overby@plains.UUCP (Glen Overby) (03/03/90)
We have made some changes in the Info-Minix (aka MINIX-L) archives on
vm1.nodak.edu (ndsuvm1 on bitnet).
The mailing list archives have been moved from the LISTARCH directory to a
directory of their own, MINIX-L. This was done because the MINIX-L archives
were taking up a majority of the mailing list archives disk. This change
should be apparent only to people using Anonymous FTP, since LISTSERV has
always considered the MINIX-L logs to be in a directory of the same name.
All mailing list logs up before November, 1988 (when 1.3 was posted) have
been deleted.
Here is an updated copy of instructions for accessing our ourchives:
Two archives of Minix information are kept on our IBM mainframe
at North Dakota State University. The largest is an automated
log of all messages sent to the MINIX-L list (the Bitnet side of
the Info-Minix mailing list, which carries all of comp.os.minix),
and the other is an manually organized archive of sources sent to
the list. Both are accessible by Anonymous FTP on the Internet,
and by making a request by mail from any other connected network
(such as Bitnet or UUCP).
There is one directory for each of these archives, named MINIX-L
and MINIX for the list archives and organized archives, respec-
tively.
Our machine is:
Internet: listserv@vm1.NoDak.EDU [134.129.111.1]
Bitnet: listserv@ndsuvm1
UUCP: psuvax1!ndsuvm1.bitnet!listserv
uunet!plains!vm1!listserv
**NOTE** Many Unix sites have had difficulty contacting
this server because it is VERY stringent about what it
accepts as valid mail. Also, replies to uucp will
*not* follow the same path back as the request was sent
on. If you are a UUCP site not listed in the UUCP
maps, listserv will NOT be able to respond to you.
ANONYMOUS FTP
Our site accepts FTP logins with the user "anonymous" and any
password (network conventions generally say you should use your
login name, but that is not required). We ask that you limit
your usage of this to off-peak hours, such as evenings and week-
ends, since our connection to the Internet is via a 19.2KB line.
Be warned that this machine is an IBM 3090 running VM/CMS and
uses EBCIDC! The translation table we use does not seem to cause
problems when talking to native ASCII machines. You should think
twice before doing BINARY transfers, since all the Minix files
are stored as text.
A normally up-to-date index of available files in the MINIX
directory, with descriptions, is kept in the file "MINIX INDEX".
USING THE MAIL SERVER
If you do not have Internet access, you may request files be sent
to you by our LISTSERV file server by sending it commands in the
body of a mail message.
To obtain a list of the files, the INDEX command is used:
INDEX <directory>
where <directory> is either MINIX-L or MINIX.
The GET command will instruct LISTSERV to send you a file, such
as:
get minix info minix
to get the file "MINIX INFO" from the directory "MINIX". That
file is a copy of the monthly "Minix Information Sheet" posting.
The Minix Compatibility list is available in the file "MINIX COM-
PAT".
Due to the 80-character per line (punched card) limit on Bitnet
mail, many of the files will be shipped using an encoding scheme
that allows logical lines to be split up into many physical
lines. On Bitnet, this is normally the IBM "DISK DUMP" or "NETDA-
TA" format, and for ther networks it is "Listserv Punch".
Listserv Punch was designed by Listserv's author and is designed
to send files with lines longer than 80 characters thru the Bit-
net gateways. A special program to decode the file once it has
arrived at your site. Information on obtaining a program to
decode listserv punch format is sent with each encoded file.
If you would rather have a file sent to you uuencoded, you may
specify that in your GET command:
get minix info minix f=uuencode
please note that there are many files, such as the 1.3 to 1.5.0
update, which are stored in uuencoded format.
ACCESSING THE MAILING LIST LOGS WITH LISTSERV
The mailing list logs are kept in the "MINIX-L", section. The
filename tells what year, month, and week it is from:
MINIX-L LOGyymmw
where "yy" is the year, "mm" is the numeric month and "w" is an
alphabetic character from A to E indicating what week of the
month. Several months of log files are kept on-line, the number
depending on disk space availability.
If you are looking for a specific article, or set of articles,
you can perform searches on this directory using the Database
functions of Listserv. For example, to obtain a "Subject" index
of the MINIX-L archives, send the listserv a file or mail with
the following "job" in the message body:
// JOB Echo=No
Database Search DD=Rules
//Rules DD *
search * in minix-l since 89/12/01
index
and you will be sent a file containing all of the 'Subject:'
lines sent to the mailing list since December 1, 1989. If you
wish to request one or more items, replace the 'index' line in
the above job with "print [refnum]", where "refnum" is the refer-
ence number from the index listing. Documentation on this and
other database functions is available by sending the command
"INFO DATABASE" to the listserv.
To obtain more information on the listserv, send the command:
INFO ?
and you will be enlightened with a list of available documenta-
tion on using LISTSERV.
This archive is maintained by Glen Overby at North Dakota State
University, Fargo, ND USA
Glen Overby info-minix List Maintainer <minix@plains.nodak.edu>
uunet!plains!minix (UUCP) minix@plains (Bitnet)
--
Glen Overby <overby@plains.nodak.edu>
uunet!plains!overby (UUCP) overby@plains (Bitnet)