2. User Commands

2.1 my-id

usage: tla my-id [options] [id]

  -h, --help     Display a help message and exit.
  -H             Display a verbose help message and exit.
  -V, --version  Display a release identifier string
                 and exit.
  -e, --errname  specify program name for errors
  -u, --uid      print only the UID portion of the ID

With no argument print your arch id.

With an argument, record ID-STRING as your id in ~/.arch-params/=id

Your id is recorded in various archives and log messages as you use arch. It must consist entirely of printable characters and fit on one line. By convention, it should have the form of an email address, as in this example:

        Jane Hacker <jane.hacker@gnu.org>

The portion of an id string between < and > is called your uid. arch sometimes uses your uid as a fragment when generating unique file names.

The option -u (--uid) causes only the uid part of your id string to be printed.

2.2 my-default-archive

usage: tla my-default-archive [options] [archive]

  -h, --help     Display a help message and exit.
  -H             Display a verbose help message and exit.
  -V, --version  Display a release identifier string
                 and exit.
  -A, --archive  Override `my-default-archive'
  -e, --errname  specify program name for errors
  -d, --delete   unspecify your default archive
  -s, --silent   suppress reassuring messages

With no argument, and without -d, print the name of your default archive.

With an argument, record ARCHIVE as your default archive in ~/.arch-params/=default-archive

With the option -d (--delete) and no argument, ensure that you do not have a default archive set in ~/.arch-params.

Your default archive is determined this way:

If the option -A (--archive) is given and not empty, that archive is the default (which makes this script useful for processing a -A argument that was passed to another script).

If -A is not given, but ~/.arch-params/=default-archive exists and is not empty, that is your default archive.

Otherwise, your default archive is the name of the local archive rooted at the argument to -R (--root) or specified in the environment variable ARCHROOT.

If no default archive can be found by any of these means, the program exits with status 1, printing an error message unless the -s (--silent) option is given.

2.3 register-archive

usage: tla register-archive [options] [archive] location

  -h, --help     Display a help message and exit.
  -H             Display a verbose help message and exit.
  -V, --version  Display a release identifier string
                 and exit.
  -f, --force    overwrite existing location
  -d, --delete   delete archive registration

Record the location of ARCHIVE.

With -d, remove the registration of a previously registered archive. When accompanied by -f, override permissions on the registration file and don't complain if the archive is not registered.

A LOCATION should be either a directory name or a distant URL.

When registering a new archive, if no ARCHIVE's name is passed on the command line, then the archive's name will be read automatically from the archive's meta data.

Archive locations are stored in ~/.arch-params/=locations.

You must register the location of a remote archive before you access it. It is not strictly necessary to register the locations of local archives (you can always specify their location using command line arguments and/or environment variables), but registering local archive locations is recommend (for simplicity).

2.4 whereis-archive

usage: tla whereis-archive [options] archive

  -h, --help     Display a help message and exit.
  -H             Display a verbose help message and exit.
  -V, --version  Display a release identifier string
                 and exit.

Print the registered location of an archive.

Usually the archive must have been previously registered with "tla register-archive".

As a special exception, the the archive is not registered, but is the name of the archive rooted at the location given with the option -R (--root) or in the environment variable ARCHROOT then print that root directory.

2.5 archives

usage: tla archives [options] [search regular expression]

  -h, --help            Display a help message and exit.
  -H                    Display a verbose help message and exit.
  -V, --version         Display a release identifier string
                        and exit.
  -n, --names           print archive names only
  -R, --exclude-remote  Exclude MIRROR and SOURCE archives.

Print a list of registered archives and their locations

If [search regex] is given then only archives with names that match [search regex] will be shown