boneill@hawk.ulowell.edu (SoftXc Coordinator) (05/13/88)
GETTING BINARIES VIA FTP
FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. It allows a person to log into
another system, and send or receive files on that system. It is mostly used
with InterNet hosts.
If your hosts system has FTP, you can access very large amounts of
archives available on a number of systems, such as Simtel20 or uunet.uu.net.
We'll talk mostly about Simtel20, and retrieving MS-DOS programs.
The simplest way to initiate FTP would be to give the command 'ftp
<system-name>', where <system-name> is the remote system you are connecting
to, either a name (simtel20.arpa, if you have some sort of nameserver) or
the InterNet address (26.0.0.74, for Simtel20). After a short wait, you will
be prompted for your username. If you do not have an account on the remote
system, some systems allow you to use 'anonymous'. This gives you a
restricted access path.
You would then be prompted for a password. Some systems will tell you to
send your real identity as the password. What you type doesn't matter, but
it is suggested to give your mail address. Other systems need a password of
'guest', or something similar. Simtel20 is of the former type.
After that, you should receive the FTP prompt (usually FTP>), and now
have access. You can get a directory of files be giving a 'dir' command, or
if the remote system is Unix-based, 'ls -l' will give the familiar output.
On Simtel20, there is a file usually available that explains what Simtel20
is, and where files are located. I don't remember the name, but it is
something like 'SIMTEL-ARCHIVES.INFO.19', the last version I saw. the '.19'
is a version number. You don't need to specify the '.19' when requesting the
file.
Now, say you want to see what is stored for MS-DOS programs. Simtel20
is a DEC System-20 running the TOPS-20 operating system. The directory
structure is something like 'DISK:<DIRECTORY.SUBDIRECTORY>'. For MS-DOS
programs, the main directory is 'PD1:<MSDOS>'. In here there is a file
called 'MSDOS.CRCLST', which is updated almost daily. It contains a list of
all files within the MS-DOS subdirectories, along with file size and CRC
value.
Say you wanted to get ProComm Plus. According to the list, it is in
PD1:<MSDOS.PROCOMM>. So, you can enter 'cd pd1:<msdos.procomm>' (case does
not matter, everthing in TOPS-20 is upper case). a 'dir' will show all the
files in that directory. (You may wish not to use too many 'dir' commands,
as they are fairly slow)
Now, you want the file 'pcplustd.arc'. First, you must tell your host
what kind of file it is. On most Unix systems, 'binary' or 'set type binary'
or 'set type I' will work. However, as Simtel20 runs a different OS that has
different word sizes (36 bits, I think) you must specify 'tenex' or
'type L 8' to transfer properly. You can then issue a 'get pcplustd.arc'
command, and after a short while, you have ProComm Plus. To end your
session, enter the 'bye' command.
Other features of FTP can be found in the manual - please check there.
If I'm a little bit off or I forgot to mention something, please forgive me.
I just woke up :^)
============================================================================
Brian O'Neill, MS-DOS Software Exchange Coordinator
ArpaNet: boneill@hawk.ulowell.edu
UUCP : {(backbones),harvard,rutgers,et. al.}!ulowell!hawk!boneilljohnson@c10sd1.StPaul.NCR.COM (Wayne D. T. Johnson) (05/17/88)
In article <7042@swan.ulowell.edu> you write: > > GETTING BINARIES VIA FTP > > FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. It allows a person to log into >another system, and send or receive files on that system. It is mostly used >with InterNet hosts. > > If your hosts system has FTP, you can access very large amounts of >archives available on a number of systems, such as Simtel20 or uunet.uu.net. >We'll talk mostly about Simtel20, and retrieving MS-DOS programs. > FTP sounds great but how do systems that don't have FTP either get FTP or be able to access these libraries. I have read the "manual" that is periodocialy published about SIMTEL20 but have never been able to get the mail requests for software or even directory listings to work, they seem to get lost in the mail or ignored. BTW, is there a way of sending "registered" mail so that a message can be traced through the network? It seems that there should be a way of debugging network problems where mail just dissappears in a somewhat automated way, without calling all the admins to find if a letter was seen going through their node. -- Wayne Johnson (Voice) 612-638-7665 NCR Comten, Inc. (E-MAIL) W.Johnson@StPaul.NCR.COM or Roseville MN 55113 johnson@c10sd1.StPaul.NCR.COM These opinions (or spelling) do not necessarily reflect those of NCR Comten.
w8sdz@brl-smoke.ARPA (Keith B. Petersen ) (05/18/88)
Note - In the following discussion, if you are not on BITNET
substitute the address LISTSERV@CICGE.RPI.EDU for the address shown.
This will *not* work if hosts between you and CICGE.RPI.EDU incorrectly
form the "From:" line. Usenet readers should use the path:
(anybackbone_also_on_arpanet)!cicge.rpi.edu!listserv
Help information for the PDGET command
*****************************************************************
Selected portions of the SIMTEL20 public domain software archives
are available via a file server at RPICICGE.BITNET. At present the
collections include the following directories:
PD1:<CPM.*> -- The Info-CPM archive (CP/M machines)
PD1:<SIGM.*> -- The SIG/M User Group archive (CP/M machines)
PD1:<MISC.*> -- The Miscellaneous archives
PD1:<MSDOS.*> -- The IBM-PC/MSDOS archives
PD1:<PC-BLUE.*> -- The PC-Blue User Group archive (MSDOS machines)
Planned:
PD1:<CPMUG.*> -- The CP/M User Group archive.
Any of the files in these collections are available from the file
server LISTSERV@RPICICGE.BITNET. The server responds to two commands.
/PDDIR requests a directory listing of files available in an archive,
and /PDGET requests a file from an archive. The file server accepts
commands in both interactive messages or RFC822-style mail. (On
VM and MVS Bitnet hosts, TELL LISTSERV AT RPICICGE... can be used to
send an interactive message. Other Bitnet systems may have similar
facilities. People on non-Bitnet systems must use the mail interface,
and must insure that the From: header represents a valid return path.)
****Note: The server actually responds to many, many other commands,
but none of them have anything to do with the archives.
The two commands have the following form:
/PDGET <format> simtel.filename < ( encoding >
/PDDIR simtel.pattern
The <...> mark things that are optional.
* "simtel.filename" specifies the name of a file to be delivered to the
user. Names are usually of the form "PD1:<dir.subdir>name.type"
* "simtel.pattern" specifies a search pattern used in generating a
directory listing. The form of the pattern is like the filename
mentioned above, but asterisks (*) may be used freely in the
subdir, name, and type parts as wild cards (but not in the dir field.)
* "format" specifies the method of transmission to be used:
NETDATA -- suitable for transfer to Bitnet hosts that can accept
files in IBM Netdata format.
PUNCH -- suitable for transfer to Bitnet hosts that can accept
files but cannot decode the Netdata format. Files
are sent as 80-byte card-images.
MAIL -- suitable for transfer to hosts that can accept only
mail or are accessible to Bitnet only through gateways.
Large files sent via mail are split into several
smaller files that the recipient must reassemble.
If the format is omitted, NETDATA is assumed for Bitnet hosts
and MAIL for all others.
* "encoding" specifies any special encoding of the file data:
ASIS -- suitable for hosts that can receive binary data. The
file is sent exactly as it is stored on RPICICGE:
CP/M sector images, binary mostly. ASIS may be used
only with format NETDATA.
UUENCODE -- suitable for hosts that cannot receive binary data.
The file is sent uuencoded.
TRANSLATE -- suitable for any host, but only when the file actually
represents readable text. The file is translated into
character data format.
If the encoding is omitted, files are sent ASIS if the transmission
format is NETDATA, and UUENCODEd otherwise.
/PDDIR Examples:
================
(1) The user is looking for the ARC programs.
/PDDIR PD1:<MSDOS.*>ARC*.*
(2) The user wants a listing of the full MSDOS collection.
/PDDIR PD1:<MSDOS>
/PDGET Examples:
================
In each of the following examples the user wants the -FILES.DOC file to
examine on his host and the PKX35A35.EXE file to download to his micro,
both from the MSDOS collection. Note that none of the examples have a
closing parenthesis!
(1) The user is on an IBM host directly connected to Bitnet:
/PDGET NETDATA PD1:<MSDOS.STARTER>-FILES.DOC (TRANSLATE
/PDGET NETDATA PD1:<MSDOS.ARC-LBR>PKX35A35.EXE
(2) The user is on a non-IBM host directly connected to Bitnet and can
receive Netdata files:
/PDGET NETDATA PD1:<MSDOS.STARTER>-FILES.DOC (TRANSLATE
/PDGET NETDATA PD1:<MSDOS.ARC-LBR>PKX35A35.EXE (UUE
(3) The user is on a non-IBM host directly connected to Bitnet and can
receive punch files:
/PDGET PUNCH PD1:<MSDOS.STARTER>-FILES.DOC (TRANSLATE
/PDGET PUNCH PD1:<MSDOS.ARC-LBR>PKX35A35.EXE (UUE
(4) The user is on some host somewhere:
/PDGET MAIL PD1:<MSDOS.STARTER>-FILES.DOC (TRANSLATE
/PDGET MAIL PD1:<MSDOS.ARC-LBR>PKX35A35.EXE (UUE
--
Keith Petersen
Arpa: W8SDZ@SIMTEL20.ARPA
Uucp: {bellcore,decwrl,harvard,lll-crg,ucbvax,uw-beaver}!simtel20.arpa!w8sdz
GEnie: W8SDZ