mikew@wyse.wyse.com (Mike Wexler) (01/14/89)
Submitted-by: mikew@wyse.com (Mike Wexler) Posting-number: Volume 3, Info 1 Archive-name: intro3.1 This is the first of two introductory articles about comp.sources.x. This one describes how to submit source to the newsgroup, where the archive sites are, and how to contact them. The companion articles lists all previously-published sources. I am always looking for suggestions on how to improve the usefulness of the newsgroup, and can be contacted as listed below. -Mike Wexler -------------------- Subject: Submitting source for publication Items intended for posting or queries and problem notes should be sent to wyse.com!x-sources. If you want verification of arrival, so say in a cover note, or at the beginning of your submission, if it is small. I try to verify that a program works, and if I can't get it to work, I may hold up posting it for a couple of days. Please note that, except in rare cases, source that doesn't meet the guidelines will not be published. The backlog from receipt to posting varies from one to four weeks depending mostly on the set of submissions currently in my queue and my current work load. ------------------- Subject: Guidelines To make life easier for both me and the users of the comp.sources.x newsgroup, I will require that the following be included in all postings. 1. shell commands to extract all the files - This means the postings should be in shar format. 2. a README file - This should be a brief description of what this posting is. 3. source code, a patch in context diff format, fonts in bdf format, or documentation in PostScript format. 4. a patchlevel.h -- This keeps track of how many official patches have been applied. When you send out a modification it should be in context diff format and it should update the patchlevel.h file. Example: #define PATCHLEVEL 0 5. A list of authors and their copying policy. Please put this in a file called AUTHOR. 6. filenames that are 12 or fewer characters long All source code should include: 1. an Imakefile. For more information on Imakefile's, read imake.man in util/imake on the X11 Release 3 distribution. 2. a Makefile 2. a man page 3. #include <X11/Xos.h> instead of things like types.h, strings.h and time.h 4. use -display displayname and -geometry geomspec instead of old style. For more information on patch see patch.man in util/patch/patch.man in the X11 Release 3 distribution or in volume7 of the comp.sources.unix archives. Patches can be made with diff -c on 4.XBSD based machines and with diffc on others. Diffc can be found in volume 1 of the comp.sources.unix archives. All patches should include: 1. A patch to patchlevel.h that increments the PATCHLEVEL by 1. If any of the above are not included, I will tell the poster and wait until they are included before I post the program. The following things should be included, but are not required yet. BTW, items 1 in the optional list are required by MIT if you want to be put on their source tape. -------------------- Subject: The structure of comp.sources.x articles Each posting in comp.sources.x is called an "issue"; there are roughly 100 issues to a volume. The division is arbitrary, and has varied greatly in the past. There are two types of articles in comp.sources.x; sources and "information postings." They can be distinguished by the subject line: Subject: v07INF8: Index for Volume 7 and other info This first word in the title identifies this as the eighth info posting of volume seven. Similarly, the subject line shown below: Subject: v01i060: select: a selection widget, Part01/01 identifies this as the 60th source article in Volume 1. All sources are broken up into pieces. This is part 1 of a 1 part posting. Subject: v01i056: xphoon: Show phase of the Moon on root window, Part01/04 The first few lines of an article are auxiliary headers that look like this: Submitted-by: root@freeware.ATT.COM Posting-number: Volume 7, Issue 82 Archive-name: new-login The "Submitted by" is the author of the program. IF YOU HAVE COMMENTS ABOUT THE SOURCES PUBLISHED IN COMP.SOURCES.X, THIS IS THE PERSON TO CONTACT. When possible, this address is in domain form, otherwise it is a UUCP bang path relative to some major site such as "uunet." The second line repeats the volume/issue information for the aide of NOTES sites and automatic archiving programs. The Archive-name is the "official" name of this source in the archive. Large postings will have names that look like this: Archive-name: patch2/Part01 Please try to use this name when requesting that sources be mailed to you. Also, note that the "part number" given in the title, and the archive name given in the auxiliary header need not be identical. -------------------- Subject: Reporting and tracking bugs and patches to postings You should probably subscribe to comp.sources.bugs. Some of the larger postings have established channels for distributing bug reports (e.g., Larry Wall posts patches in comp.sources.bugs; C News has update bulletins there and in one of the news groups, etc.). Others are sort of "catch as catch can." Sometimes, when new versions of previously-published software is available, just patches are put out, usually in the form of shar files containing input for the "patch" program, new files, etc. Sometimes complete new versions are put out. Which method is used depends on the poster and the moderator. Minor updates must be in patch form and update the patchlevel.h file. Major updates should me the guidelines for postings. To report bugs, contact the person listed in the Submitted-to header. Often there is a contact address in a README file, too. I do not maintain the sources I moderate, so don't send your bug reports to me. -------------------- Subject: Becoming an archive site If you collect comp.sources.x postings and are willing and able to make your collection available to other people, please let me know. Benefits include the undying gratitude of your colleagues, and a promise from me to try to make sure you never lose an article. Also I will set up direct connections to archivers in the United States that have a Telebit modem available. -------------------- Subject: Accessing the archives The complete archives are fairly large; an average volume is three to four megabytes. There are several active archive sites around the net. Archive sites in the U.K., Canada, and Switzerland are set up, and may be extended to provide full European coverage. If you are interested please contact me. I would love to have a Asia, Australia, and BITNET archives. Some sites below will send tapes through the mail. For those sites, send a 1/2" mag tape WITH RETURN POSTAGE and RETURN MAILER. Tapes without postage or mailer will not be returned. No other methods (COD, etc.) are available; please don't ask. At the present time, I do not have ready access to the archives, nor the support of my employer to do this. Please don't ask me for missing issues, unless you are sure you are reporting a net-wide problem of propogation. At the end are detailed instructions on how to access the archives. More sites will be listed there in the future. -------------------- Subject: Listing of archive sites in no particular order Here is what each field means: Person/Site: The name of the person and their mail address Where: The general area they are located in Service: How people will access their archive Direct connect: Whether we can establish a UUCP connection for the purposes of insuring that the archives are up to date. Modems: For sites providing UUCP access, what types of modems are available. Person/Site: Rick Adams(postmaster@uunet) Where: Fairfax, VA Service: contact the postmaster for more information Person/Site: Jason Winters (jason@aeras) Where: San Jose, CA Service: Anonymous UUCP & SnailMail tapes (Under duress) Modems: 1200, 2400, Telebit (3 lines) Person/Site: James Turner (turner@daisy): Where: Mtn View, CA Service: Anonymous UUCP & SnailMail tapes Direct connect: Yes Modems: 1200/2400, Telebits RSN Person/Site: Rich Kulawiec (rsk@j.cc.purdue.edu) Where: Indiana Service: Anonymous FTP Direct connect: No Person/Site: Lee Daniels (lee@hhb) Where: New Jersey Service: anonymous UUCP Direct connect: Yes Modems: connect: 1200/2400 Person/Site: Paul Vixie (vixie@decwrl.dec.com) Where: Palo Alto, California Service: Anonymous FTP(decwrl.dec.com), UUCP to existing neighbors Direct connect: No Person/Site: Ron Heiby (heiby@mcdchg) Where: Illinois Service: Anonymous UUCP Direct Connect: Yes Modems: 1200 Baud Person/Site: Sharan Kalwani (shan@mcf.uucp or mcf!shan@umix.cc.umich.edu) Where: Michigan Service: mail server and possible UUCP access Direct connect: Yes Modems: 1200/2400, Trailblazer Person/site: David Herron (david@e.ms.uky.edu) Where: Kentucky Service: UUCP and anonymous FTP Direct connect: ? Modems: Trailblazer Person/site: Russell Brown (russell@imtec) Where: Peterborough, Cambrideshire, U.K. Service: anonymous UUCP Direct connect: Probably not Modems: Steebek Quatro - V.22 V.22bis V.23 Person/Site: David Haynes (x-depot@geac) Where: Markham, Ontario CANADA Service: Mail server, tarmail, Anonymous UUCP, Tape Duplication Direct connect: Yes Modems: Telebits (X.25 soon) Person/Site: Jamie Watson (mcvax!cernvax!pan!jw) Where: Solothurn, Switzerland Service: Anonymous UUCP, SnailMail tapes/diskettes Direct connect: No. Modems: Multitech 1200/2400 Person/Site: Lee McLoughlin (lmjm@doc.ic.ac.uk) Where: Imperial College, London, United Kingdom Service: Janet/PSS NIFTP, mail info-server Direct connect: No Modems: Indirectly thru' modems onto Janet 300/1200/2400 Person/site: Jeff Beadles (jeff@tekcsc.mkt.tek.com) Where: Wilsonville, Oregon Service: mail server, tapes, possible uucp Direct connect: Yes Modems: Trailblazer Person/site: (svnet@unixprt) Where: Service: Direct connect: Modems: Person/Site: X Users Group (harden@ics or xug@zermatt.lcs.mit.edu) Where: Long Island, New York or Cambridge, Mass. Service: ? Direct connect: ? Modems: ? Person/Site: pax@dune Fidonet: 369/6 - The Eye of Osiris OPUS/UFGATE 305-973-1947 Service: Fidonet archive, anonymous UUCP Direct connect: ? Modems: ? Detailed instructions: Person/Site: jason@aeras Good morning Mister Phelps: Your mission, should you decide to accept it is to recover the archive files saved from the USENET Comp.sources.* groups. The wellbeing of the users of your machine make it imperative that you succeed. Current informants state that sources.unix, games, and misc are being held for future generations of hackers. Target machine: Arete' System 1200 System Statistics: aeras Any 1200 4089439152 "" "" ogin:--ogin: uugarch word: freebee aeras Any 19200 4089439246 "" "" ogin:--ogin: uugarch word: freebee aeras Any 2400 4089439396 "" "" ogin:--ogin: uugarch word: freebee Suggested places to get additional information: /u3/archive/sources/LISTING It has been rumored that the file LISTING contains the names of all the programs stored in the archives, and the sizes. Note: all archives have probably been stored in compressed form, with 12 bit compression (for machines that can't handle 16 bit). All multiple file programs have been stored in seperate directories, then compressed. Best sources currently state that more information about the files stored in a particular volume are kept in files called LOGFILE. Such as: /u3/archive/sources/games/vol1/LOGFILE would be the one to get to examine the exact contents of volume 1 of the games section. Additional information from files: sample command to recover files: uucp aeras!/u3/archive/sources/games/vol1/LOGFILE /tmp/. Special note: wild cards have been proven to not be reliable, so to assure success they are not recommened tools. Good luck. As always: should you or anyone of your IM Force be caught, the secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions or phone number. This e-mail will self destruct upon typeing 'rm -rf /*' from the root console. Person/Site: shan@mcf.uucp (Sharan Kalwani) Sharan Kalwani at the Michigan Cancer Foundation (shan@mcf.uucp) has set up a mail-based server. The archive resides on mcf's machine. Comp.sources.x, comp.sources.unix and other stuff are available. Mail to "archives@mcf.uucp" and supply the text send index from comp.sources.x for some help on how to access the files and an index of the files currently online. For human help, mail to shan@mcf.uucp or shan%mcf.uucp@umix.cc.umich.edu. Person/Site: lee@hhb (Lee Daniels) The East Coast Xarchive is now available. The purpose of this archive is to provide access to all publicly available X Window System based soft- ware through UUCP. The archive contains a complete comp.sources.x direct- ory and a copy of what can be found on expo/contrib and expo/pub. The expo directories will be updated roughly once a month. The archive can currently be accessed at 1200 and 2400 baud. I am hoping to get a Telebit Trailblazer added in the near future. I am setting up this archive to be pseudo annonymous. In other words, I am giving everyone access, but I want you to ask for a connection using the attached form. When you submit the form, I will authorize your host to call the archive and I will send you back a copy of the L.sys entry for the archive. By not making the archive totally annonymous, I will be able to document the usage of the archive in order to help justify its existence to the system administrator and upper management. I am hoping to have enough information to help justify adding the Telebit Trailblazer. I am not going to generally provide other access to the archive other than UUCP but if you have a special need, send me mail and maybe something can be worked out. Please fill out the following form completely and I will send you the rest of the information. Lee Daniels princeton!hhb!lee@uunet.uu.net HHB Systems 1000 Wyckoff Avenue (201) 848-8000 Mahwah, New Jersey 07430 ---------------------------- c u t h e r e --------------------------------- Name: Email address: Phone number: Company: Company address: UUCP system's hostname: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: heiby@mcdchg.UUCP (Ron Heiby) Here's a copy of the current "howto.snarf" file for comp.sources.unix archives I maintain. It will have to be modified for addition of the "X" archives. Specifically, people will have to snarf something like "~/unix/vol01/ZZZZ" or "~/x/vol01/ZZZZ" for the .unix and .x archives, respectively. When it's set up, I'll send you an updated "howto.snarf". Ron. ----- 05/17/88 How to snarf files from the comp.sources.unix archives This file explains how to get files from the comp.sources.unix archive being maintained by the Motorola Microcomputer Div. sales office in Schaumburg, IL. This is not an official service of Motorola and may be discontinued any time. The contents of the comp.sources.unix archive have been donated by the submitters of the files to the Usenet comp.sources.unix moderator for free availability throughout the community. Motorola assumes no responsibility for the contents of these files, including the suitability for their use in any application on any hardware. (Some of the material, for example is known not to run on systems sold by Motorola.) Any questions about suitability, problems with the software or documentation, or anything else related to the contents of the files should be directed to the persons who submitted the material originally (usually the authors). (Now that I think I've covered my behind sufficiently...) The comp.sources.unix archives are currently resident on a Motorola VME Delta Series Model 2616 running System V/68 Release 3.0 named "mcdchg". This system is used throughout the day, but one modem line has been made available during evening and weekend hours for getting sources from the archives. When logging in using these procedures, mcdchg will identify itself as "mcdch1". At some time in the future, we may go back to a two-machine networked approach. Any sites that already have an established uucp connection with mcdchg should send me mail to have archive access "turned on" for your uucp login, as this procedure will not work for you as is. In order to ensure that the archive service does not interfere with real work, the uucico for the archive login will be have its "x" permission bits turned off at 8 a.m. Chicago local time (CST6CDT) and on again at 6 p.m. on weekdays. Execute permission will be turned on throughout Saturday and Sunday. The following description of how to set up your system's uucp configuration files is based on the Honey DanBer UUCP (Basic Networking Utilities) implementation, as it's the only one I've used that made any sense. You may have to adjust what I say to fit your system's requirements. The phone number for "mcdch1" is (currently) 1-312-576-7902. There is a single line on that number. The modem will answer at 1200bps and will require a carraige return to get a "login:" prompt. In response to the login prompt, your system should send the login id, "pduucp". The password is "public". As I said above, all this is turned off between about 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. Chicago time Monday through Friday, so we can get our real work done, so don't bother trying it during those periods. The Systems file entry for doing this looks something like: (For HoneyDanBer UUCP (BNU) users. Combine into a single line.) mcdch1 Wk1800-0730,Sa,Su ACU 1200 chicago5767902 "" \r\c in:--in: pduucp word: public Once you have your system set up to place an outgoing UUCP call to "mcdch1", you can retrieve material from the archives. There are two files that are excellent choices for testing your link. This file is file mcdch1!~/howto.snarf. The current directory of what is stored in the comp.sources.unix archives is found in the file mcdch1!~/directory. To get either of these, execute a command like: uucp mcdch1!~/howto.snarf !~/MYNAME/ uucp mcdch1!~/directory !~/MYNAME/ The directory is simply the output from "ls -sRxF" on the comp.sources.unix archive disk hierarchy. It is updated just before 6 p.m. every day. Here is an old sample from the directory: total 15 0 directory 1 make.dir* 2 vol1/ ./vol1: total 941 16 ANSI.C.Z 12 C-Kermit.ann 41 Digest.Z 12 NIC 13 Smail.Z 1 UK-1.1/ 1 Xlisp1.4/ 20 bed.Z ./vol1/UK-1.1: total 105 4 Anno 48 Part1.Z 31 Part2.Z 22 Part3.Z This sample shows part of the first volume of comp.sources.unix. The entries with a slash "/" at the end of their names are directories, whose contents are detailed below (e.g. UK-1.1). The number preceding each name is the approximate size of the file in 512 byte blocks. Entries whose name ends with a ".Z" have been compressed by the program compress 4.0, which can be found (in uncompressed form) in volume 2. Be sure to look carefully to be sure you are getting the latest version available. Also, look for "index" files to help find what you want. NOTE: There are occasionally inconsistencies between the archive names we have on disk and those published in the index by the comp.sources.unix moderator. WARNING: These files are not stored under /usr/spool/uucppublic, so requests that specify an absolute pathname, rather than one under "~" will almost certainly fail. WARNING: Please be aware that uucp commands asking for file names containing wild cards will almost certainly not work. This is because all of the implementations I know of submit a uux job to the remote system asking it to run "uucp" on the wild card filename. Systems logging in with "pduucp" are prohibited from executing "uucp" or other commands via "uux". So, be sure to ask for each file separately. Steve Pearse (wp3b01!pearse) sent the following script which helps make the uucp commands easier to issue. I've modified it somewhat. I hope I didn't break it too much. ########################## # getmod - Get comp.sources.unix archives files via uucp if [ "$1" = "" ] then echo "type files in form of [ N/file or N/dir/file ], where" echo "N is the volume number (as in volN)" echo "or getmod -l to get list of available files" exit 1 fi if [ "$1" = "-l" ] then uucp -m mcdch1!~/directory !~/receive/src.unix/ exit 0 fi for file do uucp -m mcdch1!~/vol"$file" !~/receive/src.unix/ done echo "requested file(s) $* on `date`" |tee -a $HOME/modreqs exit 0 ########################## If you can't figure out why the comp.sources.unix archive doesn't work, re-read this file. If you still have trouble, talk with your system administrator. If you are the system administrator, send electronic mail to me at heiby@mcdchg.UUCP (mcdchg!heiby). Have fun! Ron. ----- !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A n n o u n c i n g !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! T h e !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! W e s t C o a s t X a r c h i v e !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The West Coast Xarchive is now available. The purpose of this archive is to provide access to all publicly available X Window System based soft- ware through UUCP. The archive contains a complete comp.sources.x direct- ory and a copy of what can be found on expo/contrib and expo/pub. The expo directories will be updated roughly once a month. The archive can currently be accessed at 1200/2400 baud or at 19.2K baud (Telebit Trailblazer). Access is by anonymous login, the userid is UXarchiv with no password. The dialin numbers are: 415-967-4619 1200/2400 dial-in 415-967-4718 trailblazer dial-in A sample L.sys entry might be: daisy Any ACU 19200 4159674718 "" \d ogin: UXarchiv daisy Any ACU 2400 4159674619 ogin:-BREAK-ogin: UXarchiv To get a current listing of what files are available and where they can be found, download the file /usr/spool/uucppublic/Xarchive/ls-lR.Z ...{decwrl|ucbvax}!imagen!atari!daisy!turner (James M. Turner) ...uunet!daisy!turner Daisy Systems, 700 E. Middlefield Rd, P.O. Box 7006, Mountain View CA 94039-7006. (415)960-0123 -- Please send comp.sources.x-related mail to mikew@wyse.com -- Mike Wexler(wyse!mikew) Phone: (408)433-1000 x1330 Moderator of comp.sources.x