got error correction and data compression.

b) Ensure you have the modem set to connect at its fastest speed (up to v34 - 28,800).

c) If you have trouble connecting, tell the modem not to scan for a speed, i.e. connect at the fastest speed possible and do not bother to try any others.  Usually ATN0 (zero).

d) If you are having problems with connecting at fast rates, try dialling from the terminal using ATDT01812961255, instead of using the dialling directory.


comod

COMMAND:	comod
PROMPT:	Mod:  Read:
FORMAT:	COMOD <username>
PURPOSE:	add another moderator to the current conference

See also EXMOD, ADDPART


confstat

Confstat is a conference statistic program, which provides the following information:

Creation Date

Moderator Name(s)

Number of Participants

Number of Topics

Number of Messages in Total

Last Message Date

Note

If you are at the Main: or Mail: prompt, then you will be prompted for a conference name to display the statistics on.  If you are the Read: prompt, then the program will assume you want statistics on the conference you are currently in.

You will then be prompted to either press <CR> for statistics on topics, or q will quit at this point.

Topic Statistics include:

Topic Name

Number of Messages

Number of Files

Last Msg Date

Activity Rating (100 - Very active, 1 - Very quiet)

Number of messages posted in the last 24 hours.  (Max. 100)

Number of messages posted in the last 7 days.  (Max. 100)

The Busyness rating is calculated by getting the date of the last 100 messages, for each message that is posted within the last ten days, the rating will increase by a factor of 1.


connection

If you often get a message CONNECT NO CARRIER when trying to connect to us, the reason may be that your modem is scanning through the baudrates.  You should not allow your modem to scan baudrates when trying to connect to us.

Our modems try to connect for 3 seconds at 2400 baud, for 3 seconds at 1200 baud, for 3 seconds at 1200/75 baud and for 23 seconds at 300 baud.

If your modem responds at the end of the 3 second period, you may get the message CONNECT (small pause) ... NO CARRIER.  If this happens, your modem is too slow to respond.


cookie

From the Main: prompt, cookie will display some 'words of wisdom' from the closed conference, epithets.


copy

COMMAND:	copy
PROMPT:	Main: Mail:
FORMAT:	COPY <MESSAGE NUMBER> TO  <CONFERENCE> <TOPIC>
PURPOSE:	Copy messages from one conference/topic to another
where

Message number	The number of the message to be copied.
Conference	The name of the conference where the message is to be added.
Topic	The topic name if the conference contains more than one topic.
If using copy from the Mail: prompt, it will copy the last mail message into a specific conference/topic.


crash

If your conference list becomes corrupted, type RESTORE at the Main: prompt.  This will restore your conference list to the way it was at the start of the day.

See also STORE


date

COMMAND:	date
PROMPT:	Read:
FORMAT:	READ DATE <date> [ to DATE <date> ]
PURPOSE:	Find and read messages by date
Usage

DATE is an option of READ, used for accessing conference entries by date of entry, or since a certain date.  The date must be entered without intervening spaces between the day, month, and year, and the month must be in alphabetic form.  It may be abbreviated if the abbreviation is not ambiguous.

Example

READ DATE 23JUN89 TO DATE 25AUG89

Valid date formats

23jun96	23 June 1996
1995f27	27 Feb. 1995
96Dec2	2 Dec. 1996
Incorrect formats

20/11/82	Month not alphabetic.
12ju84	Is month June or July?
Feb 5, 87	Spaces, and month must be in the middle.


dejavu

If you read by reference, and quit from the topic without reading all new messages, then you are likely to re-read some of the messages from that topic.


delete

At the Mail: prompt, DELETE will delete your last read message.

The delete #### command will delete all entries for message #### from your Out-Basket.  The message remains in the system, however, until read and deleted by the recipient(s).

To delete a private file type ERA <filename>.

To delete a topic file as a moderator type ERA <filename> from the Read: prompt.


download

Main/Read Subsystem:

In the main or read subsystem, download is used to transfer a file from your CoSy scratchpad to your computer (for local processing or whatever).  The CoSy scratchpad can be filled using the FILE command.

If you have an archived scratchpad (see the ARCSCRATCH command), download will ask you if you want to download that copy.  Answer no and you can download the ASCII version.

download <protocol>

In the option subsystem, you can define the transfer protocol to use when downloading files.  Currently available are:

download kermit

download xmodem

download crc-xmodem

download ymodem

download zmodem (default)

Note

Ymodem is actually Ymodem batch, so when you use this, always select Ymodem BATCH as your terminal protocol, otherwise, it will 'hold on' for 5 minutes after the download.

Related commands

Read: FDL <filename>	download file from topic.
Mail: FDL <filename>	download private file.
OPT UNIX Y Q	select LF line termination in downloaded file.

See also FILES


echo

The echo command is available at the main level of CoSy, but its main use is within profile files.  It causes everything on the rest of the line to be 'echoed' to your terminal.  Thus, in your profile it can be used to put headers in front of status displays, or to display a constant 'reminder message' whenever you log on.

Example

echo <text>


edit

COMMAND:	edit
PROMPT:	Main:  Read:  Mail:
FORMAT:	EDIT [SCRATCHPAD]	Edit your scratchpad.  This is the default filename.
	EDIT PROFILE	Edit your profile.  Your profile contains commands which are automatically issued when you logon to CIX.
	EDIT RESUME	Edit your resume.  Your resume contains anything you wish to say about yourself.  Other users may see your resume by issuing SHOW RESUME <nickname>.
	EDIT WORKFILE	(At the Read: prompt) edit the conference workfile.  The workfile may be jointly changed by any conference member.  Uses might include a working paper.
	EDIT SET	Set the editor you wish to use.  CIX prompts you for the verbose or quiet editor.  See also OPTION EDIT.
	EDIT HELP	Obtain a summary of the above commands.
PURPOSE:	Edit a file
Note

For a description of the commands you may use in the editor, see also VED or QED (for the verbose and quiet editors).


editor

There are several editors:

Textgobbler default	a linewrapping (garbling) editor, without possibility to go back to previous lines.
Textgobbler A	a non wordwrapping (non garbling) editor,
	.r redisplays last line
	.d deletes last line
Terse editor	a line editor
Verbose editor	a line editor
B editor	a full screen editor with WordStar commands
C editor	a full screen editor based on Micro Emacs


editorb

To select the fullscreen editor, enter:

OPTION EDIT A QUIT 	for text gobbler A and the fullscreen editor.

OPTION EDIT B QUIT	for the fullscreen editor only.

See also GOBBLER for information on the A text gobbler.  If you SAY a message with EDIT  in effect, you should (for the convenience of other users) enter TITLE: at the beginning of the top line.

You may define your terminal type to CIX by entering OPTION TERMINAL TYPE <type> QUIT, where <type> is ANSI, VT52, VT100 or TVI920.  The default is VT100.

The commands for the fullscreen editor are as follows.  For instance, when you have finished entering your text, hold down the Control key and press K followed by D.  As well as the cursor left, right, up and down commands shown, you may use the cursor arrow keys (which you cannot in the text gobblers).  Note that ^H (to delete a character) is the code sent by the Backspace key.

(Your OPTION TERMINAL ERASE setting is ignored by the fullscreen editor).

^A	Cursor word left  *
^C	Page down a screen  *
^D	Cursor right  *
^E	Cursor up  *
^F	Cursor word right  *
^G	Delete char at cursor position  *
^H	Delete char to left of cursor  *
^KB	Mark beginning of a block
^KC	Copy block to current position
^KD	Save the file and exit  *
^KK	Mark end of block
^KQ	Abort  *
^KV	Move block to current position
^L	Find next occurrence
^O	Redefine commands *
^QA	Find and replace text
^QC	Bottom of file
^QD	Cursor to end of line  *
^QF	Find text in file
^QR	Top of file
^QS	Cursor to beginning of line  *
^R	Page up a screen  *
^S	Cursor left  *
^T	Delete word to right of cursor
^U	Toggle help off/on  *
^V	Toggle overtype/insert mode  *
^W	Scroll screen up one line
^X	Cursor down  *
^Y	Delete line  *
^Z	Scroll screen down one line

You may redefine those commands which are marked with an asterisk (*).  You cannot save any changes you make to the commands; the default commands will be in effect the next time you use the editor.  To redefine a command, ensure the help section is toggled on (^U), then:

^O to enter redefinition mode

move cursor to command

<CR> to start redefining command

hit key(s) for new definition

<CR> to end new definition

repeat for other commands

^O to end

The screen size is set to 24 x 80 irrespective of the terminal page length and width settings.  If your terminal type is VT100 (the default), the editor defines a scrolling region; if your terminal has more than 24 lines, you will need to clear the scrolling region when you come out of the editor.  If you are using a VT100 emulator with a menu line on line 24, you should disable this.

We recommend you use an error-correcting modem (V.42bis or MNP) and hardware handshaking with the fullscreen editor, as the editor disables XON/XOFF flow control to allow ^Q and ^S to be used for commands; also, line noise can produce some very bad results.


editorc

CTRL-g	Escape current command.
CTRL-n	Down 1 line (next).
CTRL-p	Up 1 line (previous).
CTRL-f	Forward 1 character.
CTRL-b	Backwards 1 character.
CTRL-e	Jump to end of line.
CTRL-a	Jump to beginning of line.
CTRL-d	Delete character to right.
BKSP	Delete character to left.
CTRL-k	Remove to end of line if done on a blank line then the line removed, thus if done twice on the same line the line will be removed.
CTRL-y	Put back what has been removed.
CTRL-s	Search forward for text use Esc to terminal input of text to search for.
CTRL-r	Search backwards for text.
Esc->	Jump to end of text.
Esc-<	Jump to beginning of text.
Esc-v	Jump up 1 page.
CTRL-x-CTRL-c	Quit, if changes have been made you are prompted.
Esc-q	Reformat the current paragraph.
Esc-z	Exit and save current text.
Esc-BKSP	Delete word to left.


era

COMMAND:	era
PROMPT:	Read:
FORMAT:	ERA <filename>
PURPOSE:	Erase a file from a topic
Usage

ERA allows the moderator to erase a file in a topic.  You may use * wildcards in the filename; if you do, for each file that matches the pattern, CIX gives you a Y/N prompt.

Note

You may not use the ERASE command for this purpose; ERASE deletes files from your private directory.

See also REN


erase

COMMAND:	erase
PROMPT:	Mail:
FORMAT:	ERASE <filename>
PURPOSE:	Erase a file from your private directory
Usage

You may use * wildcards in the filename; if you do, for each file that matches the pattern, CIX gives you a Y/N prompt.

Note

Moderators may use the ERA command at the Read: prompt to delete a file from a topic.

See also BINMAIL, RENAME, EXPORT


exmod

COMMAND:	exmod
PROMPT:	Mod:  Read:
FORMAT:	EXMOD <username>
PURPOSE:	Remove another moderator from the current conference

See also COMOD


export

COMMAND:	export
PROMPT:	Mail:
FORMAT:	EXPORT <filename>
PURPOSE:	Export a binmail file to a conference
Usage

EXPORT copies a file from your private mail directory to a conference topic.  You must have entered the MAIL command from the Read: prompt, so CIX knows to which topic you wish to EXPORT the file.  You could enter SHOW CURRENT to remind yourself of the topic to which you are currently joined.  When you have EXPORTed a file, you may delete it from your directory by using the ERASE command.

Please remember to mail the conference moderator, so s/he may add the file to the flist.

See also BINMAIL, FUL


external mail

Usage

As a CIX user you have access to internet mail, this means you can mail people on different computers all around the world.

To mail someone on a different site type MAIL TO user@site.  To get someone to mail you on CIX, tell them your mail address is your CIX nickname@cix.compulink.co.uk, so if your nickname was johnperry, your Internet mail address would be johnperry@cix.compulink.co.uk which you can print on your business cards for a bit of extra kudos.

Finding the address you want to mail to

Unfortunately there is not at present an easy way to get a list of users who can be contacted for a couple of reasons.  Firstly there are millions of people, and secondly they are changing all the time.

If you know that someone has an email address and you know which site they are on then sending a mail message to postmaster@site asking what the email address for the person you are trying to get hold of, will come up with the answer you want.

If you are not sure, or do not know the site then there is a way to find this out too.  From one of the CIX prompts type GO INTERNET and you should find yourself at the ip> prompt.  From here you can use the WHOIS program to get information of Internet sites.  Type:

whois Smith	looks for name or handle SMITH.
whois \!SRI-NIC	looks for handle SRI-NIC only.
whois '.Smith, John'	looks for name John Smith only.
whois '*BT*'	looks for anything with BT in it.

You can then send a mail message off to postmaster@site asking what a person's username is.

The easiest way is to phone up the person you want to mail and ask them what their mail address is :-) This is, of course, not always practical.

Some example addresses

Here is a list of networks which you may find useful as examples.  Please note, these are not guaranteed to work and may change without us knowing.  If anyone knows one is wrong, or does not work, please let me (mat@cix.compulink.co.uk) know and I will try to get the correct address.

Network	Mail to

CompuServe	1234.12345@compuserve.com
	(note, replace the , in the normal CI$ address for a .)
MCI Mail	user@mcimail.com or 123-1234@mcimail.com
	(note, mcimail Id's may not be quoted with the -)
Fidonet	faaaa.nbbbb.zcc.fidonet.org
	(where aaaa = node number
	bbbb = network number
	cc = zone number)
Genie	user@genie.geis.com
	(We believe Genie users may have to pay extra to receive mail)
Telecom Gold	GI.SU@uk.ac.goldgate (GI = Given name, SU = Surname)
IBM Mail	IEA@ibmmail.com
	IEA is the Inter Enterprise Address used as an address within Mail Exchange
EARN/BITNET	user@site.bitnet
	You must replace user and site.
That is it so far.  If you think that a mail address may be useful, please contact mat@cix.compulink.co.uk.

Sending binary files via External mail

You cannot send binary files using External Mail, what people do to get around this is to take your binary file and convert it to ASCII, send the mail message and the person at the other end will have to convert it back to a binary file.  The program you need to turn a binary into an ASCII file  is called UUENCODE and the one to turn it back to being a binary again is UUDECODE.

You will find the UUencode/UUdecode package for the PC in the filepool conference.  For other machines you should look in the platforms file list.  The file is UUEXE521.ZIP, use it as follows:

1.	uuencode <binaryfile>
2.	Log into CIX
3.	From the Main: prompt Type: UPLOAD < and upload the ASCII file you created with UUENCODE
4.	Once you get back to the Main: prompt Type: MAIL TO <user>@<site>
5.	CIX will ask you for a subject, enter the subject of your mail message.
6.	CIX will tell you that you already have n lines in your scratchpad.
7.	You should now exit from the editor and hit <CR> at CIX's send/action: prompt to send the mail message.
8.	When the person you sent the mail to receives the mail they should take the file, remove the header and run the uudecode program over it.


fal

COMMAND:	fal
PROMPT:	Read:  Mail:
FORMAT:	FAL <filename>
PURPOSE:	List the files in an .ARC or .ZIP file
Usage

FAL shows which file or files are contained in an .ARC or .ZIP file, either in a conference topic or in your private mail directory.  At the Read: prompt only, you may use * and ? wildcards.  * matches one or more characters; ? matches a single character.  For instance, cix??n.* might match cixman.arc.  If you use wildcards, FAL lists the directory of the first file only which matches the search pattern.

Example

fal cixman.arc

See also FLIST, FDIR


fax

To send a fax via the CIX FaxGateway type:

MAIL TO FAXMACHINE

To send a fax, the first part of your mail message should contain Fax control codes.  Here is an example of how to send a fax to 0181 296 9667 for my attention:

% Faxctrl: Faxno=0181 296 9667

% Faxctrl: To=Paul

% Faxctrl: From=Whoever

% Faxctrl: End

This is where you can start putting your Fax text.

The above example will send a fax to 0181 296 9667 with a cover page for the attention of Paul.  The cover page will also state whom the fax is from.

If you do not want a cover sheet or want to create your own within the body of your message, then simply add this control:

% Faxctrl: Cover=N

NB: If you do this, then you should not use the To & From Fax controls.

Pricing

We have tried to keep the CIX fax price as simple and as inexpensive as possible.

Note

If your fax is not sent you are not billed, so if you get the telephone number wrong, or the number is engaged, or even if you mess up the commands you should not be billed.

These are the prices for faxes sent to a UK telephone number.

Normal Fax:	30 pence per page
Extras:	20 pence per extra per page
Each page consists of 64 lines of text.  If you send a fax without a % Faxctrl: Cover=N, then the first page will take 54 lines of text.

The prices for faxes sent outside the UK are even simpler, which are as follows:

Destination:	First page:	Additional pages:
Europe	70 pence	45 pence
Rest of the World	1 pound 75 pence	1 pound 25 pence
Having problems

When you have sent a fax, you will receive a mail message from the fax machine telling you if it was sent okay, how long it took, how much you have been charged, the country that the fax was delivered to, the number of pages, receiving ID, the actual time that the fax was sent and the speed at which the fax was sent.

If the fax did not go well (i.e. the number was engaged) then you will be told this in the mail message.  Remember, you will not be billed for a failed transmission.

If you continue to have problems, put a message in the cix/fax topic about it or send a mail message to cixtech@cix.

Differences from the previous gateway

The current gateway has no concept of different resolutions, and thus many of the old controls are not supported in this version.  However, should your fax message contain one of the unsupported codes, then the gateway will ignore them, and your fax should still be delivered OK.

This version has an enormously increased error detection, and instead of mailing you with an error code, it should mail you with an actual reason of why your fax could not be transmitted.


fdir

COMMAND:	fdir
PROMPT:	Mod:  Read:
FORMAT:	FDIR [<topicname>]
PURPOSE:	Display a list of the files in a topic
Usage

FDIR gives you a raw list of the files in a topic, without the descriptions of the files that FLIST gives you.  FDIR is mainly used by the conference moderator when modifying the flist (file list), but anyone may use the command.

If and only if you entered the MODERATE command at the Main: prompt, you may specify the topic name.

Notes

A file shown by FDIR is not necessarily available for downloading; the moderator must have added a file to the flist before it may be downloaded.  However, the moderator may download a file without first adding it to the flist.

Use the DIR command to see a list of the files in your private (binmail) directory.

See also FLIST, FFIND, ORPHANS


fdl

COMMAND:	fdl
PROMPT:	Mod: Mail: Read:
FORMAT:	FDL <filename>
PURPOSE:	Initiate a download using your download protocol.
Usage

As well as messages, CIX can also be used for file transfer, such as programs, databases or large text files.  This is achieved through the flist command.  Not every topic has a flist, but the ones that do announce this fact whenever you enter them.

To view the file list of a topic, type flist at the Read: prompt.  If one is present, it will be displayed, showing the names of the files available, and their length in bytes.  Should you wish to download a file, type fdl <filename>.

If you wish to download a file which is in your private mail directory, type fdl <filename> at the Mail: prompt.

Conference moderators can download files that are not yet in the flist, by typing fdl <filename> at the Read: prompt in the conference topic where the files are stored.

See also FILES.


fexport

COMMAND:	fexport
PROMPT:	Read:
FORMAT:	FEXPORT <filename>
PURPOSE:	Export a file to the filepool
Usage

FEXPORT may be used only by the conference moderator.  The file is copied (not moved) to the filepool, so you should delete the original file, using the ERA command.  You may include in your flist a file that is in the filepool by using a f| tag.

When you FEXPORT a file, you should mail a moderator of the filepool conference (enter SHOW FILEPOOL to see who these are), so he may include the description of the file in the flist of filepool/biglist.  The flist of filepool/thelot is automatically updated after a delay of up to 24 hours, but this does not contain a description.

See also FILEPOOL, FFIND, EXPORT


ffind

COMMAND:	ffind
PROMPT:	Main: Read:
FORMAT:	FFIND <substring>
PURPOSE:	Search CIX for a file
Usage

FFIND searches CIX for files whose names contain <substring> (leading and trailing * wildcards are assumed).  If you happen to know the complete name of the file you are looking for, you may specify that.  FFIND then displays the names of the files, their sizes, and where they are.

FFIND searches open and closed conferences, but not confidential conferences.  It also searches the filepool.  (A moderator may put a file in the filepool by using the FEXPORT command.)  If a file is in the filepool, you may download it from filepool/thelot.  Note that the filepool conference is distinct from the filepool itself.

You may also download it from one of the 36 topics in the filepool conference which contain subsets of the complete flist.  For instance, if the file's name starts with a, you may download it from the files_a topic - this saves time, as CIX has a shorter list to scan before starting the download.

Notes

FFIND uses a table which is automatically built each night from the directories of conferences and the filepool.  Therefore, there is a delay of up to 24 hours between a file being uploaded to CIX and it being shown by FFIND.

A file shown by FFIND which is in a conference is not necessarily available for downloading; the conference moderator must include a file in the flist before you can download it.  The flists in filepool/thelot, filepool/a_files, etc., are automatically updated each 24 hours, though.

To see a description of what a file is, join the conference and enter flist <filename>.  If the file is in the filepool, there may be a description in filepool/biglist, provided the moderator has manually updated the flist.

A file in the filepool may be available for downloading from a conference other than filepool, if the moderator has updated the flist accordingly.  (The only thing special about the filepool conference is that the flists in some of the topics are updated automatically).  These entries are not shown by FFIND; use the FLIST command to see entries in a file list.

See also FLIST, FDL, FILEPOOL


file

COMMAND:	file
PROMPT:	Main:
FORMAT:	FILE SHOW PARTICIPANTS, FILE READ ALL
PURPOSE:	Redirects the output of any command to your scratchpad
Usage

The prefix command file re-directs the output of any command to your scratchpad,  where it can be retrieved the next time you enter the editor, or it may be downloaded.

Example

At Main: prompt, type	file show participants
At Main: prompt, type	file read all

See also SHOW, SCRATCHPAD, DOWNLOAD


filepool

The FILEPOOL is a repository for all files on cix which may have relevance to more than one conference.  Any conference moderator can include any of the filepool files in the flist of any topic without having to have a copy of the file in the local directory.

The filepool conference  is a convenient place to find all files that reside in the FILEPOOL.  It is just another conference run, for the most part, by demon who does not have any special status or privileges.  It is divided into four main topics:

thelot	All files which are currently found by ffind as being in the FILEPOOL are downloadable by anyone here.  No comments or descriptions are provided.
biglist	All files which have a description known to demon are included in the flist here.  If a moderator fexports a file to the FILEPOOL, he should mail demon with a description for it to appear here.
newfiles	Files should be uploaded here if they are to appear only in the FILEPOOL.  Descriptions will be added and the flist will contain all files uploaded in the last month, as well as any uploaded since the last update of the biglist.
talk	This topic is the only one where discussion of files in the filepool may take place. Any messages posted to any of the other topics not directly related to that topic will be moved here at the earliest opportunity.

Additionally,  there are 36 topics which contain subsets of the files in thelot.  These are a_files, which contains all files starting with the letter a, b_files, and so on through to 9_files.  If you download from one of these topics instead of from thelot,  CIX spends less time searching for the file before starting the download.

See also FFIND, FEXPORT


files

Files are held within conference topics.  To get a list of files available in a conference topic, type FLIST.

To download a file, type FDL filename

To upload a file, type FUL filename

Note

The file transfer protocol used is the same as selected for up/down-loading your scratchpad.

When you have uploaded a file, it must be added to the File List by the conference moderator, so mail him to inform him that you have uploaded a file.

Selecting your up and download protocol

From any prompt, type:

OPT DOWN (and press return)

Available protocols are displayed.  Select one of them and press return, then type:

QUIT

and you will be back where you were.

For upload protocol selection, the same instructions apply, but use:

OPT UP

If you want to add this to your profile, add the line:

OPT DOWN x Q

Where x is the SINGLE character you would enter to select your required protocol.

Examples

OPT UP Y Q - select Ymodem uploads

Related commands

FFIND <substring> will search for downloadable file substring.


filestats

COMMAND:	filestats
PROMPT:	Main:
FORMAT:	RUN FILESTATS
PURPOSE:	Shows you the download statistics of files in the current topic of a conference
Usage

When in a topic of a conference with files, typing RUN FILESTATS will display each file's statistics; the last time the file was downloaded, and the number of times it has been downloaded.  When run, it will inform you of what period the statistics started, and the last time they were updated.

Example

join windows/files

run filestats

will display the number of times and when each file was last downloaded.


find

COMMAND:	find
PROMPT:	Read:
FORMAT:	FIND <pattern> [[FROM] <msgno>] [TO <msgno>]
PURPOSE:	Display messages containing a word
Usage

FIND looks in the current topic for the specified pattern and displays the messages which contain the pattern.  The pattern could be a word or a part of a word: it may not contain spaces.  You may use a question mark as a wildcard character, to match any single character.  For instance, ??dget would match widget or gadget.  You could also use a question mark to match a space if you wanted to locate two words.  For instance, ibm?pc would match IBM PC, provided the words were not split across two lines.

If you specify only the pattern, FIND scans all messages in the topic.  You may limit the search by specifying FROM <msgno> and/or TO <msgno>.  You may omit the FROM keyword.  TO <msgno> specifies the last message to be scanned (the range is inclusive).

Example

find widget 120 to 260

Notes

FIND is case-insensitive: upper-case and lower-case letters are treated equally.

The maximum length of the pattern is 14 characters.

FIND scans nicknames in message headers as well as the text of messages.

Messages which are displayed by FIND are marked as read in the normal way.


first

COMMAND:	first
PROMPT:	Read:
FORMAT:	READ FIRST
	READ FIRST [ TO <MESSAGE-IDENTIFIER> ]
PURPOSE:	To read the first message in a conference topic
Usage

first is one of several ways of identifying which message you wish read to show you in the current topic.  It is equivalent to 1.

See also LAST


flist

COMMAND:	flist
PROMPT:	Read:
FORMAT:	FLIST [<filename>]
PURPOSE:	Display a list of the files in a topic, with brief descriptions
Usage

FLIST displays all, or a part of, the file list maintained by the conference moderator.  To see a partial list, specify a filename or a filename pattern.  In a filename pattern, you may use ? to represent any single character, or * to represent one or more characters.  For instance, you could enter FLIST *.ZIP to get a list of all the .ZIP files in the topic.

Note

You may find it convenient to file the flist in your scratchpad, which you may then download and read offline.  Do this by entering FILE FLIST.

See also FFIND, FILES, FDL, FUL

COMMAND:	FLIST
PROMPT:	Mod:
FORMAT:	FLIST [<topicname>]
PURPOSE:	Edit the file list
Usage

At the Mod: prompt, FLIST allows you to maintain the flist.  If you entered the MOD command from the Read: prompt, you must not enter the topic name.

Entries in the flist have the following formats:

c|<filename>|description

f|<filename>|description

Which shows a file in the current topic and in the filepool, respectively.

||any text

.|| any text

Notes visible to participants.  With the second format, the text is aligned with the descriptions.

#||any text

A note which is visible only to the conference moderator.

See also SCGET, SCPUT


flowcontrol

Recommended flowcontrol setting of your modem is:

RTS/CTS handshake.

No XON/XOFF handshake in either direction.

Let XON/XOFF characters pass through modem, do not absorb them.

Recommended flowcontrol setting for your comms package:

RTS/CTS handshake

XON/XOFF when in textmode

(XON/XOFF should automatically be disabled as needed when doing a file transfer).


forward

COMMAND:	forward
PROMPT:	Main: Read: Mail:
FORMAT:	READ FORWARD [ <number> [ to <number> ]
PURPOSE:	Tell CIX to read in forward mode

The forward option causes read to resume reading conferences in the forward direction.  If forward is used from the Mail: prompt, it will forward a copy of the current mail message to another user.

See also BACKWARD.


forward_check

COMMAND:	forward_check
PROMPT:	Main:
FORMAT:	RUN FORWARD_CHECK
PURPOSE:	Check the status of your mail forward file
This command allows you to check where your mail is forwarded.  Any CIX Conferencing customer can run this command.  If you don't have a forward file, it will tell you that all mail will go to your CIX Conferencing email address.  If you do have a forward file it will display it and tell you that all mail is going there.  It is recommended that you put this run script into your profile so that you remember where your mail is going.

See also RUN and FORWARD_TOGGLE


forward_toggle

COMMAND:	forward_toggle
PROMPT:	Main:
FORMAT:	RUN FORWARD_TOGGLE
PURPOSE:	Toggle the email address that you forward mail to,
This command will toggle where your email messages will end up.  If you don't have a CIX Internet account it will tell you.  If you do, it will toggle between creating a forward file to your CIX Internet email address, and removing the forward file.

This program works from the information we store about your CIX Conferencing nickname, and the CIX Internet hostname which is linked to that nickname; it is possible that this information is out of date, so check the email address your mail will be forwarded to.

If you have more than one CIX Internet account linked to a nickname (unlikely) the first CIX Internet account will be chosen to have your email forwarded to it - This will not be a problem for most people.

If someone else on CIX Conferencing sends you mail, the message to you will remain marked unread in their outbasket, even though you have read it.  The reason for this is because you have read the email off CIX Conferencing.

See also RUN and FORWARD_CHECK


ful

See FILES.


go

COMMAND:	go
PROMPT:	Main: Read:
FORMAT:	GO NEWSNET, GO INTERNET
PURPOSE:	To allow access to several other areas of cix such as newsnet, internet and the like.


gobbler

A text gobbler reads the text you key in when you (for instance) comment to a message or send mail to someone.  CIX uses a text gobbler only when your scratchpad is initially empty; otherwise it uses a text editor.  If you quit from entering an earlier comment, for instance, your scratchpad still contains the comment.  You may clear your scratchpad by issuing the KILLSCRATCH command.

CIX has two text gobblers.  In the gobblers, you may use the Backspace key to delete characters (or the Delete key if OPTION TERMINAL ERASE DELETE is in effect).  You may not use the cursor arrow keys (though you may use them in the fullscreen editor).

The default text gobbler does wordwrap.  That is, as you approach the end of a line, it deletes the word you are keying and copies it to the start of a new line; you do not have to press the Carriage Return key.  The wordwrapping occurs at 10 characters less than your terminal width setting; that is, at the 69th character on a line if you have the default terminal width setting.  If you upload text you have prepared offline, you will probably want to disable wordwrapping by setting your terminal width to a large value.  For instance, enter OPTION TERMINAL WIDTH 999 QUIT.

End your input to the default text gobbler by typing . or .s at the beginning of a line without any characters following (not even a space).

If you change to a different editor, you may revert to the default text gobbler by entering OPTION EDIT VERBOSE QUIT (or simply OP E V Q).

You get another text gobbler when you use OPTION EDIT A QUIT; this does not do wordwrapping.  If you type past the position defined by your terminal width setting (79 by default), CIX automatically adds a hyphen and starts a new line.  You do not see this immediately, but CIX warns you when you next press <CR>.

End your input to the A gobbler by typing . or .s at the beginning of a line, as with the verbose gobbler.  Additionally, you may enter the following commands:

.r	to redisplay the last line
.d	to delete the last line
.q	to quit without saving your input

These commands have no effect on the TITLE: line.  Even if you use the .q command, the TITLE: line will remain in your scratchpad.

See also VED


handshake

See FLOWCONTROL.


header

COMMAND:	header
PROMPT:	Main: Read:
FORMAT:	READ HEADER <NUMBER> [TO <NUMBER>]
PURPOSE:	To allow quick scanning through a range of messages
Usage

Only:

message number

originator

number of characters in that message

date of creation

the first line of text

is displayed.

No action is taken if you do not say what to read the header of.


help

The help command can be used in several ways:

help	If no arguments are given, a list of commands that can be used at this level are given.
<command> ?	Lists valid arguments to <command>.
help <command>	Gives general help on that command.
help hfiles	Lists <commands> for which help is available.
?	Lists available commands.
Note on the syntax declarations

The form or syntax of commands and options are often displayed with the following symbols:

[ optional parameters ]	Modify the behaviour of the command.
<text not to be taken literally>	Something appropriate must be substituted.


internet

COMMAND:	GO INTERNET
PROMPT:	Main: Read:
FORMAT:	GO INTERNET
PURPOSE:	Enter the Internet subsystem
Usage

CIX now has a direct connection onto the internet.

The Internet is a network of computers that stretches around the world.  These connections can be anything from a serial cable to a fibre optic link.  Data is transmitted down these channels but because of the additional bandwidth available, the connected sites allow users to access the connections.  Basically, they allow us access to this network with the ability to log onto any computer that allows you.  This opens doors to online databases, file servers, online games, chat servers and so on.  There are thousands of public access, and part-public access systems out there.

Once you get into the CIX Internet program, you should get an ip> prompt.  The help options are displayed when you enter the CIX Internet subsystem.

You use the telnet program to connect yourself to one of the thousands of online services also connected to the Internet.  This could be a multi user game, a NASA database, a Chat server with hundreds of people on it, or the computer in your American office!

You use the FTP program to connect to a file server.  With this you can pull files off, or put files onto, other computers, if you have permission of course.  On one of the many public access file servers there will be a public directory which will have the permissions set to allow you to pull files off it.

Addressing is similar to the current external mail addressing, except you telnet or ftp to a site, instead of specifying a username.  Sometimes you will be expected to quote a port number at that site to connect to; this will run the program associated with that port number, which normally happens with multi user games.

Here are a couple of questions that you may have, along with the answers:

How much extra does it cost you?	Nothing.
What information is out there?	A very large amount.
How do you get into it?	Type GO INTERNET from Main: or Read:
How do I find out what is there?	Type ADDRESS <text> where <text> is something that may interest you.
If you are having problems with the concept of the Internet (quite common I can assure you) or want more reading material, look in the file list of the cix/internet conference/topic where you should find some files, zen_txt.zip (Zen and the Art of the Internet) being one of the best tutorials.


join

COMMAND:	join
PROMPT:	Main: Read: Mail:
FORMAT:	JOIN <conferencename>
PURPOSE:	Enter a conference, or join a new one
Usage

If you wish to read the contents of a specific conference, just type join <conference name>, and you will be joined to your specified conference.  If you have not previously joined this conference or you have previously resigned from it then you will be asked if you would like to register.

It is not necessary to type join to join a conference, just pressing <cr> will automatically join you to the next conference in your conference list.  Use it to join new conferences.  New conferences you join will be added to the end of your conference list.  See the ORDER command to change the order you wish to view conferences in.

See also SHOW ALL, ORDER, RECENT, AUTORECENT, RESIGN


kermit

OPT UP K Q ; select kermit uploads.

OPT DOWN K Q ; select kermit downloads.

KERMIT was originally developed at Columbia University, and that remains the central authority and repository for all versions of KERMIT.  The software is free, although there may be a distribution charge to cover costs.  It has been implemented on virtually all minicomputers, most mainframes, and nearly all microcomputers.

CIX kermit supports three byte checksums, long packets, sliding windows, compression, etc.

Kermit over IP running on a Unix or VMS machine

For anyone interested kermit over IP, both uploads and downloads work happily with the following settings (from the kermit defaults) at your local end.

SET WINDOW 31

SET SEND PACKET 1024

SET BLOCK 3

and do not forget SET FILE TYPE BIN for binary files.

Kermit over IP running on a MSDos machine

SET PORT BIOS1

SET TCP/IP ADDRESS <address-machine>

SET TCP/IP SUBNETMASK 255.255.0.0

SET TCP/IP PRIMARY-NAMESERVER <address-of-primary-name-server>

SET TCP/IP SECONDARY-NAMESERVER <address-of-secondary-name-server>

SET TCP/IP GATEWAY <address-of-your-gateway-machine>

SET TCP/IP DOMAIN <your-internet-domain>

SET FILE TYPE BIN

SET REC PAC 512

SET SEND PAC 512

SET PORT TCP/IP cix.compulink.co.uk

Thanks to skapp@cix.compulink.co.uk for this information.


killarc

COMMAND:	killarc
PROMPT:	Main:
FORMAT:	KILLARC
PURPOSE:	Deletes the contents of your archived scratchpad
Example

From Main: prompt type killarc

and you will receive the message:

Arc'ed scratchpad is deleted

Example

Main:bye

OK to delete your scratchpad.arc? (y/n)? Y

sthorn, you have been online 101:32 on ttya1

Goodbye from CIX     !!!HANGUP NOW!!!

Notes

If you do not delete your archived scratchpad, by using the killarc command, you will be given the opportunity to delete it when you log off using the bye command.  If you chose not to delete it, it will be saved until the next time you log on.  No charges are made for storage, so we do ask you delete your scratchpad before you log off when possible.

See also FILE, ARCSCRATCH, SCRATCHSIZE, DOWNLOAD, UPLOAD, KILLARC


killscratch

COMMAND:	killscratch
PROMPT:	Main:
FORMAT:	KILLSCRATCH
PURPOSE:	Deletes the contents of your scratchpad
Example

From Main: prompt type killscratch

and you will receive the message:

scratchpad deleted

Example

Main:bye

OK to delete your scratchpad? (y/n)? Y

sthorn, you have been online 101:32 on ttya1

Goodbye from CIX     !!!HANGUP NOW!!!

Notes

If you do not delete your archived scratchpad, by using the killscratch command, you will be given the opportunity to delete it when you log off using the bye command.  If you chose not to delete it, it will be saved until the next time you log on.  No charges are made for storage, so we do ask you delete your scratchpad before you log off when possible.

See also FILE, ARCSCRATCH, SCRATCHSIZE, DOWNLOAD, UPLOAD, KILLARC


last

read <message-identifier> to last

read last

read backward last [to <message-identifier>]

last is another way of specifying which message you want to read.  It is equivalent to the highest message number in the current topic.


level

COMMAND:	level
PROMPT:	Mail:
FORMAT:	LEVEL <0, 1, 2>
PURPOSE:	Change level of HELP
Usage

If you are a newcomer to CIX, you may find the LEVEL command useful.  Normally your help level is set to 0, level 1 or 2 provides a menu of commands available from which ever prompt you are at.

Note

The level command works only from Mail:

See also BUDDY, HELP


line drops

The main reasons for line drops are believed to be:

Line noise making one of the modems not see the carrier.  When a modem does not detect a carrier, it drops the line after a small delay.  Set the delay to 2 seconds, (ATS10=20, the value used by the CIX modems).

Many modems will drop the line after a period of inactivity.  This may happen during a Zmodem download, because the line may be inactive in the direction from the user to the host.  The manual of the modem will tell how to disable this feature.

Some modems drop the line if the flow control does not work, and the input buffer of the modem overflows.  Make sure the flowcontrol is adequate.

Linedrops occurring immediately after the message CONNECT are due to a slowly responding modem.

See also CONNECTION.


line noise

Line noise is generated by BT in exchanges using faulty outdated equipment.  The connection between the user and CIX may go through 4 exchanges.  The line noise may be generated in any of these.  When a user complains, the noise is usually generated in one of the middle exchanges, not in the user's exchange, and not in CIX's exchange.  Thus the user may not see line noise if he dials another service.

The users who see line noise are those connected to exchanges from where the connection to CIX usually goes through bad exchanges.

Sometimes prefixing the number with 0181 for London (instead of omitting it) would make the call go via other exchanges, that were not as faulty, and give a better connection.

We have not found out how to make BT repair their exchanges.  It is probably a financial problem to them, as well as an organisational problem.

Until we find out how to make BT repair all their exchanges, a solution is V42bis.


login

COMMAND:	login
PROMPT:	Main:
FORMAT:	LOGIN
PURPOSE:	Login to another CIX account
Usage

LOGIN acts like BYE, but retains your connection to CIX.  CIX then writes a new login: prompt, where you may enter cix or qix in the normal way.

See also BYE


logoff

The bye command will cause CoSy to remember how much of each conference you have seen, and disconnect you from the system.  It is always advisable to enter bye before turning off your terminal, as this ensures that CoSy terminates properly, and saves your position.


macro

COMMAND:	macro
PROMPT:	Main:
FORMAT:	MACRO <macroname> <expansion>
PURPOSE:	Used to consolidate several commands
Usage

This will make macroname a macro that will be expanded whenever it is typed as a command.  Recursive macros are possible, and make sense if including the TNEXT command.

Example

MACRO EXIT BYE

This will make EXIT behave as BYE.

Related commands

OPTION SYNONYM <oldname> <newname>

OPTION SUBSTITUTE <oldname> <newname>

SHOW OPTION

Skip back a 5 days worth of messages in each of your topics

This is useful when coming back from holiday, or if you use an Offline message reader with CIX which has blown up and you have lost a number of days worth of messages, and it is too late to use the RESTORE command.

From the Main: prompt type:

MACRO goback SKIP TO BACK 5 TNEXT GOBACK

This will set you up with a new command called GOBACK (name is optional) which skips back 5 days in the CURRENT (see next paragraph) topic, joins the next topic in your conference list and then re runs the macro.

Because this script never joins a specific topic, you must join a topic first, preferably the first in your conference list.  You can find this by typing SHOW, joining the first conference that appears there and hitting <CR> to join the first topic.  Now type GOBACK and CIX will skip around to the end of your conference list and then stop.

If you put a HEADER command before the SKIP command in the macro, CIX will not display the full message it skips to, but just the header.


mail

The CIX Mail System

Type:

MAIL <CR>

from the Main: prompt to get into the mail system.  From here you can send private mail to other CIX users, binary private mail and mail to users who are on other electronic networks around the world.

When you first go into the Mail system, CIX will display your in and out baskets for you.  Press <CR> to display the message at the top of your inbasket on your terminal, or type in a message number to display that particular message.  CIX mail is only kept in your in basket for 30 days.

Sending a mail message

To send a mail message, from the Mail: prompt type:

TO <user>

to get mail to another user on CIX.  Or:

TO <user@site>

for mail to a user on another electronic network.

Replying to a mail message

To reply to a message, type:

REPLY

after reading the message you want to reply to.  Or:

REPLY <msg-no>

to reply to a specific mail message.

Once you have typed one of these commands, CIX will ask for a subject, this is just a line that appears in the in and out baskets to help your and the recipient work out what the message is about without having to read the message itself.  On a reply the subject line is automatically the subject line of the original, thought this can be changed using the subject command from the Send/action: prompt.

Next, CIX will put you in the text gobbler, you can enter your message here, ending with a .  as the first character of a new line.

You will now be at the send/action prompt, here you can press <CR> to send the message, change the subject line, re edit the message because you forgot something important, copy the message to someone else (called Carbon Copy or CC) or a couple of other things.

Mail commands

To [username]	Start a new message to <username>.
[number]	message <number>.  If you do not specify a number, CIX will cycle through your In-basket.
ALL	Reads all the new incoming mail.
CLear [In/Out]	Clears messages from the in and out baskets.
Delete	Delete a message.
DIR	Display private files.
FORWARD	Forward a message to someone.
MARKUNREAD	Mark unread a message.
BINMAIL <user> <file>	Send binary mail.
Inbasket	Displays the inbasket.
OUTbasket	Displays the outbasket.
SHow [options]	See show for details.
Quit	Return to main CIX level.
FILE ALL	Sends all new mail to scratchpad.

Note that To and number will expect or display a message, then expect further commands to specify what you do with that message.

Send actions

CC <names>	Add name(s) to the CC list of the message.
CLear.	Clear scratchpad and return to Mail.  Do not send.
Edit	Edit the text of the message.
Help	Display this message
Quit	Return to Mail without sending.  Leave scratchpad intact.
Send	Send the message to the distribution system, and clear the scratchpad.
Subject <text>	Place the <text> on the Subject: line of the message.
To <names>	Add name(s) to the TO: field of the message.
Forward actions

Forward actions are essentially the same as Send actions, with some limitations.  (You cannot edit a forwarded msg, for example).

Cc <names>	Add name(s) to the Resent-Cc: list of the message.
Help	Display this message
Quit	Return to Mail without sending.  Leave scratchpad intact.
Send	Send the message to the distribution system, and clear the scratchpad.
To <names>	Add name(s) to the Resent-To: field of the message.

Edit and Subject are not allowed.

Read actions

Accept	Remove the message from your In-Basket.
Delete	Remove the message from your In-Basket.
Forward <name>	Forward the message to user <name>.
Help	Display this message.
Reply	Start a new message TO the sender of the one you have just read.
Original	If you have just read a reply to a message, this command tells CoSy to display the original message.
Leave	Return to Mail, leave the message in In-Basket.
Quit	Return to Mail, leave the message in In-Basket.
Withdrawing mail

CoSy does not allow mail messages to be withdrawn.  Once a message is sent it will go to the recipient(s) listed.  You can delete the reference to it, by typing in del NNNN where NNNN is the message number.  This action only removes the reference from your out basket, the message will still be seen by the recipient(s).

To delete mail from your in basket enter the mail item number and at the Read/Action prompt type delete.

See also MAILSPEED, EXTERNAL MAIL, BINMAIL


mailspeed

This is used to slow mail, and speed up login in times.  There are two ways to speed up login times, both to do with your mail baskets:

From your profile

Every CIX user has a Profile; this contains standard CIX commands which are run when you log into CIX.  Most of these commands take a fraction of a second to run, and are useful, the following commands are only slightly useful to online users (non OLR users) and slow down the logging in process considerably.

MAIL STATUS

QUIT

To remove these lines you should edit your Profile, to do this use the command EDIT PROFILE from the CIX Main: prompt.  If you do not understand, or do not want to do this, please mail cixtech and ask them to remove the lines from your profile.

The Size of your mail baskets

The size of your mail baskets also has a bearing on the time it takes to get your mail, and to log in.  If you use the mail system a lot (receive or send a lot of mail messages) then one way of speeding up your CIX sessions is to CLEAR your mail baskets.  What this does is remove items from your mail baskets which you have already read.  You can do this in the following ways, depending on how you use CIX:

CIX online

On CIX you can do this by typing CLEAR IN QUICK from the CIX Mail: prompt.

Ameol and Ameol2

Using Ameol, you can do the same thing by going to the Mail pull down menu, then selecting the Clear CIX Mail.  This command will be appended to your Ameol outbasket, and carried out when you next log onto CIX.  You will need to do this every couple of days to keep your mail baskets to a manageable size.

It is likely that a future version of the In/Out Mail addon for Ameol will have an option to automatically delete mail that is found to be in the users local database.

Other OLR's

Please contact your OLR author to see if this function is supported.


main commands

The novice user should only need to know the four basic commands:

show will list all conferences which you are a member of.

join will connect you to a conference.  If no conference-name is given, the first conference with unread text will be joined.

mail allows you to send electronic mail to another CIX user.

bye terminates your CoSy session.


markunread

COMMAND:	markunread
PROMPT:	Mail:
FORMAT:	MARKUNREAD [<messagenumber>]
PURPOSE:	Marks a mail message unread
Usage

This command allows you to change the status of a message in your inbasket.  The command MARKUNREAD on its own simply toggles the last mail message you read.  If followed by the message number you can selectively mark mail messages.


mnp

MNP MicroCom Network Protocol.

A transparent error correcting protocol.  Usually built into the modem, although it may be built into the comms program instead.

Main varieties

MNP2  (just error correction - no line noise)

MNP5 includes compression, doubles transfer rate with text.  No or little effect with binary files.

If you have MNP, you should probably set your modem to accept only MNP when connecting to CIX, and to drop the line if a MNP-connection is not achieved (due to line noise).


modems

Here is a list of the means of connection CIX has at present:

0181 296 1255	Courier V34	96 lines
0181 335 4139	Dataflex V24 ISDN Terminal Adapter with V110	2 lines
2342 1330 0310	NUA for PSS, or X25 access	10 chans
cix.compulink.co.uk is our address for telnetting into CIX
Some points to remember

Supra's can be a little dodgy, see ROCKWELL for a possible fix, or enquire about the latest ROM's, version 1.2 should fix most of the problems with these modems.

Yorikos, Zoom, Dynalink modems are based on the same chipset so the fix may work, or a ROM upgrade may be available.  These modems do not seem quite so well supported in the UK.

ZyXEL U-1496 series modems with a firmware version 5.06 is not very compatible with the US Robotics modems we use.  Get your dealer to upgrade you to v6.01 ROMs and all should get better.

If you have a problem with your modem, please ask in cix/modems, or mail your question / problem to cixadmin.  Please remember to include useful details such as modem make/model, comms packages used, time of day, what flow control you use on the modem, if the modem has a cable connecting it to the computer, where you got this cable from, and any other information you feel may be important.


moderate

COMMAND:	moderate
PROMPT:	Main:  Read:  Mail:  Mod:
FORMAT:	MODERATE [NEW] [<confname>]
PURPOSE:	Maintain a conference
Usage

The NEW keyword allows you to create a new conference.  CIX then prompts you for the details.

Note

Some commands available at the Mod: prompt apply to the whole conference.  Others (such as FLIST) apply to a particular topic.  If you intend to use one of these commands, it may be convenient to issue the MODERATE command at the Read: prompt.

The following commands are available at the Mod: prompt:

?	display a list of available commands
ADD	add a participant or topic
COMOD	add another moderator (also at Read: prompt
EXMOD	remove another moderator (also at Read: prompt)
FDIR	list the files in a topic (also at Read: prompt)
FLIST	edit the file list
HELP	display brief help on the available commands
NEW	create a new conference
NOTE	edit the conference note
ORPHANS	display names of files not in the flist
PRUNE	physically erase withdrawn messages
QUIT	exit the Mod: prompt
RDONLY	flip a topic between read-only and read/write status
REMOVE	remove participant or topic
TERMINATE	allow no more changes (This stops a conference!)
TOPICSIZE	display the current topic size and the size limit
VOTE	make message a voting message

Additionally, you may use the following commands at the Mod: prompt:

BYE, JOIN, MODERATE, SHOW.

The following moderator commands are available at the Read: prompt:

COMOD	add another moderator (also at Mod: prompt)
ERA	erase a file
EXMOD	remove another moderator (also at Mod: prompt)
FDIR	list the files in a topic (also at Mod: prompt)
FDL	download a file (need not be in FLIST)
FEXPORT	copy a file to the filepool
REN	rename a file
SCPUT FLIST	move scratchpad to flist (See also SCGET, FLIST)
WITHDRAW	withdraw a message


netfind

DESCRIPTION:	Netfind
ADDRESS:	bruno.cs.colorado.edu
INTEREST:	E-mail directory
ACCESS:	telnet bruno.cs.colorado.edu
or	telnet mudhoney.micro.umn.edu
	login as netfind
Comments

This will allow you to search the whole internet for addresses. Netfind is very persistent but will fail on hosts that do not allow finger access (such as most British universities).  The bruno site is more verbose in its search, but it does have an options feature, which may allow you to turn this off.  The mudhoney site is quiet and does not allow you to select options.


new

COMMAND:	<text> new
PROMPT:	Main: Mod:
FORMAT:	MODERATE NEW, SHOW NEW
PURPOSE:	Create a new conference or show new messages
Usage

moderate new will create a new conference.  You will be asked for a list of topics and the initial list of participants.

show new will list all conferences that you are a member of that have messages that you have not seen.  This is the command that executes when you first login to CoSy.

See also MODERATE


newread

Read-actions:

Accept	Remove the message from your In-Basket.
Delete	Remove the message from your In-Basket.
Forward <name>	Forward the message to user <name>.
Help	Display this message.
Reply	Start a new message TO the sender of the one you have just read.
Original	If you have just read a reply to a message, this command tells CoSy to display the original message.
Leave	Return to Mail, leave the message in In-Basket.
Quit	Return to Mail, leave the message in In-Basket.


news

COMMAND:	news
PROMPT:	Main:
FORMAT:	news
PURPOSE:	Display the 'message of the day' (CoSy Mk 2)
Usage

This can be installed in your profile, to display the message of the day, if there is one.


newsbytes

The format of Newsbytes has changed recently, this has given us the chance to change the way that Newsbytes is presented.

There will be a file of the complete Newsbytes issue put into newsbytes/4digest, and a months worth will be kept there.

For people who only want to get a couple of newsbytes sections, or simply prefer the presentation, CIX also offers Newsbytes in Usenet Newsgroups, which are local to CIX only, so you should not find these on any other site.  The following Newsgroups are currently available:

cix_newsbytes.digest	cix_newsbytes.apple	cix_newsbytes.business
cix_newsbytes.broadcast	cix_newsbytes.chips	cix_newsbytes.dos
cix_newsbytes.education	cix_newsbytes.general	cix_newsbytes.ibm
cix_newsbytes.legal	cix_newsbytes.network	cix_newsbytes.government
cix_newsbytes.online	cix_newsbytes.pc	cix_newsbytes.pda
cix_newsbytes.telecomms	cix_newsbytes.trends	cix_newsbytes.unix
cix_newsbytes.windows

If you use Ameol, joining these newsgroups is a simple matter.  Go to the Global Menu, and choose the Lists entry.  Choose the Newsgroup list and if required, click on update, and do a full connect.  Otherwise, search for cix_newsbytes groups and double click on the ones you want to join.


newsend

Send-actions:

CC <names>	Add name(s) to the CC list of the message.
Clear	Clear scratchpad and return to Mail.  Do not send.
Edit	Edit the text of the message.
From <who>	Change the From: field of the header.  Use this if you are entering a message for someone else (<who>).  Your own name will appear in the Sender: field in this case.
Help	Display this message
Quit	Return to Mail without sending.  Leave scratchpad intact.
Send	Send the message to the distribution system, and clear the scratchpad.
Subject <text>	Place the <text> on the Subject: line of the message.
To <names>	Add name(s) to the TO: field of the message.


newsnet

Newsnet is our threaded read/write newsgroup reader.  You can find full documentation of its use in the file newsnet.doc in the cix/manual conf/topic.  We suggest you download this file to make the best use of the Newsnet gateway.

To access the threaded interactive reader, you should type reader at the Newsnet: prompt.

A summary of the non-interactive commands can be found in olrnews2.doc, also in cix/manual.

Newsnet can be accessed by typing GO NEWSNET at the Main: prompt.


next

Read: TNEXT	Goes to next topic in list, which could be in another conference, irrespective of topic activity, not marking messages read.
Read: TPREV	Goes to previous topic in list, which could be in the next conference, irrespective of topic activity, not marking messages read.
Read: NEXT	Goes to next active topic in list, which could be in the next conference, marking all messages read in current topic.


nickname

For those who want to change their nickname, please note the following:

Make sure the new nickname is not currently in use.  If a nickname is in use, or has previously been used, it cannot be used again.  (Exceptions can be made in the case of people wanting their own old nicknames back).

Be aware that any e-mail sent to the old nickname cannot be auto-forwarded on.  Make sure to let people who are likely to e-mail you know of the change before it happens.

Be sure, also, to let any moderators of closed conferences you are in know of the change before it happens.  They will need to be aware of the new nickname in their conference.

Conferences that you are currently a moderator of will require particular attention.

Bearing all this in mind, mail cixadmin with details of what you require for the new name etc. and they will help arrange it for you.


note

COMMAND:	note
PROMPT:	Mod:
FORMAT:	NOTE
PURPOSE:	NOTE allows you to enter or edit the conference note.  The conference note (if any) is displayed in response to a SHOW <confname> command, following the list of topics
COMMAND:	note
PROMPT:	Main:
FORMAT:	EDIT NOTE
PURPOSE:	Your NOTE is displayed when a moderator adds you as a participant to a conference.  It allows you to inform a moderator of your wishes regarding joining conferences


olr

What is Blinking?

This is the term used to describe someone logging onto CIX, downloading all their new messages and logging off again.  The CIX messages can be read offline and perhaps replies to some messages can be created which can then be uploaded to CIX in a bundle.

Blinking has taken off in the past couple of years with people using programs called Offline Readers (OLR's) to handle all the messing around.  There are OLR's for many computers and many operating systems.

The idea of an OLR is to take the pain out of reading and replying offline.  Most OLR's use simple scripts written in a comms package script language to handle the filing and downloading of all your CIX messages, and whatever else you have asked for.  The OLR then takes over and lets you read through the messages, replying when you like.  When you reply to a message, the OLR makes a note of the message you replied to and the message you entered.  As you go along it creates a CIX script which contains all the commands and text necessary to post your replies on CIX into the right places.  Most OLR's will also handle files, you can view a file list, pick a file and on your next login to CIX your file will be downloaded.

The official OLR's for CIX are Ameol and Ameol2.  For more information, see Ameol or join ameol/files or ameol2/files. and type FLIST, then download the latest version of Ameol.


online

At the Main: prompt, ONLINE displays the number of minutes and seconds that you have been using CIX.


opt

See option.


option

COMMAND:	option
PROMPT:	Main:  Read:  Mail:
FORMAT:	OPTION <option-command> [<option-command>...] QUIT
PURPOSE:	Configure CIX to your settings
Usage

You may use the OPTION command interactively by entering just OPTION.  Most option-commands take a parameter.  If you omit the parameter then (depending on the option-command) CIX will use a default, prompt you or write a brief description of the parameter.  You may find it useful to force a prompt or description by entering a dummy parameter, such as ?.

Example

option buddy yes reference yes quit

Notes

Enter SHOW OPTION to display your current settings.

To make a permanent change to your settings, edit your profile using the EDIT PROFILE command.  You cannot use OPTION interactively here.  Remember to end the OPTION command with QUIT

Option commands

Here are some of the more common options.

?	Display a list of the option commands.  Note: this always leaves you at the Opt: prompt.
ANSI YES YES	Highlight the CIX prompts, using the default ANSI codes.
ANSI YES NO	Highlight the CIX prompts.  CIX prompts you for the ANSI codes to use.
ANSI NO	This is the default setting.
AUTORECENT YES | ON	Automatically skip to recent messages when you register in a conference or re-join a topic from which you have resigned.  See also OPTION RECENT.
AUTORECENT NO	This is the default setting.
BACKWARD	Causes CIX to `rub out' its output (such as the More? prompt) using a series of backspace characters.  Normally, CIX uses a combination of backspace and space characters. There is no way to reverse this setting other than by logging off and on again.
BUDDY YES | ON	At each prompt, CIX displays a list of valid commands.
BUDDY NO	This is the default setting.
COMPACTHEADER YES	CIX displays message headers in compact form.
COMPACTHEADER NO	Display message headers in expanded form.  This is the default setting.
DOWNLOAD <protocol>	Specify the file transfer protocol to use when receiving a file from CIX.  Specify the first letter of one of the following: Kermit, Xmodem, CRC Xmodem, Ymodem, Zmodem.  See also UPLOAD.
EDIT <editor>	Specify the editor to use when writing messages:
A:	Use a text gobbler for new messages; use the full-screen editor if your scratchpad already contains a message.
B:	The full-screen editor.
QUIET:	The quiet editor.
VERBOSE:	The default editor.
FILE SINGLE YES	For FILE READ ALL, only scans your conference list once for new messages.
FILE SINGLE NO	Check each topic for new messages, and continue checking until there are no more new messages (someone might add a message during the FILE READ ALL).  This is the default setting.
FILTER NO	Display special control characters in messages as ^A, ^B, etc.  This is overridden by the RAW option.
FILTER YES	Display special control characters in messages, unchanged.  This is the default option.
HEADER YES	Display only the header and first non-blank line of messages.  See also OPTION MESSAGESIZE.
HEADER NO	Revert to displaying the complete text of messages.
HELP	Display brief help.
MESSAGESIZE <bytes>	Set the maximum size of a conference message for reading or filing.  If the size of a message exceeds the specification, only the message header and first non-blank line are shown.
MISSING YES	Include the headers and markers of withdrawn messages in the output of an ALL or FILE READ ALL command.
MISSING NO	Suppress withdrawn messages.  This is the default setting.
RAW	Display any special characters in messages.  Messages are terminated with an ETX ($03) character.  To toggle off this setting, issue OPTION RAW again.
RECENT <number>	Specify the number of messages for the SKIP TO RECENT command and the AUTORECENT options.
REFERENCE YES | ON	Display all comments to a message before displaying other messages.
REFERENCE NO	Display messages in numerical order.  See also the FORWARD command.
SCRATCHNAME <name>	Specify the name (from 1 to 10 characters) of your scratchpad.  Any existing scratchpad and/or ARC'd scratchpad is renamed.  (An ARC'd scratchpad retains the .arc suffix.)
SCRATCHPAD <bytes>	Specify the maximum size of your scratchpad for filing conference messages.  The last message is filed in its entirety, and will probably cause the limit to be exceeded slightly.  This option has no effect when you file mail or Usenet messages.
STAY	Stay in a topic until you explicitly leave it (for instance, by issuing the JOIN or QUIT command).  This is useful if you wish to file all messages in a single topic (using FILE SKIP TO 1; FILE READ ALL).  Issue OPTION STAY again to toggle off this setting.
SUBSTITUTE <new> <old>	Substitute the command <new> for the command <old>.  See also the SYNONYM option.
SYNONYM <new> <old>	Make the command <new> a synonym of the command <old>.  See also the MACRO command.
TERMINAL ERASE {BACKSPACE | DELETE}	Specify the character you wish to use to erase the last character you entered.  The default is BACKSPACE.
TERMINAL PAGELENGTH <l>	Specify the number of lines CIX displays between More? prompts.  You may turn off the More? prompt and allow CIX to scroll continuously by specifying a page length of 0.  (Enter <control>X to cancel output.)
TERMINAL TYPE <type>	Specify your terminal type.  CIX recognises the following types in the full-screen editor: ANSI, VT52, VT100, TVI920.
TERMINAL WIDTH <chars>	Specify the width of your terminal.  A large value effectively disables wordwrapping when you enter a message using the default (Verbose) editor.
TERSE	Use the abbreviated form of prompts and expanded message headers.  CIX does not display a list of commands if you enter an invalid command.  See also VERBOSE.
TIMEOUT <minutes>	Specify the interval after which CIX warns you that you will be logged off.  If you do not enter a command, CIX logs you off after a further interval.  A value of 0 disables the inactivity timeout.  NB: the timeout is automatically disabled when you are in CHAT mode or in an editor.
UNIX YES	When you download a text file or ARC your scratchpad, lines are terminated with LF (line feed) characters only.
UNIX NO	Lines are terminated with CR (carriage return) and LF characters.  This is the default setting.
UPLOAD <protocol>	Specify the file transfer protocol to use when you send CIX a file.  Specify the first letter of one of the following: Kermit, Xmodem, CRC Xmodem, Ymodem, Zmodem.  See also the DOWNLOAD option.
VERBOSE	Use the long form of prompts and expanded message headers.  This is the default setting.  See also TERSE.
ZWINDOW <bytes>	Specify the size of the window for ZMODEM downloads.  A value of 0 causes CIX to stream continuously.  The default size depends on the speed of the modem connection.


order

(join) order

order will allow you to reorder your conference list so that conferences are read in the order you wish rather than the order of joining. The form of the command is:

ORDER conf1 conf2 conf3 conf4 ...

or

ORDER FIRST conf1 conf2 conf3 conf4 ...

or

ORDER LAST conf1 conf2 conf3 conf4 ...

This will move (conf1),conf2,conf3 ... to after conf1, or to the start, or to the end of the list.


orphans

COMMAND:	orphans
PROMPT:	Mod:
FORMAT:	ORPHANS [<topicname>]
PURPOSE:	List any files which are not in the flist
Usage

This command helps you maintain the flist by listing the names of files which are in the topic directory but not in the flist.  If you entered the MODERATE command at the Main: prompt, you may specify the topic name; if you entered MODERATE at the Read: prompt, you should not specify the topic name.

See also FDIR, FLIST


participants

show participants

show p fred

add participants

Participants are the (other) people in CoSy.  Some may be registered in the same conference you are in, others may be members of other conferences.

You can see who is participating in your conferences (by joining them and doing a show p). You can also see all CoSy users via show p all.  You can not tell who are participants in conferences you can not join.


password

COMMAND:	password
PROMPT:	Main: Read:
FORMAT:	PASSWORD
PURPOSE:	Change your password
Usage

It is a good idea to change your password regularly, maybe the one you have is too difficult to remember, or maybe you let someone know your CIX password to give them a demonstration. If that happens then change your password immediately.

Remember that the case is important.


profile

EDit PROfile

<logon>

Your PROFILE is a file containing CIX commands which is executed whenever you log into CIX.  It can be used to set such options as your default editor, file transfer protocols, compact headers, verbose or terse prompts, and so on.

The default profile for new users is:

news

option down x q

option up x q

option edit v quit

option autorecent on quit

option recent 20 quit

This displays the news, sets the up and download protocol to Xmodem, selects the verbose editor, turns autorecent on, and sets recent messages on joining conferences to 20.

See ANSI for information on how to set colour codes.


protocol

File transfer protocols supported by CIX:

Zmodem	Recommended
Ymodem	Useful
Xmodem	Not recommended
Kermit	Not recommended


prune

COMMAND:	prune
PROMPT:	Mod:
FORMAT:	PRUNE [<topicname>]
PURPOSE:	Compress a topic
Usage

Normally, a withdrawn message occupies the same space as the original message.  The PRUNE command makes a new copy of the topic, physically deleting any withdrawn messages.  This may be useful if the topic is approaching its size limit.  (This limit applies to all topics on CIX and cannot be changed by the moderator.)

Notes

The PRUNE command temporarily makes a topic read-only.

If you entered the MODERATE command at the Read: prompt, you should not specify the topic name.

You may use the TOPICSIZE command to display the topic's size and size limit.


pss

See x.25.


qed

See quiet.


quick

See mailspeed and billing.


quiet

The quiet editor is the Unix editor, which provides much more power and flexibility than CoSy's verbose editor.  This particular editor is HCR's ned, similar to ed and ex.

Editor commands all take the form:

[addresses] command [parameters]

An address can be a line number or range of numbers, or the symbol ., representing the current line, or $, representing the last line.  Addresses are usually optional, with . (current line) the default.  + or - before a number indicates a relative displacement.

Commands are single letter commands.  Parameters depend upon the command.  Regular expressions may be used in search strings.

Some available commands (default address shown in parentheses):

(.)a <text> <cr> .	append <text> after the addressed line (.), and keep doing so until a . is entered alone on a line.
(.,.)c <text> <cr> .	change the line(s) of text indicated to <text>.  Stop input with a . on a line by itself.
(.,.)d	delete the current line or a range of lines.
(.)I <text> <cr> .	insert <text> before the current (or addressed) line.  Stop input with . on a line by itself.
(.,.)p	print the current or addressed lines.  p may also be appended to other commands (for example, dp or s/abc/xyz/p) to print the result.
Q	quit or exit the editor.  No automatic write of the file is done.
(.,.)s[n]/string1/string2/	substitute the nth occurrence of string1 on the addressed line(s) with string2.  Add a g (global) to replace all occurrences on the line.  Default n=1.  In <string1>, ^ means the beginning of the line, $ means the end of the line, . means any character.
(1,$)w	write the addressed lines (default, the whole file) onto the given mfile (i.e. the file you are editing).
($)=	type the line number of the addressed line.  Default is the last line number - use .= to get the current line number.
(1,$)g/string/<command>	on each line that string is found on, perform the command.


quit

The quit command is used whenever you wish to exit the current level, and want to return to CoSy.  It is commonly used to exit from things like mail, read, moderate and edit.


rates

CIX account types and charges can be obtained by emailing admin@cix.co.uk.


read

Usage

Although this command is one of the most important functions of CIX, is very seldom actually typed.  The reason for this is that read is automatically invoked whenever there is anything new to read, by just hitting <cr>.

read is more of an 'environment' than a command.  When you are reading a conference, the CIX prompt is Read:  You can examine the conference messages in various ways, the easiest is to just press <cr> and you will step through any messages you have not yet seen.

See also READ COMMANDS, READ ADD COMMANDS


read add commands

After typing in the text of your message, you have the following options:

Add	Add the text as a message (or comment) and clear your scratchpad.
Clear	Clear your scratchpad and return to the Read: prompt.
Continue	Continue entering text using the word wrapping text entry routine. (This text will be appended to the end of the scratchpad)
Edit	Invoke the text editor to edit or append text.
Help	Display this message.
List	Display the scratchpad so you can read your text
Quit	Return to the Read: prompt without adding a message.  Your scratchpad will be left intact.


read commands

Enter one of:

<null line>	see next message
<number>	see message <number>
<number> [to <number>]	see messages in that range
ALL	see all new messages
BAckward [<number> [to<number>]]	see previous messages
COMment	make a comment on the message being read
COPy	copy a message or messages to another conference
DAte <date> [to <date>]	read messages added within time frame
FILE READ ALL	file all unread messages (globally)
FIrst [to last]	read every (not just unseen) message
FOrward [<number>[ to <number>]]	re-set backward (and see that range)
Header	see creator, time, and 1st line only
NEXT	mark topic read.
Quit	exit read mode, return to Main: prompt.
REFerence	see comments on the message last read.
SKip <number>	do not see the next <number> messages.
SKip BACK <number>	skip to current - number.
SKip TO BACK <number>	skip to today - number days.
SKip to <number>	skip all messages up to <number>.
SAy	make a (non-associated) contribution.
SEarch <word>	search topic text for <word>.
SQUICK <word>	quick search topic text for <word>.
SWitchtopic <topicname>	move to another topic in this conference.
TNEXT	go to next topic.
TPREV	go to previous topic.
+	current message + 1.
-	current message - 1.
?	available commands.

<number> can be a number, or the words first or last.

See date for information on how to specify <date>


read only

COMMAND:	rdonly
PROMPT:	Mod:
FORMAT:	RDONLY <topicname>
PURPOSE:	Toggle the read-only/read-write status of a topic
Usage

If the topic is currently in read-write status, issuing the RDONLY command will set it to read-only status.  This means that participants cannot enter messages, but you as moderator may still do so.  To return the topic to read-write status, issue the RDONLY command again.  When you issue the RDONLY command, CIX confirms the new status of the topic.

Notes

There is no default topic name for RDONLY.  If you do not specify the topic name, CIX prompts you for it.

If a topic is read-only, CIX informs you of this when you join it.


reference

Whilst reading through a conference, you may want to follow not the numerical order of messages, but the order in which messages were commented on (read a message, then read any comments). The reference mode allows you to do this. After reading a message, when you are at the Read: enter the command REF and if there is a comment, CIX will display it.  It will also set you into reading-by-reference mode.  The Read: prompt will change to Read Ref:

Whenever, you press <return> to read the next message in this mode, CIX will first display comments to the last message you read, so you will be able to read messages in context. To turn off reference mode, enter FORWARD.

If you are already in reference mode and you enter REF, CIX will still display the comment to the message you just read.

If you want reading-by-reference as a default, add OPT REF ON Q to your profile.


remove

COMMAND:	remove
PROMPT:	Mod:
FORMAT:	REMOVE PARTICIPANT <username> [<username>...]
or

FORMAT:	REMOVE TOPIC <topicname>
PURPOSE:	To remove a participant or topic from a conference that you moderate


ren

COMMAND:	ren
PROMPT:	Mail: Read:
FORMAT:	REN <old-name> <new-name>
PURPOSE:	Rename a file
Usage

It is often required to rename files either as a moderator from the Read: prompt in one of your conference topics, or in your private directory from the Mail: prompt.


reply

To reply to a just read mail message, type REPLY

To reply to an old mail message type <number> REPLY


resign

RESIGN <conference name> command will 'un-register' you from that conference.  It will no longer be listed when you do the show command, and any new messages appended to it can no longer be seen by you.

RESIGN <confname>/<topicname> will resign you from a topic.

You can be come 'registered' in a conference via one of 2 routes:

When joining an open conference for the first time, you reply yes to the query Do you wish to register?

When moderator adds you to the list of active participants.


restore

COMMAND:	restore
PROMPT:	Main:
FORMAT:	RESTORE
PURPOSE:	Restore your message pointers
Usage

RESTORE resets your conference list to the state it had the last time it was stored.  This may be useful if, for instance, you file all new messages but then lose your scratchpad.

Notes

RESTORE restores your conference list exactly as it was.  If you have joined (or been joined to by the moderator) a new conference since your conference list was last stored, RESTORE resigns you from that conference.

CIX automatically stores your message pointers the first time you login on a particular day, unless you were logged on at midnight.

To restore your message pointers as they were when you logged on to the current session, issue STORE then RESTORE.

COMMAND:	RESTORE - reinstate a withdrawn message.
PROMPT:	Read:
FORMAT:	RESTORE [<msgno>]
PURPOSE:	RESTORE reverses the effect of an earlier WITHDRAW command, unless the moderator has permanently removed withdrawn messages by issuing the PRUNE command.  The default message number is that of the last message you read.
Notes

CIX confirms the RESTORE command by displaying the message.

RESTORE may be used by participants and moderators.  Of course, a participant may restore only a message he originated; a moderator may restore only a message she (or a co-moderator) withdrew.

See also CHECKPOINT, STORE


resume

show resume

edit resume

show resume <participant>

The resume file contains your name, address, and whatever else you want other participants to know about you.


rockwell

This message has been copied from amiga/comms slightly edited :-) as it may be relevant to other users of modems with rockwell chipsets, these include Supra's, Zooms, Yoriko, Dynalink and other makes of modems.

It was message 3365 in amiga/comms from ecarroll, originally from supra.

There is an 'undocumented' feature present in the Supra V.32/V.32bis FAX Modems that can help improve the quality of FAX and Data transmissions.

The AT\E1 command is not documented in Supra's manuals, but is present in the Rockwell V.32/V.32bis firmware/chipsets on which the Supra V.32/V.32bis FAX Modems are based. This command is documented in the RC96AC and RC144AC Modem Designer's Guide from Rockwell International.

AT\E1 is defined as Optimize Local Cancellation. Paraphrasing from the Rockwell documentation, this command is used on a one-shot basis to optimise (minimise) local echo. When the command is issued prior to originating or answering a call, it will configure the modem to minimise the local echo in an attempt to match the local network (i.e. the phone system that is currently connected). The optimization state will remain in effect until another AT\E1 command is issued prior to a connection, upon which the optimization state will be redetermined by the modem. The optimization state will be saved in NVRAM, which is present in the Supra V.32/V.32bis FAX Modems.

This capability may be present in other V.32/V.32bis FAX Modems that utilise Rockwell chipsets/firmware.

From a terminal program type the commands:

AT+FMFR?	(carriage return) ROCKWELL	Response
AT+FMDL?	(carriage return) V.32AC	Response
AT\E1	(carriage return) OK	Response

If the FAX Modem is based on a Rockwell and uses the V.32AC or V.32bisAC FAX chipsets/firmware, then the AT\E1 command should be present. If the command returns an ERROR response, then this command is not available. If the response is OK, then the command is available.

The AT\E1 command should be repeated every time that the FAX Modem is moved from one phone line to another. It will minimise the echo on the phone line and should reduce line noise that may affect the quality of FAX documents and improve the throughput of data connections by minimising packet re-transmissions.


root

Read: ROOT	goes to the root of the message chain of current message


run

COMMAND:	run
PROMPT:	Main: Read: and Mail:
FORMAT:	RUN <command>
PURPOSE:	Run various additional commands to the normal CIX commands listed from the subsystem prompts
Example

RUN INTERNET

Command	What does it do?
newsnet	The Read Write Usenet Gateway - with threads.
confstat	Conference statistic program.
internet	The CIX Internet gateway
filestats	Gives you information on number of file downloaded in a given topic.
forward_check	Check the status of your mail forward file.
forward_toggle	Toggle the email address you forward mail to.
laston	Tells you when you last logged onto CIX.
load	Gives you an indication of the current load on the machine.
mailstat	Tells you some mail statistics on your outgoing mail.
modlist	Tells you which conferences you moderate.
mystery	Er …
spell	Spell checks your scratchpad.


say

At the Read: prompt, enter say.  This will allow you to enter text (via edit of SCRATCHPAD) that will become a message to be appended to the conference topic you are currently reading.  See comment if you wish to make a comment specifically associated to the last message read.


scgadd

Usage

SCGADD PROFILE | RESUME | SCRIPT | FLIST

Gets the contents of one of the following user files and appends to the text in your scratchpad:

profile, resume, script or a topics flist.


scget

Usage

SCGET PROFILE|RESUME|SCRIPT|FLIST

Gets the contents of one of the following user files and puts the text into your scratchpad:

profile, resume, script or a topics flist.


scpadd

Usage

SCPADD PROFILE|RESUME|SCRIPT|FLIST

Gets the text from your scratchpad and appends to one of the following user files:

profile, resume, script or a topics flist if you are a moderator of that conference.


scput

Usage

SCPUT PROFILE|RESUME|SCRIPT|FLIST

Puts the text in your scratchpad into one of the following user files:

profile, resume, script or a topics flist if you are a moderator of that conference.


scratchpad

This is your private textfile.

You can upload to it, using UPLOAD

You can download it, using DOWNLOAD

You can delete it, using KILLSCRATCH

You can ask for size, using SCRATCHSIZE

You can edit it, using EDIT

You can add it as a message.

You can send it as a mail message.

You are expected to delete it when you log off.

The lines in the scratchpad are terminated with LF. But when archiving or downloading, the lines become CRLF terminated, unless you have set option Unix. When doing a Zmodem download you can inhibit the addition of CRs by setting an option in your comms program.


scratchsize

At the Main: prompt, SCRATCHSIZE displays the size of the SCRATCHPAD and of the Archived SCRATCHPAD (if there is one):

OPT SCRATCHPAD 4567 Q sets the maximum size of the scratchpad during filing.


script

The CIX Script Language

A CIX script contains CIX commands. When you issue the SCRIPT command, CIX reads commands from the script instead from your terminal; when the last command in the script has been read, CIX returns control to your terminal.  You can prepare your script offline, upload it to CIX and run it, so saving online time. Typically, you would use a script to enter messages in a conference and send mail messages.

Entering conference messages

Scripts always use the Verbose editor, even if you have changed the editor in your profile. The Verbose editor automatically wraps lines at 10 characters less than the line width setting. Your message may be wider than this, so you should disable CIX's word wrapping by starting your script with the command:

OPTION TERMINAL WIDTH 999 QUIT

Similarly, end your script with a command to reset the terminal width to 79 (or whatever other width you have in your profile). The second line of your script will probably be a JOIN <command>.

When you are commenting online to an earlier message, you would normally enter the command COMMENT: commenting, of course, to the message you have just read.  When you write a script, you are unlikely to want to comment to the last message you have read, and you are quite likely to want to comment to more than one message. You can specify which message you want to comment to by including the message number: COMMENT <msgno>.

Enter your comment in the script and finish it with a full stop (.) in the normal way. If you were commenting online, at this point CIX would display the Add/action: prompt. If you are running a script though, CIX does not display the prompt (there is not much point!) Instead, your message is added directly CIX sees the full stop.

If you use the SAY command in a script, CIX does not prompt you for the title: you simply enter the title as the first line of your message, including the TITLE: prefix.

Entering mail messages

Much the same considerations apply to entering mail messages as to entering conference messages. One difference is that CIX expects a response to the Send/Action: prompt (even though it does not display the prompt!) This is so that you can, if you wish, use the CC response (to send one or more carbon copies) before responding SEND.

Please note that at present, you cannot use the REPLY or COMMENT commands for mail in a script.

Running the script

Start by uploading the script to your scratchpad by issuing the UPLOAD command. Then move the script from your scratchpad to your script area by issuing the SCPUT SCRIPT command. Finally, issue the SCRIPT command to run your script.

Note that your scratchpad is cleared after the SCPUT command. If you want to amend your script before running it, you may issue the SCGET SCRIPT command and then edit it in your scratchpad by issuing the EDIT command. Note also that your script area is not cleared after the SCRIPT command. It is overwritten, however, by the next SCPUT SCRIPT command.


search

COMMAND:	search
PROMPT:	Read:
FORMAT:	SEARCH <pattern> [[FROM] <msgno>] [TO <msgno>]
PURPOSE:	Display message numbers of messages containing a particular word
Usage

SEARCH looks in the current topic for the specified pattern and displays the message numbers of the messages which contain the pattern.  The pattern could be a word or a part of a word: it may not contain spaces.  You may use a question mark as a wildcard character, to match any single character.  For instance, ??dget would match 'widget' or 'gadget'.  You could also use a question mark to match a space if you wanted to locate two words.  For instance, ibm?pc would match 'IBM PC', provided the words were not split across two lines.

If you specify only the pattern, SEARCH scans all messages in the topic.  You may limit the search by specifying FROM <msgno> and/or TO <msgno>.  You may omit the FROM keyword.  TO <msgno> specifies the last message to be scanned (the range is inclusive).

Example

search widget 120 to 260

Notes

SEARCH is case-insensitive: upper-case and lower-case letters are treated equally.

The maximum length of the pattern is 14 characters.

The output from SEARCH looks like this:

9999 : Text of the line where the pattern was found

9999 - A name

SEARCH uses the first format when it finds the pattern in the text of a message.  It uses the second format when the pattern matches the nickname in the message header.

See also FIND, SQUICK


send

The send command will invoke an edit of SCRATCHPAD to allow you to enter the text of MAIL.  Upon exiting the editor, MAIL will ask for the distribution list (to whom you wish to send the mail).


show

show is a flexible command which allows you to get extra information on conferences and users. Below are listed the variations of this command:

SHOW	On it's own, SHOW displays the conferences you are joined to and where you are relative to the last message in each topic.
SHOW ALL	Lists all the conferences available on CIX
SHOW ALL <string>	Lists all the lines in the conference list with <string> in it. For example SHOW ALL PC or SHOW ALL GAMES.
SHOW <conferencename>	Shows the moderator, creation date, topics and titles and (if available) the conference note for that conference.
SHOW NEW	List conferences that you are joined to that have unread messages to be read.
SHOW OPTION	List the current value of various option settings.
SHOW PARTICIPANTS	List the members of the conference to which you are presently joined.
SHOW PARTICIPANTS ALL	List all the users of CIX.
SHOW PARTICIPANTS <conferencename>	List the members of the named conference.
SHOW RESUME <username>	Show the resume of the named user.
SHOW STATUS	List the members of the conference you are currently joined to and when they were last on CIX.
SHOW STATUS <conferencename>	As SHOW STATUS but for the named conference.
SHOW WHO <string>	List all members of CIX with <string> in their name entry.  Replace <string> with a * and you will get all members of CIX.


skip

COMMAND:	skip
PROMPT:	Read:
FORMAT:	SKIP <number>	adds <number> to your message pointer.
	SKIP BACKWARD <number>	subtracts <number> from your message pointer.
	SKIP TO <msgno>	sets your message pointer to <msgno>, and consider all those after to be unread.
	SKIP TO FIRST | LAST	sets your message pointer to the first or last message.
	SKIP TO DATE <date>	sets your message pointer to the first message on or after <date>.
PURPOSE:	Move the message pointer in the current topic and display the message
Example

skip to date 1mar91

See also DATE

SKIP TO RECENT

sets your message pointer to 100 less than the last message number (or some other value, if you have changed your RECENT setting).

See also OPTION RECENT

SKIP TO BACK <days>

sets your message pointer to the first message available from <days> days ago (or if there is no such message, to the last message).

SKIP THREAD

marks as read all messages which comment to the current message, all comments to those comments, etc.

Notes

SKIP THREAD skips only the current sub-thread, not the entire thread.  If the current message comments to an earlier message, further comments to that message will not be marked as read.

CIX does not remember the SKIP THREAD command.  Comments added later will be read normally.

If you quit the current topic before reading to the end, CIX saves only the lowest unread message number: it does not save the entire map of read/unread messages.  This means that when you next read the topic, you could read messages that SKIP THREAD had previously marked as read.

SKIP THREAD is an exception to the general rule that the SKIP command moves the message pointer and displays that message.


squick

COMMAND:	squick
PROMPT:	Read:
FORMAT:	SQUICK <pattern> [<no_of_days>]
PURPOSE:	Display message numbers of messages containing a pattern
Usage

SQUICK looks in the current topic for the specified pattern and displays the message numbers of the messages which contain the pattern.  The pattern must be within double quotation marks; this means it may contain spaces.  You may use a question mark as a wildcard character, to match any single character.  For instance, squick ??dget 2 would match 'widget' or 'gadget' for the last two days.

If you specify only the pattern, SQUICK scans messages in the topic from 7 days ago to the last message.  Following the pattern, you may specify the number of days back to start the search.

Notes

SQUICK is case-insensitive: upper-case and lower-case letters are treated equally.  The maximum length of the pattern is 77 characters.

The output from SQUICK looks like this:

9999 : Text of the line where the pattern was found

9999 - A name

SQUICK uses the first format when it finds the pattern in the text of a message.  It uses the second format when the pattern matches the nickname in the message header.

See also FIND, SEARCH


status

STATUS at the Mail: prompt, displays the in and outbaskets.

SHOW STATUS <confname> displays all the participants who are joined to that conference and when they last logged on to CIX. This is available at most prompts.


stay

COMMAND:	stay
PROMPT:	Opt:
FORMAT:	OPT STAY Q
PURPOSE:	Keeps you in a topic when no more unread there
Usage

This toggle will stop CIX automatically joining you to the next topic in your conference list when there are no more unread messages in the current topic. Use the TNEXT command to get to the next topic.

This toggle is especially useful if you want to do a FILE READ ALL of particular topics.


store

COMMAND:	store
PROMPT:	Main:
FORMAT:	STORE
PURPOSE:	Store your message pointers
Usage

For each of the conference topics to which you are joined, CIX keeps a record of (pointer to) your current message.  STORE saves your message pointers as they were when you logged in, or when you last issued a CHECKPOINT command in the current session.

Notes

CIX automatically stores your pointers the first time you login on a particular day, unless you were logged on at midnight.

You may use RESTORE at the Main: prompt to restore your pointers to the values they had before the previous manual or automatic store.


substitute

OPTION SUBSTITUTE <newname> <oldname> Q

Example

OPT SUBST EXIT BYE Q

bye will now be invalid as a command, exit should be used instead.

Related commands

OPT SYNONYM <newname> <oldname> Q

MACRO <newname> <expansion>


switch

See switchtopic.


switchtopic

COMMAND:	switchtopic
PROMPT:	Read:
FORMAT:	SWITCHTOPIC [<topicname>]
PURPOSE:	Move to another topic within a conference
Usage

This works from within a conference to switch to another topic in that conference. Typing SWITCHTOPIC on its own will prompt you with all of the topics in the conference you are currently joined to.

In certain circumstances you will need the SWITCHTOPIC command to get into a topic. If you have resigned a single topic you will have to find all the topics using the SHOW <confname> command and then from any of the topics in the conference type SWITCHTOPIC <topicname>.


synonym

COMMAND:	synonym
PROMPT:	Opt:
FORMAT:	OPT SYNONYM <new> <old> Q
PURPOSE:	Make new a synonym for the command old

See also MACRO


system

The CIX System

The CIX conferencing system and its associated services runs on the following platforms:

Sequent S2000/250 with 2 Intel 486DX50, 2 Intel Pentium P60, 256meg of main memory, and 16GB of local magnetic disk. Dynix/PTX 2.1 (Unix SVR3.2).

Sun SPARCStation 10 model 80 with 64MB of main memory and 12GB of local magnetic disk. Solaris 1.1 (SunOS 4.1.3).

Sun SPARCStation IPC with 48Mb of main memory and 18Gb of local magnetic disk. Solaris 2.5 (SunOS 4.1.3).

Computers are connected by a 10Base-T ethernet network. Routing is provided by a Cisco 4000 router supporting internal and Internet leased lines. Internet service provision is by BT Internet. Integration to the CIX Internet service is provided by Cisco 2500 routers.

Modem access is through Xylogics Annex 2 terminal servers supporting up to 96 US Robotics Courier V.34 modems, and 4 ISDN TA's, 2 Dataflex V24's and 2 Hayes ISDN TA's.

We have many other Sun SPARCStation computers which are mainly deployed on the CIX Internet service, though around 4 are counted as spare / development machines.


terminal

The supported terminal types are:

vt100 (default)

tvi920, which can be set with OPT TERM TYPE TVI920 Q

To use full screen editing set OPT EDIT B Q, or OPT EDIT A Q


terminate

COMMAND:	terminate
PROMPT:	Mod:
FORMAT:	TERMINATE
PURPOSE:	Shut down a conference
Usage

TERMINATE shuts down a conference, and no messages may be added.  When you issue the command, CIX asks you to confirm that you really want to terminate the conference.  To have a conference completely deleted, mail support@compulink.co.uk

Note

The conference is not immediately deleted, so participants may still read messages.


terse

COMMAND:	terse
PROMPT:	Main: Read: Mail:
FORMAT:	TERSE
PURPOSE:	Gives you shorter CIX prompts and messages
Usage

There are two prompt and header modes of CIX.  Terse mode gives you shorter prompts like M: for Main: R: for Read: and Ml: for Mail: as well as a shorter message header when reading conference messages.

Example

From the:

Main: prompt type terse

Read: prompt type terse

Mail: prompt type terse

Option: prompt type opt terse quit

Any of the above will put your current CIX session only into terse mode.  To make this permanent you must put it in your profile, by editing your profile and entering the line:

opt terse quit

See also VERBOSE, PROFILE


time

The time command will display the current time of day on your terminal.  This is provided for those of you who have appointments etc., as one can so easily forget how long you have been at the terminal.


tnext

Read: TNEXT	Goes to next topic in list, (which could be in another conference) irrespective of topic activity, not marking messages read.
Read: TPREV	Goes to previous topic in list, (could be in next conference) irrespective of topic activity, not marking messages read.
Read: NEXT	Goes to next active topic in list, (could be in next conference) marking all messages read in current topic.


to

(read) <number> to <number>

first to last

date <date> to <date>

The keyword to denotes a 'range' of messages to be displayed.  Some of the message identifiers can be intermixed (e.g. 18 to last).


topic

(moderate) add topic

(moderate) remove topic

join <conference> [ <topic> ]

next

tnext

tprev

Topics are entities that are groups of messages within conferences.  Each topic starts at first and ends with last.  When finished reading all new messages in the current topic, CoSy goes on to the next one automatically.


topicsize

COMMAND:	topicsize
PROMPT:	Mod: Read:
FORMAT:	TOPICSIZE [<topicname>]
PURPOSE:	Display the current size and size limit of a topic
Usage

Each topic has an upper limit to its size (this limit is system-wide and cannot be changed by the moderator).  TOPICSIZE displays this limit and the current size of the topic.

Notes

If you entered the MODERATE command at the Read: prompt, you should not specify the topic name.

The only limit of a topic is the size.  There is no limit on the number of messages.  You may use the PRUNE command at the Read: prompt to physically delete any withdrawn messages and reclaim some space.


tprev

Read: TNEXT	Goes to next topic in list, (which could be in another conference) irrespective of topic activity, not marking messages read
Read: TPREV	Goes to previous topic in list, (could be in next conference) irrespective of topic activity, not marking messages read
Read: NEXT	Goes to next active topic in list, (could be in next conference) marking all messages read in current topic


type

Read: TYPE <filename> to view topic textfile.

Mail: TYPE <filename> to view private textfile.


unix

The UNIX option explained

Different operating systems use different methods to terminate lines in text files. For instance, Unix uses a Line Feed (LF) and PC / MS DOS uses a Carriage Return and a Line Feed (CR/LF). So, when sending your scratchpad to your computer you may find the text is either all on one line, or that it has lots of ^M characters in it. Most text editors or word processing packages can take either LF or CR/LF as the end of line character.

The options you have are as follows:

OPT UNIX N Q	Allows your Zmodem package to convert LF to LF/CR if enabled.
OPT UNIX Y Q	Does not allow your Zmodem package to convert LF to LF/CR.


unread

Deleted (WITHDRAWn) messages often result in the message : No more unread messages in this topic (after a message of, for example, 2 new message(s) in this topic).  This often confuses users, but seems still to be the correct behaviour of the program.


upload

Main/Read Subsystem

In the main or read subsystem, upload is used to transfer a file from your computer into your CoSy scratchpad (for addition to a conference, using say or comment).

upload <protocol>

Option Subsystem

In the option subsystem, you can define the transfer protocol to use when uploading files.  Those currently available are:

upload kermit

upload xmodem

upload crc-xmodem

upload ymodem

upload zmodem (default)

Example

OPT UP X Q

Related commands

Read: FUL	upload file to topic
Mail: FUL	upload private file

See also FILES


ved

The verbose editor is the default editor.  If you have changed to another editor, you may revert to the verbose editor by entering OPT EDIT V Q.

You enter the editor when you type e at the add/action or send/action prompt or when you issue the EDIT command.

All commands are one letter, shown below in brackets:

(l)ist	displays your text from start to end.  Line numbers are also displayed, which will be necessary if you wish to change or delete a line.  You may also specify a line number or range of line numbers.  For instance, you may enter 4l to list line 4, or you may enter 4,10l to list lines 4 through 10.
(a)ppend	allows you to add extra lines to your message.  If you enter a on its own, the lines are added below the existing lines.  You may also specify a line number.  For instance, if you enter a4, the lines are inserted between lines 4 and 5.  To leave append mode, type a period (.) at the beginning of a new line, followed by return.
(d)elete	enters delete mode.  You will be asked which line number or range of line numbers you wish to delete, or you may specify this directly.  For instance, you may enter d4 to delete line 4, or you may enter d4,10 to delete lines 4 through 10.
(s)ubstitute	enters substitute mode.  You will be asked which line number you wish to change, or you may specify this directly.  You may specify a line number by using, for instance, s4; or you may specify the last line by using s*.  You will then be prompted to enter the substitution.  For instance, to change 'copmuter' to 'computer', enter /copmuter/computer/.  If the text you wish to change includes a slash character, you may use any other character instead as the delimiter; for instance ;a/c;account;.  You may delete a string; for instance / and// deletes the word and.
	. and $ have special meanings in the from (first) string.
	. is a wildcard and matches any other character.  So to change, for instance, think. therefore to think, therefore, enter /think./think,/.  Using /./,/ will change the first character on the line to , (since . matches the first character).
	$ on its own matches the end of the line, so you may use this to append to the line; for instance, /$/ am./.  To change, for instance, $1 to #1, enter /$1/#1/.  Using /$/#/ will append # to the line.
e(x)it	exits the text editor, and passes the text you have prepared back to CIX.  This is the normal exit method.
(q)uit	exits the text editor, but DOES NOT return your text to CIX.
(h)elp	displays a brief summary of the available commands.
Summary

Command	Meaning	Action
x	exit	Exit and save current scratchpad.
a	append	Add additional text at end of scratchpad.
c	clear	Delete all lines from scratchpad.
d	delete	Delete one or more lines.
l	list	Show all lines with line numbers.
Q	quit	Quit from editor, do not save current scratchpad.  This option leaves you with the scratchpad you had before you started editing.
S	substitute	Change part of an existing line.


verbose

COMMAND:	verbose
PROMPT:	Main: Read: Mail:
FORMAT:	VERBOSE
PURPOSE:	Gives you full CIX prompts and messages
Usage

There are two prompt and header modes of CIX.  Verbose is the default mode, giving you the longer prompts like:

Main: Read: and Mail:

as well as a more verbose message header when reading conference messages.

Example

Main:	prompt type	verbose
Read:	prompt type	verbose
Mail:	prompt type	verbose
Option:	prompt type	opt verbose quit

Any of the above will put your current CIX session only, into verbose mode.  To make this permanent you must put it in your profile, by editing your profile and entering the line:

opt verbose quit

See also TERSE, PROFILE


vote

COMMAND:	vote
PROMPT:	Read:
FORMAT:	VOTE
PURPOSE:	Register your vote on a voting message
Usage

The VOTE command applies to the message you have just read.  When you enter the VOTE command, CIX displays the list of voting options and prompts you to enter the number of the option for which you wish to vote.

Notes

You may vote on only one message during a session.  An ordinary message may be converted into a voting message by the moderator.  A voting message is indicated by a line in the header, or by a V in a compact header.  Underneath the body of the message, CIX displays the voting options and the votes registered so far.  (The voting options are not included in the character count in the header - this may confuse some offline readers.)

COMMAND:	VOTE
PROMPT:	Mod:
FORMAT:	VOTE [<topicname>] [<msgno>]
PURPOSE:	Add voting options to a message
Usage

If you entered the MODERATE command at the Main: prompt, CIX needs to know the topic name; if you do not specify it with the VOTE command, CIX prompts you.  If you entered the MODERATE command at the Read: prompt, you must not specify the topic name.

If you entered the MODERATE command at the Main: prompt, the default message number is that given by your current pointer.  If you entered the MODERATE command at the Read: prompt, the default message number is that of the last message you read.  The message must not have been deleted.

CIX prompts you for up to 9 lines of up to 39 characters.  When you have entered enough lines, enter QUIT.  You then have a chance to change any of the lines.  Finally, you may save the voting options or quit without saving them.  Once you have saved the voting options, you may not change or delete them.


vt100

If using Odyssey's vt100 emulator, disable the menu-line, so that you have 24 lines of screen.  Otherwise you will have problems.


who

COMMAND:	who
PROMPT:	Main: Read: Mail:
FORMAT:	WHO
PURPOSE:	Shows you who is online at the moment
Usage

When you are logged onto CIX, it is good to know who is online at the same time as you, as you may want to chat with someone.  The who command will display the nicknames of all users who are currently online.

The who command is also a keyword and may be used in conjunction with the show command.

Example

Main:	prompt type	show who peter

will list all users who have peter in their nickname or their real name.

See also SHOW, RESUME


wildcards

Wildcards ? and * are allowed many places, like in FDL *

Note that as CIX is running on a UNIX system, * will match all files, whereas *.* will only match files with an extension.  This is different from MSDOS.


withdraw

COMMAND:	withdraw
PROMPT:	READ:
FORMAT:	WITHDRAW <msg no>
PURPOSE:	Withdraw a message from CIX
Usage

In the read subsystem, withdraw ## will flag message number ## as withdrawn by the author, so that the text will no longer be visible.  You must be the originator of a message to be able to withdraw it, or a moderator of that conference.


wordwrap

Wordwrap is supported in the default textgobbler.  There it results in garbling of the screen output.  This garbling does not occur if OPT EDIT A Q is set, but then you do not have wordwrap.


x.25

CIX has a PSS NUA which is accessible if you have access to any X25 PAD; either public access if you have a PSS or Dialplus account, or if you have access to a private X25 PAD.

Our PSS NUA is 2342 1330 0310.


xmodem

Xmodem file transfer protocol by Ward-Christensen.

Blocksize typically 128 bytes, but can be 1024 bytes.  Each block is ended with a checksum (or a CRC).

This protocol is classic and easy to implement, but is not always implemented correctly.

Xmodem becomes very slow if the reply to each block is delayed, it is therefore very slow across MNP and high speed links.  It really is an outdated protocol, and Zmodem should be preferred.


ymodem

Ymodem file transfer protocol.  This a batch protocol, where the filename is specified by the sender, not by the receiver.  Several files can be transferred in one go.  Blocksize can vary from 128 bytes to 1024 bytes.

Many comms programs have several variations of Ymodem.  The proper one is often called 'batch ymodem' in these programs.  Your comms program/modem must not use XON/XOFF while doing Ymodem.

See also FLOWCONTROL


zmodem

Chuck Forsbergs file transfer protocol and the preferred file transfer protocol.

It is fast, reliable, and an interrupted file transfer can be resumed.  You should not have an inactivity time-out in your modem, if you use this protocol, otherwise your modem will sometimes drop the line.

When downloading your scratchpad, lines will become terminated with CR LF if you have set your Zmodem options correctly.

See also FLOWCONTROL