.\" Copyright (c) 2024 Sasha Koshka .\" .\" This work is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. To see a copy of this license, .\" visit . .\" .TH BULB 1 2024-10-11 .SH NAME bulb \(en bulletin board .\" .SH SYNOPSIS bulb .RB [ -hlpu ] .RB [ -b\ board ] .RB [ -n\ number ] .\" .SH DESCRIPTION Read from and post to boards (text files) on the system. Posts are plain text, multiline, and each one is tagged with the user name of its author. .\" .SH OPTIONS .IP \fB-h\fP Prints the help text and exits. .IP \fB-b\fP\ \fIboard\fP Specifies a board other than \(lqgeneral\(rq. .IP \fB-l\fP Lists available boards and exits. .IP \fB-n\fP\ \fInumber\fP Takes a numeric argument as the amount of recent posts to print out, the default being 8. .IP \fB-p\fP Posts a message read from the standard input. See the STANDARD INPUT section. .IP \fB-u\fP Operates undercover. All posts made will be under the name \(lqanonymous\(rq. .\" .SH ENVIRONMENT The BULBPATH environment variable specifies a colon-separated list of directories (much like PATH) in which to search for boards. Directories at the start take precedence over directories at the end. It has a value of .I /var/bulb by default. .SH FILES .I /var/bulb/* .\" .SH STANDARD INPUT When the .B -p option is supplied, the standard input will be read until EOF. The resulting text will be posted under the name of the current user in whichever board is selected. .\" .SH STANDARD OUTPUT If the .B -l option is supplied, a list of available boards will be written to the standard output. If not, the last .B -n messages in the selected board will be written. .\" .SH DIAGNOSTICS In the event of an I/O error, a debug message will be printed and the program will exit with an error code. In the event of a bad invocation, a debug message will be printed alongside usage text and the program will exit with an error code. .\" .SH RATIONALE The commands .BR talk (1p), and .BR write (1p), and .BR wall (1p) can be used effectively for textual intra-system communication, but they require that the receiving user(s) be both logged in and monitoring their terminal for any messages to ever get through. The .BR bulb (1) command was written to support asynchronous, persistent conversations between users of the same system. .\" .SH AUTHOR Written by Sasha Koshka .MT sashakoshka@tebibyte.media .ME . .\" .SH COPYRIGHT Copyright \(co 2024 Sasha Koshka (pseudonymous). License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later \." .SH SEE ALSO .BR talk (1p), .BR write (1p), .BR wall (1p)