NAME

       tm - Topic Map client and work-bench

SYNOPSIS

   Invocation of the work-bench
          tm <command line switch>...

          # interactive version using persistent local store
          tm --mapsphere=file:/tmp/

          # using remote store
          tm --mapsphere=http://host:13131/

          # batch version
          cat commands | tm -

          # using extensions
          tm --source '^dns:'=TM::Virtual::DNS --extension ....

          # providing your own plugins
          tm --plugin=/some/directory/ --plugin=/some/other/directory/

   Commands within the work-bench
          # getting help
          tm> help                           this command
          tm> help tm                        all help on the work-bench
          tm> help tau                       help on Tau expressions

          # reading in commands
          tm> do <file>                      execute a history (config) file

          # listing all loaded plugins
          tm> plugins:

          # deploy implementations
          tm> source /<regexp>/ <package>    load the package and register it as source implementation
          tm> filter /<regexp>/ <package>    load the package and register it as filter implementation

          # dealing with history
          tm> history                        show some past commands
          tm> !<integer>                     execute command with nr <integer> in history
          tm> <cursor-up> or <cursor-down>   get previous/next command in the history (if Term::ReadLine is installed)

          # doing several things in sequence
          tm> <cmd1> ; <cmd2> ; ...          do all commands in a sequence

          # getting out
          tm> exit                           leave the bench
          tm> quit                           ditto
          tm> ^D                             ditto (Control-d)

          # making comments
          tm> # nice weather today           is ignored

DESCRIPTION

       This simple, text-oriented user interface gives access to some Topic Map functions. This
       program is mainly thought for quick prototyping and testing Topic Maps and/or TM software,
       not so much to provide eye-candy.

       There are two modi operandi:

       batch
           Whenever you invoke the program with the parameter "-" then it will expect commands
           coming from STDIN. It will process them one by one and will then terminate.

             cat my-commands | tm -

       interactive
           If you invoke the program without a parameter

             tm

           then you will be welcomed by a command prompt. Type 'help' within this shell to get an
           overview over available commands. See TM::Tau for information about the language.

OPTIONS

       Following command line switches are understood by the program:

       history (boolean, default: on)
           If this option is turned on, a history file will be consumed before the interactive
           loops starts. At the end of the session the history will be updated.  See FILES for
           details on the location.

           Note: History handling only applies to the interactive mode. Still, nothing can stop
           you to take a history file (which contains simply lines of commands) and pipe it into
           this program:

             cat myhistory | tm -

       source (default: undef)
           This multiple option allows to add new map implementations for resourceable maps. To
           add, for instance, a virtualized map covering the DNS (domain name service), you would
           add

             --source '^dns:'=TM::Virtual::DNS

           The first value is a regular expression which specifies under which circumstances the
           processor is supposed to use that extension if it parses a source as part of a Tau
           expression (TM::Tau). The other value is the name of the package which is associated
           with that pattern. The package is 'use'd at startup time, a warning will be issued if
           that fails.

           Several such extensions can be provided. There is no order which can be controlled.

       filter (default: undef)
           This multiple option allows to add new filter implementations.

             --filter '^stats:'=TM::Tau::Filter::Statistics'

       plugin (default: none means take the installed ones)
           This multiple option allows to override and specify the directories where plugins are
           searched for. If you specify one, then none of the default ones will be loaded!

       mapsphere (default: undef)
           This URL defines where the background map store has to persistently live in which the
           maps are stored and from which they can be retrieved later.

           If it is left undefined, then the store will be simulated in memory only. In the local
           file system case (using a URL like "file:/tmp/"), all data will be stored in the local
           file system. If you happen to have the server package TM::Server installed, then you
           may also provide a  URL:

             http://my.machine.org:13131/

           In that case all maps would be stored and retrieve from there.

       logfile (default: "tm.log")
           Controls the file name where the log messages should be written to.  This mainly
           applies to debugging TM components as all error messages will be output directly.

       loglevel (default: INFO)
           The log level can be set to any of the following values: OFF FATAL ERROR WARN INFO
           DEBUG ALL

       help
           ...does hopefully what you would expect.

FILES

       The interpreter will look for history files:
             $ENV{HOME}/.tm/history
             $ENV{HOME}/.tmhistory
             ./.tmhistory

       in this order taking only the first it will find. It will only use the last 100 lines.

AUTHOR INFORMATION

       Copyright 200[1-68], Robert Barta <drrho@cpan.org>, All rights reserved.

       This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same
       terms as Perl itself.  http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html