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Network Working Group EARN Staff
Request for Comments: 1580 EARN Association
FYI: 23 March 1994
Category: Informational
Guide to Network Resource Tools
Status of this Memo
This memo provides information for the Internet community. This memo
does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of
this memo is unlimited.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2. GOPHER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.1. What is Gopher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.2. Who can use Gopher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.3. How to get to Gopher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.3.1. Local clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.3.2. Remote clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.4. Using Gopher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.5. VERONICA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.6. Learning more about Gopher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3. WORLD-WIDE WEB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.1. What is World-Wide Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.2. Who can use World-Wide Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.3. How to get to World-Wide Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.3.1. Local clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.3.2. Remote clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.3.2.1. E-mail access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.4. Using World-Wide Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3.5. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.6. Learning more about World-Wide Web . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
4. WAIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
4.1. What is WAIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
4.2. Who can use WAIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
4.3. How to get to WAIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
4.4. Using WAIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
4.4.1. E-mail access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
4.5. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.6 Learning more about WAIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
5. ARCHIE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
5.1. What is ARCHIE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
5.2. Who can use ARCHIE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
5.3. How to get to ARCHIE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
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5.4. Using ARCHIE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
5.4.1. Using a local client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
5.4.1.1. Archie client command and parameters . . . . . . . . . 29
5.4.2. Using Telnet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
5.4.3. Using electronic mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
5.5. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
5.6. Learning more about ARCHIE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
6. WHOIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
6.1. What is WHOIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
6.2. Who can use WHOIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
6.3. How to get to WHOIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
6.4. Using WHOIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
6.4.1. Using a local client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
6.4.2. Using Telnet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
6.4.3. Using electronic mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
6.5. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
6.6. Learning more about WHOIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
7. X.500 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
7.1. What is X.500 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
7.2. Who can use X.500 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
7.3. How to get to X.500 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
7.4. Using X.500 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
7.4.1. Using a local client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
7.4.2. Using Telnet or X.25 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
7.4.3. Using electronic mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
7.5. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
7.6. Learning more about X.500 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
8. NETFIND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
8.1. What is NETFIND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
8.2. Who can use NETFIND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
8.3. How to get to NETFIND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
8.4. Using NETFIND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
8.4.1. Local access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
8.4.2. Remote access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
8.5. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
8.6. Learning more about NETFIND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
9. TRICKLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
9.1. What is TRICKLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
9.2. Who can use TRICKLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
9.3 How to get to TRICKLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
9.4. Using TRICKLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
9.5. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
9.6. Learning more about TRICKLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
10. BITFTP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
10.1. What is BITFTP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
10.2. Who can use BITFTP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
10.3. How to get to BITFTP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
10.4. Using BITFTP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
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10.5. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
10.6. Learning more about BITFTP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
11. LISTSERV (Version 1.7f). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
11.1. What is LISTSERV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
11.2. Who can use LISTSERV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
11.3. How to get to LISTSERV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
11.4. Using LISTSERV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
11.4.1. Commands for LISTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
11.4.2. Commands for FILES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
11.4.3. LISTSERV DATABASE Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
11.4.4. Commands for INFORMATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
11.5. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
11.6. Learning more about LISTSERV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
12. NETNEWS (USENET) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
12.1. What is NETNEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
12.2. Who can use NETNEWS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
12.3. How to get to NETNEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
12.4. Using NETNEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
12.5. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
12.6. Learning more about NETNEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
13. OTHER TOOLS OF INTEREST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
13.1. ASTRA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
13.1.1. What is ASTRA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
13.1.2. How to get to ASTRA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
13.1.3. Learning more about ASTRA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
13.2. NETSERV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
13.2.1. What is NETSERV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
13.2.2. How to get to NETSERV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
13.2.3. Learning more about NETSERV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
13.3. MAILBASE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
13.3.1. What is MAILBASE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
13.3.2. How to get to MAILBASE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
13.3.3. Learning more about MAILBASE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
13.4. PROSPERO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
13.4.1. What is PROSPERO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
13.4.2. How to get to PROSPERO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
13.4.3. Learning more about PROSPERO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
13.5. IRC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
13.5.1. What is IRC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
13.5.2. How to get to IRC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
13.5.3. Learning more about IRC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
13.6. RELAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
13.6.1. What is RELAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
13.6.2. How to get to RELAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
13.6.3. Learning more about RELAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
14. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
15. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
16. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
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17. Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
18. Appendix A - Freely available networking software . . . . . 103
18.1. Gopher clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
18.2. World-Wide Web clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
18.3. WAIS clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
18.4. Netnews - news reader software . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
1. Introduction
As the worldwide academic computer network grows and expands far
beyond its previous confines, so the resources and services available
on the network evolve and multiply at a dizzying rate. The typical
user is hardpressed to keep up with this explosive growth.
Fortunately, a number of tools are available to facilitate the task
of locating and retrieving network resources, so that users anywhere
can utilize texts, data, software and information for public access.
Facilities to explore public domain software repositories, to consult
mailing list archives and databases, to retrieve directory
information and to participate in global group discussions are now
available to all.
The key to exploiting these resources is a server, special software
on a computer somewhere in the network which accepts requests (or
queries or commands) and sends a response automatically. The
requestor does not have to be working on the same computer (or even
in the same part of the world) in order to use the server. Many
servers accept requests via electronic mail, so that often the
requestor needs not even be on the same computer network as the
server. In many cases, servers are interconnected so that once you
have established contact with one server, you can easily communicate
with other servers as well.
Today, many users have powerful computers on the desktop, with
advanced graphical, audio and storage capabilities, which are
connected to the network. This fact has given rise to what is known
as the client-server model. Users can have special software on their
local computer called a client which can utilize the capabilities of
that computer and can also communicate with a server on the network.
These clients provide an easy-to-use, intuitive user interface, allow
use of pointing devices such as a mouse, and exploit other local
features. The client sends the user's requests to a server using a
standardized format (called a protocol) and the server sends its
response in a condensed format which the client displays to the user
in a more readable way.
Several of the tools described herein have several different
functions. However they could be classified in functional areas
according to their main purpose. Sections two and three cover two
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services, Gopher and World-Wide Web, which use the client-server
model to explore the network providing a means of moving through a
wide range of network sources and resources in a uniform and
intuitive way. A tool for searching in a wide range of different
databases located throughout the network, WAIS, is documented in
section four. The problem of knowing where to find network resources
(files and programs) is addressed in section five, which deals with
archie. Three tools for finding people, computers and their network
addresses, WHOIS, X.500 and Netfind, are discussed in sections six,
seven and eight. While just about all of these network tools can be
used to get files of one sort or another, there are a few servers
available for getting files easily and efficiently from various
repositories in the network. Two of these servers, TRICKLE and
BITFTP, are covered in sections nine and ten. Sections eleven and
twelve deal with what is perhaps the most popular of all the network
resources, discussion groups on every imaginable topic. The two tools
discussed there are LISTSERV and Netnews (Usenet). Section thirteen
gives brief descriptions and pointers for a number of tools which
were not mainstream enough to get a full description. Some are still
in the developmental stage (Prospero), some are relatively unknown
outside a particular network (ASTRA and Netserv from EARN/Bitnet and
Mailbase from JANET) and some are meant for chatting rather than work
(Relay and IRC).
The purpose of this guide is to supply the basic information that
anyone on the network needs to try out and begin using these tools. A
basic knowledge of networking terminology has been assumed, as well
as familiarity with the basic tools of networking: electronic mail
(often referred to as e-mail or simply mail throughout this guide)
and, for those connected to the Internet, FTP (file transfer
protocol) and Telnet (remote login). It is beyond the scope of this
guide to describe these basic tools. The example in the BITFTP
section of this guide shows how one can use BITFTP to get guides to
these tools over the network.
2. GOPHER
2.1. What is Gopher
The Internet Gopher, or simply Gopher, is a distributed document
delivery service. It allows users to explore, search and retrieve
information residing on different locations in a seamless fashion.
When browsing it, the information appears to the user as a series of
nested menus. This kind of menu structure resembles the organization
of a directory with many subdirectories and files. The subdirectories
and the files may be located either on the local server site or on
remote sites served by other Gopher servers. From the user point of
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view, all information items presented on the menus appear to come
from the same place.
The information can be a text or binary file, directory information
(loosely called phone book), image or sound. In addition, Gopher
offers gateways to other information systems (World-Wide Web, WAIS,
archie, WHOIS) and network services (Telnet, FTP). Gopher is often a
more convenient way to navigate in a FTP directory and to download
files.
A Gopher server holds the information and handles the users' queries.
In addition, links to other Gopher servers create a network wide
cooperation to form the global Gopher web (Gopherspace).
2.2. Who can use Gopher
Gopher uses the client-server model to provide access to the Gopher
web. You must be on the international TCP/IP network (the Internet)
in order to use a client on your computer to access Gopher.
2.3. How to get to Gopher
Users explore the Gopher menus using various local clients or
accessing a remote client via an interactive Telnet session.
2.3.1. Local clients
Public domain clients for accessing a Gopher server are available
for: Macintosh, MS-DOS, OS/2, VM/CMS, VMS, NeXT, Unix, X-Windows.
The clients are available for anonymous FTP from many FTP sites
(e.g., boombox.micro.umn.edu in the directory /pub/gopher). See
the list of freely available client software in Appendix A.
2.3.2. Remote clients
Some sites allow public access to a client. To access such a
remote client, telnet to one of these sites:
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| info.anu.edu.au Australia (login: info) |
| tolten.puc.cl Columbia |
| ecnet.ec Ecuador |
| gopher.chalmers.se Sweden |
| consultant.micro.umn.edu USA |
| gopher.uiuc.edu USA |
| panda.uiowa.edu USA (login: panda) |
| sunsite.unc.edu USA |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
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At the login: prompt type gopher (unless specified otherwise) and
the top-level Gopher menu for that site will be displayed.
Users are requested to use the site closest to them.
2.4. Using Gopher
The implementations of the Gopher clients on various platforms are
slightly different to take advantage of the platforms'
capabilities (mouse, graphic functions, X-Windows server) and to
offer the popular look and feel. Even with different
implementations, the same set of functions and commands is
available.
When issuing the gopher command, you will be connected
automatically to the default Gopher server specified at the
installation. The format of the command is:
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| gopher <hostname> |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
where hostname is an optional alternative Gopher server you want
to talk to.
When connected to a Gopher server, it is still possible to access
another server by exploring the Other Gopher servers in the rest
of the world branch. To locate them more easily, the Gopher
servers are distributed in geographical regions:
* Africa
* Europe
* Middle East
* North America
* Pacific
* South America
and then by countries.
Access to a Gopher server is identical whether using a local or a
remote client: a simple menu-driven interface which doesn't
require any special training or knowledge from the user.
Here is a sample menu:
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
Internet Gopher Information Client v1.1
Information About Gopher
1. About Gopher.
2. Search Gopher News <?>
3. Gopher News Archive/
4. comp.infosystems.gopher (Usenet newsgroup)/
5. Gopher Software Distribution/
6. Gopher Protocol Information/
7. University of Minnesota Gopher software licensing policy.
8. Frequently Asked Questions about Gopher.
9. gopher93/
10. Gopher| example server/
11. How to get your information into Gopher.
--> 12. New Stuff in Gopher.
13. Reporting Problems or Feedback.
14. big Ann Arbor gopher conference picture.gif <Picture>
Press ? for Help, q to Quit, u to go up a menu Page: 1/1
-----------------------------------------------------------------
In the example above, any item can be selected by typing its line
number or by moving the cursor (-->) next to it.
An item could be:
* a subdirectory
* a text file
* a binary file
* a sound file
* an image file
* a phone book (directory information)
* an index-search
* a Telnet session
Items are displayed with an identifying symbol next to them. In
the example above, "<?>" means a full text index-search, "/" means
a subdirectory, "<Picture>" means an image file and no symbol
means a text file.
Some Gopher clients are not able to handle certain file types
(e.g., sound files). Some clients display only files of types they
can handle or files they suppose you are interested in. Others
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display all types of files.
Most Gopher clients allow you to create, view and select
bookmarks. A bookmark keeps track of the exact location of a
Gopher item, regardless of where it resides. It is useful when you
often need to reach a file or a service located far from the
top-level directory. A collection of bookmarks is like a
customized Gopher menu.
Some capabilities of a local Gopher client are bound to the
capabilities of your own computer. In fact, for sound files, image
files and Telnet sessions, the Gopher client looks for the
appropriate software on your computer and passes control to it to
perform the requested task. When the task is completed, control is
returned to the Gopher client.
At any time, it is possible to terminate the session (quit
command), to cancel the current processing or to get the on-line
help (help command).
An item is processed according to its type:
a subdirectory
its contents are displayed. To go up one level, use the up
command.
a text file
the file is displayed. Then you can browse it, search for a
particular string, print it on a local printer or copy (save)
it onto your local disk space in a user-specified file (the
last 2 functions may not be available to you).
a binary file
the remote file is simply copied onto your local disk space in
a user-specified file. Binary files are binhexed Macintosh
files, archives (.zip, .tar,...), compressed files, programs,
etc.
a sound file
the remote file is played through your local audio device if it
exists, as well as the appropriate utility. Only one sound file
can be active at a time; you will be warned if you try to play
a sound before a previous one is done.
an image file
the remote file is displayed on your computer screen if an
image viewer exists on your computer.
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a phone book
you are prompted for a search string to look up people
information through the selected phone book. Since different
institutions have different directory services, the queries are
not performed in the same fashion.
an index-search
you are prompted for a search string which may be one or more
words, plus the special operators and, or, and not. The search
is case-insensitive. Usually, an index is created to help users
locate the information in a set of documents quickly. E.g.:
terminal and setting or tset
will find all documents which contain both the words terminal
and setting, or the word tset. or is nonexclusive so the
documents may contain all of the words.
The result of the index-search looks like any Gopher menu, but
each menu item is a file that contains the specified search
string.
a Telnet session
Telnet sessions are normally text-based information services,
for example, access to library catalogs.
2.5. VERONICA
Veronica was designed as a solution to the problem of resource
discovery in the rapidly-expanding Gopher web, providing a keyword
search of more than 500 Gopher menus. Veronica helps you find
Gopher-based information without doing a menu-by-menu, site-by-site
search. It is to the Gopher information space, what archie is to the
FTP archives.
Veronica is accessible from most top-level Gopher menus or from the
Other Gopher servers... branch. There is no need for opening another
connection or another application.
When you choose a veronica search , you will be prompted to enter a
keyword or keywords. The simplest way to search with veronica is to
enter a single word and hit the RETURN key. It does not matter
whether the word is upper-case or lower-case. The veronica server
will return a gopher menu composed of items whose titles match your
keyword specification. Items can be accessed as with any Gopher menu.
E.g.:
eudora
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will give you a list of menu titles that contain eudora, such as:
Electronic Mail: Eudora on Macintosh, Micro-08
Modem Setting Eudora Slip.
A UNIX-based Eudora reader for those that ...
Eudora: Popmail for the Macintosh.
Eudora.
etc.
The search string may contain keywords optionally separated by and,
or and not. If there is no operator between 2 keywords, and is
assumed. E.g.:
eudora and macintosh
will give you a list of menu titles that contain both eudora and
macintosh, such as:
Eudora: Popmail for the Macintosh.
v4.1 EUDORA: E-MAIL FOR THE MACINTOSH.
Micro News: Eudora - A Mailer for the Macintosh.
Eudora: Electronic Mail on Your Macintosh.
ACS News - Eudora Mail Reader for Macintosh.
etc.
"*" is the wildcard character. It can replace any other character or
characters at the end of a keyword. E.g.:
desk*
will give you a list of menu titles, such as:
The Help Desk.
Keene State College Press Release COMPUTER ON EVERY DESK.
DESKQview/X... An alternative to Windows???.
Ethernet at Your Desktop/
etc.
2.6. Learning more about Gopher
The Internet Gopher is developed by the Computer and Information
Services Department of the University of Minnesota. Bug reports,
comments, suggestions, etc. should be mailed to the Gopher
development team at: gopher@boombox.micro.umn.edu.
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Mailing list: gopher-news@boombox.micro.umn.edu
To subscribe send a mail to:
gopher-news-request@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Usenet newsgroup: comp.infosystems.gopher
A comprehensive description of veronica search methods is available
from the veronica menus.
Veronica is being developed by Steve Foster and Fred Barrie at the
University of Nevada. Bug reports, comments, suggestions, etc. should
be addressed to: gophadm@futique.scs.unr.edu
3. WORLD-WIDE WEB
3.1. What is World-Wide Web
World-Wide Web (also called WWW or W3) is an information system based
on hypertext, which offers a means of moving from document to
document (usually called to navigate) within a network of
information.
Hypertext documents are linked to each other through a selected set
of words. For example, when a new word, or a new concept, is
introduced in a text, hypertext makes it possible to point to another
document which gives more details about it. The reader can open the
second document by selecting the unknown word or concept and the
relevant section is displayed. The second document may also contain
links to further details. The reader need not know where the
referenced document is, and there is no need to type a command to
display it, or to browse it to find the right paragraph.
Cross-references may be defined in the same document. A collection of
documents is a database.
If you were reading this document on a hypertext system, instead of
this all too short explanation about hypertext, you would have a
selectable pointer to a complete hypertext information web with
examples and more pointers to other definitions.
For instance, in the first document you might read:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The WorldWideWeb (W3) is a wide-area "hypermedia" information
retrieval initiative aiming to give universal access to a large
universe of documents.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
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RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994
Selecting hypermedia will display the following explanation for you:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
WHAT IS HYPERTEXT
Hypertext is text which is not constrained to be linear.
Hypertext is text which contains "links" to other texts. The term
was coined by "Ted Nelson" around 1965 (see "History").
HyperMedia is a term used for hypertext which is not constrained
to be text: it can include graphics, video and "sound", for
example. Apparently Ted Nelson was the first to use this term too.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Then you can learn more about links and Nelson. Indeed, the links in
WWW are not confined to text only, so the term hypermedia is more
accurate. For example, the link to Nelson might point to a file
containing a picture of Ted Nelson. The picture would be displayed on
your screen if you have a suitable configuration.
Also, special documents (indexes) in the WWW information space can be
search for given keyword(s). The result is a document which contains
links to the documents found.
World-Wide Web uses hypertext over the network: the linked documents
may be located at various sites. WWW can handle different text
formats and various information organizations. WWW also provides
access to many of the other tools described in this guide.
3.2. Who can use World-Wide Web
WWW uses the client-server model to provide access to the information
universe. You must be on the international TCP/IP network (the
Internet) in order to use a client on your computer to access WWW. If
you are on the Internet, but don't have a WWW client on your
computer, you can still enter the World-Wide Web. Several sites offer
public interactive access to WWW clients (see the Remote clients
section under How to get to World-Wide Web below).
If you have e-mail access only, or if you are not on the Internet
then you can not fully exploit the vast potential of WWW. However, a
mail-robot is available at the address: listserv@info.cern.ch which
gives e-mail access to WWW-accessible listserv@info.cern.ch files.
(see E-mail access section under How to get to World-Wide Web below).
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3.3. How to get to World-Wide Web
Users access the World-Wide Web facilities via a client called a
browser. This interface provides transparent access to the WWW
servers. If a local WWW client is not available on your computer,
you may use a client at a remote site. Thus, an easy way to start
with WWW is to access a remote client.
3.3.1. Local clients
Usage of a local client is encouraged since it provides better
performance and better response time than a remote client.
Public domain clients for accessing WWW servers are available for:
Macintosh, MS-DOS, VMS, VM/CMS, MVS, NeXT, Unix, X-Windows. The
clients are available for anonymous FTP from info.cern.ch in the
directory /pub/www. All these platforms support a simple line mode
browser. In addition, graphical clients are available for:
Macintosh, Windows, X-Windows, NeXT and Unix. See the list of
freely available client software in Appendix A.
3.3.2. Remote clients
To access a remote WWW client, telnet to the client site. If you
are new to WWW, you should telnet to info.cern.ch. No login is
needed. You will immediately enter the WWW line mode browser. Some
publicly accessible clients feature locally developed clients.
Most remote clients are at sites with WWW servers with information
on specific areas. After you telnet to the client site, at the
login: prompt enter www, no password is needed. The following
remote client sites are available:
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| Site Country Server Specialization|
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| vms.huji.ac.il Israel Environment |
| info.cern.ch Switzerland (CERN) High-energy physics|
| fatty.law.cornell.edu USA Law |
| ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu USA History |
| www.njit.edu USA |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
CERN is the entry point to find information about WWW itself and
to have an overview of the Web with a catalogue of the databases
sorted by subject.
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3.3.2.1. E-mail access
In order to get a file, send mail to listserv@info.cern.ch with
a SEND command. The SEND command returns the document with the
given WWW address, subject to certain restrictions. Hypertext
documents are formatted to 72 character width, with links
numbered. A separate list at the end of the file gives the
document-addresses of the related documents.
If the document is hypertext, its links will be marked by
numbers in brackets, and a list of document addresses by number
will be appended to the message. In this way, you can navigate
through the web, more or less. A good file to start with would
be:
http://info.cern.ch./hypertext/DataSources/bySubject/Overview.html
Note that, despite the name listserv in the address of this
mail robot, it is not a LISTSERV server.
A note of caution from the WWW developers and maintainers:
"As the robot gives potential mail access to a *vast* amount of
information, we must emphasise that the service should not be
abused. Examples of appropriate use would be:
* Accessing any information about W3 itself;
* Accessing any CERN and/or physics-related or network
development related information;
Examples of INappropriate use would be:
* Attempting to retrieve binaries or tar files or anything more
than directory listings or short ASCII files from FTP archive
sites;
* Reading Usenet newsgroups which your site doesn't receive;
* Repeated automatic use.
There is currently a 1000 line limit on any returned file. We
don't want to overload other people's mail relays or our
server. We reserve the right to withdraw the service at any
time. We are currently monitoring all use of the server, so
your reading will not initially enjoy privacy.
Enjoy!"
The W3 team at CERN (www-bug@info.cern.ch)
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3.4. Using World-Wide Web
When using a graphical interface, you access the WWW functions by
pressing mouse buttons. In particular, references are highlighted or
underlined words. To follow a link, click on the associated
reference.
The line mode browser is a more simple user interface: references are
numbers in square brackets next to words. Type the number and hit the
RETURN key to follow a reference. For example, here is the beginning
of the Subject Catalogue you get on the CERN server:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The World-Wide Web Virtual Library: Subject Catalogue
WWW VIRTUAL LIBRARY
This is the subject catalogue. See also arrangement by service
type[1]. Mail www-request@info.cern.ch to add pointers to this
list.
Aeronautics Mailing list archive index[2]. See also NASA LaRC[3]
Agriculture[4] Separate list, see also Almanac mail servers[5].
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Abstract Indexes[6] at NASA, Astrophysics work at
FNAL[7], Princeton's[8] Sloane Digital Sky
Survey, the STELAR project, Space Telescope
Electronic Information System[9], the Southampton
University Astronomy Group[10], the National
Solar Observatory[11], Astrophysics work at the
AHPCRC[12]. See also: space[13].
Bio Sciences[14] Separate list.
Computing[15] Separate list.
1-81, Back, <RETURN> for more, Quit, or Help:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The following commands are available within WWW. Some are disabled
when not applicable (e.g., Find is enabled only when the current
document is an index). Angle brackets (<>) indicate an optional
parameter.
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Help
gives a list of available commands depending on the context, and
the hypertext address of the current document.
Manual
displays the on-line manual.
Quit
exits WWW.
Up, Down
scrolls up or down one page in the current document.
Top, BOttom
goes to the top or the bottom of the current document.
Back
goes back to the document you were reading before.
HOme
goes back to the first document you were reading.
Next, Previous
goes to the next or previous document in the list of pointers from
the document that led to the current one.
List
gives a numbered list of the links from the current document. To
follow a link, type in the number.
Recall <number>
if number is omitted, gives a numbered list of the documents you
have visited.
To display one specific document, re-issue the command with
number.
<Find> keyword
queries the current index with the supplied keyword(s). A list of
matching entries is displayed with possibly links to further
details. Find can be omitted if the first keyword does not
conflict with another WWW command. Multiple keywords are separated
by blanks.
Go docaddress
goes to the document represented by the given hypertext address,
which is interpreted relatively to the current document.
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Extra command available on Unix versions only:
Print
prints the current document, without the numbered document
references. The default print command is lpr, but it may be
defined in your local working environment by the variable
WWW_PRINT_COMMAND.
To access WWW with the line mode browser, type: www. The default
first document will appear on your screen. From this point, you
should be able to navigate through the WWW universe by reading the
text and following the instructions at the bottom of the screen. If
you want to start with a first document other than the default, or if
you want to change some other aspect of the usual interaction, there
are a number of command line parameters and options available. The
full format of the www command to invoke the line mode browser is:
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| www <options> <docaddress <keyword>> |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
where:
docaddress
is the hypertext address of the document at which you want to
start browsing.
keyword
queries the index specified by docaddress with the supplied
keyword(s). A list of matching entries is displayed. Multiple
keywords are separated by blanks.
Options are:
-n
non-interactive mode. The document is formatted and displayed to
the screen. Pages are delimited with form feed characters (FF).
-listrefs
adds a list of the addresses of all documents references to the
end. Non-interactive mode only.
-pn
sets the page length to n lines. Without a number, makes the page
length infinite. Default is 24.
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RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994
-wn
sets the page width to n columns. The default is 78, 79 or 80
depending on the system.
-na
hides references in the text. Useful, when printing out the
document.
-version
displays the version number of the software.
The commands listed above should be available in all clients. They
may be abbreviated (CAPITAL letters indicate acceptable
abbreviation). Case is not significant. Special characteristics of
the line mode browser interface are:
number
type in a number given in [] and hit the RETURN key to follow the
link associated to the reference.
RETURN
hit the RETURN key to display the next page of the current
document (without a reference number).
3.5. Examples
WWW gives you access to an information universe. Let's say you want
to know how many film versions of The Three Musketeers there have
been. You browse the WWW Subject Catalogue and select Movies:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Movie database browser (Cardiff)
A Hypertext movie database browser
Sep 2nd... Your help is needed..[1]
Aug 29th.. Images, sounds, mpegs & reviews[2]
Select the type of search you'd like to perform:-
Movie people[3].....(multi Oscar winners)[4] or
Movie titles[5] .....(multi Oscar winners)[6]
Searches the "rec.arts.movies" movie database system, maintained
by Col Needham et-al.
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RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994
Here[7] is some information on list maintainers.
If you have a comment or suggestion, it can be recorded here[8]
HERE[9] is a pre-1986 movie information gopher server. (at
Manchester UK)
1-13, Back, Up, <RETURN> for more, Quit, or Help: 5
-----------------------------------------------------------------
You select Movie titles, and then type three musketeers as keywords:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Movie title queries
MOVIE TITLE QUERY
Enter a movie title or substring.
Example, to search for movies with the word "alien" in their
title, type "alien".
This will return details on several movies, including Aliens[1]
Note: if the title begins with A or The, leave it out. If you're
determined to include it, then put ', A' or ', The' at the end of
the of the substring e.g.
Enforcer, The
Gauntlet, The
Searching is case insensitive.
search menu[2] Fun and Games page[3] COMMA home page[4]
FIND <keywords>, 1-5, Back, Up, <RETURN> for more,
or Help: three musketeers
-----------------------------------------------------------------
You find that there have been six film versions of the story:
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RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Movie Info
Here are the results from the search for "three musketeers"
Three Musketeers, The (1921)[1]
Three Musketeers, The (1933)[2]
Three Musketeers, The (1935)[3]
Three Musketeers, The (1939)[4]
Three Musketeers, The (1948)[5]
Three Musketeers, The (1974)[6]
search menu[7] Fun and Games page[8] COMMA home page[9]
Rob.H[10]
Robert.Hartill@cm.cf.ac.uk
FIND <keywords>, 1-10, Back, Up, Quit, or Help: 1
-----------------------------------------------------------------
You decide to look for more information on the 1921 version:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Movie Info
Here are the results from the search for "Three Musketeers, The (1921)"
THREE MUSKETEERS, THE (1921)
1921
Cast Belcher, Charles[1] ......Bernajoux
De Brulier, Nigel[2] ......Cardinal Richelieu
De La Motte, Marguerite[3] ......Constance Bonacieux
Fairbanks, Douglas[4] ......D'Artagnan
Irwin, Boyd[5] ......Comte de Rochefort
MacLaren, Mary[6] ......Queen Anne of Austria
Menjou, Adolphe[7] ......Louis XIII
Pallette, Eugene[8] ......Aramis
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RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994
Poff, Lon[9] ......Father Joseph
Siegmann, George[10] ......Porthos
Stevens, Charles[11] ......Planchet
Directed by Niblo, Fred[12]
Music by Gottschalk, Louis F.[13]
1-21, Back, Up, <RETURN> for more, Quit, or Help: 7
-----------------------------------------------------------------
You're hooked! You decide to look for more information on Adolphe
Menjou, search more titles, find Oscar winners, etc.
3.6. Learning more about World-Wide Web
World-Wide Web is being developed at CERN (European Particle Physics
Laboratory) by the World-Wide Web team leaded by Tim Berners-Lee. Bug
reports, comments, suggestions, etc. should be mailed to:
www-bug@info.cern.ch
On-line documentation is available from info.cern.ch, for anonymous
FTP or using the remote WWW client.
Mailing lists: www-talk@info.cern.ch
To subscribe send a mail to www-talk-request@info.cern.ch
Usenet newsgroup: comp.infosystems.www
4. WAIS
4.1. What is WAIS
WAIS, Wide Area Information Server, is a distributed information
retrieval system. It helps users search databases over networks using
an easy-to-use interface. The databases (called sources) are mostly
collections of text-based documents, but they may also contain sound,
pictures or video as well. Databases on topics ranging from
Agriculture to Social Science can be searched with WAIS.
The databases may be organized in different ways, using various
database systems, but the user isn't required to learn the query
languages of the different databases. WAIS uses natural language
queries to find relevant documents. The result of the query is a set
of documents which contain the words of the query: no semantic
information is extracted from the query.
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4.2. Who can use WAIS
WAIS uses the client-server model to provide access to databases. You
must be on the international TCP/IP network (the Internet) in order
to use a client on your computer to access WAIS.
If you have e-mail access only, or if you are not on the Internet you
can still exploit some of the potential of WAIS. An e-mail interface
is available at the address: waismail@quake.think.com which gives
e-mail access to WAIS databases (see E-mail access section under
Using WAIS below).
4.3. How to get to WAIS
There are many WAIS servers throughout the network. A
directory-of-servers database is available at several sites. You can
address a query to it, e.g., to find out what databases are available
on a particular subject. This database is also available via
anonymous FTP from Think.com in the directory /wais as file
wais-sources.tar.Z.
If you do not have access to a WAIS client, (at least) two
demonstration sites are available to allow you to get acquainted with
WAIS. You can telnet to:
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| quake.think.com (login: wais) |
| sunsite.unc.edu (login: swais) |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
The two demonstration sites above run swais (Screen WAIS), a simple
WAIS client for Unix.
4.4. Using WAIS
There are many freely available client software programs for various
operating systems (Unix, VMS, MVS, MS-DOS, OS/2 and Macintosh) and
for specific environments (GNU Emacs, X-Windows, Openlook, Sunview,
NeXT, and MS-Windows). See the list of freely available client
software in Appendix A.
The client interface differs slightly on different platforms.
However, the queries are performed in the same way, whatever the
interface.
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RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994
* Step 1: The user selects a set of databases to be searched from
among the available databases.
* Step 2: The user formulates a query by giving keywords to be
searched for.
* Step 3: When the query is run, WAIS asks for information from each
selected database.
* Step 4: Headlines of documents satisfying the query are displayed.
The selected documents contain the requested words and phrases.
Selected documents are ranked according to the number of matches.
* Step 5: To retrieve a document, the user simply selects it from the
resulting list.
* Step 6: If the response is incomplete, the user can state the
question differently or feed back to the system any one or more of
the selected documents he finds relevant.
* Step 7: When the search is run again, the results will be updated
to include documents which are similar to the ones selected,
meaning documents which share a large number of common words.
4.4.1. E-mail access:
You can query WAIS databases and retrieve documents by sending
commands in the body part of an e-mail message to
waismail@quake.think.com. The Subject: line is ignored. The important
commands are (a vertical bar (|) indicates a choice of parameters):
help
to get the help file
maxres number
to set the maximum number of results to be returned.
search source-name | "source-name1 source-name2 ..." keywords
where:
source-name
is a source name as found in the directory-of-servers (with or
without the .src ending). Use double-quotes (") to group
several sources to be searched.
keywords
are the words you would normally type into a query.
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You may specify several search requests in a mail message. If you
don't know what sources you can search, just try anything. If the
source name is not recognised, you'll get a list of sources.
retrieve docid
to retrieve a document from a database. docid is a DocID as
returned by a search above. You may put more than one retrieval
request in a mail message, but you must leave a blank line between
requests. The docid must be written exactly as returned by a
search request, including any spaces. You can retrieve non-text
documents as well as text. If the document is of type TEXT or WSRC
you will get the result directly. Other types will be UUENCODED.
DocID: docid
same as retrieve. This form is identical to the form which is
returned by a search request. It makes it easy to use the reply
mail function to retrieve results.
4.5. Examples
When you log in to the demonstration site at quake.think.com, you
have immediate access to the directory-of-servers database via the
swais client software. To find recipes using papaya, you would select
the recipes database and give papaya as the keyword. Here are the
results of the search:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
# Score Source Title Lines
001: 1000 (recipes) arielle@ta Re: Dawn's Muffins, Pt III 339
002: 1000 (recipes) arielle@ta Re: Muffins 3 632
003: 1000 (recipes) arielle@ta Re: Pineapple 678
004: 750 (recipes) arielle@ta Re: Pork and Papaya Salad 33
005: 750 (recipes) arielle@ta Re: Bread 681
006: 500 (recipes) roder@cco. Re: NONFAT BAKERY COLLECTION 423
007: 500 (recipes) shiva@hoss Re: Juice Recipes 65
008: 250 (recipes) arielle@ta Re: Prawn Salad 49
009: 250 (recipes) arielle@ta Re: COLLECTION: Lots of Avoca 447
010: 250 (recipes) mecca@acsu Re: REQUEST: blender-made fru 29
011: 250 (recipes) Ann.Adamci Re: Re: REQUEST: blender-made 38
012: 250 (recipes) patth@Pani Re: Re: REQUEST: blender-made 49
013: 250 (recipes) arielle@ta Re: Avocados 459
014: 250 (recipes) red_trek@d Re: VEGAN: red beans and rice 78
-----------------------------------------------------------------
You can then select any of the above documents for viewing, for
example, the Pork and Papaya Salad recipe:
EARN Staff [Page 25]
RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: rec.food.recipes
From: arielle@taronga.com (Stephanie da Silva)
Subject: Pork and Papaya Salad
Message-ID: <5BBP2SB@taronga.com>
Date: Mon, 29 Mar 1993 06:51:47 GMT
Lines: 23
1/4 cup dried currants
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup walnut oil
1/4 cup chicken broth
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 pound cooked boneless pork loin roast
1 head Belgian endive
Bibb lettuce leaves
2 papayas, seeded, peeled and sliced lengthwise
2 avocados, seeded, peeled and sliced lengthwise
1/4 cup broken walnut pieces
In a small bowl pour enough boiling water over currants to cover.
Let stand 5 minutes; drain. For dressing, in a screw-top jar
combine vinegar, oil, chicken broth, honey, and cinnamon. Cover;
shake well. Trim fat from pork; slice thinly. Separate leaves of
Belgian endive. Line 6 salad plates with lettuce leaves. Arrange
pork, endive, papaya, and avocado on plates. Sprinkle with
currants and walnuts. Drizzle dressing over salads.
Stephanie da Silva arielle@taronga.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------
If you give more than one keyword, then all documents containing any
of the keywords will be listed.
4.6. Learning more about WAIS
A bibliography of documents, services and sources for WAIS is
maintained by Barbara Lincoln Brooks of WAIS Inc. The bibliography is
available from ftp.wais.com in the directory /pub/wais-inc-doc along
with many other WAIS documents.
There are currently four main FTP sites for WAIS documentation and
software:
EARN Staff [Page 26]
RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994
* ftp.cnidr.org
* ftp.wais.com
* quake.think.com
* sunsite.unc.edu
For information on free WAIS software contact freewais@cnidr.org
Mailing list: wais-discussion@wais.com
To subscribe send a mail to wais-discussion-request@wais.com
Usenet newsgroup: comp.infosystems.wais
WAIS was developed at Thinking Machines Corporation.
5. ARCHIE
5.1. What is ARCHIE
Archie is an information system. It offers an electronic directory
service for locating information in the international TCP/IP network
(the Internet).
The best known use of archie is for scanning a database of the
contents of more than 1000 anonymous FTP sites around the world.
Currently, this database contains more than 2,100,000 file names from
anonymous FTP sites. This database is known as the archie database.
The files made available at anonymous FTP sites are software packages
for various systems (Windows, MS-DOS, Macintosh, Unix, etc.),
utilities, information or documentation files, mailing list or Usenet
group discussion archives. At most FTP sites, the resources are
organized hierarchically in directories and subdirectories. The
database tracks both the directory path and the file names.
The archie database is automatically updated, thereby ensuring that
the information is accurate. Using this database, users can easily
find the the location of files they need without logging onto several
machines.
5.2. Who can use ARCHIE
Users on any network can access the archie database by electronic
mail. Other means of access are available to users on the Internet
(see the section Using ARCHIE below for details).
You are requested to respect a few basic rules when you request
information from an archie server:
EARN Staff [Page 27]
RFC 1580 Guide to Network Resource Tools March 1994
* avoid connecting during working hours; most of the archie
servers are
not dedicated machines, they have local functions as well.
* make your queries as specific as possible; the response will be
quicker and shorter.
* user interfaces installed on your computer contribute to reduce
the
load on the server sites, please use them.
* use the archie server closest to you and, in particularly, don't
overload the transatlantic lines.
5.3. How to get to ARCHIE
The archie database is maintained in the following locations:
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| Host Country |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| archie.au Australia |
| archie.edvz.uni-linz.ac.at Austria |
| archie.univie.ac.at Austria |
| archie.uqam.ca Canada |
| archie.funet.fi Finland |
| archie.th-darmstadt.de Germany |
| archie.doc.ic.ac.uk Great-Britain |
| archie.ac.il Israel |
| archie.unipi.it Italy |
| archie.wide.ad.jp Japan |
| archie.kyoto-u.ac.jp Japan |
| archie.hana.nm.kr Korea |
| archie.sogang.ac.kr Korea |
| archie.nz New Zealand |
| archie.rediris.es Spain |
| archie.luth.se Sweden |
| archie.switch.ch Switzerland |
| archie.ncu.edu.tw Taiwan |
| archie.ans.net USA |
| archie.internic.net USA |
| archie.rutgers.edu USA |
| archie.sura.net USA |
| archie.unl.edu USA |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
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There are three ways to access the archie database: via a local
client, interactive Telnet session or electronic mail. Each type of
access is described below in the Using ARCHIE section.
5.4. Using ARCHIE
The format of the parameters is given at the end of this section.
Angle brackets (<>) indicate an optional parameter; a vertical bar
(|) indicates a choice of parameters.
Note: A new version of the archie server (3.0) is now available. Some
of the commands for interactive access and the e-mail interface are
slightly different from previous versions of the server (2.11 and
before). Command formats marked with a (+) are valid in version 3.0
only, those marked with a (*) are acceptable only in previous
versions. To find out which version is installed at the server you
wish to use, issue the version command.
5.4.1. Using a local client:
Usage of these clients is encouraged since they provide quick and
easy non-interactive access to the archie servers, and thus,
better performance of the servers and better response time for the
user.
Public domain clients for accessing archie servers are available
for: Macintosh, MS-DOS, OS/2, VMS, NeXT, Unix and X-Windows. The
clients are available for anonymous FTP from the archie sites in
the directories /pub/archie/clients or /archie/clients. All these
platforms support a simple command line client. In addition, a
graphical interface (called xarchie) is available for X-Windows.
5.4.1.1. Archie client command and parameters
When using a graphical interface, you access the archie functions
by pressing mousse buttons. The results are displayed with
selectable fields for further explorations.
The basic archie client is a command with parameters that you
enter on your local machine. With most versions of the archie
client, if you type archie with no parameters, you will get a list
of the possible parameters and a short description of each. The
format of the command is:
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+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| archie <-options> string | pattern |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
where the options are:
o
specifies an output file name to store the results (not
available with all clients).
l
lists the result one match per line. This form is suitable for
parsing by programs.
t
sorts the result inverted by date
m#
specifies maximum number of matches to return (# within the
range 0 to 1000). The default value is 95.
h archie-server
specifies an archie server to send the query to; if this
parameter is not given, then the query will be sent to the
default archie server, if one is defined.
L
lists known servers and current default server.
The following group of options determines the kind of search
performed on the database. They are mutually exclusive.
s
a match occurs if the file/directory name contains string. The
search is case insensitive.
c
as above, but the search is case sensitive.
e
string must EXACTLY match (including case) the file/directory
name in the database. This is the DEFAULT search method.
r
searches the database using pattern. It contains special
characters which must be interpreted before performing the
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search.
There may be some slight differences in the options available with
different clients on different platforms.
The result is a list of FTP site addresses with files or
directories matching the argument, the size of the file, its last
modification date and its directory. By default, the list is
sorted by host address. See the Examples section below for an
example of archie output.
5.4.2. Using Telnet:
To access an archie server interactively, telnet to one of the
existing servers (see the list of servers in the section How to
get to ARCHIE above). At the login: prompt enter archie, the login
procedure ends leaving the user at a archie> prompt. The server is
ready for user requests. The following commands are available:
exit, quit, bye
exits archie.
help <command-name>
invokes the on-line help. If issued with commandname, the help
request is restricted to the specified topic. Pressing the
RETURN key exits from the on-line help.
list <pattern>
provides a list of the sites in the database and the time at
which they were last updated. The optional parameter limits the
list to sites matching pattern. The result is a list of site
names, sites IP address and date of the last update in the
database. The command list with no pattern will list all sites
in the database (more than 1000 sites!). E.g.,
list \.de$
will list all German sites
site(*) site-name
lists the directories and, recursively, the subdirectories, of
site-name in the database. The result may be very long.
whatis string
searches the database of software package descriptions for
string. The search is case-insensitive.
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prog string | pattern
find(+) string | pattern
searches the database for string or pattern which represents
the name of the resource to be found in the database. Searches
may be performed in a number of different ways specified in the
variable search (set command) which also decides the
interpretation of the parameter as string or pattern. The
result is a list of FTP site addresses with matching entries,
the size of the resource, its last modification date and the
directory to find it. The number of hits is limited by the
maxhits variable (set command). The result of prog can be
sorted in different ways, depending on the value of the sortby
variable (set command). By default, the variables search,
maxhits and sortby are set to, respectively, exact match search
on string, 1000 hits and unsorted resulting list. Typing the
keyboard interrupt character during a search will abort it. The
results up to that time are displayed. See the Examples section
below for an example of the prog command and its results.
mail <email> <,email2...>
sends the result of the last command in a mail message to the
specified e-mail address(es). If issued with no argument, the
result is sent to the address specified in the variable mailto
(set command).
show <variable>
displays the value of the given variable name. If issued with
no argument, it displays all variables. See the set command
below for the possible variables.
set variable value
sets one of the archie's variables. Values of these variables
affect how archie interacts with the user.
Variables and values are:
compress(+) compress-method
specifies the compression method (none or compress) to be used
before mailing a result with the mail command. The default is
none.
encode(+) encode-method
specifies the encoding method (none or uuencode) to be used
before mailing a result with the mail command. This variable is
ignored if compress is not set. The default is none.
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mailto email <,email2 ...>
specifies the e-mail address(es) to mail the result of the last
command when mail is issued with no arguments.
maxhits number
specifies the maximum number of matches prog will generate
(within the range 0 to 1000). The default value is 1000.
search search-value
determines the kind of search performed on the database by the
command: prog string | pattern. search-values are:
sub
a parttial and case insensitive search is performed with
string on the database, e.g.:
"is" will match "islington" and "this" and "poison"
subcase
as above but the search is case sensitive, e.g.:
"TeX" will match "LaTeX" but not "Latex"
exact
the parameter of prog (string) must EXACTLY match (including
case) the string in the database. The fastest search method
of all, and the default.
regex
pattern is interpreted before performing a search on the
database.
sortby sort-value
describes how to sort the result of prog. sort-values are:
hostname
on the FTP site address in lexical order.
time
by the modification date, most recent first.
size
by the size of the found files or directories, largest
first.
filename
on file or directory name in lexical order.
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none
unsorted (default)
The reverse sorting orders from those described here are
obtained by prepending r to the sortby value given. (e.g.,
reverse hostname order hostname is rhostname).
term terminal-type <number-of-rows <number-of-columns>>
tells the archie server what type of terminal you are
using, and optionally its size in rows and columns, e.g.:
set term xterm 24 100
5.4.3. Using electronic mail:
Users limited to electronic mail connectivity can access the
archie servers by sending mail to the domain address of one of the
servers listed in the section How to get to ARCHIE (e.g.,
archie@archie.ac.il). The commands are sent in the body part of
the mail.
The electronic mail interface to an archie server recognizes a
subset of the commands described in Using Telnet. Most useful
commands and particularities to the e-mail interface are described
below. If an empty message, or a message containing no valid
requests is received, it will be considered to be a help request.
Command lines begin in the first column. All lines that do not
match a valid command are ignored. The Subject: line is processed
as if it were part of the message body.
help
sends you the help file. The help command is exclusive, ie,
other commands in the same message are ignored.
path return-address
set mailto(+) return-address
specifies a return e-mail address different from that which is
extracted from the message header. If you do not receive a
reply from the archie server within several hours, you might
need to add a path command to your message request.
list pattern <pattern2 ...>
provides a list of the sites in the database that match pattern
and the time at which they were last updated. The result is a
list with site names, sites IP address and date of the last
update in the database.
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site(*) site-name
lists the directories and, recursively, the subdirectories, of
site-name in the database.
whatis string <string2 ...>
searches the database of software packages descriptions for
each string. The search is case insensitive.
prog pattern <pattern2 ...>
find(+) pattern <pattern2>
searches the database for each interpretation of pattern which
represents the name of a resource to be found in the database.
If multiple patterns are placed on one line, in that case, the
results will be mailed back in one message. If multiple prog
lines appear, then multiple messages will be returned, one for
each prog line. Results are sorted by FTP site address in
lexical order. If pattern contains spaces, it must be quoted
with single (') or double (") quotes. The search is case
insensitive.
compress(*)
causes the result of the current request to be compressed and
uuencoded. When you receive the reply, you should run it
through uudecode. This will produce a .Z file. You can then run
uncompress on this file and get the result of your request
set compress(+) compress-method
specifies the compression method (none or compress) to be used
before mailing the result of the current request. The default
is none.
set encode(+) encode-method
specifies the encoding method (none or uuencode) to be used
before mailing the result of the current request. This variable
is ignored if compress is not set. The default is none.
Note: set compress compress and set encode uuencode would
produce the same result as the former compress command.
quit
nothing past this point is interpreted. Useful when a signature
is automatically appended at the end of your mail messages.
Description of pattern
A pattern describes a character string including characters which
take a special meaning. The special meaning is lost when "\" is
put before the character. The special characters are:
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.
(period) this is the wildcard character that replaces any other
character, e.g., "...." will match any 4 character string.
^
(caret) if "^" appears at the beginning of the pattern, then
the searched string must start with the substring following the
"^". If it occurs anywhere else in the pattern it is regarded
as non-special, e.g.:
"^efghi" will match "efghi" or "efghijlk" but not
"abcefghi"
$
(dollar) if "$" appears at the end of the pattern, then the
searched string must end with the substring preceding the "$".
If occurring anywhere else in the pattern, it is regarded as
non-special, e.g.:
"efghi$" will match "efghi" or "abcdefghi" but not
"efghijkl"
5.5. Examples
If you are using an archie client, and enter the command:
archie -s eudora
or if you send, by e-mail or during a Telnet session, the command:
prog eudora
or
find eudora
then archie will send you the following results:
Host ftp.ascii.co.jp (133.152.1.1)
Last updated 03:38 8 Aug 1993
Location: /pub/MAC
DIRECTORY drwxrwxr-x 2048 bytes 00:00 6 May 1992 eudora
Host ftp.ascii.co.jp (133.152.1.1)
Last updated 03:38 8 Aug 1993
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Location: /pub/MAC/eudora
FILE -r--r--r-- 281139 bytes 00:00 21 Oct 1991 eudora1.2.2.sit.hqx
Host ftp.ci.ua.pt (192.80.21.201)
Last updated 04:53 9 Aug 1993
Location: /pub/NetNews/comp.binaries.mac
FILE -rw-r--r-- 438 bytes 12:04 10 Jul 1993 Eudora1.3.readme
Host ftp.ci.ua.pt (192.80.21.201)
Last updated 04:53 9 Aug 1993
Location: /pub/NetNews/comp.binaries.mac
FILE -rw-r--r-- 278912 bytes 12:04 10 Jul 1993 Eudora1.3.sit.bin
etc.
If you send the command list \.de$ by e-mail or in a Telnet session,
then you will get the following results:
alice.fmi.uni-passau.de 132.231.1.180 12:31 8 Aug 1993
askhp.ask.uni-karlsruhe.de 129.13.200.33 12:25 8 Aug 1993
athene.uni-paderborn.de 131.234.2.32 15:21 6 Aug 1993
bseis.eis.cs.tu-bs.de 134.169.33.1 00:18 31 Jul 1993
clio.rz.uni-duesseldorf.de 134.99.128.3 12:10 8 Aug 1993
cns.wtza-berlin.de 141.16.244.4 16:08 31 Jul 1993
etc.
If you send the command whatis compression by e-mail or in a Telnet
session, then you will get the following results:
RFC 468 Braden, R.T. FTP data compression 1973 March 8; 5p.
arc PC compression program
deltac Image compression using delta modulation
spl Splay tree compression routines
squeeze A file compression program
uncrunch Uncompression program
unsqueeze Uncompression programs
5.6. Learning more about ARCHIE
However you communicate with the archie server, on-line help is
available.
If you have any questions about archie, write to the Archie Group,
Bunyip Information Systems Inc. at info@bunyip.com.
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Bug reports, comments, suggestions, etc. should be mailed to
archie-group@bunyip.com. In addition, the database administrator at a
particular archie server can be contacted at
archie-admin@address.of.archie.server, e.g.:
archie-admin@archie.ac.il.
Mailing list: archie-people@bunyip.com
To subscribe send a mail to: archie-people-request@bunyip.com
Archie was developed by Alan Emtage, Peter Deutsch, and Bill Heelan
from the McGill University Computing Center, Canada. Now archie is
supported by Bunyip Information System Inc., Canada.
6.1. WHOIS
6.1. What is WHOIS
WHOIS provides directory service to network users. This service is a
way of finding e-mail addresses, postal addresses and telephone
numbers. It may also deliver information about networks, networking
organizations, domains and sites.
The main database of networking-related names (organizations, sites,
networks, people, etc.) is maintained by the Internet Registration
Service (InterNIC). Actually, the names of the administrative and
technical contacts for registered domains are automatically entered
into the database when domain or IP number applications are processed
by the Internet coordination authority. Each entry of the database
has a handle (a unique identifier), a name, a record type, and
various other fields depending on the type of record. This database
will be used as an example in the descriptions below.
Before April 1, 1993, the Network Information Center (NIC) of the
Defense Data Network (DDN) was the Internet coordination authority
and, therefore, maintained the database (known as the NIC database).
The NIC database is now restricted to information about the .mil
domain. Many documents still refer to these names.
Many academic sites maintain their own database to offer information
about their staff members and students.
In its current implementation, WHOIS has some limitations which
prevent it from becoming an efficient directory service for a large
volume of information and numerous requests: the various WHOIS
servers have no knowledge of each other, a database is maintained at
each server site, and, finally, new functionalities have been
implemented locally at various sites and not propagated. A new
extended protocol, WHOIS++, is being specified to improve the current
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service. WHOIS++ will include local enhancements to the WHOIS
service, an improved query syntax and its architecture will allow a
real distributed directory service for the entire Internet.
This new protocol for directory services will be made available
shortly.
6.2. Who can use WHOIS
WHOIS is available to users on the international TCP/IP network (the
Internet).
A WHOIS server is accessible across the network from a user program
running on local machines or via an interactive Telnet session to the
site which hosts the server.
In addition, the InterNIC offers an electronic mail interface to the
database it maintains, allowing users not on the Internet or users
with electronic mail only to access this information. This type of
access is described below in the Using WHOIS section.
In general, WHOIS servers should only be used for isolated queries
about specific information. Typically, it is not acceptable to make
an extended series of queries to obtain large sections of the
directory. Such a strategy is unfair both because of excessive
consumption of server resources, and because the directory
information belongs to individuals. In particular, extracting lists
of people for commercial purposes is strictly prohibited.
6.3. How to get to WHOIS
There are many WHOIS servers throughout the network and a
comprehensive list would be too long to be included here. A WHOIS
server offers information about the organization to which it belongs:
it doesn't share a common directory with other WHOIS servers and
doesn't know either where to find information about other
institutions.
6.4. Using WHOIS
WHOIS has become the familiar name of the user program for accessing
a WHOIS database, although NICNAME is the original name.
In the following, angle brackets (<>) indicate an optional parameter.
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6.4.1. Using a local client:
Unix computers have a native whois command. On non-Unix machines,
ask your system administrator whether your computer has it or not.
This command searches the database on the specified site for entry
which contains identifier. The format is:
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| whois <-h site-name> identifier |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
where:
site-name
is the domain address of the site which hosts the database you
want to query (e.g., whois.internic.net). On some
installations, the default value is still set to the old NIC
database site (nic.ddn.mil).
identifier
is a name (person, host, domain or network), an IP number or a
handle.
Special characters may be used in identifier to specify the
search:
.
before identifier will cause a name-only search.
!
before identifier will cause a handle-only search.
... or .
after identifier will cause a partial search: everything
starting with identifier will match.
@
in identifier will cause a search on the e-mail addresses.
*
before identifier will return the entire membership list of the
entry that matches identifier (e.g., a site and its registered
users).
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%
before identifier will return only the membership list of the
entry that matches identifier (e.g., the registered users of a
site).
The special characters may be used together.
The results are displayed in one of 2 ways:
* a full detailed display for a single match,
* a list of summary lines for multiple matches.
In both cases, the handle is shown in parentheses after the name.
6.4.2. Using Telnet:
To access the InterNIC database interactively, telnet to the
InterNIC site (whois.internic.net). No login is required.
Other WHOIS databases may have a Telnet access and offer most of
the functions below (e.g., whois.ripe.net which hosts the WHOIS
database of the European IP Networks).
In the following, CAPITAL letters indicate acceptable
abbreviation; angle brackets (<>) indicate an optional parameter.
WHOIS
invokes the information retrieval program.
?
displays a short on-line help.
HElp
accesses the full on-line help.
Q, QUIT, RETURN key
exits WHOIS
<keyword> identifier
searches the database for an entry which contains identifier.
The default action is to do a broad search, looking for matches
in many fields: handle, name, nicknames, hostname, IP number,
etc, and finding all record types. keyword may be used to
narrow the search to a specific record type.
keyword may be one of:
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PErson
limits the search to persons.
DOmain
limits the search to domains (e.g., DO EARN.NET).
HOst
limits the search to hosts (e.g., HO PRINCETON).
NEtwork
limits the search to networks (e.g., NE EBONE).
Organization
limits the search to organizations (e.g., O CREN).
NAme
same as leading '.' in identifier.
HAndle
same as '!' in identifier.
PArtial
same as trailing '.' in identifier.
Mailbox
same as '@' in identifier.
EXPand
same as '*' in identifier.
SUBdisplay
same as '%' in identifier.
Full or '='
shows detailed display for each match.
SUMmary or '