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rfc

Tools Shell

rfc


rfc is a simple tool written in Bash to read RFCs from the
command-line. It fetches RFCs and drafts from the Web and caches them
locally.

Usage

Just type rfc followed by the RFC number or the draft name:

$ rfc <RFC num>

e.g.:

rfc 42 # Read the RFC 42
rfc 1234 # Read the RFC 1234
rfc draft-ietf-core-coap-18 # Read IETF draft core-coap version 18

Use rfc help to see all available subcommands.

Options

  • --version: same as the version subcommand
  • --help: same as the help subcommand

Exit codes

  • : normal execution
  • 1: the requested RFC or archive cannot be found
  • 2: unrecognized option/subcommand
  • 3: unable to connect to the network
  • 4: can’t find curl nor wget

Install

Basic install 

mkdir -p ~/bin
curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bfontaine/rfc/v0.2.6/rfc > ~/bin/rfc
chmod u+x ~/bin/rfc

This creates the ~/bin directory if it doesn’t exist, and download rfc in it.
If it’s not in your PATH, you have to add it:

echo 'export PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc

You may also want to install the manpage, located in man/rfc.1.

Using Homebrew

If you use Homebrew or Linuxbrew you
can install rfc with one command:

brew install bfontaine/utils/rfc

Archlinux

For archlinux users, you can use the AUR package rfc-read.
The command for use it is rfc.

Requirements

  • curl or wget. It uses $CURL if it’s set, and fallback on curl and then wget.
  • less or another pager. It uses $PAGER if it’s set.

Customization

You can choose which directory rfc uses by setting the RFC_DIR environment
variable. The directory is automatically created if it doesn’t exist.
The default directory is ~/.RFCs.

Troubleshooting

rfc version 0.2.5 and above has a special --debug flag that, if passed as
the first argument, enables tracing of all the Bash commands in the script.

Credits

Baptiste Fontaine and contributors.



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