comparc@twwells.uucp (comp.archives) (11/11/88)
My map entry has made it out, so I will no longer be posting it. --- libove!root (Jay M. Libove) sends: : Please do post full descriptions of new archive sites, and occasional : abbreviated listings of all arvchive sites (name and contact address). Ok. Given the archive format, it is easy for site administrators to send their standard message and embed their site information within it. That is what crum@lipari.usc.edu (Gary L. Crum) did with his, and I too think it is a good idea. : Please include the complete indices when servers are announced, and : perhaps at intervals thereafter (like jfh@rpp386's postings). This was in answer to the question of whether I should go and access the index files for the GENBANK server and post the result. I have decided that I will not post the indexes unless they are sent to me. That will take more time than I think I have and cost me money I'd rather not spend, not to mention that I can't access non-uucp sites. Also, the archive administrator might not want me to do that. --- The consensus appears to be that one can't do general ftp access unless one is on the Internet. However, if one is connected to uunet, one can ask them to ftp the data and then uucp it from them. --- muir@postgres.Berkeley.EDU (David Muir Sharnoff) sent: : * He also asks if I know anything about bib/refer. Well, I don't. He : * suggests that I might want to make my database consistent with that : * format. Any comments? (Paul: you might as well send me the man page; : * I'll need some information to make an informed decision.) : : bib and refer is more than a good idea for this. Well, I guess I'll have to go looking these things up. We'll see. : In general, I don't care about who submitted an entry or even : who takes care of an archive. Generally, such things can be : figured out if it matters. This field exists for my benefit. Should something be wrong with the entry, I can hunt up the submitter and bother him. : Futher, you should optimize for the "standard" cases. Well, that's one more vote for simpler submissions. How about it, are there other archive administrators out there who are put off by the size or arcaneness of the entries? : Quite : independant of you, I'm building a file (for my own use) that : lists what sites offer ftp access and what they have. The reason : I want this is so that I don't have to save things becuase I will : know where to find them. Could I have this file when you have it made up? : (back to the point) This file consists of only a line or two per : site and only a line or two per software system. I'm more interested : in a summary of where things are than having an extensive, but not : particularly useful database. Well, a lot of the complexity in what I am doing comes from my desire to handle the needs of many different people. This leads me to another thought: there is no reason in the world why one couldn't take my postings and strip out the information you don't want. --- crum@cse.usc.edu (Gary L. Crum) sent: : In article <144@twwells.uucp> bill@twwells.UUCP (T. William Wells) writes: : >In article <8811020443.AA07112@lipari.usc.edu> crum@lipari.usc.edu (Gary L. Crum) writes: : >: The pub/map directory is writeable by anonymous ftp. : > : >Isn't that dangerous? : : I'm not sure. It might mean that malicious users could overwrite maps, : but I intend to backup the archive to tape each time it changes, so such : vandalism would take only my time to undo. It certainly does mean that malicious, ignorant, or clumsy users could delete or overwrite maps, or add bogus ones. : Because the BSD ftpd uses chroot(2) to prevent anonymous ftp access to : any files outside ~ftp, I don't think the mode of pub/map could allow : any more serious abuse. (The filesystem on which ~ftp resides is not : used for other system functions, so filling it up would not cause other : problems.) pub/map is actually mode 1777, but I don't know if the sticky : bit prevents anonymous ftp users from overwriting files. According to my man pages (SunOS4.0), this bit will keep them from deleting or renaming files but only if the files have a different user id. Don't all anonymous ftp users have the same user id? --- jclyde.cactus.org!wizard (John Onorato) sends: : What exactly is this newsgroup for (comp.archives)? Not being frightfully : experienced with the unix system, I can't make heads or tails of what's : been posted so far. Did the most recent "Welcome" posting help? If not, then I guess I will have to redo it.... : Seem what I'm mainly interested in is getting internet addresses for other : machines that have guest type accounts on them. There's certain software : that I'm looking for, and I'd lik to try my hand at ftp-ing myself around : the country (I've successfully done it once). Any ideas/comments? No guest accounts will be posted here; however, if you are looking for sites to ftp from, you have come to the right place. --- jetson.UPMA.MD.US!john (John Owens) sends: : > Another random thought: when I have a lot of fairly small things to : > say, I think it appropriate to post them in one message. : : Agreed; the word "Administrivia" was coined in the old ARPANET digest : community for such things - you could tag the Subject: line with this : to indicate non-archive postings. Done. : > You see, the news software gives me a From: line that is a uucp path. : > BTW, this necessity to fudge the From: line is really irritating, not : > to mention error prone. :-) If there is a news guru out there who : > knows the right way to get this line set up, would you send me e-mail? : : Are you running news 2.11? What newsreader? If you are running 2.11, : you should have INTERNET #define'd, and use the "internet" entry in : the mailpaths file if necessary. Let me know if you need more : details or help on this. Yes. Rn. And I do and I have. Yes, I still need help. : Then shouldn't your Reply-To: line say comp-archives-request@twwells.UUCP : instead of comparc@twwells.UUCP? Well, as I said in the "Welcome" posting, the two are synonymous. Not only that, but I would be somewhat put out to have to change my Reply-to line for each posting. Actually, I prefer it this way; it makes it easy to tell the replies from everything else. --- cfa3.DECNET!sward (STEVEN M. WARD (617)495-7392 WARD@CFA.HARVARD.EDU) sends: : Please resend your database documentation and specification when all the : changes are made. I have attempted to keep track of changes that are : likely, but I no doubt have missed something and the changes/additions/ : deletions talked about are now overreaching my interest in extracting : and contructing them from many messages. I've already sent the latest version; however, I don't think that it is the last version. But I sent it now because I too think that it is too much to ask for people to figure out the current format by reading a half-dozen postings. --- One of our local sysadmins had a question which I answered. I'd appreciate any comments on the answers. : In general, how do users of the UUCP network feel about source code : moving through their machine, when it was started by a request made : to a source archive server? Depends. For mail, one should not request large things. Not only is this unfriendly, but some sites can't send things larger than some number of K. I believe that that number is around 50, but I am not sure. It is generally a bad idea to use a mail based server for anything other than small items, unless one is directly connected to it. The main problem is not individual requests, unless they are very large, but the overhead of many people making requests. I believe uucp requests are different. This is my understanding: one can't uucp through a machine unless they authorize it. For example, I could give the command uucp proxftl!novavax!~/foo ~/foo to transfer file foo from novavax (assuming it is in uucppublic). In order for this to work, proxftl has to be willing to allow remote execution of the uucp command. Since it isn't, that command should fail. I could be wrong about this since I haven't really given this any study. : Will it be your responsibility to insure that the archives connections : do not mind the extra work, or do you assume the site offering the : archive has taken care of it? I assume that you are referring to me as moderator of comp.archives; so far, I haven't recieved any postings for mail based servers. When I do get one, I'll give it some thought. --- Bill {uunet|novavax}!proxftl!twwells!bill send comp.archives postings to twwells!comp-archives send comp.archives related mail to twwells!comp-archives-request