The configuration options for the server and client can be set in the file exampleconfig or on the command line. You must edit exampleconfig to set the sm_diskrw option to the location of the installed diskrw program. Information about all the options available to the programs can be found by running them with a -h flag.
The first thing to do is to run server -i to format and make the volumes containing the grid data. Next, type client to start a client. At either the client or server prompt, you can type help to get this list of available commands:
Server> help Valid commands are: commit commit transaction and start another one abort abort transaction and start another one clear clear grid print print grid add name x y add new item <name> at <x,y> remove name remove item <name> locate name print location of item <name> spatial x_lo y_lo x_hi y_hi print count of items in rectangle and list first few items quit quit and exit program (aborts current transaction) help prints this message Comments begin with a '#' and continue until the end of the line.
At all times a transaction is running for the server and client prompts. As commands are run, appropriate locks are obtained. Locks will be released when a commit or abort command is given.
Here are some commands you might try:
print # print the empty grid add Junk 20 10 # add and item named Junk at coordinate 20,10 add Car 15 5 print commit # commit the current transaction locate Car # find location of Car spatial 0 0 39 14 # count all items on grid spatial 20 10 20 10 # list all items at location 20,10 clear # clear the grid print # it should be empty abort # abort the current transaction print # grid should have items on it now quit # quit -- aborts current transaction