lwv@n8emr.UUCP (Larry W. Virden) (06/27/88)
I am looking for either a usenet or bitnet group which would be knowlegable in answering questions concerning the use of the UREP software (unix based software to talk to bitnet), or I am looking for some email addresses of some folks who are KNOWLEDABLE regarding this software. I am trying to use this software on an ultrix 2.2 system and am finding it difficult to do certain things, such as send files with lines longer than 132 characters. I can GET such lines just fine - but cannot figure out how to send such files. -- Larry W. Virden 75046,606 (CIS) 674 Falls Place, Reynoldsburg, OH 43068 (614) 864-8817 osu-cis!n8emr!lwv (UUCP) osu-cis!n8emr!lwv@TUT.CIS.OHIO-STATE.EDU (INTERNET) We haven't inherited the world from our parents, but borrowed it from our children.
lag@cseg.uucp (L. Adrian Griffis) (07/01/88)
My understanding is that most BITNET sites have a map of the rest of the network. I'm not a POSTMASTER, but I believe there is a distribution list for such a map and most POSTMASTERs subscribe. I don't know if you can subscribe from UseNet, but I suspect you can get some postmaster somewhere to send a copy. There is normally an alias called POSTMAST for the POSTMASTER's id at a particular node, so you should be able to send a request to "POSTMAST@UGA" for such a list. From UseNet, the address should be "POSTMAST@UGA.bitnet". The smart mailer at your site probably won't understand where UGA is, but it will recognize the ".bitnet" part, and send it to the nearest BITNET gateway (that is if your PostMaster is doing his job), and the machine on the BITNET side of the gateway will know how to find UGA. I've only been on both networks for a month or two, so I welcome corrections, but I believe this will get you what you want. -- UseNet: lag@cseg (I think) L. Adrian Griffis BITNET: AG27107@UAFSYSB
david@ms.uky.edu (David Herron -- One of the vertebrae) (07/05/88)
In article <403@cseg.uucp> lag@cseg.uucp (L. Adrian Griffis) writes: >My understanding is that most BITNET sites have a map of the rest of >the network. I'm not a POSTMASTER, but I believe there is a distribution >list for such a map and most POSTMASTERs subscribe. I don't know if you >can subscribe from UseNet, but I suspect you can get some postmaster >somewhere to send a copy. Yes there is a map. I don't know exactly how I got on the distribution list, I think it has to do with one of the entries in the site entry for this place but it's been well over a year since I've done anyting with site entries and I don't remember ANY details. All the map is is a routing table -- for that node you send the file to this neighbor of yours. Each site has a similar table. It works but isn't wonderful. Also it's kind of boring here because we're a leaf site -- every other site on BITNET is on the other side of UKCCB ... There's another table that's more interesting. But it's very large and I don't know of any documentation describing its internal format. Not that it's very hard to read anyway, but writing a program to decode things out of it would be slightly hard. Anyway, it's got a name like BITEARN NAMES or some such, and is available through your country-wide NETSERVer. (For the USA, it's the one at BITNIC). >There is normally an alias called POSTMAST for the POSTMASTER's id >at a particular node, so you should be able to send a request to >"POSTMAST@UGA" for such a list. From UseNet, the address should be >"POSTMAST@UGA.bitnet". ... THis is almost correct. It's not "normally" installed. Again, there is a tag in that more interesting table which says who to send postmaster type mail to. You have to be able to look it up in that table in order to know who to send mail to. *THERE*ISN'T*A*STANDARD*NAME*TO*SEND*TO*! Well, nor is there a standard format for mail either. What a wonderful network they have :-). -- <---- David Herron -- The E-Mail guy <david@ms.uky.edu> <---- ska: David le casse\*' {rutgers,uunet}!ukma!david, david@UKMA.BITNET <---- <---- I'm not bad, I'm just coded that way!
dboyes@uoregon.uoregon.edu (David Boyes) (07/06/88)
In article <9830@g.ms.uky.edu> david@ms.uky.edu (David Herron -- One of the vertebrae) writes: >In article <403@cseg.uucp> lag@cseg.uucp (L. Adrian Griffis) writes: >>[discussion of BITNET maps] There are lineprinter maps and a SAS/GRAPH program available that draws a very nice map available from LISTSERV@BITNIC.BITNET. They used to be available from NETSERV, but they've finally scrapped that dog and gone to LISTSERV. Send a mail message to LISTSERV@BITNIC.BITNET containing the word INDEX for a list of available files. >There's another table that's more interesting. But it's very large >and I don't know of any documentation describing its internal format. It's a very simple format. Entries consist of: :<tagname>.<value> where tagname is the field name and value is the obvious. Entries start with :nick. or :node. entries. The other tags are defined in the registration documentation you filled out when your node joined BITNET. See the description of the NAMEFIND command in the VM/SP CMS Command and Macro Reference Guide for a more detailed description. >Not that it's very hard to read anyway, but writing a program to >decode things out of it would be slightly hard. Anyway, it's got >a name like BITEARN NAMES or some such, and is available through >your country-wide NETSERVer. (For the USA, it's the one at BITNIC). Here's a fragment of REXX code that pulls stuff out of that file: /* we now have all of the information available on the given node in */ /* the string nodeinfo. We use GETTAG to get the value of a specific */ /* tag from this long string of stuff. If the tag does not exist, */ /* we return a null result. */ call GETTAG nodeinfo, ':node.' node_id = result call GETTAG nodeinfo, ':site.' site_id = result call GETTAG nodeinfo, ':system.' system_id = result call GETTAG nodeinfo, ':machine.' machine_id = result call GETTAG nodeinfo, ':bitdirector.' bitdir_id = result call GETTAG nodeinfo, ':addr.' address = result /* display results of the search in display panel */ 'CLEAR' say 'The information you requested for site' node_id 'is: ' say 'Node name :' node_id say 'Full name of site :' site_id say 'Site Address :' address say 'Operating System :' system_id say 'Machine Type :' machine_id if bitdir_id = '' then do bitdir_id = 'No Bitnet director defined for this machine.' end say 'BITNET Director :' bitdir_id end else do say 'Node' what_to_find 'was not found in the nodes file. ' end /* The following routine is used to seperate a value from the */ /* origin string and remove tag identifiers. Handles multiword */ /* tag values... */ GETTAG: procedure string = arg(1) search_pattern = arg(2) start_position = index(string,search_pattern,1) if start_position = 0 then do return '' end temp = start_position + 1 next_tag = index(string,':',temp) if next_tag = 0 then do next_tag = length(string) + 1 end start = start_position + length(search_pattern) size = ((next_tag - 1) - start) result = substr(string, start, size) return result Relatively inefficient, but I wrote it in about 2.5 minutes. Fairly straightforward. >>[discussion of POSTMAST id] >THis is almost correct. It's not "normally" installed. Again, there >is a tag in that more interesting table which says who to send postmaster >type mail to. Not quite. IF the site uses the Crosswell MAILER (like most VM BITNET sites), then the POSTMAST ID is defined in the distributed MAILER PROFILE configuration file. The line is in the specials: section at the bottom of the file and can be directed to ANY id -- MAILER handles queries to POSTMAST and BITINFO by looking at those entries first. Also, at most sites, POSTMAST is a human being; VMS and other OS types often assign this id to automated software, causing even more confusion. >You have to be able to look it up in that table in order >to know who to send mail to. *THERE*ISN'T*A*STANDARD*NAME*TO*SEND*TO*! Cf. above. Also, you tHe user don't need access to MAILER PROFILE. All you really Need to know is which DVM to send outgoing mail to and what types of headers it expects. It's the mailer's business to get it there. >Well, nor is there a standard format for mail either. What a wonderful >network they have :-). Don't throw too many stones. Usenet isn't all that great either. There are 2 formats for BITNET mail: a) IBM NOTE format. IBM NOTEs are always sent class A, Netdata format. Does not allow domain addresses; simple user@node form in headers. Commonly used by non-IBM systems as least common denominator. b) MAIL format. Almost always class M, Punch format, filename of sending userid, filetype of MAIL. 80 byte card images. You can figure out which to use by scanning the file XMAILER NAMES; if you find the destination host there or the destination domain in DOMAIN names, use format B and send to the address in the tables. Otherwise, use format A. MAILER already does this for you, though. >David Herron -- The E-Mail guy <david@ms.uky.edu> -- David Boyes | Internet: dboyes@drizzle.cs.uoregon.edu | (503) 686-4394 | BITNET: dboyes@uoregon | DECnet mail addresses -- just say no.