Created March 28, 2001. Updated August 30, 2001 for nap version 1.4.6.
In February 2001, I took over the development of nap. While adding new features, and redesigning some existing ones, I strove to preserve the original "look and feel" as much as possible. Nap is now one of the most reliable and stable napster clients for unix. Nap has been packaged for a variety of popular platforms, and it is now shipped with some distributions of operating systems such as Debian Linux and OpenBSD.
The nap software is copyrighted by Kevin Sullivan, under conditions set forth in the file COPYRIGHT.
XXX stands for a version number.
Instructions: download the file nap-XXX.tar.gz. The
following sequence of commands should compile and install nap.
tar -zxf nap-XXX.tar.gz
cd nap-XXX
./configure
make
su
(type root password)
make install
nap-XXX.linux-i386.tar.gz.
Install nap as follows:
tar -zxf nap-XXX.linux-i386.tar.gz
cd nap-XXX.linux-i386
su
(type root password)
cp nap napping /usr/local/bin
chmod 0755 /usr/local/bin/nap
chmod 4755 /usr/local/bin/napping
If you are running linux on a different architecture, such as Alpha, just
substitute "alpha" for "i386" in the above instructions.
Napping is a helper application for nap which can be safely installed suid (with permissions 4755). For more on napping, see 5.2. Pings.
nap-XXX.i386.rpm.
As root, install nap with the single command
rpm -ivh nap-XXX.i386.rpm
apt-get install nap
Alternatively you can download the latest nap_XXX.deb
package from the Debian
nap page
and install it manually with the "dpkg" command:
dpkg -i nap_XXX.deb
You must be root to do this. If you are not root, read point
3.8.
nap-XXX.tgz.
Install it with the single command
pkg_add nap-XXX.tgz
Note: this file is an OpenBSD Package, not a regular tar archive. It
should be installed with "pkg_add". If you unpack it with "tar", do
it in an empty directory, as it will spill some files into the current
working directory. If you do unpack this as a tar file, you will find
an executable binary in the "bin" subdirectory.
nap-XXX.cygwin32.zip.
Unpack it with
pkunzip nap-XXX.cygwin32.zip
(Note: pkunzip is a relatively dumb program. My version of it, which
came with Windows 98, does not understand long filenames, and you may
have to type something of the form "pkunzip nap-1.~1.zip". Instead of
creating a directory, it may decide to dump the files in the current
working directory, and it may rename them. Use "unzip" instead of
"pkunzip" if it is available.) Among the unpacked files, you will find
an executable file nap.exe and two DLL's (dynamically linked
libraries): cygncurses5.dll and cygwin1.dll. You need to put these
DLL's in a place where Windows can find them, before running
nap.exe. One way to do this is to copy the two "*.dll" files to a
location (such as C:\WINDOWS) where Windows looks for DLL's. Another
way is to amend your PATH environment variable, by adding something
like the following line to C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT:
PATH=%PATH%;C:\DIRECTORY\WHERE\DLLS\ARE
Special care is needed with nap for Windows regarding the location of
the configuration files. Nap normally looks for its configuration
files in a directory called ".nap" in the user's home directory. Under
Windows, there is no such thing as a user's home directory, and nap
will by default look for the .nap directory in the current working
directory. You can change this behavior by defining an environment
variable HOME. I do this by something like the line
set HOME=C:\SOME\DIRECTORY
in the file C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT. This will cause nap to look for (and
create) its configuration files in the directory
C:\SOME\DIRECTORY\.nap.
See also the file README.win which comes with the distribution.
/usr/local/bin; you can install it anywhere you like.
All that is really necessary is that the nap binary is
somewhere in your PATH. The recommended steps are as
follows:
1. create a directory bin in your home directory, and
move the file nap there.
mkdir $HOME/bin
mv nap $HOME/bin
2. If the shell you are using is sh or bash,
put the following lines in the file .bashrc in your home
directory:
PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin
export PATH
If the shell you are using is tcsh, put the following
line in the file .tcshrc in your home directory:
set path = ($path $HOME/bin)
3. Restart the shell. You should now be able to invoke nap by typing
nap.
nap
You will be prompted for any necessary information, and you will be
asked whether you want to save the information in a configuration
file. It is a good idea to answer yes [y]. Eventually you will see
nap's main screen, which looks more or less like this:
[nap v1.4.4-ps-2]
_.-------._
|\ /|
/| \_.----._/ |\ __
.$: :$. _____ ____ _____ _____ / /__ ___ ____
|$$: ___ ___ :$$| / __ // _ `// _ // ___// __// _ \ / ___/
"$: \___\/___/ :$" / / / // /_/ // /_/ /(__ )/ /_ / __// /
| __ | /_/ /_/ \__,_// ____//_____/ \___/ \___//_/mG!
`. \/ .' /_/
`. .__, .'
`----'
* This is the main screen of nap.
*
* In this space, you will usually see some welcome messages from your
* Napster server.
*
* In the upper right corner, you see the version number of nap.
* The blue line below is called the status line.
* It displays the user name, and some other information. In the right part
* of the status line, you see the number of current uploads, downloads,
* and queued downloads.
[username] [474042 songs in 8066 libraries (1954 gigs)] [U/0 D/0 Q/0]
|
The very last line, after the status line, has a cursor. This is where you can enter commands. All commands start with a slash "/"; if you forget the slash, nap will complain that you are "not on a channel". But more about that later.
/search command. For
instance, if you want to search for a song called "Yucky green goo",
you type
/search yucky
This will cause nap to search for files that contain the word
"Yucky". Napster queries are case insensitive, so it doesn't matter if
you search for "yucky" or "Yucky". If fact, napster is generally very
tolerant regarding search queries.
After a few moments, another screen will pop up with the search results. This is called the result screen. It might look as follows:
Filename (total = 14) | BRate | Length | Conn
-----------------------------------------|-------------|--------------|---------
1) Bobby Bones - Yucky.mp3 | 64 | 3:24 | T3
2) HOT 5- [07]Time Will Tell.mp3 | 128 | 2:12 | T3
3) WB theme songs - Jack and Jill .mp3 | 128 | 3:00 | Cable
4) Korean Rap-YG family - 1tym attack.mp | 128 | 3:35 | 56k
5) Felicity THEME season 3 (New version | 128 | 0:53 | 56k
6) Passions theme.mp3 | 128 | 2:24 | 33.6
7) Korean - Uptown(03)- Han Oh Baek Nyun | 128 | 4:25 | 28.8
8) BB Mack - Back Here.mp3 | 192 | 3:40 | 28.8
9) Cher_with_Peter_Cetera-After_All.mp3 | 128 | 4:04 | 28.8
10) Gob- Paint it Black.mp3 | 160 | 1:49 | 28.8
11) 3lw (Three Little Women) - NO MORE3. | 192 | 4:26 | 28.8
12) kpop-CLICK B-EXIT.mp3 | 128 | 4:21 | 14.4
13) Duets - Gwyneth Paltrow & Huey Le wi | 192 | 4:51 | 14.4
14) Dawson's Creek 2 Soundtrack - Shawn | 128 | 4:38 | Unknown
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
1:\1\Mp3\Bobby Bones - Yucky.mp3
|
Note that not all files listed actually contain the word "yucky". For instance, some of them might be found in a directory named "yucky", but the directory name is not displayed in the results list.
The files are listed in decreasing order of connection speed. On the result screen, you can move up and down with the respective arrow keys, or you can move faster with the "PgUp" and "PgDn" keys. The red line at the bottom displays the full filename of the song currently selected; if it does not fit on the screen, you can scroll it from side to side with the right and left arrow keys. If you press "h", a help message is displayed at the bottom of the screen.
You can hit "return" for any song you wish to download. Note: do not use nap to download or distribute any copyrighted material.
Type "q" to return to the main screen. From the main screen, enter
/results to return to the result screen. You can also
switch back and forth between the main screen and the result screen
with the function keys "F1" and "F2".
Back on the main screen, nap will inform you about any downloads or uploads that have been started or stopped. If you want to see a detailed list of downloads that are currently going on, type
/pdown
This will tell you, among other things, how far each download has
progressed.
If you want to delete a particular download, first find out what its
number is by using /pdown. Suppose you want to delete
download number 3, then you type
/ddown 3
Files that are currencly downloading are kept in your "incomplete" directory. Once a download has completed, the file is move to your "download" directory. You can specify the location of your "download" and "incomplete" directories on the command line, in the configuration file, or when nap prompts you for this information. If you do not specify a download directory, nap will use the current working directory. If you do not specify an incomplete directory, nap will use the download directory.
Incomplete files of size 100000 bytes or smaller will be considered "turds" and removed; all other incomplete files will be kept in the "incomplete" directory. You can change this behavior; see 5.4. Incompete downloads and turds.
/browse user
and that user's files will appear on the result screen.
/pup to print a
list of current uploads, and /dup n to delete
upload number n from that list.
You can specify one or more upload directories, either in the config file, or on the command line, or when nap prompts you for it. Multiple upload directories are separated by semicolons.
You can use to "up" and "down" keys to scroll through a history list
of previous commands. This will help you save time typing. You can
also use the "tab" key for completing partially typed commands. For
instance, /res[tab] will yield /results.
Press "F1" or type /results to return to the results
screen after a previous search.
You can type /help to see a list of available
commands. (There are so many that you will probably have to use "PgUp"
and "PgDn" to see them all). You can get usage info for a particular
command by typing /help followed by the command name
(without the leading slash).
/quit. If there are any uploads or
downloads going on, nap will refuse to quit unless you type
/quit yes. You can also give the command
/tquit, which will schedule the program to quit after all
current transfers (including queued ones) have been completed. When
/tquit is in effect, no new uploads will be accepted, but
you can still initiate new downloads. You can undo the effect of
/tquit with /unquit, in case you change
your mind.
An emergency exit from nap is to press "Ctrl-C" twice in short succession. Note that a single "Ctrl-C" does not usually cause nap to quit.
Starting with nap version 1.4.5, the OpenNap servers are the default servers that nap will connect to. The OpenNap system is a network of napster servers that are independently owned (not run by Napster, the company). When starting up, nap will automatically download a list of servers from www.napigator.com, and it will connect to the first available one. You can change this behavior if you want; see 7.3. Meta-servers.
nonews=1 in your config file or start nap with the option
-ononews. You can also check for news from the main
screen by typing /news.
If you are behind a firewall, then nap needs to know about it, in
order to be able to compensate for it. However, nap can't find this
out on its own. The way to tell nap that you are behind a firewall is
to set dataport = 0 in your configuration file (see 7. Configuration and user variables).
/search command has several options. They are:
-m n return at most n search results
-l local search: do not search on linked servers
-p toggle sending ping requests
-f list full filenames (only if noresultscreen=1)
-b=rate, -b<rate, -b>rate
bitrate equal to, at most, or at least rate.
-c=speed, -c<speed, -c>speed
link speed equal to, at most, or at least speed.
-r=freq, -r<freq, -r>freq
sample rate equal to, at most, or at least freq.
-s=size, -s<size, -s>size
file size equal to, at most, or at least
size, in bytes (OpenNap only).
The "-s" option only works on OpenNap servers; it has no effect on Napster.
The "-l" option will cause the search to only be performed on the server you're connected to, and not on any other servers that might be linked to it in a network.
The "-m" option limits the number of results returned. However, even if n is greater than 100, most servers will only return 100 results.
/search command, or by setting the user variable
noping to 1.
Nap implements pings via a separate helper application called "napping". The reason is that sending and receiving ping packets requires raw network protocol access, which usually requires root privileges on linux. However, it would be dangerous to run nap with root privileges. The program "napping", written by Sebastian Zagrodzki, solves this problem. Napping is a very small program which is called by nap to handle pings. Napping, unlike nap, can be run "suid", i.e., with root privileges. This is safe because napping drops root privileges immediately after opening the network socket, which is in fact the first thing it does.
For napping to work, it must be installed somewhere in your $PATH, it must be owned by root, and it must have "suid" permissions. Thus, the permissions of napping should look like this:
-rwsr-xr-x 1 root root 48417 Aug 29 17:54 napping*
The "s" in the permissions is called the "suid" bit, and it means that
napping will be run with the effective user id of root, rather than
that of the user who actually runs it. You can set the right ownership
and permissions with the following commands (assuming that napping is
installed in /usr/local/bin):
chown root:root /usr/local/bin/napping
chmod 4755 /usr/local/bin/napping
You can specify an alternative name for the napping program by setting
the napping user variable. You can also use this to
specify an absolute filename, which is useful in case napping is
installed outside your $PATH (see 7.2. User
variables).
b - bitrate
l - length
m - megabytes
f - frequency
u - user name
s - speed
p - ping
The "m" key also toggles between displaying the file size in megabytes
and in bytes. Moreover, if you press "a", all categories of
information will be turned on, and if you press "n", they will all be
turned off (i.e., you will only see the filenames).
The search results can also be sorted by various different criteria. Pressing the uppercase equivalents of the above keys ("B", "L", etc) will sort the search results by that particular category (bitrate, length...). You can also press "N" (uppercase) to sort by filename. If you press a sort key more than once, the items will alternately be sorted in ascending and descending order.
When you sort, the cursor will remain on the same item that it was
on. Thus, if your cursor is on an item shared by a particular user,
and you press "U", you will see other items of the same user
nearby. Notice that after sorting, the search results are re-numbered
starting from 1. Any subsequent /get commands must use
the new numbering. (The sorting feature was introduced in version
1.4.4-ps9).
If you prefer an appearance of the search result screen different from
the default appearance, you can set the sdefaults user
variable to a string of key strokes executed when that screen is
initialized. The default is "blsp". You can set it, for instance, to
"lspmm" if you don't want to see the bitrate, but instead the file
size in bytes. You can also set it to something like "blspN" if you
like your results sorted by name, rather than by connection
speed. Note that ping results will only be displayed if they are
actually available, and connection speeds will not be displayed for
browse results.
In addition, nap will, by default, delete any incomplete files whose size is 100000 bytes or smaller. Nap considers such files "turds": they are too small to be of any value, and just tend to clutter up your hard drive. You can override the default cutoff of 100000 bytes by setting the user variable "turdsize" (see 7.2. User variables). In particular, if you set turdsize to 0, only empty files will be deleted, and if you set it to -1, no files will be deleted at all.
Note that the turdsize only applies to incomplete files. Nap will never delete a completed file, even if the file size is very small.
Note that the convention on incomplete files makes it possible to choose the same directory as your download directory and your incomplete directory (incomplete files will still be recognizable because they have the suffix ".incomplete"). On the other hand, you may choose to include your download directory in your upload path. However, you should never include your incomplete directory in your upload path, as people will probably not be too happy about downloading your incomplete files.
Previous versions of nap got very confused when you tried to download two files with identical names. Nap would append one file to the end of the other, or worse. Fortunately, with version 1.4.4-ps8, you don't have to worry about this problem any more; nap will automatically choose a different name for a file if necessary.
maxdownloads. By default, there is no limit.
You can also set a limit on the number of simultaneous downloads from
each user. This is useful if you're on a fast connection, but you are
downloading files from remote users who are potentially on a slow
connection. The per-user uploads limit is the value of the user
variable maxdownuser, if any. By default, there is no
limit.
If you requested more downloads than the current limits can support,
your remaining downloads will be queued. They will be listed
along with all other downloads by /pdown command. If you
want to force a queued item to start downloading now, you can do so
with the /force command.
Items which are stopped (finished, interrupted, timed out, or failed)
are no longer automatically removed from the download list. By
default, they remain on the list until you remove them explicitly. You
can delete individual items from the list with the /ddown
command, or you can clean up all stopped items with the
/purgedown command. If you prefer stopped items to be
automatically purged, you can set the user variable
autopurge to 0. In general, autopurge, if
set, defines the number of seconds an item will stay in the download
list after it is stopped.
The command /retry n will put an interrupted,
timed out, or failed item back in the download queue. The command
/retryall will put all such items back in the download
queue.
A new feature in version 1.4.6 is the ability to limit the output of
the /pdown command to certain classes of downloads. Just
type
/pdown [filter]
where filter is any combinations of the letters "d", "q", "s",
"f". These stand respectively for "downloading", "queued", "succeeded",
and "failed". Then only the respective downloads will be
displayed.
/pup, you can
delete items from it with /dup, you can delete all
stopped items with /purgeup or by setting
autopurge. The handy command /purge purges
both the up- and download lists at the same time.
If maxuploads is set, it defined a limit on the total
number of simultaneous uploads. A per-user limit can be set in the
variable maxupuser.
bandwidthup, bandwidthup1,
bandwidthdown, bandwidthdown1. See 7.2. User variables.
It is possible to change the bandwidth limits at any time. Such changes will immediately take effect, even for transfers that are already in progress. Note that bandwidth limits for downloads only affect the rate at which nap reads data, not the rate at which data arrives from the network. If data arrives on the network at a higher rate than nap reads it, then the operating system will usually buffer such data. Thus, the actual network bandwidth may not go down until the buffer is full.
If you plan to limit your upload bandwidth, please be sure to claim an appropriate connection speed. This is out of fairness to other users. For instance, if you limit your bandwidth to 10k/s, you should probably set your connection speed to 56k, even if you are really on a T3 connection. To some extent, nap will try to enforce this kind of etiquette.
/browse2, which works essentially the same way
as /browse, except it gets the file list directly from
the other client, rather than from the server. Nap supports both
outgoing direct browsing connections (you browsing another client's
files) and incoming ones (another client browsing your files).
There are several caveats which limit the usefulness of direct browsing. The most important is that not many other clients support it. So you will be out of luck if you are trying to directly browse a client that does not support it - most likely, your browsing request will time out after 30 seconds. Nufsi, who implemented direct browsing support for nap, writes: "Of the Napster-branded clients, only BETA 8 and BETA 9 support it, but even those clients don't support directly browsing a firewalled remote client. I think the only other client I found that supports direct browsing is Lopster."
Another caveat is that if your direct browsing request leads to an error of some kind, there is no way to stop it, and you will not be able to perform another search until the direct browsing request times out after 30 seconds. This is because, due to a bug in OpenNap, nap has no way of differentiating between an error due to a direct browsing request and any other kind of error.
/msg user msg
If you don't want to receive such messages from a particular user, you
can ignore the user by typing
/ignore user
You will no longer see that user's messages or files. If you have
regrets later, you can also /unignore a user. To see a
list of users you are currently ignoring, just type
/ignore without any arguments.
If you intend to carry on an extended conversation with another user,
it quickly becomes annoying to type /msg user all
the time. You can tell nap which user you want to talk to by
"querying" that user:
/query user
Nap will now open a private channel to that user. The name of the user
you are querying will be shown on the top blue status line, and also
at the command prompt. You can now talk to the user just by typing
messages and hitting return. Messages can be distinguished from
commands because commands start with a "/". If you query more than one
user, or you are querying a user while also on a channel, you can
switch between users and channels by pressing "Ctrl-X". If you want to
end the query with a user, just type
/part user
You can also just type /part to end the current query.
If you're going to be away from your computer, and you are worried that other users might consider you rude for not replying to them, you can set the user variable "autoreply" to any string which will then be used as an automated reply. For instance, you can set it to "Hi, this is an automated reply. I'm away from my computer. Sorry for not responding personally." Nap will not autoreply a second time to a user it has just autoreplied to; this is to discourage infinite chats between two autoreplying clients!
/clist
or /clist2
to see a list of available channels. /clist lists only
the official channels, while /clist2 also lists
user-defined ones (see 6.3. Creating your own). To
join a channel, type
/join channel
Being on a channel is very similar to querying a user. You can be on
several channels simultaneously. To switch between channels, press
"Ctrl-X". The top blue status line shows the "topic" of the current
channel. Press "Ctrl-T" to scroll the topic if it does not all fit on
the screen. To leave a channel, type
/part channel
You can omit the channel name if you want to leave the current channel.
You can save the set of currently open channels to a file, or join all
the channels previously saved in a file, by typing
/savechannels [filename]
and /loadchannels [filename]
If you omit the filename, the default file
.nap/channels-username (relative to your home
directory) will be used. Also, if the user variable
savechannels is set to "1", nap will save your channels
automatically when quitting and rejoin them when starting. See 7.2. User variables.
While you're on a channel, you will see a special prompt telling you what channel is currently active. To say something on that channel, simply type the message. This is why all command names start with a slash "/": so that when you're on a channel, nap can distinguish between a command and a post to a channel.
A word of caution about double quotes ("). The napster protocol is extremely dumb when it comes to double quotes. It cannot tolerate any data which contains double quotes. Thus nap will replace double quotes by single quotes when you say something to a user or on a channel.
To see a list of all channels you are currently on, type
/pchans. To see a list of users on your active channels,
type /names.
Just like for private messages, you can /ignore a user that is
bothering you. More severe punishments are also available for users
that behave truly inappropriately: you can request to kick a user from
a channel or all channels, or request that a user be muzzled, killed,
or banned. Such measures should of course be taken only under extreme
circumstances, and might be subject to review by the administrators of
your napster server. The corresponding commands are called
/kick, /kickall, /muzzle,
/kill, and /ban. Try
/help command
for more info.
/clist2.
You can set or change the topic on a channel by typing
/topic channel topic
However, this does not work on the official Napster servers. It works
on OpenNap servers, if you are the user who created the channel.
/notify user
and /unnotify user
to add a user to your hotlist, or respectively, to remove a user. To
see who is on your hotlist, and which of those users are currently on
napster, just type /notify without argument.
/hotlist is another name for /notify.
Hotlists in nap are permanent; each time you make a change to your
hotlist, it is automatically saved to a file (usually
~/.nap/hotlist-username). The hotlist is
automatically loaded when nap starts.
napconf and
resides in the directory ~/.nap. The default
configuration file looks something like this (except that the actual
file is rather longer):
# nap config file. Note: for boolean options, 1=true, 0=false # your napster username user=yourname # your napster password - optional pass=yourpasswd # your napster email address email=anon@napster.com # list of upload directories, separated by semicolon upload=/home/yourname/music # your download directory download=/home/yourname/download # your directory for incomplete files incomplete=/home/yourname/incomplete # your connection speed, according to the following chart: # # Connection | Number # ------------------- # Unknown | 0 # 14.4 | 1 # 28.8 | 2 # 33.6 | 3 # 56.7 | 4 # 64K ISDN | 5 # 128K ISDN | 6 # Cable | 7 # DSL | 8 # T1 | 9 # T3 or > | 10 connection=4 # maximal number of simultaneous uploads allowed #maxuploads= # maximum number of simultaneous uploads per user #maxupuser= # maximum number of simultaneous downloads allowed #maxdownloads= # maximum number of simultaneous downloads per user #maxdownuser= # list of servers, separated by semicolon (note: this is now ignored # and overwritten unless nometa is set) #servers= # port or range of ports to use for client-client connections dataport=6699-6799 # log file for transfer logs #logfile= # log file for logging everything #logallfile= |
This is the file which nap will create automatically for you, except it will use the settings that you enter. Note that the password entry is left blank or set to a question mark. If you want, you can edit your configuration file and put your password in it; in this case, nap will not prompt you for it in the future. But nap will never save your password for you; whenever you save your config file, your password will show up as a question mark.
If you tend to use several different accounts on napster, and you don't want to be prompted for passwords, you can now also specify passwords and email addresses for each different account. Simply add some lines such as
pass.username1=passwd1
pass.username2=passwd2
email.username1=email1
email.username2=email2
to your config file. If you specify passwords in this way, it is
understood that you don't want to be prompted for them; thus, such
passwords never get be replaced by "?".
Any options that are set in the configuration file can be overridden on the command line, by using the "-o" option. It is also possible to have more than one alternative configuration file (for instance, if you have two different napster accounts with different usernames and passwords), and to specify on the command line which one to use.
There is also the possibility to read a global configuration
file, usually called /etc/naprc. This file, which follows
the same format as the user configuration file discussed above, is
only read if it exists, and it is read after the user's
configuration file. However, any options previously set will not be
overwritten, so in effect, the user's configuration file takes
precedence over the global one. It is even possible to change the
location of the global configuration file by defining the variable
globalconfigfile in the user's configuration file.
/set variable value
and /unset variable
to set a variable to a value, or to unset a variable. If you just type
/set variable
then the current value of this variable will be displayed. Finally, if
you just type /set, a list of all currently set variables
and their values will be displayed.
Here is an alphabetical list of most user variables that have a special meaning.
announcepongs: If this variable is set to 1,
nap will announce when it receives a PONG packet from the
server. Until version 1.4.4-ps9, this was the default behavior;
however, OpenNap servers tend to send a lot of PONG packets under
circumstances that are not quite clear to me; thus they are now
ignored silently by default.
autopurge: If this variable is set to a
number, stopped item (i.e., failed, finished, incomplete, timed out)
will be automatically deleted from the download list after this many
seconds. If not set or set to -1, stopped items will remain in the
download items indefinitely, until you explicitly remove them.
autoreply: If this variable is set, it
represents a string which will be sent as an automatic reply to any
user who sends you a private message. This might be handy if you are running
nap non-interactively, and you don't want to appear rude by not
replying.
bandwidthdown: global limit on the bandwidth
for downloads, in kB/s.
bandwidthdown1: limit on the bandwidth of a
single download, in kB/s.
bandwidthup: global limit on the bandwidth
for uploads, in kB/s.
bandwidthup1: limit on the bandwidth of a
single upload, in kB/s.
configfile: Predictably, this is the name of
your configuration file. I'm not sure why you would want to change it
in the middle of a session, but you can.
connection: Your connection speed. This is a
number from 0 to 10. See the chart in the sample configuration file
above.
connecttimeout: The number of seconds until
nap times out while making a connection to any one server. The default
is 5 seconds. When set to 0, there is no timeout at all (which can
cause nap to hang indefinitely when trying to connect to a
non-responsive server).
cursorfollowsscreen: If set to 1, the behavior
of the "PgUp" and "PgDn" keys on the search result screen will be
"cursor follows screen", else "screen follows cursor". In case you care.
dataport: The port on your local machine which
remote clients will connect to. It is advisable to give a range or
ports, for instance, 6699-6799, in case your chosen port is already
taken by another program. You should set this to 0 if you are behind a
firewall.
debug: This is the same as the debug level set with
the "-d" option, or with the command /debug.
download: Your download directory, i.e., where
you want complete downloaded files to go. Incomplete files will go to
the incomplete directory.
email: Your email address, as sent to the
server. It is perfectly acceptable to leave this blank. You can also
set email addresses for different usernames by defining variables of
the form email.user.
globalconfigfile: The name of a global
configuration file (default /etc/naprc) which is read
after the user's configuration file, but in a special mode
where no values that are already set are overwritten. This file is
only read on startup.
incomplete: Your incomplete directory, i.e.,
where you want incomplete files to go. Completed downloads are moved
to the download directory.
incompletesuffix: The suffix added to the
filenames of incomplete files. Default is ".incomplete".
libraryfile: The location of your library
file. The default is ~/.nap/shared in your home
directory.
logallfile: If set, this is the name of a file
to which everything that appears on the main screen will be logged.
logfile: If set, this is the name of a file to
which a record of all transfers (up- and downloads) will be logged.
maxdownloads: limits the number of
simultaneous downloads.
maxdownuser: limits the number of
simultaneous downloads for any one user.
maxuploads: limits the number of
simultaneous uploads.
maxupuser: limits the number of
simultaneous uploads for any one user.
metaserver: the URL of a napigator-style
metaserver to retrieve a server list from. The default is
http://www.napigator.com/servers.php.
metatimeout: If non-zero, this specifies the
maximum number of seconds nap will spend trying to connect to the
metaserver. The default is 5 seconds.
napping: The name of the "napping" program to
use. This can also be an absolute filename. The default is "napping"
and is searched for in your $PATH. See also 5.2. Pings.
newstimeout: If non-zero, this specifies the
maximum number of seconds nap will spend looking for news about new
releases while starting up. The default is 5 seconds.
noechosets: If this is set to "1", then the
/set command will not echo back its values to you.
nometa: If set to "1", prevents nap from
contacting the meta-server on startup. This is useful if you would
like to specify your own "servers" variable in your config file.
nonews: If set to "1", nap will not attempt to
look for news about new releases while starting up.
noresultscreen: If this is set to "1", search
results will be listed on the main screen, and not on a special search
results screen. You can then download files with the /get
or /g command.
noscroll: If this is set to "1", then the main
screen does not automatically scroll to the bottom on output.
pass: your napster password. You can also set
passwords for different users by defining variables of the form
email.user.
savechannels: If set to "1" while quitting,
nap will save your open channels to the file
~/.nap/channels-username. If set to "1" while
starting, load and join channels from that file.
savepass: If this is set to "1", nap considers
it okay to store your password in your configuration file. By default,
nap will only store a "?", which means you will be promted for the
password next time you start nap.
sdefaults: A string which determines the
default layout of the search results screen. This is essentially a
sequence of keystrokes which will be executed when the result screen
is initialized, at the time the search results arrive. The default is
"blsp". Use e.g. "ummU" to display only the user name, file size in
bytes, and to sort by user names. Note: ping results and connection
speeds are automatically turned off if that information is
unavailable, so you may safely add them to your defaults.
servers: A list of servers to connect to,
separated by semicolons. Note: as of version 1.4.5, this list is
created automatically by connecting to www.napigator.com (see the
metaserver user variable). Thus, whatever you specify in
your config file will be overwritten, unless you set
nometa to 1.
showtoomanyuploads: If this is set to "1",
display a message each time a remote client requests an upload but our
upload limit is reached. Otherwise, handle it silently.
turdsize: The size of the largest file which
nap will consider a turd. Incomplete files of this or smaller size
will be deleted.
upload: A list of your upload directories
(directories that contain files that you want to share). These have to
be separated by semicolons.
user: Your user name on napster.
/saveconfig filename
and /loadconfig filename
The filename can be omitted, in which case your settings will
be saved to your default configuration file (usually
~/.nap/napconf).
/reconnect commands.
If you want the server list to be refreshed while you are already
logged into nap, use the /getservers command. This will
reset the "servers" user variable to the current list of available
servers. If you want to leave the server that you are currently on and
connect to the next available server on the list, type
/reconnect. To see which server you are currently
connected to, type /server. To connect to a specific
server, type
/server IP:port
To see the current list of servers, type /set servers.
The URL to look for a server list can be customized by setting the "metaserver" user variable to the desired URL. Note that the format of the servers file must be that used by napigator. The timeout for the connection to the metaserver can be set with the "metatimeout" variable. The default is 5 seconds. If you would like to define your own "servers" variable in you config file and do not want it to be overwritten on startup, add "nometa=1" to your config file.
It is still possible to specify a particular server to connect to on the command line. Whenever you specify a "-s" option on the command line, nap will respect this and not get a server list from the metaserver.
~/.nap/shared. This file is called the "library". Normally,
when you start nap, it will automatically detect whether the
information in the library is up-to-date, and rebuild it if
necessary. This may take a few moments, especially if you are sharing
a lot of files.
You can force nap to rebuild your library by giving it the
--build or --build-only options. Conversely,
you can prevent it from building the library, even if it is out of
date, by giving the --nobuild. This might be useful if
you want to start two copies of nap simultaneously and you don't want
them to interfere building the same library.
You can also issue the /update command from within nap,
which will check if your library is up-to-date, and rebuild it if
necessary. This is useful, for instance, if you have added new files
to your upload directories while nap is already running. It is also
possible to change your upload directories while nap is running,
either by /set upload or by using the special
/chupload command. But when you change your upload path,
it is still necessary to rebuild your library for the changes to take
effect. The /rebuild command works like
/update, except it builds your library no matter whether
it was up-to-date or not.
The other reason some files do not show up is that nap does a basic sanity check on your mp3 files before it adds them to your shared library. It will refuse to share any files that it considers broken. Usually, this means the file does not start with a proper mp3 frame header. (However, nap does recognize id3v2 style headers correctly). Often this means that a few bytes of music have been cut off from the beginning of the file, after the file was originally created.
It is my belief that the overall quality of music files on the network will improve if clients prevent users from sharing broken files. After all, wouldn't you rather download a good mp3 file than a crappy one? If you have some extremely valuable mp3 which you feel you absolutely must share, but nap prevents you from doing so, please consider repairing the file first using some other software. For example, notlame is a high quality free mp3 encoder which allows you, among other things, to reencode existing mp3 files. You just type something like
notlame --mp3input infile outfile
Needless to say that this process does not actually fix any
audibly problems with mp3 files.
(There are some cases of legitimate mp3 files which nap does not recognize. This is usually due to the presence of other non-standard headers. If nap does not recognize your favorite header, let me know, preferably with a spec of that header type, and I'll see what I can do to make nap recognize it).
/alias name replacement
For instance, if you type
/alias x get $1
this will define "x" to be an alias, and you can henceforth type "/x
arg" instead of "/get arg". In the replacement text, you can use
variables such as "$1", "$2" etc to stand for the first, second
argument and so on. You can also use "$1-" to stand for the first and
all remaining arguments, "$2-" for the second and all remaining
arguments, and so on. This is useful, for instance, in a alias like
this:
/alias s search -b>128 -c>7 $1-
The replacement text for an alias can contain several commands
separated by "|", as in
/alias f finger $1 | browse $1
or /alias i ignore user1 | ignore user2 | ignore user3
Commands can also be grouped with braces "{" and "}". It is also
possible, although maybe less useful, to construct more complex
aliases, using control features such as "if" and "while".
To see a list of aliases currently defined, just type
/alias without any arguments. To undefine an alias, use
the /unalias command. Aliases can also be saved and
loaded from a file with the /savealias and
/loadalias commands. By default, alias are saved in and
loaded from the file "~/.nap/aliases". This file is also automatically
loaded every time your start nap.
There is also the ability to add user-defined "handlers". Handlers are similar to aliases, but they react to messages from the server, rather than to commands from the user. Handlers are automatically loaded from a file "~/.nap/handlers", and they can also be saved there.
The particular syntax and semantics of aliases and handlers is a bit obscure, and to my knowledge it has not been documented anywhere. If you ever have any use for them (other than defining a shortcut for a command), let me know.
Nap's daemon mode allows you to do exactly that. If you invoke nap as follows:
nap --daemon --autorestart
it will connect to the napster server and then run silently. While
connecting, it will still print the usual informational messages, and
prompt you for any missing information. As soon as the connection
succeeds, it will print something like
Connected to 208.184.216.40:8888
and then fall silent. It will produce no further output, nor react to
input. Moreover, if your config file is complete, and you are sure
that nap will not prompt you for any information, you can even
suppress the informational messages by redirecting its output:
nap --daemon --autorestart > /dev/null
By the way, the --autorestart option is so that nap will
automatically reconnect whenever it detects that it has been
disconnected from the server. It tries to do this at most once a
second, so that your computer will not overheat in case you get
disconnected from the network. Using this method, I have been able to
run nap unsupervised for days and even weeks at a time.
Two words of caution on using the --autorestart feature:
nap may not always be able to detect when you have been disconnected
from the server; thus autorestart may not always be triggered
(although it has worked okay for me). Also, do not try to run two
copies of nap with the same username and both with autorestart
enabled; the napster network will allow at most one simultaneous
session per username, and the two copies of nap will continue to kick
each other out until the end of time.
If you feel uncomfortable with nap's silence, and you would rather like to see whether it is actually working (and not just dozing off), you have the ability to write something to a log file. The option
--log logfile
will cause nap to log all uploads and downloads to the specified
file. (But beware that log files might later be used against you
in court). If you'd like even more information, you can specify
--logall logfile2
and nap will log everything that would have normally been written to
the main screen to that file. Note that these log files can take up a
tremendous amount of disk space, so you might want to delete them and
restart nap periodically, for instance once a week. If a log file
already exists, nap will append its output to the end of the existing file.
nohup nap --daemon --autorestart --log logfile >/dev/null &
Note that you have to put an explicit ampersand "&", or otherwise the
process will not fork to the background. To stop such a process, you
will have to kill it explicitly, by saying
kill -KILL pid
or killall -KILL nap
where pid is the process id, as reported by the command
ps -e. The second form kills all processes whose name is
nap.
On my system, I use a shell script called server, which automates these tasks. Here
is the script:
#! /bin/bash
napservers="-s 63.196.54.15:8888"
napservers="$napservers -s 63.196.54.248:8888"
napservers="$napservers -s 63.196.54.4:8888"
# etc
if [ $# -gt 0 ]; then
action=$1
shift
else
action=start
fi
if [ $# -gt 0 ]; then
target=$1
shift
else
target=all
fi
do_action () {
local action target
action=$1
target=$2
case $action in
start )
do_action stop $target
if [ "$target" = all -o "$target" = gnut ]; then
echo -n "Starting gnut "
nohup gnut -d >/dev/null &
echo $! > gnut.pid
echo "(PID $!)"
fi
if [ "$target" = all -o "$target" = nap ]; then
echo -n "Starting nap "
nohup nap --daemon --reconnect --autorestart $napservers --log nap.log >/dev/null &
echo $! > nap.pid
echo "(PID $!)"
fi
;;
stop )
if [ "$target" = all -o "$target" = gnut ] && [ -r gnut.pid ]; then
pid=`cat gnut.pid`
echo "Stopping gnut (PID $pid)"
kill -KILL $pid
rm gnut.pid
fi
if [ "$target" = all -o "$target" = nap ] && [ -r nap.pid ]; then
pid=`cat nap.pid`
echo "Stopping nap (PID $pid)"
kill -KILL $pid
rm nap.pid
fi
;;
esac
}
do_action $action $target
|
This shell script illustrates a number of things: first, note the use of the "-s" option to pass an alternative list of server addresses to nap. Second, the script can be used to start and stop not only nap, but also gnut, another neat file sharing client for linux (gnut is a Gnutella client). Third, the script automatically saves the process id so that it knows how to stop the process later.
I invoke this script as follows:
./server start nap (to start or restart nap)
./server stop nap (to stop nap)
./server start gnut (ditto for gnut)
./server stop all (stop them both)
If you do not have an account on napster yet, you can easily use nap to create a new account. Just type
nap -m -u username
You will be prompted for your password and email address as usual, and
possibly for some other information. Then your account will be
created, and you immediately get logged into your new account. If the
username is already taken, you will get an error message (or several)
to that effect; you'll have to choose a different username until you
find one that is not taken.
Usage: nap [options]
Options:
-h, --help - print this help message
-v, --version - print version info and exit
-b, --build - build library of your current mp3s to send to server
-B, --build-only - build library and exit
-N, --nobuild - do not build library, even if it is out of date
-m, --create - create a new account with the napster server (obsolete)
-r, --reconnect - keep reconnecting until server connection established
-a, --autorestart - automatically reconnect when connection to server lost
-q, --daemon - run without user interface; file sharing only
-t, --notitle - do not display the title bar (fixes messed-up displays)
-l, --nxterm - try using a terminal which is compatible with most
systems (fixes some messed-up displays)
-T, --transparent - use the terminal's default background instead of black
-f fn, --config fn - specifies the config file to use (default ~/.nap/napconf)
-x fn, --log fn - log all transfers to a specific filename
-g fn, --logall fn - log everything to a specific filename
-s sv, --server sv - select a specific server (multiple -s opts possible)
-d n, --debug n - set debug level
-u str, --user str - specify napster username
-p str, --pass str - specify user's password
-e str, --email str - specify user's email address
-U dir, --upload dir - specify upload directory (multiple -U opts possible)
-D dir, --download dir - specify download directory
-I dir, --incomplete dir - specify directory for incomplete files
-P n, --dataport n - specify local data port to use
-C n, --connection n - specify connection speed number (see README)
-M n, --maxuploads n - specify maximum number of simultaneous uploads
-o var=value, --option var=value - set user variable
/help. Some command have additional
options which are not documented.
about alias aliaslist announce ban banlist block blocklist break browse browse2 cban cbanlist chupload clear clearalias clearhandler clist clist2 cloak conf cunban ddown dec debug disconnect dns done dup echo eval exec finger force g get getservers gusers handler handlerlist help hotlist if ignore ignoreclear ignorelist inc irc join kick kickall kill lastlog loadalias loadchannels loadconfig loadhandler me msg muzzle names news noprint notify opsay part pchans pdown ping psocks pup purge purgedown purgeup pvars query q quit rebuild reconnect reload results retry retryall savealias savechannels saveconfig savehandler say search serv server set setdataport setlevel setlinespeed setpassword setuserlevel sraw stop sver tell timer tlist topic tquit unalias unban unblock unhandler unignore unmuzzle unnotify unquit unset update while whois window wstats
/about - Shows credits
/alias [name] [args] - Creates an alias, or lists current aliases
/aliaslist - Shows current list of aliases
/announce msg - Broadcasts a message to all users
/ban [user/IP] - Bans the specified user or IP, or lists banned users
/banlist - Prints a list of the current bans on the server
/block [IP] [reason] - Blocks the specified IP, or lists blocked users
/blocklist - Gives a list of current blocked users
/break - Breaks out of a loop
/browse user - Browses user's files
/browse2 user - Directly browses user's files
/cban [user] [reason] - Bans a user from a channel, or lists banned users
/cbanlist - Returns a list of banned users in a channel
/chupload path - Changes your upload path (still need to /rebuild to update your files)
/clear - Clears your screen buffer
/clearalias - Clears all aliases
/clearhandler - Clears all handlers
/clist - Gets a list of channels
/clist2 - Gets a list of channels (includes user created)
/cloak - Cloaks yourself
/conf - No help available
/cunban user [reason] - Unbans a user from a channel
/ddown number or range - Deletes downloads by number as returned from /pdown
/dec - Decreases the variable by one
/debug level - Sets debug level
/disconnect - Disconnects you from the server
/dns host/IP - Attempts to resolve the specified address
/done - Ends an alias
/dup number or range - Deletes uploads by number as returned from /pup
/echo text - Echos text to the screen
/eval name - Returns the value of a variable
/exec [-o] command - Executes a command from a shell and redirects the input to the client
/finger user - Gets information on the specified user
/force number or range - Forces download of queued items, overriding download limit
/g number or range - Gets files by number as returned from /search
/get number or range - Gets files by number as returned from /search
/getservers - Read server list from napigator-style metaserver
/gusers - Gets a global list of users
/handler [code] [args] - Adds a handler, or lists current handlers
/handlerlist - Returns a list of handlers created
/help command - Returns help on the specified command
/hotlist [user] - Adds a user to your hotlist, or shows current hotlist
/if (val op val) cmd - Compares two values
/ignore [user] - Ignores a user, or lists all ignored users
/ignoreclear - Clears your ignore list
/ignorelist - Lists ignored users
/inc var - Increases the variable by 1
/irc - No help available
/join [chan] - Joins the specified channel, or lists all channels
/kick user [reason] - Kicks a user from a channel
/kickall user [reason] - Kicks a user from all channels you and the user are in
/kill user - Kills the specified user
/lastlog str - Returns all occurences of "str" that have been said or printed
/loadalias [filename] - Loads a list of aliases from a file
/loadchannels [filename] - Reads channels from a filename and joins them
/loadconfig [filename] - Loads a list of settings from a filename
/loadhandler [filename] - Loads a list of handlers from a filename
/me string - Does an emotion
/msg user msg - Sends the user the message specified
/muzzle user msg - Muzzles the user with the specified message
/names channel - Gets a list of channel users
/news - Checks for any news on the client
/noprint - Stops the client from echoing anything until the command returns
/notify [user] - Adds a user to your hotlist, or shows current hotlist
/opsay msg - Broadcasts a message to all moderators/admins/elite
/part [chan/user] - Parts the specified or current channel or query
/pchans - Shows which channels you are on
/pdown - Gives a listing of your current downloads
/ping user - Pings a user
/psocks - Print the socket list (for debugging purposes)
/pup - Gives a listing of your current uploads
/purge - Removes all stopped items from upload and download lists
/purgedown - Removes all stopped items from download list
/purgeup - Removes all stopped items from upload list
/pvars - Prints the values of all variables currently set
/query user - Queries a user
/q - Closes the program
/quit - Closes the program
/rebuild - Rebuilds your library unconditionally. See also /update
/reconnect - Reconnects you to the next available server on the list
/reload - No help available
/reloadm - Reloads the user command module (only if supported)
/results - Switches to the search results screen
/retry number or range - Puts stopped downloads back in the download queue
/retryall - Puts all stopped downloads back in the download queue
/savealias [filename] - Saves current aliases
/savechannels [filename] - Saves current channels to a filename
/saveconfig [filename] - Saves current settings to a filename
/savehandler [filename] - Saves current handlers to a filename
/say msg - Sends msg to the current channel
/search [-b>bitrate] [-c>speed] [-f>freq] [-s>size] [-mmaxresults] [-l] [-p] [-f] query - Searches the napster database
/serv [IP:port] - Connects to the specificed server and port, or shows current server and port
/server [IP:port] - Connects to the specificed server and port, or shows current server and port
/set [name] [value] - Sets a user variable, or prints current values
/setdataport user port - Sets a user's data port
/setlevel channel level - ?
/setlinespeed user speed - Changes a user's linespeed
/setpassword user password - Sets a user's password
/setuserlevel user level - Changes a user's userlevel
/sraw - No help available
/stop - Returns from the current command and stops all processing on it
/sver - Returns the server version
/tell user msg - Sends the user the message specified
/timer min:sec cmd - Initiates a timer to execute in the specified time
/tlist - Prints out a list of the current timers
/topic channel topic - Changes a channel's topic
/tquit - Quits when all remaining transfers have completed. Can be canceled with /unquit
/unalias name - Removes an alias
/unban IP - Unbans the specified IP
/unblock IP - Unblocks the specified IP
/unhandler code - Removes a handler
/unignore user - Unignores a user
/unmuzzle user - Unmuzzles the user
/unnotify user - Removes a user from your hotlist
/unquit - Cancels the effect of /tquit
/unset name - Unsets a variable
/update - Rebuilds your library if necessary. See also /rebuild
/while (val op val) cmd - Keeps executing cmd while the comparison is true
/whois user - Gets information on the specified user
/window - Enables/disables window mode
/wstats - No help available