DRAWTERM(8)
NAME
drawterm − connect to Plan 9 CPU servers from other operating systems
SYNOPSIS
drawterm [ -a authaddr ] [ -c cpuaddr ] [ -d depth ] [ -r root ] [ -nm ]
DESCRIPTION
Drawterm is not a Plan 9 program. It is a program that users of non-Plan 9 systems can use to establish graphical cpu(1) connections with Plan 9 CPU servers. Just as a real Plan 9 terminal does, drawterm serves its local name space as well as some devices (the keyboard, mouse, and screen) to a remote CPU server, which mounts this name space on /mnt/term and starts a shell. Typically, either explicitly or via the profile, one uses the shell to start rio(1).
By default, drawterm uses the CPU server CPUSERV and the authentication server AUTHSERV. The -a and -c options specify alternate servers. (Edit the source to set appropriate local values for the variables AUTHSERV and CPUSERV).
On Windows systems, the file system served by the terminal (and mounted on /mnt/term) is the tree rooted at c:/. The -r option specifies a different file system root. In Windows, the depth of the virtual screen provided by drawterm matches the depth of the actual screen. To present a screen with a different depth, use the -d option. Both options do nothing on non-Windows systems.
The -n option causes drawterm to prompt for authentication via netkey-style challenge/response rather than using the password-based protocol typically used by terminals.
By default, drawterm queues mouse events to guard against lost events due to network latency. The -m option turns this behavior off.
Drawterm has been ported to Digital Unix, Irix, Linux, Solaris, and Windows. Binaries are kept in /sys/src/cmd/unix/drawterm/bin.
SOURCE
/sys/src/cmd/unix/drawterm
DIAGNOSTICS
The Unix versions of drawterm print diagnostics to standard error. The Windows version displays message boxes.
SEE ALSO
BUGS
Although at first drawterm may seem like a Plan 9 terminal, in fact it is just a way to provide a CPU server with some terminal devices. The difference is important because one cannot run terminal-resident programs when using drawterm. The illusion can be improved by delicate adjustments in /usr/$user/lib/profile.
It would be nice to be able to change the default servers without recompiling.
Plan 9 — May 15, 2000