thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan) (08/06/90)
In just 24 hours more than 10 people have asked me to send them a copy of the
LHARC for UNIX. And this was AFTER both Tad Guy and I independently mentioned
the sources are available at nearly EVERY archive site in the world. And
those requests were from people already using uucp and Usenet (and some using
AmigaUUCP (per the email headers I've scrutinized)).
Now, I'm more than willing to share my time and information, but I'm not
willing to give away that which directly cost me $$$ to get. So I didn't send
anyone a copy of the LHARC sources. But, in this posting, I'll show you how
you can get them for yourself. And, hopefully, parts of this posting will be
educational for all.
For some reason, it appears people mistakenly think archive sites are ONLY
accessible via FTP over the Internet. And some people seem to think that
"FTP" over the Internet is free.
Far from it. The least expensive Internet connection I could get (and that's
assuming I could get authorization from the NSF and/or the local regional net
just to be ON the net) is a 9600 baud SLIP link provided by UUNET at their
local (to me) California node in Mountain View at a cost of $300-$400 per
month; and that's AlterNET and not even BARRnet. And the kind of service that
I'd "like" (T1, 56KBaud, whatever) would cost $50,000/year. Companies and
research institutions in this area DO pay those kind of fees for connectivity;
I don't know what educational institutions (*.EDU sites) pay for their access.
Needless to say, I cannot afford that service and the few times I use the
Internet is by invitation at client and/or friends' sites which is no big deal
since the cost is fixed ... there's no incremental charging per packet or
whatever. And for those who've pointed to my (posted) ftp access examples,
well ... that's a closed net connecting my office, lab, and home, and is NOT
connected to the Internet.
So what are the alternatives if you don't have Internet access? Simple: UUCP!
You can either:
- send UUCP mail to bitftp@pucc.princeton.edu (aka BITFTP@PUCC.BITNET)
and have it do the ftp for you and email the requested items. See the
second attachment (by Tad Guy) to this posting for the details.
- do direct UUCP (which the remainder of this posting and the first attachment
discusses).
Periodic postings to the Usenet heirarchy (comp.sources.misc, comp.sources.unix
and, perhaps, news.*) list a number of UUCP-able archive sites that maintain
source archives for posterity. The posted lists generally show anywhere from
20-50 sites, and info at THOSE sites points to additional archive locations.
There are approx. 20 archive sites in Silicon Valley, and I believe there are
hundreds more around the world, all reachable via UUCP. If you're reading this
message, then you're already receiving Usenet news and can find those archive
site lists on your own system.
To keep things simple, and because it's well-written, I've enclosed an extract
of Karl Kleinpaste's "GNU.how-to-get" memo from Ohio State. Ohio State (aka
osu-cis) is one of the largest UUCP-able archive sites and one which I
frequent. Karl's memo contains tips and suggestions which are generally
applicable to all archive sites.
Another popular archive site is UUNET itself. The archives there are available
both via uucp and via ftp over the Internet.
Regarding LHARC (for UNIX), here is the entry at UUNET.UU.NET :
/usr/spool/ftp/comp.sources.misc/volume11/lharc:
total 50
-rw-r--r-- 1 allbery 23966 Mar 10 14:51 part01.Z
-rw-r--r-- 1 allbery 24305 Mar 10 14:52 part02.Z
-rw-r--r-- 1 allbery 1531 Mar 29 18:50 patch_sb.Z
For today's first exercise, I suggest you attempt to find the same archive at
osu-cis and actually retrieve something from there using the info contained in
Karl's memo. As a guideline, UUCP will move about 100Kbytes every 8 minutes
at 2400 baud (with the standard "g" protocol) in case you're concerned about
long-distance phone bills.
I hope that others will post the access info to other UUCP-able sites. I seem
to recall that the "old" Xanth archives will now (or soon) be UUCP-able at the
new location "abcfd20" (aka abcfd20.larc.nasa.gov, IP 128.155.23.64).
Happy UUCP-ing!
Thad Floryan [ thad@cup.portal.com (OR) ..!sun!portal!cup.portal.com!thad ]
========================= begin included material =========================
-rw-rw-r-- 1 karl 31604 Jul 25 13:30 GNU.how-to-get
This file (osu-cis!~/GNU.how-to-get) describes how to get the
following software from osu-cis via semi-anonymous UUCP:
C++ Test Suite Compress Deliver 2.0 GNU Binary Utilities
GNU Assembler GNU Awk GNU Bash GNU Bison
GNU C++ Compiler GNU C++ Library GNU C Compiler GNU Chess
GNU COFF hacks GNU CPIO GNU DBM GNU Debugger GNU Diff
GNU Emacs GNU Emacs Ada support GNU Emacs Franz interface
GNU Emacs Lisp Manual GNU File Utils GNU Find GNU Finger
GNU Go GNU Gperf & Cperf GNU Grep GNU Indent GNU Lex
GNU Make GNU Pins & Art GNU Plot & Plot2PS GNU Roff GNU Sed
GNU Tar GNUS Ghostscript Gnews Ispell KA9Q Kermit M3
MIT C Scheme Mg2a NNTP News Oops PCRRN Patch
Pathalias Protoize Proxy ARP RCS RFCs & IDEAS
RN SB Prolog STDWIN Sendmail Smail Smalltalk
Tcsh VM
There's a lot of other available miscellany that isn't explicitly
listed here. You can find out about it in the file osu-cis!~/ls-lR.Z
The Computer and Information Science Department of the Ohio State
University provides Free Software Foundation GNU products (and others)
via UUCP only as a redistribution service. Anything found here is
only and exactly as it would be found on the indicated Internet hosts,
were one to acquire it via anonymous FTP (like we did); or else saved
it as it flowed past on the Usenet source distribution newsgroups.
OSU CIS takes no responsibility for the contents of any of the
distributions described in this message. See the Distribution
document (emacs/etc/DISTRIB when you unpack and build Emacs) and the
GNU Emacs General Public License (emacs/etc/COPYING, similarly).
Much of the GNU software is in beta-test. For a list of the current
statuses (stati?), ask gnu@prep.ai.mit.edu for a copy of the latest
FSF order form.
How to reach osu-cis via uucp
===============================
Here is a set of L.sys or Systems file lines suitable for osu-cis:
#
# Direct Trailblazer
#
osu-cis Any ACU 19200 1-614-292-5112 in:--in:--in: Uanon
#
# Direct V.32 (MNP 4)
# dead, dead, dead...sigh.
#
#osu-cis Any ACU 9600 1-614-292-1153 in:--in:--in: Uanon
#
# Micom port selector, at 1200, 2400, or 9600 bps.
# Replace ##'s below with 12, 24, or 96 (both speed and phone number).
#
osu-cis Any ACU ##00 1-614-292-31## "" \r\c Name? osu-cis nected \c GO \d\r\d\r
\d\r in:--in:--in: Uanon
Modify as appropriate for your site, of course, to deal with your
local telephone system. There are no limitations concerning the hours
of the day you may call.
We are deeply grateful to Philips Components of Eindhoven, the
Netherlands for the donation of a Trailblazer Plus and a Codex 2264
for use by the community at large.
Where the files are
===================
Most items exist on osu-cis for distribution purposes in compressed
tar form, exactly what you find on the indicated hosts in the
specified origin files. Most items are cut into pieces for the sake
of uucp sanity. This separation helps if your uucp session fails
midway through a conversation; you need restart only with the part
that failed, rather than the whole beast. The pieces are typically
named with a root word, followed by letter pairs like "aa" and "bj,"
meaning that the pieces are all named with the root word, followed by
a dash and the suffixes indicated, using the letters inclusive between
the two limits. All pieces but the last are 100,000 bytes long, and
the fragmentary last piece has some smaller size.
[... other material deleted ...]
==============================================================================
Repost of ftp via uucp:
From: tadguy@abcfd01.larc.nasa.gov (Tad Guy)
Date: Thu, 14 Jun 1990 14:08:17 GMT
Subject: You CAN ftp stuff! (READ THIS)
Summary: send mail to bitftp@pucc.princeton.edu containing ``help''
With increasing frequency I see people claiming to be unable to ftp stuff.
While this may be true, this doesn't mean they have to ask the
comp.sys.amiga readership to mail them files that are available via ftp.
By sending a ``help'' message to bitftp@pucc.princeton.edu (aka
BITFTP@PUCC.BITNET) users not directly on the Internet (like uucp and
bitnet sites) can retrieve files that are available from ftp servers
like xanth.cs.odu.edu or uunet.uu.net.
Below is the current HELP message from the BITFTP server.
...tad
From: Princeton BITNET FTP Server <BITFTP1@pucc.PRINCETON.EDU>
Subject: BITFTP HELP
Date: Thu, 14 Jun 1990 09:58:39 EDT
09:58:37 > help
BITFTP -- Princeton BITNET FTP Server
BITFTP provides a mail interface to the FTP portion
of the IBM TCP/IP product ("FAL") running on the
Princeton VM system, to allow BITNET/NetNorth/EARN users
to ftp files from sites on the Internet.
BITFTP currently accepts requests only via RFC822-format
mail, IBM NOTE-format mail, PROFS-format messages, or
files with no headers at all. BITFTP currently returns
the requested files as NETDATA-format files or as mail files
containing UUENCODED data. If you specify "UUENCODE" or
"NETDATA" on your "FTP" command, BITFTP will attempt to
use that format. If you do not specify the format, BITFTP
will attempt to select the appropriate format for your node.
BITFTP attempts to send NETDATA-format files through the gateway
from EARN into Janet via the NIFTP facility at Rutherford Lab.
If BITFTP sends you a file you cannot read, THE FIRST THING
TO DO is to make sure that you specified ASCII if the file
should contain textual material or that you specified BINARY
if the file should contain binary data, executable programs,
tar files, or the like. VMS users should specify BINARY F 512
and should use RECEIVE/BINARY to receive the NETDATA-format
binary files BITFTP sends them.
If BITFTP sends you a uuencoded file that you cannot
uudecode, the first thing to do is to translate all occurrences of
0x7E in the file to 0x5E and then try uudecoding again. (Some
gateways are changing 5Es to 7Es when the files pass through them.)
To use BITFTP, send mail containing your ftp commands to
"BITFTP@PUCC". The first command to BITFTP must be "FTP"
or "HELP".
The recommended syntax for ftp requests is:
FTP hostname NETDATA --or-- FTP hostname UUENCODE
USER username password
<other ftp subcommands>
QUIT
After the hostname on the FTP command, you may specify
"UUENCODE" or "NETDATA" to tell BITFTP the format in which
you wish to receive files.
(If the username is "anonymous", no password is required;
BITFTP will use your userid and nodeid as the password.)
Note that on many systems passwords are case-sensitive;
that is, the password may be required to be in lower case
or mixed case or upper case. (The same is true of directory
and file names.)
The following is an example of an ftp request:
FTP f.ms.uky.edu NETDATA
USER anonymous
CD /pub/msdos/Games
DIR
BINARY
GET robotron.arc msdos.robotron
QUIT
To request a list of some of the hosts that allow anonymous ftp,
send BITFTP mail or a message containing only the command "FTPLIST".
Note that there is no guarantee that BITFTP can access
all the hosts in this list.
BITFTP implements a subset of the ftp subcommands provided
in the IBM TCP/IP and uses the same syntax. Therefore, you
may find it useful to obtain the "IBM TCP/IP for VM Command
Reference Manual", IBM order number GC09-1204.
The currently supported subcommands are:
ACCT -- to send host-dependent account information.
format: ACCT account-information
ASCII -- to change the file transfer type to ASCII.
format: ASCII
BINARY -- to change the file transfer type to image.
format: BINARY <FIXED record-len> <VARIABLE>
CD -- to change the working directory.
format: CD directory
CLOSE -- to disconnect from the foreign host.
format: CLOSE
DIR -- to get a list of directory entries.
format: DIR
EBCDIC -- to change the file transfer type to EBCDIC
format: EBCDIC
GET -- to get a file from the foreign host.
format: GET foreignfile <localfile>
If you specify "localfile", it must be in
the forms "filename.filetype" or "filename",
and the filename and filetype may each be no
more than 8 characters long and may not contain
periods.
LOCSTAT -- to display local status information.
format: LOCSTAT
LS -- to list the files in a directory.
format: LS <name>
PWD -- to print the working directory.
format: PWD
QUIT -- to disconnect from the foreign host.
format: QUIT
STATUS -- to retrieve status information from a foreign host.
format: STATUS <name>
SYSTEM -- to get the name of the foreign host's operating system.
format: SYSTEM
TYPE -- to specify Image, ASCII, or EBCDIC file transfer.
format: TYPE <I|A|E>
The files you request will be sent to you in NETDATA format or
UUENCODED inside mail files.
You will also receive a mail file containing a log of your
ftp session. In that mail file, entries prefixed by ">" are
your original commands; those prefixed by ">>" are your
commands as interpreted by BITFTP and passed to TCPIP; those
prefixed by ">>>" are your commands as interpreted by TCPIP and
passed to the remote host; those prefixed by "<<<" are messages
from the remote host; and those prefixed by ">>>>" are completion
messages from BITFTP.
If BITFTP is unable to connect to the host you specify,
it will send you mail after the first attempt, but will keep
trying at intervals over three days. The only additional mail
files you will receive will be when the connection is made
successfully or when BITFTP gives up after three days.
The load on BITFTP is often very heavy, and network
backlogs are often so great that it may take several days
for a file to get to you once BITFTP sends it, so please be
patient and don't send multiple requests for the same file.
If your system allows you to send interactive messages, you
can inquire about BITFTP's backlog by sending the query
"How are you?", e.g., on a VM system:
TELL BITFTP AT PUCC How are you?
This service is currently under development and is far from
complete. Current plans for improvements include:
1. Acknowledgments via MSG when mail is received and when
processing has been completed.
2. A much more complete HELP facility.
Questions about BITFTP and suggestions for improvements
should be directed to Melinda Varian, MAINT@PUCC on BITNET or
MAINT@pucc.princeton.edu on the Internet.
The author gratefully acknowledges the use of the FTP
SUBCOM interface written by David Nessl, the SENDJANI EXEC
written by Alan Flavell, the uuencoding utility written by
John Fisher, and the RFC822 parsing routine written by Eric
Thomas. NOTE: If you have any complaints or suggestions
about the way any of these routines work in BITFTP, please
send them to MAINT@PUCC (Melinda Varian), not to the authors.
[end]
========================= end of inclusion =========================