The basics of how to operate tsh.
Updated 2018-10-09T12:05:00+05 for tsh 3.340.
tsh is a command shell. If you’re familiar with using shells such as any Unix shell, OS/X Terminal or even DOS, you can probably skip this paragraph. A command shell is a no-frills way of interacting with a computer. In a large window, the computer displays a prompt, inviting you to type in a command that the computer understands. When you do so and then press the “return” key (analogous to hitting your clock in Scrabble), the computer takes some action based on what you’ve entered, then prompts you for your next command. Sometimes your command is modal, causing the computer to prompt for and expect a different set of commands until the mode is complete.
Pay attention to the changing prompts, which indicate what information tsh needs. Don’t forget to press the “return” key to confirm each command.
If you make a mistake and want to correct a previous command,
or if you just want to repeat it, you may (depending on your system
configuration) be able to scroll back by using the arrow keys
on your keyboard. If pressing the arrow keys instead adds garbage to
your screen, you can’t, but might consider installing the appropriate
Term::ReadLine
module that got left out of your Perl
distribution (for OS/X users it's Term::ReadLine::Perl).
If you want to enter more than one command on a line, separate them with semicolons. Each one will be executed in turn before you are returned to the main prompt.
The most important commands to remember are
“quit
”,
“help
”
and
“huh
”.
The
“quit
”
command makes tsh stop running.
If you’re not sure how to use a command, then try typing
“help the-name-of-the-command
”.
Here’s an example, showing what one version of tsh
shows when you enter “help help
”:
Usage: help topic Use this command to view built-in documentation. For fuller details, please consult the HTML reference manual. Enter “help index” to see a list of available commands, and “help” followed by a command name to find out more about that command.
The first line tells you that when you use the
“help
”
command you are expected to enter a topic after the word
“help” so that tsh will know what you are
asking for help about.
Most commands require some supplementary information (called arguments)
such as a division name, round number or player number.
The DOCumentation command opens a web browser
to this reference documentation. If you enter
“doc
”, a window should appear displaying
this manual’s introductory page.
If you’re not sure what a message means, and it has a code in
[square brackets] after it, enter
“huh the-message-code
”.
Again, messages are documented in this way, and soon all of them will be.
If you enter
“huh
”
on its own, the last message you saw will be explained.
To take a mostly random example, if you saw the message
“If you are sure you want to pair Round 12 based on Round 10,
please specify config session_breaks. [eacpnsb]
”
you might want to know more and enter
“huh eacpnsb
”.
You would then see the message:
[eacpnsb] It looks like you are relying on the default Chew pairing system, but the program is not sure whether you wanted to compute pairings for the upcoming round based on the first or second preceding round. You can resolve the ambiguity by setting a value for the configuration variable 'session_breaks' in your configuration file.
This tries to explain the original, brief message. If neither the detailed explanation nor the related documentation is clear to you, please ask John to provide further clarification.
All currently available tsh commands are listed below in tables for reference, grouped by function. Most users will not use most of these commands. Each command has a name which verbosely describes its purpose, but which can be abbreviated to the portion shown in capital letters as shown in its example. Most commands must be followed (on the same line, before pressing “return”) by one or more arguments. These arguments are represented in examples by names, which must be replaced by actual values. If you don’t enter correct arguments, tsh will tell you what the correct ones should be, and where it stopped understanding what you were typing. Within modal commands, the syntax of what you are supposed to type varies, but is usually shown in the prompt.
To take one case, the example for the “RoundStandings
”
command, which displays standings in a division as of a specified
round, reads rs r d
.
This means that “RoundStandings
” can be abbreviated to its
capitalised letters “rs
”, and that it must be followed by
a round number and a division name.
You would enter “rs 5 b
” and press the “return”
key to ask for Division B standings as of Round 5.
If you have only one division in your tournament, you may omit
division names as arguments to commands.
In the preceding example, you would just enter “rs 5
”.
If you can’t remember a player number,
you may enter enough of the player’s
last and/or first names to unambiguously identify them, joined by a comma.
For example, if “Chew, John
” is the only player
who has “HEW
” in their last name, then you can see his
scorecard by typing
“sc hew,
”.
The comma is optional if you include at least two letters from one of the
player’s names.
As of the current release, this is not consistently implemented in
modal commands such as the
“Addscore
” command,
where the comma is not optional.
The following commands are used for entering tournament results, as well as checking and correcting them:
Command | Example | Description |
---|---|---|
Addscore | a r d | Begin entering new game scores for round r , division d . This command is modal, and keeps prompting for scores until you press “return” on a line without scores. |
CheckRoundScores | crs r d | List all entered scores for round r , division d , to facilitate checking of data entry. |
DELETEscore | delete p1 s1 p2 s2 r d | Delete the previously entered scores s1 for player p1 and s2 for player p2 in round r division d . To delete a forfeit or bye, enter the spread as s1 and 0 for p2 and s2 . This syntax is intentionally verbose to discourage the use of this command. |
EditScore | es d p r | Begin editing previously entered game scores, starting with player p in round r , division d . This command is modal and fully documented in the data entry section. |
FIX | fix d p | (Experimental) Begin graphically editing previously entered game scores for player p in division d . |
ForfeitLOSS | floss d pn r spr | Delete any previous pairings for player pn in division d for round r and instead assign them a forfeit loss with a spread of spr . If the spread is omitted, use a default value |
MISSING | missing r div | List all players in division div whose round r scores have not yet been entered. If div is omitted, all divisions are included. |
showScoreCard | sc d p | Show the correct scorecard for player p in division d , for checking. |
The following commands generate reports
based on tournament results.
You can use the
“Browse
” command to
open your web browser to an index page showing what reports you
have generated so far.
The
“BrowseLast
” command
opens your web browser to the most recent report that you requested,
so that you can easily print it.
Command | Example | Description |
---|---|---|
ABSPgrid | absp [d...] | Shows a results grid suitable for submission for ABSP ratings. Omit divisions unless you only want to submit results from some division. |
AUPAIR | aupair d | Creates a .TOU file named for the division, containing ratings input information in AUPAIR.EXE format. |
AverageOpponentScores | aos div | List average opponent scores for all players in a division. |
AVErages | ave div | List average scores for all players in a division. |
EnhancedScoreBoard | esb d | Create an HTML-only scoreboard that uses AJAX technology to dynamically display division d . |
HighCombined | hc n div | List top n high combined scores (of both players in a game) in a division. |
HighLoss | hl n div | List top n high losing scores in a division. |
HighRatingChanges | hrc div | List the players whose ratings have increased by the most in a division. |
HighRoundLosses | hrl r1-r2 div | List the high losing score in each round in a range of rounds in a division. |
HighRoundWins | hrl r1-r2 div | List the high winning score in each round in a range of rounds in a division. |
HighSpread | hs n div | List top n high spreads (winning margins) in a division. |
HighWin | hw n div | List top n high winning scores in a division. |
LowCombined | lc n div | List top n low combined scores (of both players in a game) in a division. |
LowLoss | ll n div | List bottom n low losing scores in a division. |
LowSpread | ls n div | List top n low spreads (winning margins) in a division. |
LowWin | lw n div | List bottom n low winning scores in a division. |
luckySTIFF | stiff n div | List players according to the total of their n closest wins, the opposite of a TUFFluck prize. |
PRiZes | prizes d | List all prizes to be awarded, based on current division standings. |
RATings | rat d | Show current division standings (with ratings estimates) for division d . See the “config rating_system ” option. |
ResultsByRound | rbr r1-r2 d | Rank players in division d based only on rounds r1 through r2 , typically to compute “best results, day n” prizes. |
ROSTERS | rosters | List all players, with their player numbers and ratings. |
ROTO | roto r | List rotisserie standings as of round r (if omitted, the current round). |
RoundClassRATings | rcrat r1-r2 d | Show standings with ratings estimates for division d as of round r2 , and refresh report files for rounds r1 through r2-1 , grouping players by class. The “r1- ” is optional. |
RoundHandiCap | rhc r1-r2 d | Show Thai handicaps in rounds r1–r2 for division d . |
RoundRATings | rrat r1-r2 d [r] | Show standings with ratings estimates for division d as of round r2 , and refresh report files for rounds r1 through r2-1 . The “r1- ” is optional. | A round may be specified to indicate pairing bars should apply to a round other than the latest for which pairings exist.
RoundStandings | rs r d | Show standings for division d as of round r . |
saveJSON | json d | Used internally to store the state of a division on a web server, in a form usable by the “EnhancedScoreBoard ” command. Often used with the “hook_addscore_flush ” and “hook_autopair ” options. |
ScoreBoard | sb d rk1 rkn size cols secs | Create an HTML-only scoreboard showing what is going on in division d between ranks rk1 and rkn with player photos (where available) scaled to size pixels wide in cols columns refreshed automatically every secs seconds. Often used with the “hook_addscore_flush ” and “hook_autopair ” options. |
SHOW12 | show12 d | List firsts and seconds for all players in a division. |
ShowDivisionScoreCards | sdsc d | Generate in HTML form the scorecards for every player in division d , for printing and distribution at the beginning of the tournament. |
ShowManyPairings | smp r1-r2 d | Show pairings for rounds r1-r2 , division d . |
ShowNextPairings | sp d | Create an HTML report of pairings for the "next" round in the specified division, where "next" is the round following the lastest one for which scores have been entered, or round 1 if none. A single-round report of pairings for this round must already have been generated using ShowPairings . This command is intended to be used in conjunction with config pairings_refresh and config hook_division_update to provide an automatically-updating pairings display. |
ShowPairings | sp r d | Show pairings for round r , division d . |
STandings | st d [r] | Show current standings for division d . | A round may be specified to indicate pairing bars should apply to a round other than the latest for which pairings exist.
showRankedWallChart | rwc d | Show ranked wall chart for division d , as a summary of the entire tournament state. |
showWallChart | wc d | Show correct wall chart for division d , to check against the physical chart. |
SPITroast | spit r d | List UK rotisserie standings for division d as of round r. |
STATisticS | stats | Report on summary statistics for a tournament. |
TeamStandings | ts d | Show current team standings for division d . |
TOTalScore | tots div | List players ranked according to the total number of points each has scored. |
TotalTeamStandings | tts | Show current total team standings across all divisions. |
TUFFluck | tuff n div | List players according to the total of their n closest losses, for the NSA’s “Tuff Luck” prize. |
UPSETs | upset d | Show ratings upsets for division d . |
The following commands are used mainly for manually pairing rounds. You will need to know about them if you are configuring tsh before a tournament, or if you encounter an unexpected pairing situation and want to override automatic pairings. See the section on pairing theory for more detailed information about pairing systems.
Command | Example | Description |
---|---|---|
AssignTeamsSnaked | ats r n d | Assign players to teams, usually so that you can then avoid pairing them with each other in early rounds using the “exagony ” configuration option. You might instead want to use the TeamRoundRobin or TeamMultipleRoundRobin commands to have each player play players on other teams. The n teams will be called ‘GrpA’, ‘GrpB’, ‘GrpC’, ... in snaked (boustrophedonic) order (i.e., the top n players in division d as of round r (0 for pre-event seedings) are assigned to teams in order, the next n in reverse order, then forward again, etc.). |
BASDFinal | basdf r d | Add Round r of BASD final pairings to division d . |
BASDSemi | basds d | Add three rounds of BASD semifinal pairings to division d . |
BRACKetpair | brack n d | Set up pairings for single-elimination with n repeated pairings in each stage for division d . |
CAMbridgePair | camp d | Set up seven-round pairings as used in Cambridge ON for division d . |
ChewPair | cp sr d | Set up Chew Pairings in division d based on round sr standings. |
FactorPair | fp rd rpt sr d | Pair players permitting rpt repeats based on sr standings in division d, optimally matching players whose ranks differ by rd. |
GREEN | green d | Set up pairings as used by John Green for division d . |
GUELPH | guelph d | Set up pairings as used in Guelph ON CAN for division d . |
InitFontes | if nr d | Set up fixed pairings for nr rounds (typically 3) in division d to give later Fontes pairings a place to start. Players are randomly chosen from quartiles and paired in round-robin quads. |
KOTH | koth rpt sr d | Add king-of-the-hill pairings allowing rpt repeats (0 for none, 1 for simple repeats, 2 for threepeats), based on round sr standings in division d . To restrict the number of repeats after a certain round, e.g., KOTH pairings based on round 10 standings with no repeats after round 8, use koth 0>8 10 a . |
LowerRoundRobins | lrr rk rds d | Add rds rounds of round robin groups pairings to division d starting at rank rk , allowing any number of repeats. |
NAST | nast d | Add 4 or 5 rounds of fixed NAST pairings. |
NewSwiss | ns rpt sr d | Add a round of Swiss pairings. See KOTH above for descriptions of arguments. |
PAIR | pair p1 p2 r d | Manually pair players p1 and p2 in round r , division d . Use “0 ” as the player number of the opponent of a player with no opponent. |
Pair1324 | p1324 rpt sr d | Pair 1–3, 2–4, 5–7, 6–8, and so on, i.e., factored pairings with factor two. Some people call it QOTH or Queen-of-the-Hill pairings. See KOTH above for descriptions of arguments. |
PairMany | pm r d | Begin manually pairing a large number of players in round r , division d . This command does not assign firsts, use PairMany12 if you need to specify the order of play. This command is modal. |
PairMany12 | pm12 r d | Begin manually pairing a large number of players in round r , division d . If you are tracking firsts and seconds, the first player entered goes first. This command is modal. |
PairQuartiles | pq q rpt r d | Pair the top quartile at random against quartile q , based on round r , with at most rpt repeats, in division d . |
RandomPair | rp rpt sr d | Add a round of random pairings to a division. |
RoundRobin | rr n d | Add a full round robin to a division. If n is specified, it is the number of times each player should play each opponent consecutively; n defaults to the value 1. |
TeamRoundRobin | trr n d | Pair each player in division d with every player on every other team. If n is specified, have them play each other n times in succession. tsh will use a fixed algorithm to schedule players; you can shuffle this by specifying an order other than “1,2,3,...,2t” for the value of the “config round_robin_order ” configuration option. |
TeamMultipleRoundRobin | tmrr rpt n d | Divide each team in division d into squads by standing as of round n , then pair each player with every player in the corresponding squad of every other team, in a round robin schedule that runs for n rounds. You should normally do this when the last paired round is fully paired; if it is partially paired, only the unpaired players will be involved in the team multiple round robins. |
UnPairRound | upr r d | Delete all round r pairings from division d . Only the last round’s pairings may be deleted, and only if no scores have been entered. Use DELETEscore to delete scores, or edit the “.t” files directly. |
The following pairing commands are deprecated, but are listed in case
there is anyone who is still using them.
All of these commands have been replaced by NewSwiss
,
which produces much better quality Swiss pairings.
Command | Example | Description |
---|---|---|
BYE | bye p s r d | Deprecated: use PAIR and Addscore instead. |
PrePreSwiss | ppsw rpt p1 p2 d | Deprecated: use NewSwiss instead. |
PRESWiss | ppsw rpt p1 p2 d | Deprecated: use NewSwiss instead. |
SWiss | sw rpt sr d | Deprecated: use NewSwiss instead. |
The following commands are used mostly for testing your tsh configuration before your tournament begins.
Command | Example | Description |
---|---|---|
DEBUG | debug code level | Turns debugging for sections labelled with code on if level is 1 or off if 0. Examine the tsh source code to find applicable codes. |
DRYrun | dry r d | Simulates an entire tournament for a division, using random data and whatever pairings you have configured. If you specify a round number, the simulation begins after that round, and you must have exactly that many rounds completed in your data files. If you omit the round number or give it as 0, the simulation begins at the start of the tournament. |
EVAL | eval code | Evaluate arbitary perl code. Use only if you know what you’re doing. |
RANDomscores | rand d... | Give each player in division d a random score, to help simulate a tournament’s pairing system. Entering more than one division acts on each division, entering a division name more than once adds more than one round’s worth of random data. |
RESETEVERYTHING | reseteverything | Delete all pairings, scores, start information and board assignments from tournament data files, and delete all journal and print files. Use with extreme caution. |
TRUNCATEROUNDS | truncaterounds r d | Discards all data in a division after the given round (if 0, discard all data). Use with caution. |
And here all the commands which don’t fit into one of the above categories:
Command | Example | Description |
---|---|---|
BUGreport | bug note describing what went wrong | Uploads information about your TSH event to a webserver, along with a note explaining the problem, which all then gets sent to John Chew. |
Browse | b | Opens your web browser to the tournament report index. |
BrowseLast | bl | Opens your web browser to the last report you generated. |
DivisionComplete | dc b | Manually triggers the commands given in the “config hook_division_complete ” configuration option. |
EXPORTRATINGS | exportratings | Creates a copy of the ratings database used by the “USERATINGS ” command including the results of the current tournament. |
HELP | help topic | Displays builtin documentation. topic is typically a command name. |
HUH | huh code | Give a detailed explanation of a diagnostic message that included a [code]. |
LISTTourneys | listt | List all pending unrated tournaments (in realms that support this), so that you can find a value for the “tournament_id ” configuration parameter. |
LOOK | l word | Look up word in dictionary. CSW 2012 and TWL 2006 lexicon files available as a separate download. See also the “count_good_words ” configuration option. |
PROFILE | profile set key value | Set the value of configuration option “key” to “value” in your user profile. |
profile show | Show all configuration options and values defined in your user profile. | |
Quit | q | Quit tsh. |
setESBMeSsaGe | esbmsg set Games resume after lunch at 3:15 | Display a message on the Enhanced Scoreboard which optionally hides the ESB if the message mode is set to "hide" (the default mode is "reveal"). Three subcommands are recognized: "set" sets the message text; "mode" followed by "hide" or "reveal" sets the message mode; "off" turns off the message and reveals the ESB if it was hidden. Without any subcommand, reveals the current state of the ESB message. |
SUBMIT | submit | Submit ratings data to the NSA web site. |
TWEET | tweet d p1 p2 | Report to twitter about how players ranked p1 through p2 are doing in division d . |
UPDATE | update | Update tsh software using a web connection. |
UPDATEPIX | updatepix | Update the local photo database used by the “ShowPairings ” command. Photos are copied from the local photo database into the ‘pix’ subdirectory of the event’ HTML directory when tsh starts up. |
UpdatePLAYers | uplay | Update the player roster by referring to cross-tables.com. This will replace both player names and ratings; you may then wish to use the USERATINGS command to update just the ratings, if they haven’t yet been updated on cross-tables.com. |
UPDATERATINGS | updateratings | Update the ratings database used by the “USERATINGS ” command, currently available for the NASPA (NSA) and ABSP realms. |
USERATINGS | useratings | Update all player ratings using the ratings database most recently updated by the “UPDATERATINGS ” command. |
VALET | valet d p r | (Experimental) Open a browser window for data entry. |
There may also be external (plug-in) commands installed in your particular copy of tsh. These will be in a directory called ‘bin’, and listed in a configuration file there called ‘tshxcfg.txt’. They have been tested with OS/X (and should therefore work with most other flavours of Unix) and Windows XP, but may not work with more primitive operating systems. If not, you may still be able to use externals by running them separately from the command line. The following externals are part of the default distribution.
Command | Example | Description |
---|---|---|
maketm | maketm div | Make a TourneyMan data file for a division. |
nssc | nssc div | List School Championship prizes for a division. |
update-dict | update-dict | Update the lexica (word lists) used by the LOOK command. |
Module | Command | Example | Description |
---|---|---|---|
TSH+ | LoadplayersCsV | lcv d | Load division data from an appropriately named CSV data file. |
TSH+ | MergeplayersCsV | mcv d | Merge division data from an appropriately named CSV data file. |
TSH+ | SaveplayersCsV | scv d | Save division data to an appropriately named CSV data file. |
There are also a number of standalone utilities found in the “util/” directory, which are currently provided on an as-is basis. They are ‘standalone’ in that they have to be run in a separate window from tsh. Documentation will be provided here for any command upon request.
Command | Example | Description |
---|---|---|
mirror-ftp | mirror-ftp -u username -p password event-name... |
This separate program will mirror (constantly copy as needed) your TSH report files to your webserver using the FTP protocol. Use it to publish your tournament’s results live to the Internet. If you do not have a webserver, email poslfit@gmail.com to have one set up for your event. Because this is a separate program, you will typically need to run it in a separate window (COMMAND/DOS in Windows, Terminal in OS/X, some sort of term window in other flavours of Unix). Windows users should try running one of the .bat script files in the util folder (such as mirror-ftp.bat); others should open a window, cd to the tsh directory, and run “ This script needs to know five things to run. They can be specified in various ways.
“util/mirror-ftp” uploads the following files: the event config.tsh file, each division’s ‘.t’ file, and the contents of the directory specified by the ‘ |