The txtclient is an extremely simple program with a very limited amount of functionality

The port number you supply should be the port number of a running PREDATOR
server. If no host name is provided, the server is presumed to be running on the
same host as the client. If the connection to the server is made, you will see
the "Q>" prompt at the client, while there will be some diagnostic messages at the
server window to indicate the connection establishment. Type "list rels;" at the
client. If there were the appropriate environment variables provided to the server,
you should see the names of the catalog files in that device. Multiple clients can
connect at the same time to the same server. They must all connect to the same
server port. All commands typed into the Text Client Program must be terminated
with a semi-colon ";". You can terminate the client connection by typing "_quit;".

Troubleshooting

Here are some possible causes of problems, and their symptoms:

Client unable to connect to server: has the server been started? Have you provided the correct port number on the txtclient command line?
"list rels;" produces no answers : did the server start cleanly, and were the environment variables correct?
both client and server appear to hang: did you enter a ";" to terminate your command? If not, the server is waiting for the client, and the client is waiting for you.

Command-Line Options

The command-line options are listed by typing "txtclient -x".

    -s [server port]
        The server port number to connect to.
    -h [server host]
        By default, the server is on the same host as the client.
    -p [prompt]
        What prompt do you want? 
        Default : "Q>"
    -t [0/1] timing off/on
        This is useful for performance measurements.
        Default : 1.
    -r [0/1] schema printing off/on
        Should schemas be printed before answers?
        Default : 1.
    -l [top language]
        Multiple languages will be supported in later releases.
        Default: SQL
    -b [0/1] binary printing off/on
        Should data be printed in binary (vs ascii) form?
        Default : 0.
    -u [user name]
        This is for future use.

Commands Supported

Any input typed at the txtclient prompt is sent to the server. However, the following special commands are exceptions that are interpreted at the client. Note that all of them begin with an underscore "_" and that they do not need to be terminated by a semi-colon.

_consult [filename] : read commands from [filename]
_defaults : print the defaults for the various options.
_help : print a help message
_lang [langname] : change the default language to [langname]
_label [labelstring] : tag all timer output with [labelstring]
_outfile [filename] : write outputs to [filename]
_quit : exit the client (equivalent to Ctrl-D)
_shell [command] : execute the shell command
_toggle [flag] : toggle the setting of one of the command line flags (timing, schema, binary)
_timerfile [filename] : write timings to [filename]

The use of _label is particularly useful in batch processing of timed experiments.