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Archie Email Help (Version 3.0)
HELP for the archie email server, as of 10 April, 1993.
To perform an archie search via email, send mail to
archie@<archie_server>
Where <archie_server> is the name of an archie host.
The current (and complete) list of archie servers can be found with the
"servers" command (described below). A sample list is:
archie.rutgers.edu 128.6.18.15 (USA)
archie.unl.edu 129.93.1.14 (USA)
archie.sura.net 128.167.254.179 (USA)
archie.ans.net 147.225.1.2 (USA)
archie.au 139.130.4.6 (Australia)
archie.funet.fi 128.214.6.100 (European server in Finland)
archie.sogang.ac.kr 163.239.1.11 (Korea)
If you do not get mail back within 2 days or so, try using the "path"
command described below.
Mail destined for the administration of individual servers should be
addressed to:
archie-admin@<archie_server>
To add or delete a site from the archie database, send mail to:
archie-admin@bunyip.com
To contact the implementors of archie, send mail to:
archie-group@bunyip.com
For your information anonymous FTP may be performed through the mail by
various ftp-mail servers. Send a message with the word 'help' in it to:
For BITNET/EARN sites ONLY:
bitftp@pucc.princeton.edu
or (general access):
ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com
for an explanations on how to use them.
The "Subject:" in mail sent to archie is treated as part of the message
body.
Command lines begin in the first column. All lines that do not match a valid
commands are ignored.
Under version 3.0 the email client implements all the non-interactive
commands and variables of the telnet client. However, interactive
commands like "pager" are not supported as they don't make much sense in
the email environment.
For a complete explanation of the the archie system use the "manpage"
command to request a copy of the manual page, what follows is a short
summary of the valid email commands and variables.
NOTE: The "site" command of earlier versions of archie has been disabled
under version 3.0 until it can be reimplemented with the new
architecture of the system.
Quick and dirty summary
----------------------
For those of you who want to get something done now and read the rest of
this later, send the email to an archie server with the line:
find <foo>
(where <foo> is the name of the file you are looking for). You should get
a message back with results of your search. If you want to be a bit more
sophisticated, read on....
Commands
--------
In the commands that follow, parameters between '[' and ']' are optional.
The ellipsis ("...") signifies that the previous parameter can be repeated
multiple times. A '|' character means "or".
help [ <topic> [[ <subtopic> ] ...]]
The "help" command by itself produces this message.
An optional topic and subtopic(s) may also be given. A
list of words is considered to be one topic, not a list
of individual topics. Thus,
help set maxhits
requests help on the subtopic 'maxhits' of topic 'set',
not on two separate topics.
find <pattern> This command produces a list of files matching the pattern
<pattern>. The <pattern> may be interpreted as a simple
substring, a case sensitive substring, an exact string or
a regular expression, depending on the value of the
variable search.
prog <pattern> This is identical to "find" and is included for backward
compatibility with older versions of the system.
list [ <pattern> ]
Produce a list of sites whose contents are contained in
the archie database. With no argument all the sites are
listed. If given, the <pattern> argument is interpreted
as a regular expression (see the archie manual page for
an explanation of regular expressons) against which to
match site names: only those names matching are printed.
The format of the output can be selected through the
output_format variable (described below).
Note that the numerical (IP) address associated with a
site name is valid at the time the site was last updated
in the archie database, but may have changed subseqently.
mail <address> Mail the results generated up until this command to
<address>. This must be a vaid email address.
manpage [ roff | ascii ]
Return the archie manual page. The optional arguments
specify the format of the returned document. "roff"
specifies UNIX troff (or nroff) format, while ascii
specifies plain, preformatted ASCII output. With no
arguments it defaults to ascii.
motd Re-display the "message of the day", which is normally
printed at the start of the returned message.
path <address> Set the return address to <address>. This overrides the
default path which the system automatically generates by
looking at the incoming mail header. This is actually an
alias for "set mailto <address>" (see "Variables" below),
and is included for backwards compatability.
servers Display a list of all publicly accessible archie servers
worldwide. The names of the hosts, their IP addresses and
geographical locations are listed.
set <variable> <value>
Set the specified <variable> to <value>. See "Variables"
below.
show [ <variable-name>...]
Without any parameters, display the status of all the
user-settable variables, including such information as
its type (boolean, numeric, string), whether or not it is
set and its current value (if its type requires a
value). Otherwise show the status of each of the
specified arguments. Useful for finding out what the
default settings at a server are.
unset <variable>
Unset the specified <variable>. The subsequent value of
the variable is defined on a <variable>-specific basis.
version
Print the current version of the email interface.
whatis <substring>
Search the Software Description Database for the given
substring, ignoring case. This database consists of
names and short descriptions of many software packages,
documents (like RFCs and educational material), and data
files stored on the Internet.
Note that this database is currently maintained by hand
and may not be completely up-to-date.
Variables
---------
The archie email system has 3 types of variables.
1) Numeric
----------
Numeric variables may have preset internal ranges in which the value of
the variable must lie.
maxhits Allow the "find" command to generate at most the
specified number of matches (permissible range: 0-1000)
max_split_size Approximate maximum size, in bytes, of a file to be mailed
to the user. Any output larger than this limit will be
split in pieces of about this size. This can be set by
the user in the range 1024 to ~2Gb with a default of
51200 bytes. Some mail gateways will not allow results of
over 100Kb and so care should be taken when setting this
limit.
2) String
---------
String variables may have a predefined range of values.
compress
The kind of data compression the user can specify when
mailing back output. Currently allowed values are
"none" and "compress" (standard UNIX compress program)
with a default of "none"
encode The type of post-compression encoding the user can
specify when mailing back output. Currently allowed
values are "none" and "uuencode", with a default
of "none". Note that this variable is ignored unless
compression is enabled (via the compress) variable.
language Allows the user to specify the language in which the
help, etc. is presented. Individual servers may be
configured for a range of languages.
mailto A valid address to mail the results back to. This overrides
the address automatically generated by the archie system
from the incoming mail header. Setting this variable is
equivalent to using the "path" command.
output_format Affects the way the output of "find" and "list" is
displayed. User settable, with valid values of "machine"
(machine readable format), "terse" and "verbose", with a
default of "verbose".
search The type of search done by the "find" (or "prog") command.
The list of valid values is given below in order of
increasing search times. The given search string may
match a directory or filename in the database.
exact String has to match exactly (including case)
subcase Substring match. Case sensitive.
sub Substring match. Case insensitive.
regex Regular expression (see ed(1)) search.
Case sensitive. The archie manual page
gives examples of regular expressions.
There are also compound searches made up of combinations
of the above search methods in sequence:
exact_sub Try "exact". If no matches found use
"sub".
exact_subcase Try "exact". If no matches found use
"subcase"
exact_regex Try "exact". If no matches found use
regex.
Note: unless specifically anchored to the beginning
(with ^) or end (with $) of a line, regular expressions
(effectively) have ``.*'' prepended and appended to them.
For example, it is not necessary to type
find .*xnlock.*
because
find xnlock
In this instance, the regex match is equivalent a simple
substring match which should be used instead.
server The archie/Prospero server to which the email interface
connects when "find" or "list" commands are used. Usually
defaults to "localhost" on most archie systems.
sortby Set the method of sorting to be applied to output from
the "find" command.
The five permitted methods (and their associated reverse
orders) are:
none Unsorted (default; no reverse order, though
'rnone' is accepted)
filename Sort files/directories by name, using lexical
order (reverse order: 'rfilename')
hostname Sort on the archive hostname, in lexical order
(reverse order: 'rhostname')
size Sort by size, largest files/directories first
(reverse order: 'rsize')
time Sort by modification time, with the most recent
file/directory names first (reverse order: 'rtime')
3) Boolean
----------
Currently the email interface to the archie system has no variables of
type "boolean".
>> help
Archie Email Help (Version 3.0)
HELP for the archie email server, as of 10 April, 1993.
To perform an archie search via email, send mail to
archie@<archie_server>
Where <archie_server> is the name of an archie host.
The current (and complete) list of archie servers can be found with the
"servers" command (described below). A sample list is:
archie.rutgers.edu 128.6.18.15 (USA)
archie.unl.edu 129.93.1.14 (USA)
archie.sura.net 128.167.254.179 (USA)
archie.ans.net 147.225.1.2 (USA)
archie.au 139.130.4.6 (Australia)
archie.funet.fi 128.214.6.100 (European server in Finland)
archie.sogang.ac.kr 163.239.1.11 (Korea)
If you do not get mail back within 2 days or so, try using the "path"
command described below.
Mail destined for the administration of individual servers should be
addressed to:
archie-admin@<archie_server>
To add or delete a site from the archie database, send mail to:
archie-admin@bunyip.com
To contact the implementors of archie, send mail to:
archie-group@bunyip.com
For your information anonymous FTP may be performed through the mail by
various ftp-mail servers. Send a message with the word 'help' in it to:
For BITNET/EARN sites ONLY:
bitftp@pucc.princeton.edu
or (general access):
ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com
for an explanations on how to use them.
The "Subject:" in mail sent to archie is treated as part of the message
body.
Command lines begin in the first column. All lines that do not match a valid
commands are ignored.
Under version 3.0 the email client implements all the non-interactive
commands and variables of the telnet client. However, interactive
commands like "pager" are not supported as they don't make much sense in
the email environment.
For a complete explanation of the the archie system use the "manpage"
command to request a copy of the manual page, what follows is a short
summary of the valid email commands and variables.
NOTE: The "site" command of earlier versions of archie has been disabled
under version 3.0 until it can be reimplemented with the new
architecture of the system.
Quick and dirty summary
----------------------
For those of you who want to get something done now and read the rest of
this later, send the email to an archie server with the line:
find <foo>
(where <foo> is the name of the file you are looking for). You should get
a message back with results of your search. If you want to be a bit more
sophisticated, read on....
Commands
--------
In the commands that follow, parameters between '[' and ']' are optional.
The ellipsis ("...") signifies that the previous parameter can be repeated
multiple times. A '|' character means "or".
help [ <topic> [[ <subtopic> ] ...]]
The "help" command by itself produces this message.
An optional topic and subtopic(s) may also be given. A
list of words is considered to be one topic, not a list
of individual topics. Thus,
help set maxhits
requests help on the subtopic 'maxhits' of topic 'set',
not on two separate topics.
find <pattern> This command produces a list of files matching the pattern
<pattern>. The <pattern> may be interpreted as a simple
substring, a case sensitive substring, an exact string or
a regular expression, depending on the value of the
variable search.
prog <pattern> This is identical to "find" and is included for backward
compatibility with older versions of the system.
list [ <pattern> ]
Produce a list of sites whose contents are contained in
the archie database. With no argument all the sites are
listed. If given, the <pattern> argument is interpreted
as a regular expression (see the archie manual page for
an explanation of regular expressons) against which to
match site names: only those names matching are printed.
The format of the output can be selected through the
output_format variable (described below).
Note that the numerical (IP) address associated with a
site name is valid at the time the site was last updated
in the archie database, but may have changed subseqently.
mail <address> Mail the results generated up until this command to
<address>. This must be a vaid email address.
manpage [ roff | ascii ]
Return the archie manual page. The optional arguments
specify the format of the returned document. "roff"
specifies UNIX troff (or nroff) format, while ascii
specifies plain, preformatted ASCII output. With no
arguments it defaults to ascii.
motd Re-display the "message of the day", which is normally
printed at the start of the returned message.
path <address> Set the return address to <address>. This overrides the
default path which the system automatically generates by
looking at the incoming mail header. This is actually an
alias for "set mailto <address>" (see "Variables" below),
and is included for backwards compatability.
servers Display a list of all publicly accessible archie servers
worldwide. The names of the hosts, their IP addresses and
geographical locations are listed.
set <variable> <value>
Set the specified <variable> to <value>. See "Variables"
below.
show [ <variable-name>...]
Without any parameters, display the status of all the
user-settable variables, including such information as
its type (boolean, numeric, string), whether or not it is
set and its current value (if its type requires a
value). Otherwise show the status of each of the
specified arguments. Useful for finding out what the
default settings at a server are.
unset <variable>
Unset the specified <variable>. The subsequent value of
the variable is defined on a <variable>-specific basis.
version
Print the current version of the email interface.
whatis <substring>
Search the Software Description Database for the given
substring, ignoring case. This database consists of
names and short descriptions of many software packages,
documents (like RFCs and educational material), and data
files stored on the Internet.
Note that this database is currently maintained by hand
and may not be completely up-to-date.
Variables
---------
The archie email system has 3 types of variables.
1) Numeric
----------
Numeric variables may have preset internal ranges in which the value of
the variable must lie.
maxhits Allow the "find" command to generate at most the
specified number of matches (permissible range: 0-1000)
max_split_size Approximate maximum size, in bytes, of a file to be mailed
to the user. Any output larger than this limit will be
split in pieces of about this size. This can be set by
the user in the range 1024 to ~2Gb with a default of
51200 bytes. Some mail gateways will not allow results of
over 100Kb and so care should be taken when setting this
limit.
2) String
---------
String variables may have a predefined range of values.
compress
The kind of data compression the user can specify when
mailing back output. Currently allowed values are
"none" and "compress" (standard UNIX compress program)
with a default of "none"
encode The type of post-compression encoding the user can
specify when mailing back output. Currently allowed
values are "none" and "uuencode", with a default
of "none". Note that this variable is ignored unless
compression is enabled (via the compress) variable.
language Allows the user to specify the language in which the
help, etc. is presented. Individual servers may be
configured for a range of languages.
mailto A valid address to mail the results back to. This overrides
the address automatically generated by the archie system
from the incoming mail header. Setting this variable is
equivalent to using the "path" command.
output_format Affects the way the output of "find" and "list" is
displayed. User settable, with valid values of "machine"
(machine readable format), "terse" and "verbose", with a
default of "verbose".
search The type of search done by the "find" (or "prog") command.
The list of valid values is given below in order of
increasing search times. The given search string may
match a directory or filename in the database.
exact String has to match exactly (including case)
subcase Substring match. Case sensitive.
sub Substring match. Case insensitive.
regex Regular expression (see ed(1)) search.
Case sensitive. The archie manual page
gives examples of regular expressions.
There are also compound searches made up of combinations
of the above search methods in sequence:
exact_sub Try "exact". If no matches found use
"sub".
exact_subcase Try "exact". If no matches found use
"subcase"
exact_regex Try "exact". If no matches found use
regex.
Note: unless specifically anchored to the beginning
(with ^) or end (with $) of a line, regular expressions
(effectively) have ``.*'' prepended and appended to them.
For example, it is not necessary to type
find .*xnlock.*
because
find xnlock
In this instance, the regex match is equivalent a simple
substring match which should be used instead.
server The archie/Prospero server to which the email interface
connects when "find" or "list" commands are used. Usually
defaults to "localhost" on most archie systems.
sortby Set the method of sorting to be applied to output from
the "find" command.
The five permitted methods (and their associated reverse
orders) are:
none Unsorted (default; no reverse order, though
'rnone' is accepted)
filename Sort files/directories by name, using lexical
order (reverse order: 'rfilename')
hostname Sort on the archive hostname, in lexical order
(reverse order: 'rhostname')
size Sort by size, largest files/directories first
(reverse order: 'rsize')
time Sort by modification time, with the most recent
file/directory names first (reverse order: 'rtime')
3) Boolean
----------
Currently the email interface to the archie system has no variables of
type "boolean".