Usage

Server

a3m can be executed in server mode via a3md:

a3md

It launches a gRPC server and several subsystems that enable processing. Use a service manager such as systemd to configure it as a service.

Note

By default, a3md does not log messages with level DEBUG and generally tries to keep the log stream unobstructed unless human intervention is required.

For debugging purposes, you can access to all messages by setting the environment string A3M_DEBUG==yes.

Client

a3m is the command-line interface that aims to provide a rich text-based user experience. It communicates with the server via gRPC. Use as follows:

a3m --address=127.0.0.1:7000 ~/Documents/pictures

When the --address option is not included, a3m runs its own embedded instance of the server:

a3m ~/Documents/pictures

Processing directory

a3m uses a processing directory to store its database and all created AIPs. If you are using Linux, this directory can be found under ~/.local/share/a3m and these are its contents:

.
├── db.sqlite
└── share
    ├── completed
    │   └── Test-fa1d6cb3-c1fd-4618-ba55-32f01fda8198.7z
    ├── currentlyProcessing
    │   ├── ingest
    │   └── transfer
    ├── failed
    │   ├── 0d117bed-2124-48a2-b9d7-f32514d39c1e
    ├── policies
    └── tmp

Processing configuration

a3m abandons the XML-based processing configuration document used by Archivematica. Instead, users are asked to submit the configuration as part of their transfer requests.

With our client, --processing-config can be used multiple times to indicate the desired settings:

a3m --name="Test" --processing-config="normalize=no" http://...

The Python client can do similarly:

from a3m.api.transferservice.v1beta1.request_response_pb2 import (
    ProcessingConfig
)

c = Client(...)
c.submit(
    url="URL...", name="Name...",
    config=ProcessingConfig(normalize=False))

The full list of settings or their defaults are not described yet but it can be found in the ProcessingConfig message type of the API.