All items in queues are assumed to be encoded such that they have no embedded linefeeds. Typically this would be json.
Linefeeds are used to terminate items in requests and responses.
All times are in milliseconds, relative to now.
Responses always start with a single character that tells you what kind of response it is, and ends with a linefeed.
Success/failure will either indicate the number of successful things done, or a human error message.
+<number>
-<error message>
Items will be prefixed with a colon and end with a linefeed.
:<item>
If multiple items were requested, the last item will be followed by a success indicator telling you how many items you got.
If you specified a timeout or were just peeking, you may get "no item", represented by a star.
*
Put items into a queue. Response will be success/failure.
put <queue> [expiration]:
<item>
<item>
...
<empty-line>
Get items from a queue. Response will be one or more items. All fetched items are "transactional" -- if you disconnect before confirming them, they may be given to other consumers. Any fetch operation is an implicit confirmation of a previous fetch operation, or in other words, every fetch operation closes the previous transaction and opens a new one. Timeout is in milliseconds.
peek <queue> [timeout]
get <queue> [timeout]
monitor <queue> [timeout]
You can explicitly confirm previous fetches if you like.
confirm <queue> <count>
Flush (empty) a queue.
flush <queue>
Various maintenance tasks work:
shutdown
And you can close your connection explicitly:
quit
delete flush_all flush_expired flush_all_expired roll version reload