<sect3>

       <title>The refuse file</title>

       <para>As mentioned above, <application>CVSup</application> uses

       a <emphasis>pull method</emphasis>. Basically, this means that

       you connect to the <application>CVSup</application> server, and

       it says, <quote>Here's what you can download from

       me...</quote>, and your client responds <quote>OK, I'll take

       this, this, this, and this.</quote> In the default

       configuration, the <application>CVSup</application> client will

       take every file associated with the collection and tag you

       chose in the configuration file. However, this is not always

       what you want, especially if you are synching the doc, ports, or

       www trees — most people can't read four or five

       languages, and therefore they don't need to download the

       language-specific files. If you are

       <application>CVSup</application>ing the ports collection, you

       can get around this by specifying each collection individually

       (eg <emphasis>ports-astrology</emphasis>,

       <emphasis>ports-biology</emphasis>, etc instead of simply

       saying <emphasis>ports-all</emphasis>). However, since the doc

       and www trees do not have language-specific collections, you

       must use one of <application>CVSup</application>'s many nify

       features; the <emphasis>refuse file</emphasis>.</para>

       <para>The <emphasis>refuse file</emphasis> essentially tells

       <application>CVSup</application> that it should not take every

       single file from a collection; in other words, it tells the

       client to <emphasis>refuse</emphasis> certain files from the

       server. The refuse file can be found (or, if you do not yet

       have one, should be placed) in

       <filename><replaceable>base</replaceable>/sup/refuse</filename>.

       <replaceable>base</replaceable> is defined in your supfile; by

       default, <replaceable>base</replaceable> is

       <filename>/usr/sup</filename>, which means that by default the

       refuse file is in <filename>/usr/sup/refuse</filename>.</para>

       <para>The refuse file has a very simple format; it simply

       contains the names of files or directories that you do not wish

       to to download. For example, since I cannot speak any languages

       except for English and some German, and I do not feel the need

       to use German applications, I have the following in my

       <emphasis>refuse file</emphasis>:</para>

       <screen>

       ports/chinese

       ports/german

       ports/japanese

       ports/korean

       ports/russian

       ports/vietnamese

       doc/es_ES.ISO_8859-1

       doc/ja_JP.eucJP</screen>

       <para>and so forth for the other languages. Note that the name

       of the repository is the first <quote>directory</quote> in the

       <emphasis>refuse file</emphasis>.</para>

       <para>With this very useful feature, those users who are on

       slow links or pay by the minute for their Internet connection

       will be able to save valuable time as they will no longer need

       to download files that they will never use. For more

       information on <emphasis>refuse files</emphasis> and other neat

       features of <application>CVSup</application>, please view its

       manpage.</para> 

      </sect3>