shithub: purgatorio

ref: 02ac617541ca1a7bf82b1615fb5a58235469b5d3
dir: /man/8/plumber/

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.TH PLUMBER 8
.SH NAME
plumber \- plumber for interapplication message routing
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B plumber
[
.B -v
] [
.B -w
] [
.BI -c " wmchan"
] [
.I rulefile
\&...
]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I Plumber
provides high-level message-passing between applications.
In a plumbed environment,
applications can receive messages on an input port, which is given a logical name.
Messages are not sent directly between applications but are routed via
the plumber, following user-specified rules.
.PP
.I Plumber
is typically started by
.IR wm (1)'s
startup script.
It reads each
.I rulefile
(default:
.BI /usr/ user /lib/plumbing )
in turn.
Each file has the form described in
.IR plumbing (6);
the rules direct the routing of each message
.I plumber
receives.
.I Plumber
then lurks in the background with its mate,
awaiting plumbing requests sent by
.IR plumbmsg (2),
by windowing applications in response to events such as button clicks or drag-and-drop,
or by
.IR plumb (1).
.PP
When a message arrives,
.I plumber
applies the rules to decide how to route it.
It forwards the message to the selected application's input port, starting it if necessary.
If no rule applies (or some other error occurs),
.I plumber
returns an error to the message's sender.
The
.B -v
option causes
.I plumber
to log the contents of messages it receives, to help debug plumbing rules and applications.
.PP
.I Plumber
normally starts applications directly.
For use on devices that have specialised
window managers, not
.IR wm (1),
the
.B -w
option causes
.I plumber
to start applications indirectly, by sending a message to
a window manager listening on
.BR /chan/wm ,
allowing
the window manager to track every application started.
The
.B -c
option can select an alternative
.I wmchan
to
.BR /chan/wm .

.SH FILES
.TF /usr/user/lib/plumbing
.TP
.BI /usr/ user /lib/plumbing
default plumbing rules for
.I user
.SH SOURCE
.B /appl/cmd/plumber.b
.br
.B /appl/lib/plumbing.b
.SH SEE ALSO
.IR plumb (1),
.IR wm (1),
.IR plumbmsg (2),
.IR plumbing (6)