zerotao / boxes

Command line ASCII boxes unlimited!

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           draws all kinds of boxes around your text (in ASCII art)

                            [stable release 1.1.2]

###GETTING IT

http://boxes.thomasjensen.com/

Boxes is free software under the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL), version 2. See LICENSE file or http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html.

###COMPILING IT

Skip this section if you got yourself a binary distribution. Note, however, that the location of the system-wide config file can only be changed using the source distribution, because its path is compiled in.

1. Unpack the archive.

2. Edit the top level Makefile and change the value of GLOBALCONF to whereever you want the system-wide config file to reside. Note that each user may have his/her own config file in $HOME/.boxes. Also note that the value of GLOBALCONF is a full file name. It does not specify a directory into which to copy the config file.

3. If you are on DEC/OSF, edit src/regexp/Makefile, and add -D_ANSI_C_SOURCE to the CFLAGS definition.

4. Type make in the top level directory.
   This should leave you with the binary in the src directory.

The boxes development platform is intel/linux (SLES). If you are on a different platform and somehow manage to materialize a binary, please send it to the author (boxes at thomasjensen.com), so it can be posted on the boxes home page. Boxes is generally very easy to port, because it uses only a small set of instructions and is comformant to the ANSI C standard.

For a small collection of frequently asked questions, visit the compilation FAQ on the boxes website.

###INSTALLING IT

1. Basic installation

• If you are installing a BINARY distribution:
  • Copy boxes.1 to an appropriate manual page directory.
  • Copy boxes-config to /usr/share/boxes. Note that /usr/share/boxes is the name of the file, and not the name of a directory into which to copy the file. So, the name of the config file is changed from boxes-config to just boxes.
  • Copy the executable to a location which is in your path.
    Example (as root):

    cp boxes.1 /usr/share/man/man1
    cp boxes-config /usr/share/boxes
    cp boxes /usr/bin

• If you are installing a SOURCE distribution:
  • Copy doc/boxes.1 to an appropriate manual page directory.
  • Copy boxes-config to the location specified in the Makefile as being the name of the system-wide boxes config file. Note that the value of GLOBALCONF is the name of the file, and not the name of a directory into which to copy the file. So, the name of the config file is changed from boxes-config to just boxes.
  • Copy src/boxes (the binary) to a location which is in your path.
    Example (as root):

    cp doc/boxes.1 /usr/share/man/man1
    cp boxes-config /usr/share/boxes
    cp src/boxes /usr/bin

2. If you want to make your own changes to the config file, copy the system-wide config file into your home as $HOME/.boxes, then modify it. Boxes will use $HOME/.boxes if it exists.

3. Integration into your text editor: Please see the editor integration page on the website. It currently describes integration with vim, emacs, and jed, but this list may grow as time goes by and people send how-tos.

###RUNNING IT

Try if boxes works by typing echo foo | boxes on the command line. It should give you something like that:

/*******/
/* foo */
/*******/

Detailed usage information is in the manual page and a lot more can be found on the website (see above). It is especially interesting to tie boxes to your editor, so that it can be invoked by a simple keypress.

###DEFINING YOUR OWN BOXES

Any user may define his or her own box designs by creating a file called .boxes in his or her home directory. The syntax of the config file is explained on the boxes home page, along with several examples:

http://boxes.thomasjensen.com/docs/

###CONTACT

• For questions which the online documentation could not answer, praise and general comments please feel free to email the author at boxes at thomasjensen.com. Bug reports are especially appreciated, but those should, like feature requests, be opened on Github.

• For questions particular to the binary you downloaded contact the supplier of the binary listed on the download page.

• I appreciate the creative new box designs that you craft for boxes. Please feel free to submit them in the form of pull requests on boxes-config, and they may make it into the next release!

     _________________________
    /\                        \
    \_|  Thank you for        |
      |  using Boxes. Enjoy!  |
      |  _____________________|_
      \_/______________________/

10/19/2012

EOF