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Introduction to Anonymous FTP Servers
This section of the AIE describes how you can use FTP to connect
to remote FTP servers which allow you to anonymously retrieve
information and software.
Using Anonymous FTP - Start here. This selection contains a
general discussion of anonymous FTP.
Uncompressing Your FTP'd Files - Files retrieved from anonymous
FTP servers will most often be in a compressed format. This menu
provides information about uncompressing these files.
Finding Servers & Software - this selection tells you how to
locate anonymous FTP servers and software. It also describes the
usefulness of the next four selections in this menu, "Archie -
Search Service Intro", "Archie Users Manual", "Granrose FTP List",
and "Gleason Macintosh FTP List".
What is Anonymous FTP?
In general, FTP software allows you to transfer files between
computers connected to the Internet. You should have a basic
understanding of FTP before delving into the world of anonymous
FTP servers. For a discussion of basic FTP functions and commands,
see the selection on FTP in the "Learning About the Network" menu
(Keyword:LEARNFTP). The following discussion assumes you have a
basic understanding of FTP commands.
Anonymous FTP servers are the one of the richest sources of
information and public domain software on the Internet. Unlike FTP
servers where you must have a valid username and password,
anonymous FTP servers allow you to login as an anonymous user, to
transfer information, data and public domain software. There are
currently more than 600 of these anonymous FTP servers on the
Internet.
What's available?
A wide variety of information and software is available via
anonymous FTP. This includes thousands of public domain and
shareware applications for IBM PC, Macintosh, Unix, Next, Vax VMS,
IBM VM, Atari, Apple II and many other computer platforms. The
information and data available include such things as the CIA's
World Fact Book, up-to-date economic indices (e.g. GNP, housing
starts, some in LOTUS 1-2-3 format), general network information
documents, weekly listings of NIH grant opportunities, listings of
Internet accessible library catalogs, archives of discussion
groups, the complete text for Darwin's Origin of Species and many
graphic images (e.g. weather satellite data).
Logging into an Anonymous FTP Server
Anonymous FTP is just a special kind of FTP. To log into an
anonymous FTP server, you simply type "ANONYMOUS" as the username
rather than a your specific username.
When prompted for a password, you type your internet mail address
(i.e. your_username@UCS.INDIANA.EDU). While this isn't required,
organizations which provide anonymous FTP servers are often
interested in who is using there services. Proper network
etiquette dictates that you should supply your internet mail
address for this purpose.
An example follows:
$ ftp sumex-aim.stanford.edu <-- an anonymous FTP server
aqua.ucs.indiana.edu Wollongong FTP User Process (Version 5.1-01)
Connection Opened
Using 8-bit bytes.
220 sumex-aim FTP server (SunOS 4.0/3) ready.
Name (sumex-aim.stanford.edu:netinfo): anonymous <-type ANONYMOUS
331 Guest login ok, send mail address (user@host) as password.
Password: <- type your mail address (not echoed)
230 Guest connection 24 (of 25) accepted, access restrictions
apply.
Finding Your Way
Some anonymous FTP servers contain hundreds and hundreds of files.
Files are typically organized into subdirectories so that you can
follow the hierarchical structure to search for a specific type of
application. For example, if you were looking for a Macintosh
graphics application you might traverse a subdirectory structure
like: applications --> Macintosh--> graphics. The problem is that
you might find a hundred files in the graphics subdirectory, and
unfortunately a file name by itself often doesn't tell you much
about an application. The better anonymous FTP sites help with
this problem by providing "readme" files in each subdirectory.
These "readme" (or "index") files contain information about the
contents of each subdirectory; some actually provide short
descriptions for each file. Its a good idea to transfer and
examine these "readme" files first, unless you know exactly which
files you're looking for. An example from a Stanford FTP site:
*dir
200 PORT command successful.
150 ASCII data connection for /bin/ls (129.79.1.2,2774).
total 66
-rw-r--r-- 1 macmod info-mac 976 Aug 21 1990 00readme.txt
drwxr-xr-x 2 macmod info-mac 4096 Jul 15 15:55 app
...
drwxr-xr-x 2 macmod info-mac 1024 Jul 8 21:35 virus
226 ASCII Transfer complete.
Note the file "00readme.txt". The "00" prefix insures that this
file is first in the directory listing. "Readme" files often have
prefixes attached so that they will be listed first (e.g.
aareadme.txt, 0readme.txt, 00index.txt, etc).
File Compression and Archives
In order to conserve server disk space and the size of the files
that must be transferred, many files on anonymous FTP servers are
stored in a compressed format. This involves running the original
file through a specific compression program which can often
dramatically reduce the size of the file. For you to make use of
these compressed files once transferred to your computer, you must
run these compressed files through a complimentary uncompression
program.
In addition, anonymous FTP files are often archive files, that is,
a group of files bundled into a single file (e.g. a graphics
program, documentation and other support files stored as one
file). Again, you must have the appropriate software on your local
computer in order to disassemble these archives.
The good news is that there are a small number of "popular" file
compression and archive formats. Generally you will see only one
or two different compression/archive formats used for your
specific computer type (i.e. Unix systems, Macintosh, IBM PC). In
addition, the different compression/archive formats are easily
identified because standard file naming conventions are used. For
example:
Most Macintosh files are compressed and archived using an
application called Stuffit. Stuffit files always have .HQX and/or
.SIT on the end of the file names (e.g. app.SIT, app.HQX,
app.SIT.HQX).
Most compressed/archived IBM PC files have .ZIP as the last part
of there file name (e.g. app.ZIP) and must be uncompressed with an
application called PKUNZIP.
Unix files which are archived with the standard Unix tar program
will end with .TAR. They may also be compressed using the standard
Unix compress utility in which case they will end with .Z. Files
which have been both compressed and archived will end with .TAR.Z.
Standard Unix TAR and Uncompress utilities can be used to
disassemble these files.
For more information about compression and archiving, see the
choice in this menu called "Uncompressing Your FTP'd Files".
ASCII vs binary Transfer Modes
Files MUST be transferred from FTP servers using the right
transfer mode (e.g. ASCII or binary) or they will be worthless.
(Remember that by default, FTP transfers file in ASCII mode. The
command "BINARY" allows you to switch to binary transfers.) While
it is impossible to list all possible types of files and how they
should be transferred, some guidelines follow:
Text files (e.g. file.TXT) should always be transferred in ASCII
mode.
Macintosh .SIT, .HQX or .SIT.HQX files should always be
transferred in ASCII (or BINHEX) mode.
IBM PC .ZIP files should always be transferred in binary mode.
Files compressed using Unix compression and archive utilities
(e.g. file.Z, file.TAR, or file.TAR.Z) should always be
transferred in binary mode. Note that often text files come in
.TAR.Z format. While they are text files, they should still be
transferred in binary mode because of the compression/archive
techniques that have been applied to the files.
Don't be discouraged if you don't know whether to use ASCII or
binary modes to transfer a file. If you use the wrong mode, you
can always transfer the file again using the correct mode.
Anonymous FTP Etiquette
Anonymous FTP server provide a rich source of information and
software but only exist do to the kindness of universities and
corporations who choose to offer this type of service. You should
understand that while a given computer may host an anonymous FTP
service, that is not its primary function. These anonymous FTP
servers are often general purpose computers which must support a
large local user population for general purpose computing.
Therefore, you should avoid using anonymous FTP servers during
normal business hours (9am - 5pm) when these computers are being
heavily used by local users. FTP file transfers can have a
significant impact on a computer; if this FTP privilege is abused,
organizations may decide that they cannon afford to offer this
important service.
UN-ZIPPING FILES
All files with the extension .ZIP are archived, that is, their
contents have been compressed to save space and facilitate
transferral. To "un-zip" files you should first download
PKZ110.EXE, the most current version of the unzipping program.
To download this file, open up the 'Archiver/Anti-Virus' directory
in the 'AIE/IBMPDS' menu and follow the instructions. Refer to the
procedure outlined above in "DOWNLOADING A FILE" for information on
how to download files in general.
PKZ110.EXE is self-extracting. In other words, after you have
successfully downloaded the file, go to the drive or directory where
the file resides, type "PKZ110" and then press <RETURN>. The file will
"unzip" itself, providing you with a variety of helpful programs and
documentation. One of these programs, PKUNZIP.EXE, is the one you will
be using the most.
After downloading a "zipped" file, i.e. one with an extension
of .ZIP, copy it into a directory or onto a disk with PKUNZIP.EXE
program. Next, type "PKUNZIP FILENAME.ZIP" then <RETURN> at the DOS
prompt. For example, to unzip BASSTOUR.ZIP on a disk in the A drive
(A:), you would type the following:
A:\>PKUNZIP BASSTOUR.ZIP <ENTER>
The Archived file will unarchive and produce either a .EXE or a .COM
file, and usually a document file describing how to use the program.
These document files are often named README.TXT or, with Basstour,
BASSTOUR.DOC. Text files can be printed, viewed or edited as an
ascii text file with DOS or any word processor.
Uncompressing Your FTP'd Files
The most recent copy of this text may be anonymous ftp'd from
ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (128.174.5.59) in the directory /doc/pcnet as
as the file compression.
This file is maintained by David Lemson (lemson@uiuc.edu).
Please do not strip this note from this list when passing it on.
DECODING THIS CHART: This chart has been compacted to fit into 80 columns
so it can be viewed on-line. The first column is the name of the compression/
archiving technique. The next field is the file extension given to the
resulting file. After that are 5 columns each for a different operating system.
Each one of these consists of the name of the file/program to undo the given
compression/archiving style and a letter that tells where the file/program may
be obtained. All symbols and letters are decoded at the bottom portion of this
file.
ast Update: 5/14/91 Operating System/Unpackaging Program
NAME File DOS * Mac * Unix * VM/CMS * Amiga *
Extension
abe ? abe.exe N - abe Q - -
afio - - - afio ? - -
ar (any) - - ar L - -
ARC .ARC arc602.exe B ArcMac1.3c A arc521 B arcutil K Arc 0.23 Aa
ARJ .ARJ arj200.EXE B - - - -
BinHex .Hqx xbin23.zip B BinHex4.0 + A mcvert D binhex K -
binscii * - - - - -
BLU ? - - - - -
BOO .BOO msbpct.exe B ? ? - - -
msbmkb.exe
btoa (any)btoa N - btoa L - compress Ab
Bundle .bndl - Bundle E - - -
CardDump(any) - - - card K -
compact .C - - uncompact L - -
Compac-
tor .cpt - Compactor1.21 D - - -
Compac-
tor Pro .cpt - CompactorPro1.3 D - - -
compress.Z u16.zip A MacCompress3.2A compress L compress K compress Ac
comp430d.zip B
cpio ? pax2exe.zip H - cpio L - -
Crunch ? - - - arcutil K -
Diet (any)diet110a.zip B - - - -
Disk-
Doubler ? - DiskDoubler ? - - -
Disk- .DMS - - - - dms-102 T
Masher .EXE
DWC .DWC dwc-a501.exe B - - - -
FPack (any) ? ? FPack2.2 A ? ? - -
HPACK .HPK Beta test, not released yet - watch this space for more info *
HYPER .HYP hyper25.zip B - - - -
Imploder(any) - - - - imploder1.3 T
Larc .LZS larc333.zip B - - - -
LHA .LZH lha212.exe B - - - -
LHarc .LZH lh113c.exe H MacLHarc 0.41 D lharc102 I - LHarc Ad
LHWarp .LZW - - - - Lhwarp Ae
LU (LAR).LBR lue220.arc B - lar ? arcutil K -
LZari ? - MacLZAri 7-11 ? - - -
LZEXE .EXE lzexe91.zip A - - - -
LZSS .lzss ? ? LZSS 2.0b5 ? - - -
MDCD .MD mdcd10.arc B - - - -
nupack ? - - - - -
pack .Z - - unpack L - -
PackIt .pit UnPackIt ? PackIt3.1.3 A unpit ? - -
PAK .PAK pak250.exe H ? ? arc521 I - -
PKLITE .EXE pklte103.exe B - - - -
PKPAK .ARC pk361.exe A ArcMac1.3c A arc521 I arcutil K PKAX ?
PKZIP .ZIP pkz110eu.exe B UnZip1.02c D unzip401 B - PKAZip Af
Power- (any)
Packer .pp - - - - PowerPacker Ai
Scrunch .COM scrnch.arc B - - - -
Shark - - sh E
shell - .shar
archive toadshr1.arc B UnShar2.0 D unshar L - UnShar Ag
shrinkit.shk - - - - -
Shrink-
ToFit .stf - STF1.2 ? - - -
SPL ? - ? ? - - -
Squash .ARC squash.arc B - - - -
Squeeze .xQx sqpc131.arc B ? ? ? ? arcutil K Sq.Usq Ah
StuffIt .Sit mactopc. ? ? StuffIt 1.6 D unsit D - -
tar .tar tar.zip A UnTar2.0 D tar L - TarSplit Ai
tarread.arc I
pax.zoo J
pdtar.exe C
terse (any)terse.exe K - - terse K -
uuencode.UUE toaduu20.zip B UMCP-Tools1.0 ? uudecode L arcutil K uudecode Aj
Warp .WRP - - - - WarpUtil Ak
whap .AP - - yabbawhap M - -
xxencode.XXE toaduu20.zip B - xxdecode A xxdecode K -
yabba .Y - - yabbawhap M - -
ZOO .ZOO zoo201.exe A MacBooz2.1 D zoo201 B zoo K amigazoo A
Extended Chart:
VMS * Apple 2 * Atari * OS/2 * Windows3
abe ? - - - - -
afio - - - - - -
ar (any) - - - - -
ARC .arc arcvms.uue B dearc.bsq.Z B arc521b.arc R arc2.arc A -
ARJ .ARJ - - - - -
BinHex .Hqx - - - - -
binscii * - binscii.exe O - - -
BLU ? - ? - - -
BOO .BOO - - - - -
btoa (any) - - - - -
Bundle .bndl - - - - -
CardDump(any) - - - - -
compact .C - - - - -
Compac-
tor .cpt - - - - -
compress.Z lzcomp.exe P compress.shk J compress.arc R - -
cpio ? - - - - -
Crunch ? - - - - -
Disk-
Doubler ? - - - - -
DWC .DWC - - - - -
FPack (any) - - - - -
HPACK .HPK ? * ? * ? * ? * ? *
HYPER .HYP - - - - -
Larc .LZS - - - - -
LHarc .LZH - - lharc113.arc R clhar103 S -
LHWarp .LZW - - - - -
LU(LAR) .LBR vmssweep B - - - -
LZari ? - - - - -
LZEXE .EXE - - - - -
LZSS .lzss - - - - -
MDCD .MD - - - - -
nupack ? - nupack B - - -
PackIt .pit - - - - -
PAK .PAK - - - - -
PKPAK .ARC - - pkunarc.arc R - -
PKZIP .ZIP - - - pkz101-2.exe A -
Power-
Packer (any) - - - - -
Scrunch .COM - - - - -
shell-
archive .shar - unshar.shk J shar.arc R - -
shrinkit.shk - ? O - - -
Shrink-
ToFit .stf - - - - -
SPL ? - - - - -
Squash .ARC - - - - -
Squeeze ? vmsusq.pas B - ezsqueeze.arc R - -
StuffIt .Sit - - - - -
tar .tar vmstar Q - sttar.arc R - -
terse (any) - - - - -
uuencode.uue uudecode2.vmsB uu.en.decode J - - -
Warp .WRP - - - - -
xxencode.XXE - - - - -
ZOO .ZOO z201src1.arc B - booz.arc R booz.exe A -
z201src2.arc
WHERE TO GET THEM:
A. ux1.cso.uiuc.edu [128.174.5.59]
/pc/exec-pc/ {Zip, arc, lots of good stuff}
/pc/local
/mac/
/amiga/fish/(see individual references)
a ff070 b ff051 c ff051 d ff312 e ff305 f ff311 g ff345
h ff051 i ff053 j ff092 k ff243 i ff253
B. wuarchive.wustl.edu [128.152.135.4] (NFS mounted on uxa and mrcnext)
/mirrors/msdos/arc-lbr/ {arc, LHARC}
/filutl/ {msbpct - BOO, toadshr, DIET}
/sq-usq/ {NUSQ}
/mac/
/info-mac/util/
/unix-c/arc-progs/ {ARC, UNZIP}
/misc/vaxvms/
C. omnigate.clarkson.edu [128.153.4.2]
/pub/ncsa2.2tn/
D. sumex-aim.stanford.edu [36.44.0.6]
/info-mac/util/ {Stuffit classic, Compactor Pro, etc.}
/unix/ {unsit, mcvert}
E. uunet.uu.net [192.48.96.2]
/pub/
/ioccc/shar.1990.* {shark}
F. grape.ecs.clarkson.edu [128.153.28.129.]
- collection varies - see the file 'allfiles'
G. watsun.cc.columbia.edu [128.59.39.2]
Definitive source for KERMIT releases for all machines
/kermit/a/
H. wsmr-simtel20.army.mil [26.2.0.74]
Wuarchive's mirror is updated within 48 hours - recommended to
use wuarchive instead of simtel20.
cd pd1:<msdos.arc-lbr>
I. pc.usl.edu [130.70.40.3]
/pub/unix/
J. plains.nodak.edu [134.129.111.64]
/pub/appleII/GS/utils/
/nonGS/packers/
K. vmd.cso.uiuc.edu [128.174.5.98]
binhex - cd public.474
card - cd public.460
others - cd public.477
L. (should be available on all major unix systems including
wuarchive.wustl.edu in /unix-c/arc-progs)
M. comp.sources.unix archives
(varies, including wuarchive in /usenet/comp.sources.unix)
N. comp.binaries.ibm.pc archives
(varies, including wuarchive in /usenet/comp.binaries.ibm.pc)
O. tybalt.caltech.edu [131.215.139.100]
/pub/apple2/
/shrinkits/
P. kuhub.cc.ukans.edu [129.237.1.10]
/LZW/
Q. vmsa.oac.uci.edu [128.200.9.5]
/
R. terminator.cc.umich.edu [141.211.164.8]
/atari/archivers/
S. mtsg.ubc.ca [137.82.27.1]
/os2
T. ab20.larc.nasa.gov [128.155.23.64]
/amiga/utils/archivers/
NOTES:
Symbols: + means see the notes below for special information
- means that nothing exists to the best of my knowledge
? means that something exists but I do not know the name
of the program or where to get it
* means that e-mail should be sent to lemson@uiuc.edu
for details/explanation
Some uuencode/uudecode programs are able to read xxencode files.
When using tar.exe for PC's, the order of option flags is important.
For extraction, use tar -tvf <filename>.
ARC : From SEA, ARC 6.02 is the latest widespread shareware release.
It is available at A (ux1.cso.uiuc.edu).
Also, SEA has ARC 7.00, but it is commercial, not shareware.
When using binscii.exe for an Apple II, there are different file extensions
depending on the type of file being changed.
BinHexed files (with the extension .hqx) can be UnBinHexed with BinHex 4.0 or
Stuffit. BinHex5.0 format is a MacBinary format, while BinHex 4.0 files
are ASCII format.
The files listed are only guaranteed to uncompress/unarchive.
To make a compression/archive, further software may be needed.
USAGE NOTES:
There are certain "standard" combinations of compression used:
unix - .tar.Z
(often this will be .taz for PC's)
unix - tar.Z.btoa (abbrev. to .TZB sometimes) (aka "tarmail")
mac - .sit.hqx
- these must be undone in order starting at the end of the name
Sometimes an archive may be self-extracting. These will look like normal
executable programs. Simply run them to undo the archive.
LZEXE (PC), PKLITE(PC), Imploder(Amiga), and PowerPacker(Amiga)
are executable compressors.
They compress an executable file and attach an uncompressing header so that
the file can still be executed while in compressed form.
The listed programs for these utilities compress files, in order to uncompress
a file with these types of compression, just execute them.
DIET (PC) is a TSR program that compresses and decompresses both
executables and data files as needed.
DEFINITIVE SOURCES:
PKWARE Support BBS - avaliable 24 hours
(414) 352-7176
ZOO - author: Rahul Dhesi
source code in C on Usenet and GEnie's IBM PC Roundtable
ARC - SEA (System Enhancement Associates, Inc.)
21 New Street
Wayne, NJ 07470
[3] Uncompressing Your FTP'd Files [7] Granrose FTP List
[4] Finding Servers & Software [8] Gleason Macintosh FTP List
[M] Mail [H] Help [T] Top Menu [C] Comments [$] VMS Command
[A] Addresses [K] Keywords [-] Prev Menu [B] Back [V] Exit to VMS
[I] IU Events [O] AIE On/Off [N] Next [Q] Quit/Logout
What Anonymous FTP Servers are Available?
There are more than 600 anonymous FTP servers available on the
network and the number is growing. Two lists of FTP servers are
provided in this menu of the AIE to assist you in locating these
servers.
Granrose FTP list - This is a relatively complete list (at the
time it was updated) of the FTP servers available on the Internet.
Under many of the sites in this list you'll find descriptions of
the types of software you can expect to find at each server. This
is a very complete and informative list. Unfortunately, it is
unlikely that this list will be maintained much longer.
Gleason Macintosh FTP List - As the title indicates, this list
focuses on the Macintosh software that is available on anonymous
FTP sites (software for other machines is mentioned as well).
While this list isn't intended to be a comprehensive list, it is a
ood information source for users interested in Macintosh
software.
How do I Find the Type of Software or Information I'm Looking For?
This is a difficult question. At this time there is no service
that will answer questions like, "What public domain graphics
software is available for a Macintosh or IBM PC?", or "Where can I
get a listing of the US oil imports for the last five years?",
even though these applications and data may be readily available
from anonymous FTP servers if you knew where to look.
Archie represents one innovative approach to solving this problem.
Archie is an application developed at McGill University in Canada
which allows you to search a database of up-to-date information
about the files that are available on all the FTP servers on the
network. While Archie doesn't allow you to pose general questions
like the ones above, it does provide some sophisticated searching
apabilities. See the two selections, "Archie - Search Service
Intro" and "Archie Users Manual" for an introduction to Archie.
Recommended FTP Servers
While its difficult to know exactly which FTP server to connect to
transfer a given application, there are a few very large FTP sites
you should know about:
wsmr-simtel20.army.mil
This anonymous FTP server, maintained by the Army, is perhaps the
largest source for IBM-PC applications. Unfortunately, it is very
difficult to get into because they only allow a limited number of
simultaneous users and it is very popular.
sumex-aim.stanford.edu
This anonymous FTP site, maintained at Stanford, is perhaps the
largest source for Macintosh applications. All Macintosh
applications are in the "info-mac" subdirectory.
wuarchive.wustl.edu
This server, maintained at Washington University in St.Louis, is
one of the largest anonymous servers on the network. It contains
mirrors of both the simtel20 and sumex ftp sites described above.
(Mirrors are complete copies of the files on the other sites.
Sometimes it takes several days for new files to appear on the
mirror sites.) Rather than trying to get into the simtel20 FTP
server, you may want to connect to this Washington University site
instead.
-
Archie can be accessed via telnet to quiche.cs.mcgill.ca
Login as user: archie
Given the number of hosts being used as archive sites nowadays, there can
be great difficulty in finding needed software in a distributed
environment. You may know that the software that you need is out there, but
it can sometimes be difficult to find. The School of Computer Science at
McGill University has one solution to the problem - "archie".
Archie is a pair of software tools: the first maintains a list of about
600 Internet ftp archive sites. Each night software executes an
anonymous ftp to a subset of these sites and fetches a recursive
directory listing of each, which it stores in a database. We hit about
1/30th of the list each time, so each site gets updated about once a
month, hopefully balancing timely updates against unnecessary network
load. The "raw" listings are stored in compressed form on
quiche.cs.mcgill.ca (132.206.2.3), where they are made available via
anonymous ftp in the directory ~ftp/archie/listings.
The second tool is the interesting one as far as the users are concerned.
It consists of a program running on a dummy user code that allows
outsiders to log onto the archive server host to query the database.
This is in fact the program we call Archie.
Users can ask archie to search for specific name strings. For example,
"prog kcl" would find all occurences of the string "kcl" and tell you which
hosts have entries with this string, the size of the program, its last
modification date and where it can be found on the host along with some
other useful information. In this example, you could thus find those
archive sites that are storing Kyoto Common Lisp. With one central database
for all the archive sites we know about, archie greatly speeds the task of
finding a specific program on the net.
Complete anonymous ftp listings of the various sites that we keep in the
database may be obtained via the 'site' command and for a list of the
sites which we keep track of, see the 'list' command.
Archie also maintains a 'Software Description Database' which consists
of the names and descriptions of various software packages, documents
and datasets that are kept on anonymous ftp archive sites all around the
Internet. The 'whatis' command allows you to search this database.
Send comments, bug reports etc to
archie-l@cs.mcgill.ca
If you have a favourite anonymous ftp site that archie doesn't seem to
maintain, or if you have additions or corrections to the Software
Description database, send mail to
archie-admin@cs.mcgill.ca
Archie was written and is maintained by Alan Emtage (bajan@cs.mcgill.ca)
and Bill Heelan (wheelan@cs.mcgill.ca). Peter Deutsch
(peterd@cc.mcgill.ca) provided (and continues to provide) ideas and
inspiration.
archie> help
Help gives you information about various topics, including all the
commands that are available and how to use them. Telling archie about
your terminal type and size (via the "term" variable) and to use the
pager (via the "pager" variable) is not necessary to use help, but
provides a somewhat nicer interface.
Currently, the available help topics are:
about - a blurb about archie
bugs - known bugs and undesirable features
bye - same as "quit"
email - how to contact the archie email interface
exit - same as "quit"
help - this message
list - list the sites in the archie database
mail - mail output to a user
nopager - *** use 'unset pager' instead
pager - *** use 'set pager' instead
prog - search the database for a file
quit - exit archie
set - set a variable
show - display the value of a variable
site - list the files at an archive site
term - *** use 'set term ...' instead
unset - unset a variable
whatis - search for keyword in the software description database
For information on one of these topics type:
help <topic>
A '?' at the help prompt will list the available sub-topics.
Help topics available:
about bugs bye email
list mail nopager pager
prog regex set show
site term unset whatis
Help topic?
NAME
archie - an Internet archive server listing service
SYNOPSIS
archie
DESCRIPTION
The archie system is a program which can query a database
maintained by the Computer Science Department of McGill
University. The database contains a list of software which
is available by means of anonymous ftp(1) to hosts connected
to the Internet network.
The system can be accessed in an interactive fashion or via
electronic mail (email). In order use the interactive sys-
tem:
1) Connect to host quiche.cs.mcgill.ca (132.206.2.3 or
132.206.51.1) with telnet(1).
2) Login as user archie (no capitals, no password
required). The system prints a banner message and
status report.
3) Type ``help'' for further information.
In order to use the email interface, send requests to
archie@cs.mcgill.ca
Send the word ``help'' in a message for available commands
and features. Please note that this is an automated inter-
face: no human sees it. See "THE EMAIL INTERFACE" section
below.
Comments and suggestions should be sent to
archie-l@cs.mcgill.ca
Adimistrative requests such as adding a site to the database
or modifying the Software Description Database should be
sent to
archie-admin@cs.mcgill.ca
THE INTERACTIVE INTERFACE
Variables
archie has a number of variables which modify its behavior.
The values of these variables may be changed using the set
command. archie distinguishes between three types of vari-
able:
boolean
which may be either set or unset.
numeric
representing an integer within a pre-determined range.
string
whose value is a string of characters (which may or may
not be restricted).
The following variables are currently recognized
autologout
By default, archie will exit after one hour of idle
time. This value can be changed though this variable,
which represents in minutes, the length of idle time
before you are automatically logged out.
The minimum and maximum values are 1 and 300,
representing one minute through five hours.
Example:
set autologout 45
will cause you to be automatically logged out after 45
minutes of idle time.
mailto
A string variable whose value is a mail address, or
comma-separated list of addresses. Note that there must
not be any spaces within the list of addresses. If this
is set and the mail command is issued with no argu-
ments, then the output of the last command is mailed to
that address.
Example:
set mailto user@frobozz.com
Example:
set mailto user1@hello.edu,user2@goodbye.com
All the various Internet addressing styles are under-
stood. BITNET sites should use the convention
user@sitename.bitnet
UUCP addresses can be specified as
user@sitename.uucp
maxhits
A numeric variable whose value is the maximum number of
matches you want the prog command to generate.
If archie seems to be slow, or you don't want a lot of
output this can be set to a small value. ``maxhits''
must be within the range 0 to 1000. The default value
is 1000.
Example:
set maxhits 100
prog will now stop after 100 matches have been found
pager
A boolean variable which, when set, tells archie to
filter all output through the pager less(1L). When
using the pager you may also want to set the term vari-
able to your terminal type (see term variable).
Example:
set pager
search
This variable determines the kind of search performed
on the database by the prog command, providing flexi-
bilty on search times and types.
search is a string variable whose value is one of the
following:
sub
Substring (case insensitive). A simple, everyday
substring search. A match occurs if the the file
(or directory) name in the database contains the
user-given substring.
Example:
The pattern ``is'' will match ``islington''
and ``this'' and ``poison''
subcase
Substring (case sensitive). As above but the case
of the strings involved becomes significant.
Example:
``TeX'' will match ``LaTeX'' but not ``Latex''
or ``TExTroff''.
exact
Exact match. The fastest search method of all.
The restriction is that the user string (the argu-
ment to the prog command) has to exactly match
(including case) the string in the database. This
is provided for those of who who know just what
you are looking for.
For example, if you wanted to know where all the
``xlock.tar.Z'' files were, this is the kind of
search to use.
regex
This is the default search method. Searches the
database with the user (search) string which is
given in the form of an ed(1) regular expression.
NOTE: Unless specifically anchored to the begin-
ning (with ^) or end (with $) of a line, ed(1)
regular expressions (effectively) have ``.*''
prepended and appended to them. For example, it is
not necessary to say
prog .*xnlock.*
since
prog xnlock
will suffice. Thus the regex match becomes a sim-
ple substring match.
sortby
This variable describes how the output from the prog
command is to be ordered. It can have one of 5 values
(and their associated reverse orders). For each method,
the ``natural'' sort order (or at least, what we con-
sider to be the natural order) is the default.
hostname
Output is sorted on the archive hostname in lexi-
cal order.
Reverse order rhostname
time
Output is sorted with the most recent modifcation
times of the found file/directory names coming
first (youngest -> oldest).
Reverse order rtime
size
Output is sorted by the size of the found
files/directories, largest first.
Reverse order rsize
filename
Sorted in file/directory name lexical order.
Reverse order rfilename
none
This is the DEFAULT order.
Unsorted. There is no reverse order although rnone
is accepted for symmetry.
Typing the keyboard interrupt character ( Ctl-C for
most people on UNIX) during a search will cause the
search to aborted. The results up to that time will be
sorted (determined by the value of the sortby variable)
and the results output. The output phase may itself be
aborted by typing the abort character a second time.
status
This boolean variable determines if the status-line
will be displayed while the prog command is searching
through the database. If set (which is the default
value) then the number of matches and percentage of the
database searched is displayed. Otherwise no output is
given until the search is complete.
term This variable tells archie what type of terminal you
are using, and optionally its size in rows and columns.
This information is used by the pager.
The usage is:
set term <terminal-type> [<#rows> [<#columns>]]
That is, the terminal type is required, but the number
of rows and columns is optional. You may specify a
value for rows only, but if you want to change the
number of columns you must give a value for both rows
and columns. The default values for rows and columns
are 24 and 80.
Examples:
set term vt100
set term xterm 60
set term xterm 24 100
Regular Expressions
archie uses ed(1) regular expressions in a number of
commands.
A regular expression, on the one hand, is a string like
any other; a sequence of characters. On the other
hand, special characters within the string have certain
functions which make regular expressions useful when
trying to match portions of other strings. In the fol-
lowing discussion and examples, a string containing a
regular expression will be called the ``pattern'', and
the string against which it is to be matched is called
the ``reference string''.
Regular expressions allow one to search for ``all
strings ending with the letters ize
'' or ``all strings beginning with a number between 1
and 3 and ending in a comma''.
In order to accomplish this, regular expressions co-opt
the use of some characters to have special meaning.
They also provide for these characters to lose their
special meaning if the user so desires. The rules for
regular expresssion are
c Any character c matches itself unless it has been
assigned other special meaning as listed below. Most
special characters can be escaped (made to lose its
special meaning), by placing the character '\' in front
of it. This doesn't apply to '{' which is non-special
until it is escaped. Thus although '*' normally has
special meaning the string '\*' matches itself.
Example:
The pattern
acdef
matches
s83acdeffff or acdefsecs or acdefsecs
but not
accdef or aacde1f
That is it will any string that contains ``acdef'' any-
where in the reference string.
Example:
Normally the characters '*' and '