jon@lindy.Stanford.EDU (Jon Corelis) (11/26/89)
Can anyone recommend some good beginner's, tutorial-like
documentation on using ftp? Thanks,
Jon
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Jon Corelis jon@lindy.stanford.edu
Stanford University BITNET: XB.E70@FORSYTHE.STANFORD.EDUwcs) (11/29/89)
] Can anyone recommend some good beginner's, tutorial-like ]documentation on using ftp? Thanks, Depends on what you want to know. If your machine is connected properly to the Internet, and all you're trying to do is browse around and get files, it's simple. If you need more than that, read all the manual pages you can find and hack around. 0) RTFM, and read the ftp-archive-sites lists that get posted. 1) make a directory for retrieving files and cd there. 2) type "ftp" Ftp will carry on a line-at-a-time conversation with machines across the Internet, using a protocol that's fairly minimalist, with features that are implemented differently on different machines. So some things will look different in different places. 3) type "help" and read the list of available commands. They're not always real detailed or obvious, but most do what you expect. 4) type "debug" "trace" and "bell", on three separate lines, to turn on all these options for maximum verbosity. 5) type "open some.machine.domain" - "open uunet.uu.net" is good. 6) wait for a login prompt, and type "anonymous" 7) Password: your-login@yourmachine typically anything will work, and this is a courtesy so the people who provide anonymous servers can find who's using them. If it fails, try "guest". 8) browse around with "cd" and "dir". "dir" is typically more verbose than "ls", which is good because you want to know how big files are before downloading them; on Unix it's usually like "ls -l". Not all systems have the simple directory structures you're used to, so "cd ../../bin/foo" may work ok on UNIX but fail on VMS or DEC-10s. "cd .." usually works, though. 9) To retrieve files, you have to set the transmission mode correctly for the type of file you're getting. Usually this is "ascii" for ascii files, and "binary" for binaries, but you may have to do strange things depending on your system and the distant system. For SIMTEL20.WSMR.ARPA, you tend to need to set "tenex" to retrieve binaries, because it's a DEC-20 machine with 36-bit words and just thinks differently. Read any local instructions you can find. Type "get filename" or "get remote-name local-name" to retrieve a file. You may need the latter form if your system doesn't like the name the remote-system uses (for example, if your system uses 14-character filenames and they use longer ones). Look at the verboseness coming back to decide if the right amount of data seems to have been transmitted. Expect this phase to be slow and clunky; you'll get a prompt back from ftp when it's all done. 10) Expect your connection to drop occasionally, especially if something goes wrong or the other system is overloaded. (SIMTEL usually has too many people trying to do ftp.) If nothing seems to be happening, wait a while, or try "stat" if you have a prompt. Be patient. Bill -- # Bill Stewart, AT&T Bell Labs 4M312 Holmdel NJ 201-949-0705 api.att.com!wcs # We did it for the formlessness ...
emv@math.lsa.umich.edu (Edward Vielmetti) (11/29/89)
In article <6139@cbnewsh.ATT.COM> wcs@cbnewsh.ATT.COM (Bill Stewart 201-949-0705 ho95c.att.com!wcs) writes:
9) To retrieve files, you have to set the transmission mode
correctly for the type of file you're getting. Usually this
is "ascii" for ascii files, and "binary" for binaries, but
you may have to do strange things depending on your system
and the distant system. For SIMTEL20.WSMR.ARPA, you tend to
need to set "tenex" to retrieve binaries, because it's a
DEC-20 machine with 36-bit words and just thinks
differently. Read any local instructions you can find.
that's 'wsmr-simtel20.army.mil', nee 'simtel20.arpa'.
I'd suggest looking through comp.misc or comp.archives to find
Jon Granrose's Anonymous FTP Site List, which might give you a
clue as to where to look for various things. Several usenet
groups have a monthly or weekly posting which also includes
archive site information relative to their contents.
--Ed