1 <!-- $Id: client.xml,v 1.7 2001-11-27 22:12:24 adam Exp $ -->
2 <chapter id="client"><title>The YAZ client</title>
3 <sect1 id="client.introduction"><title>Introduction</title>
5 yaz-client is a line-mode Z39.50 client. It supports a fair amount
6 of the functionality of the Z39.50-1995 standard, but some things you
7 need to enable or disable by re-compilation.
8 Its primary purpose is to exercise the
9 package, and verify that the protocol works OK.
10 For the same reason some commands offers more functionality than others.
11 Commands that exercises common Z39.50 services such as search and present
12 have more features than less common supported services, such as Extended
13 Services (ItemOrder, ItemUpdate,..).
16 <sect1 id="client.invoking"><title>Invoking the YAZ client</title>
18 It can be started by typing
21 yaz-client [<replaceable>options</replaceable>] [<replaceable>zurl</replaceable>]
24 in a UNIX shell / WIN32 console. The <replaceable>zurl</replaceable>,
25 specifies a Z39.50 host and, if specified, the client first tries to
26 establish connection with the Z39.50 target on the host.
27 Options are, as usual, are prefixed by <literal>-</literal> followed
28 by a particular letter.
31 The following options are supported:
35 <literal>-m</literal> <replaceable>fname</replaceable>
37 <simpara>ISO2709 records are appended to file
38 <replaceable>fname</replaceable>. All records as returned by a target(s)
39 in Search Responses and Present Responses are appended verbatim to
44 <literal>-a</literal> <replaceable>fname</replaceable>
46 <simpara>Pretty-print log of APDUs sent and received is appended
47 to the file <replaceable>fname</replaceable>.
48 If <replaceable>fname</replaceable> is <literal>-</literal> (minus)
49 the APDU log is written to <literal>stderr</literal>.
53 <literal>-c</literal> <replaceable>fname</replaceable>
55 <simpara>Sets the filename for CCL fields to
56 <replaceable>fname</replaceable>. If this option is not given the
57 YAZ client reads CCL fields from file <literal>default.bib</literal>.
61 <literal>-v</literal> <replaceable>level</replaceable>
63 <simpara>Sets the LOG level to <replaceable>level</replaceable>.
64 Level is a sequence of tokens separated by comma. Each token
65 is a integer or a named LOG item - one of
66 <literal>fatal</literal>,
67 <literal>debug</literal>,
68 <literal>warn</literal>,
69 <literal>log</literal>,
70 <literal>all</literal>,
71 <literal>none</literal>.
76 In order to connect to Index Data's test Z39.50 server on
77 <literal>bagel.indexdata.dk</literal>, port 210 and with the
78 database name marc, one would have to type
81 yaz-client bagel.indexdata.dk:210/marc
84 In order to enable APDU log and connect to localhost, port 210 (default)
85 and database Default (default) you'd write:
88 yaz-client -a - localhost
91 <sect1 id="client.commands"><title>Commands</title>
93 When the YAZ client has read options and connected to a target, if given,
94 it will display <literal>Z ></literal> and away your command.
95 Commands are executed by hitting the return key.
96 You can always issue the command <literal>?</literal> to see the list
97 of available commands.
100 The commands are (the letters in parenthesis are short
101 names for the commands):
105 <literal>open </literal><replaceable>zurl</replaceable>
107 <term><literal>o</literal></term>
109 <para>Opens a connection to a server. The syntax for
110 <replaceable>zurl</replaceable> is the same as described
111 above for connecting from the command line.
117 [<literal>(tcp|ssl)':'</literal>]<replaceable>host</replaceable>[:<replaceable>port</replaceable>][/<replaceable>base></replaceable>]
122 <literal>quit</literal>
124 <term><literal>q</literal></term>
126 <para>Ends YAZ client</para>
130 <literal>f </literal><replaceable>query</replaceable></term>
132 <para>Sends a Search Request using the <replaceable>query</replaceable>
138 <literal>delete</literal> <replaceable>setname</replaceable></term>
140 <para>Deletes result set with name <replaceable>setname</replaceable>
141 on the server.</para>
145 <literal>base </literal><replaceable>base1</replaceable>
146 <replaceable>base2</replaceable> ...
149 <para>Sets the name(s) of the database(s) to search. One or more
150 databases may be specified separated by blanks. This commands overrides
151 the database given in <replaceable>zurl</replaceable>.
156 <literal>show </literal> [<replaceable>start</replaceable>[+<replaceable>number</replaceable>]]
158 <term><literal>s</literal></term>
160 <para>Fetches records by sending a Present Request from the start
162 <replaceable>start</replaceable>
163 a number of records given by <replaceable>number</replaceable>. If
164 <replaceable>start</replaceable> is not given, then the client
165 will fetch from position of the last retrieved record plus 1. If
166 <replaceable>number</replaceable> is not given, then one record will
167 be fetched at a time.
172 <literal>scan</literal> <replaceable>term</replaceable>
176 database index for a term. The syntax resembles the syntax
177 for <literal>find</literal>.
178 If you want to scan for the word <literal>water</literal> you could
185 but if you want to scan only in, say the title field, you would write
192 <varlistentry id="sortspec"><term>
193 <literal>sort</literal> <replaceable>sortspecs</replaceable>
196 <para>Sorts a result set. The sort command takes a
197 sequence of sort specifications. A sort
198 specification holds a field (sort criteria) and is followed by flags.
199 If the sort criteria includes <literal>=</literal> it is assumed
200 that the sort SortKey is of type sortAttributes using Bib-1.
201 The integer before <literal>=</literal> is
202 the attribute type and the integer following <literal>=</literal>
203 is the attribute value.
204 If no <literal>=</literal> is in the SortKey it is treated as a
205 sortfield-type of type InternationalString.
206 Flags observed are: <literal>s</literal>
207 for case sensitive, <literal>i</literal> for case insensitive,
208 <literal><</literal> for sort ascending and <literal>></literal>
214 <literal>sort+</literal>
217 <para>Same as <literal>sort</literal> but stores the sorted
218 result set in a new result set.
223 <literal>authentication</literal> <replaceable>openauth</replaceable>
226 <para>Sets up a authentication string if a server requires
227 authentication (v2 OpenStyle). The authentication string is first
228 sent to the server when the <literal>open</literal> command is
229 issued and the Z39.50 Initialize Request is sent, so this command
230 must be used before <literal>open</literal> in order to be effective.
231 A common convention for the <replaceable>authopen</replaceable> string
232 is that the username - and password is separated by a slash, e.g.
233 <literal>myusername/mysecret</literal>.
238 <literal>lslb</literal> <replaceable>n</replaceable>
241 <para>Sets the limit for when no records should be returned
242 together with the search result.
245 url="http://lcweb.loc.gov/z3950/agency/markup/04.html#3.2.2.1.6">
254 <literal>ssub</literal> <replaceable>n</replaceable>
257 <para>Sets the limit for when all records should be returned with
261 url="http://lcweb.loc.gov/z3950/agency/markup/04.html#3.2.2.1.6">
263 </ulink> for more details.
269 <literal>mspn</literal> <replaceable>n</replaceable>
272 <para>Sets the number of records should be returned if the
273 number of records in the result set is between the values of
274 <literal>lslb</literal> and <literal>ssub</literal>.
277 url="http://lcweb.loc.gov/z3950/agency/markup/04.html#3.2.2.1.6">
285 <literal>status</literal>
288 <para>Displays the values of <literal>lslb</literal>,
289 <literal>ssub</literal> and <literal>mspn</literal>.
294 <literal>setname</literal>
297 <para>Switches named result sets on and off. Default is on.
302 <literal>cancel</literal>
305 <para>Sends a Trigger Resource Control Request to the target.
310 <literal>format</literal> <replaceable>oid</replaceable>
313 <para>Sets the preferred transfer syntax for retrieved records.
314 yaz-client supports all the record syntaxes that currently
317 url="http://lcweb.loc.gov/z3950/agency/defns/oids.html#5">
320 for more details. Commonly used records syntaxes include usmarc,
326 <literal>elements</literal> <replaceable>e</replaceable>
329 <para>Sets the element set name for the records. Many targets support
330 element sets are B (for brief) and F (for full).
335 <literal>close</literal>
338 <para>Sends a Z39.50 Close APDU and closes connection with the peer
343 <literal>querytype</literal> <replaceable>type</replaceable>
346 <para>Sets the query type as used by command <literal>find</literal>.
347 The following is supported: <literal>prefix</literal> for
348 <link linkend="PQF">Prefix Query Notation</link> (Type-1 Query);
349 <literal>ccl</literal> for CCL search (Type-2
350 Query) or <literal>ccl2rpn</literal> for
351 <link linkend="CCL">CCL</link> to RPN conversion (Type-1 Query).
356 <literal>attributeset</literal> <replaceable>set</replaceable>
360 Sets attribute set OID for prefix queries (RPN, Type-1).
365 <literal>refid</literal> <replaceable>id</replaceable>
368 <para>Sets reference ID for Z39.50 Request(s).
373 <literal>itemorder</literal>
374 <replaceable>type</replaceable> <replaceable>no</replaceable>
377 <para>Sends an Item Order Request using the ILL External.
378 <replaceable>type</replaceable> is either 1 or 2 which corresponds to
379 ILL-Profile 1 and 2 respectively. The <replaceable>no</replaceable>
380 is the Result Set position of the record to be ordered.
385 <literal>update</literal>
388 <para>Sends Item Update Request. This command sends a "minimal"
389 PDU to the target supplying the last received record from the target.
390 If no record has been received from the target this command is ignored
391 and nothing is sent to the target.
397 <sect1 id="client.searching"><title>Searching</title>
399 The simplest example of a Prefix Query would be something like
407 In those queries no attributes was specified.
408 This leaves it up to the server what fields to search but
409 most servers will search in all fields. Some servers does not
410 support this feature though, and require that some attributes
411 are defined. To add one attribute you could do:
415 where we search in the title field, since the use(1) is title(4).
416 If we want to search in the author field <emphasis>and</emphasis>
417 in the title field, and in the title field using right truncation
418 it could look something like this:
420 f @and @attr 1=1003 knuth @attr 1=4 @attr 5=1 computer
422 Finally using a mix of Bib-1 and GILS attributes could look
425 f @attrset Bib-1 @and @attr GILS 1=2008 Washington @attr 1=21 weather
427 For the full specification of the Prefix Query see the section
428 <link linkend="PQF">Prefix Query Format</link>.
433 <!-- Keep this comment at the end of the file
438 sgml-minimize-attributes:nil
439 sgml-always-quote-attributes:t
442 sgml-parent-document: "yaz.xml"
443 sgml-local-catalogs: nil
444 sgml-namecase-general:t