The settrans command is used to attach a translator (server) to a given file system node.

settrans is commonly used like this:

$ settrans -fgap *NODE* *TRANSLATOR SETTING*

• fg, force any existing translator to go away from that node.
• ap, start an active translator, and also establish a passive translator setting.

Active translator means that the operating system starts the translator immediately and passive translator in turn means that the settings are instead saved in the file system node, and then, when programs access the node by, for example, sending an RPC, the Hurd will transparently start the server to handle the request.

Help on settrans can be obtained by passing it the --help option.

Likewise, help on a specific translator can be gotten by invoking it from the command line with the same argument, e.g.:

$ /hurd/pfinet --help

As there can be a lot of output, consider piping this through a pager.