Internet Surfer 2.0/Internet Surfer 2.0 (Wayzata Technology) (1996).iso/pc/text/mac/faqs.542

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS);faqs.542



If you have not already read the overall Usenet introductory material
posted to "news.announce.newusers", please do.  Much of this article
overlaps with the common sense guidelines posted there.

         Should I Post My Unix Question to the Net?

Often the answer is "No, you can get an answer a lot faster without
posting a question." Before you post, you should try -

    o Reading the manual for your system.  Some day you may encounter
      the phrase "RTFM", which stands for "Read the Fine Manual"
      (except 'F' doesn't really stand for "Fine").  If you ask
      someone a question and they tell you to RTFM, it's an
      indication that you haven't done your homework.   For instance,
      if you are having trouble removing a file whose name begins
      with a "-", check the man page for "rm".  It might tell
      you what you need to know.

      When people use terminology like "read(2)", they are referring
      to the "read" man page in section 2 of the manual (which you
      would see by using "man 2 read").

    o Finding a knowledgeable user at your site.  Many sites have
      at least a few Unix experts who will be happy to help you
      figure out how to remove a file whose name begins with "-".
      Many larger sites, particularly universities, may even have
      paid consultants whose job is to help you with Unix problems.
      Check with them first.

    o Find a good introductory book on Unix.  There are plenty of
      such books available, and you will save yourself a lot
      of trouble by having one handy and consulting it frequently.
      (Question 1.5 in the companion articles will let you know
       where you can find a list of good Unix and C books.)

Please remember that the comp.unix.* newsgroups are read by over 80,000
people around the world, and that posting a question to this group will
cost a lot of time and money by the time your article is distributed to
Asia, Australia, Europe (west and east), Africa, the middle east,
and all corners of North, South and Central America.

Also, some people receive these newsgroups as part of a mailing list
rather than a newsgroup.  If you're one of these people, please don't
send a "Remove me from this list" or "UNSUBSCRIBE"  message to the
wrong place.  Take the time to figure out where you're getting this
stuff from, and send your request to the mailing list maintainer, *not*
to the list or newsgroup itself!  Ask your local postmaster for help.
(One of the answers in the companion articles deals with the details of
the mailing list.)

               To Which Newsgroup Should I Post My Question?

The choice of newsgroup is harder than it used to be.  In the old days,
you just had to choose between "comp.unix.questions" and
"comp.unix.wizards".  Now there are a variety of more specific groups.
Choose one of the following groups carefully.  If you aren't sure where
your question belongs or if your question is not specific to some
particular version of Unix, try "comp.unix.questions".  Many
knowledgeable Unix wizards read that group and will be able to help you.

Here are the capsule descriptions of various groups you might consider
(extracted from a monthly posting to "news.announce.newusers")

comp.unix.questions     General questions from UNIX users and sys admins.
            If your question isn't a really good match for one of
            the groups below, post it here.

news.answers        Repository for periodic USENET articles. (Moderated)
            This article is crossposted there.
            Do not try to post here unless you're
            posting a list of FAQ's and their answers.

comp.unix.shell         Using and programming any UNIX shell.

comp.lang.c             Discussion about C.

comp.sources.unix       Postings of complete, UNIX-oriented sources. (Moderated)
comp.std.unix           Discussion for the P1003 committee on UNIX. (Moderated)
comp.unix               Discussion of UNIX* features and bugs. (Moderated)
comp.unix.admin         Administering a Unix-based system.
comp.unix.aix           IBM's version of UNIX.
comp.unix.amiga        Unix on the Commodore Amiga
comp.unix.aux           The version of UNIX for Apple Macintosh II computers.
comp.unix.bsd           Discussions relating to BSD UNIX.
comp.unix.internals     Discussions on hacking UNIX internals.
comp.unix.large         UNIX on mainframes and in large networks.
comp.unix.misc          Various topics that don't fit other groups.
comp.unix.msdos         MS-DOS running under UNIX by whatever means.
comp.unix.programmer    Q&A for people programming under Unix.
comp.unix.sysv286       UNIX System V (not XENIX) on the '286.
comp.unix.sysv386       Versions of Unix (not Xenix) on Intel 80386-based boxes.
comp.unix.ultrix        Discussions about DEC's Ultrix.
comp.unix.xenix.misc    General discussions regarding XENIX (except SCO).
comp.unix.xenix.sco     XENIX versions from the Santa Cruz Operation.

comp.unix.wizards       In-depth discussions of advanced unix topics.
            People should not post to this group unless they
            have used unix as a user, sysadmin and know details
            of the kernel, and how different unix kernels differ.
            In other words, don't post to comp.unix.wizards.

          What Information Should I Include?

It's hard to include too much information.  There are hundreds of
different Unix systems out there, and they all have less in common
than you might think.  If you have a problem and are posting an
article, please be sure to mention:

    o A descriptive subject line.  Many people will decide whether
      to read your article solely on the basis of the subject line,
      so it should be a good statement of your problem.

      NOT GOOD                          GOOD

      "Help"                            "How do I sort a file by line length?"
      "Csh question"            "csh dumps core when I use '$<'"

    o What computer you are using, and what specific version
      of the operating system it uses.  For instance,

        SunOS 4.0.1, Sun 3/50
        4.3BSD-tahoe, Vax 11/780
        SVR3.2, 3b2

    o If possible, the *exact* text of any error message you
      may have encountered.

      WRONG                RIGHT

      "I can't print this file"     "When I type 'lpr Filename', I get
                      lpr: Filename: File too ugly to print
                     What does this mean?  It isn't in
                     the man page.  This is using
                     Mueslix 9.3 on a Fax [phone]"

It's a good idea to post unrelated questions in separate articles,
so that people can keep different discussions separate.   It's also
a *very* good idea to include a line or two like this:

    "Please mail your answers to me and I'll summarize what I get
     and post the results to comp.unix.questions."

This prevents many identical responses from different users to the
same question from clogging up the newsgroup.  And make sure
you really summarize what you get - don't just concatenate
all the mail you've received.

It's also a good idea to read comp.unix.questions for at least a couple
of weeks after you post your article to see what followup articles
are posted.

                Should I Post an Answer to a Question?

It's very tempting to post an answer to a question you read on the net,
especially when you think "Aha, finally - a question I can answer!"
Consider though that when a simple question is asked, such as the
sort about to be answered below, many other people around the
world already know the answer and may be posting their own reply.
In order to avoid dozens of replies to simple questions, please
wait a day or so and see if anyone else has already answered
the question.  If you have something special to contribute, please
do so, but make sure you're not duplicating something someone else has
already done.

You should feel free to reply to any question >by email<.  Even if
the user gets 200 responses to his question, at least the load on the
rest of the net is minimized.

                    What About Posting Source Code?

Posting small amounts of example code is fine (use comp.sources.unix to
distribute complete programs) - but please make sure that your code
runs (or at least compiles) properly.  Don't just type it in while
editing your posting and hope it will work, no matter how sure you are
that it will.  We all make mistakes.

                        What About Those People
       Who Continue to Ask Stupid or Frequently Asked Questions
         In Spite of The Frequently Asked Questions Document?

Just send them a polite mail message, possibly referring them to this document.
There is no need to flame them on the net - it's busy enough as it is.
--
Ted Timar - [e-mail]
Empress Software, 3100 Steeles Ave E, Markham, Ont., Canada L3R 8T3
Xref: bloom-picayune.mit.edu news.misc:9009 news.answers:3575
Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!enterpoop.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!think.com!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!darwin.sura.net!gatech!purdue!spaf
From: [e-mail] (Gene Spafford)
Newsgroups: news.misc,news.answers
Subject: Changes to Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about Usenet
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 19 Oct 92 05:15:58 GMT
Expires: 18 Dec 92 17:15:57 GMT
Followup-To: news.misc
Organization: Dept. of Computer Sciences, Purdue Univ.
Lines: 75
Approved: [e-mail]
Supersedes: <[e-mail]>

Archive-name: usenet-faq/diff1
Last-change: 18 Oct 1992 by mvac23![e-mail] (Thomas Lapp)


*** old/questions.n    Sat Sep 19 23:17:57 1992
--- ./src/questions.n    Sun Oct 18 23:39:13 1992
***************
*** 5,7 ****
  Original-author: [e-mail] (Jerry Schwarz)
! Last-change: 19 Jul 1992 by mvac23![e-mail] (Thomas Lapp)

--- 5,7 ----
  Original-author: [e-mail] (Jerry Schwarz)
! Last-change: 18 Oct 1992 by mvac23![e-mail] (Thomas Lapp)

***************
*** 604,610 ****
       and the agencies involved have been appealing for people to stop.
!      So many postcards were sent (33 million as of May 1991) that the
!      agencies involved in the effort don't know what to do with them.
!      The Guinness people have recorded the boy, Craig Shergold, as the
!      record holder in the category (cf. page 207 of the 1992 US
!      edition).  However, they will not accept claims for a new try at
       the record.  For confirmation, you can see page 24 of the 29 July
--- 604,609 ----
       and the agencies involved have been appealing for people to stop.
!      So many postcards were sent that the agencies involved in the
!      effort don't know what to do with them.  The Guinness people have
!      recorded the boy, Craig Shergold, as the record holder in the
!      category.  However, they will not accept claims for a new try at
       the record.  For confirmation, you can see page 24 of the 29 July
***************
*** 613,614 ****
--- 612,622 ----

+      According to the 1993 edition of the GBWR, on page 213:
+     Craig Shergold (born 1979) of Carshalton, Surrey when
+     undergoing cancer chemo-therapy was sent a record 33
+     million get-well cards until May 1991 when his mother
+     pleaded for no more.  A successful 5 hour operation on
+     a brain tumour by neurosurgeon Neal Kassel at Virginia
+     University, Charlottesville, USA in March 1991 greatly
+     improved his condition.
+
       If you want to do something noble, donate the cost of a stamp and
***************
*** 716,727 ****

!      The most well-known gateway of this sort is ucbvax.berkeley.edu.
!      To post a message to the Usenet through that gateway, you take
!      the name of the newsgroup to which you want to post and convert
!      all of the periods to dashes, and use that as the address to
!      which to send your message.  For example, to post a message to
!      news.newusers.questions, you would mail it to
!      [e-mail].

!      Please do not use this service if you have other posting access
!      to the Usenet.

--- 724,733 ----

!      One of them is decwrl.dec.com.  To use its gateway, you mail the
!      message you wish to post to [e-mail].
!      For example, to post to news.newusers.questions, you would send
!      your message to [e-mail].

!      Mail-to-news gateways of this sort tend to be overloaded.
!      Therefore, please do not use this gateway or any other similar
!      gateway if you have other posting access to the Usenet.

--
Gene Spafford
Software Engineering Research Center & Dept. of Computer Sciences
Purdue University, W. Lafayette IN 47907-1398
Internet:  [e-mail]    phone:  [phone]
Xref: bloom-picayune.mit.edu news.announce.newusers:917 news.answers:3561
Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!spool.mu.edu!darwin.sura.net!gatech!purdue!spaf
From: [e-mail] (Gene Spafford)
Newsgroups: news.announce.newusers,news.answers
Subject: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about Usenet
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 19 Oct 92 05:14:35 GMT
Expires: 18 Dec 92 17:14:34 GMT
Followup-To: news.newusers.questions
Organization: Dept. of Computer Sciences, Purdue Univ.
Lines: 792
Approved: [e-mail]
Supersedes: <[e-mail]>

Archive-name: usenet-faq/part1
Original-author: [e-mail] (Jerry Schwarz)
Last-change: 18 Oct 1992 by mvac23![e-mail] (Thomas Lapp)


              Frequently Submitted Items

This document discusses some questions and topics that occur
repeatedly on USENET.  They frequently are submitted by new users, and
result in many followups, sometimes swamping groups for weeks. The
purpose of this note is to head off these annoying events by answering
some questions and warning about the inevitable consequence of asking
others.  If you don't like these answers, let [e-mail] know.

Note that some newsgroups have their own special "Frequent Questions &
Answers" posting.  You should read a group for a while before posting
any questions, because the answers may already be present.
Comp.unix.questions and comp.unix.internals are examples -- Steve Hayman
regularly posts an article that answers common questions, including
some of the ones asked here.

This list is often referred to as FAQ -- the Frequently Asked
Questions.  If you are a new user of the Usenet and don't find an
answer to your questions here, you can try asking in the
news.newusers.questions group.  You might also read through other FAQ
lists, cross-posted to the news.answers group.


                   Contents
                   ========

 1.  What does UNIX stand for?
 2.  What is the derivation of "foo" as a filler word?
 3.  Is a machine at "foo" on the net?
 4.  What does "rc" at the end of files like .newsrc mean?
 5.  What does :-) mean?
 6.  How do I decrypt jokes in rec.humor?
 7.  misc.misc or misc.wanted: Is John Doe out there anywhere?
 8.  sci.math: Proofs that 1=0.
 9.  rec.games.*: Where can I get the source for empire or rogue?
10.  comp.unix.questions: How do I remove files with non-ascii
     characters in their names?
11.  comp.unix.internals: There is a bug in the way UNIX handles
     protection for programs that run suid, or any other report of
     bugs with standard software.
12.  Volatile topics, e.g., soc.women: What do you think about abortion?
13.  soc.singles: What do MOTOS, MOTSS, and MOTAS  stand for?
     What does LJBF mean?
14.  soc.singles and elsewhere:  What does HASA stand for?
15.  sci.space.shuttle: Shouldn't this group be merged with sci.space?
16.  How do I use the "Distribution" feature?
17.  Why do some people put funny lines ("bug killers") at the beginning
     of their articles?
18.  What is the address or phone number of the "foo" company?
19.  What is the origin of the name "grep"?
20.  How do I get from BITNET to UUCP, Internet to BITNET, JANET etc. etc.?
21.  Didn't some state once pass a law setting pi equal to 3 ?
22.  Where can I get the necessary software to get a "smart"
     mail system running on my machine that will take advantage
     of the postings in comp.mail.maps?  (E.g., pathalias, smail, etc.)
23.  What is "food for the NSA line-eater"?
24.  Does anyone know the {pinouts, schematics, switch settings,
     what does jumper J3 do} for widget X?
25.  What is "anonymous ftp"?
26.  What is UUNET?
27.  Isn't the posting mechanism broken?  When I post an article to both
     a moderated group and unmoderated groups, it gets mailed to the
     moderator and not posted to the unmoderated groups.
28.  comp.arch and elsewhere:  What do FYI and IMHO mean?
29.  Would someone repost {large software distribution}?
30.  How do I contact the moderator of an Internet mailing list rather than
     post to the entire list?
31.  I see BTW (or "btw"), wrt and RTFM in postings.  What do they mean?
32.  Are there any restrictions on posting e-mail someone sends to me?
33.  What's an FQDN?
34.  How do you pronounce "char" in C, "ioctl" in UNIX, the character
     "#", etc., etc.?
35.  How do you pronounce "TeX"?
36.  What is the last year of the 20th century A.D.?
37.  I heard these stories about a dying child wanting
     postcards/get-well cards/business cards to get in the Guinness Book
     of World Records.  Where can I post the address for people to help?
38.  I just heard about a scheme the FCC has to implement a tax on
     modems!  Where can I post a message so everyone will hear about
     this and do something to prevent it?
39.  Is there a public access Unix system near me?  How can I get
     access to system for news and mail?
40.  In rec.pets: My pet has suddenly developed the following symptoms
     .... Is it serious?  In sci.med: I have these symptoms .... Is it
     serious?
41.  I have this great idea to make money.  Alternatively, wouldn't an
     electronic chain letter be a nifty idea?
42.  Where can I get archives of Usenet postings?
43.  Is it possible to post messages to the Usenet via electronic mail?
44.  Is it possible to read Usenet newsgroups via electronic mail?
45.  How do I get the news software to include a signature with my
     postings?
46.  I'm on Bitnet -- can I connect to the net?


            Questions and Answers
            =====================

 1.  What does UNIX stand for?

     It is not an acronym, but is a pun on "Multics".  Multics is a
     large operating system that was being developed shortly before
     UNIX was created.  Brian Kernighan is credited with the name.

 2.  What is the derivation of "foo" as a filler word?

     The favorite story is that it comes from "fubar" which is an
     acronym for "fouled up beyond all recognition", which is supposed
     to be a military term.  (Various forms of this exist, "fouled"
     usually being replaced by a stronger word.) "Foo" and "Bar" have
     the same derivation.

 3.  Is a machine at "foo" on the net?

     These questions belong in news.config (if anywhere), but in fact
     your best bet is usually to phone somebody at "foo" to find out.
     If you don't know anybody at "foo" you can always try calling and
     asking for the "comp center."  Also, see the newsgroup
     comp.mail.maps where maps of USENET and the uucp network are posted
     regularly.  If you have access to telnet, connect to nic.ddn.mil
     and try the "whois" command.  (See also the answer to question
     #7, below.)

 4.  What does "rc" at the end of files like .newsrc mean?

     It is related to the phrase "run commands." It is used for any
     file that contains startup information for a command.  The use of
     "rc" in startup files derives from the /etc/rc command file used
     to start multi-user UNIX.

 5.  What does :-) mean?

      This is the net convention for a "smiley face".  It means that
      something is being said in jest.  If it doesn't look like a smiley
      face to you, flop your head over to the left and look again.
      Variants exist and mean related things; for instance, :-( is sad.

      Collections of smileys are posted to various newsgroups from
      time to time. One was posted to comp.sources.misc in v23i102.

 6.  How do I decrypt jokes in rec.humor?

     The standard cypher used in rec.humor is called "rot13."  Each
     letter is replaced by the letter 13 farther along in the alphabet
     (cycling around at the end).  Most systems have a built-in
     command to decrypt such articles; readnews and nn have the "D"
     command, emacs/gnus has the "^C^R" combination, rn has the "X" or
     "^X" commands, notes has "%" or "R", and VMS news has the
     read/rot13 command.  If your system doesn't have a program to
     encrypt and decrypt these, you can quickly create a shell script
     using "tr":
    tr A-Za-z N-ZA-Mn-za-m
     On some versions of UNIX, the "tr" command should be written as:
    tr "[a-m][n-z][A-M][N-Z]" "[n-z][a-m][N-Z][A-M]"

 7.  misc.misc or misc.wanted: Is John Doe out there anywhere?

     I suspect that these items are people looking for Freshman room-
     mates that they haven't seen in ten years.  If you have some idea
     where the person is, you are usually better off calling the
     organization.  For example, if you call any Bell Labs location and
     request John Doe's number they can give it to you even if he works
     at a different location.  If you must try the net, use newsgroup
     soc.net-people *NOT* misc.misc or misc.wanted.  Also, you can try
     the "whois" command (see item #3).  There is a periodic posting
     in the news.newusers.questions and news.answers newsgroups that
     gives information on other ways to locate people.

 8.  sci.math: Proofs that 1=0.

     Almost everyone has seen one or more of these in high school.
     They are almost always based on either division by 0, confusing
     the positive and negative square roots of a number, or performing
     some ill-defined operation.

 9.  rec.games.*: Where can I get the source for empire or rogue?

     You can't get the source of rogue.  The authors of the game, as is
     their right, have chosen not to make the sources available.
     However, several rogue-like games have been posted to the
     comp.sources.games group and they are available in the archives.

     You can obtain the source to a version of empire if you provide
     a tape and SASE *plus* a photocopy of your UNIX source license.
     To obtain further info, contact mcnc!rti-sel!polyof!john.
     You can also call John at [phone] (9am-9pm EST only).

     Sites with Internet access can ftp several versions of empire
     from site g.ms.uky.edu

     Also, please note that the wizards' passwords in games like these
     are usually system-dependent and it does no good to ask the
     net-at-large what they are.

10.  comp.unix.questions: How do I remove files with non-ascii
     characters in their names?

     You can try to find a pattern that uniquely identifies the file.
     This sometimes fails because a peculiarity of some shells is that
     they strip off the highorder bit of characters in command lines.
     Next, you can try an rm -i, or rm -r. Finally, you can mess around
     with i-node numbers and "find".

     Some Emacs editors allow you to directly edit a directory, and
     this provides yet another way to remove a file with a funny name
     (assuming you have Emacs and figure out how to use it!).

     To remove a file named "-" from your directory, simply do:
     rm ./-

11.  comp.unix.internals: There is a bug in the way UNIX handles
     protection for programs that run suid, or any other report of
     bugs with standard software.

     There are indeed problems with the treatment of protection in
     setuid programs.  When this is brought up, suggestions for changes
     range from implementing a full capability list arrangement to new
     kernel calls for allowing more control over when the effective id
     is used and when the real id is used to control accesses.  Sooner
     or later you can expect this to be improved.  For now you just
     have to live with it.

     Always discuss suspected bugs or problems with your site software
     experts before you post to the net.  It is likely that the bugs
     have already been reported.  They might also be local changes and
     not something you need to describe to the whole Usenet.

12.  Volatile topics, e.g., soc.women: What do you think about abortion?

     Although abortion might appear to be an appropriate topic for
     soc.women, more heat than light is generated when it is brought
     up.  All abortion-related discussion should take place in the
     newsgroup talk.abortion.  If your site administrators have chosen
     not to receive this group, you should respect this and not post
     articles about abortion at all.

     This principle applies to other topics: religious upbringing of
     children should be restricted to talk.religion.misc and kept out
     of misc.kids.  Similarly, rape discussions should be kept to
     talk.rape and not in soc.singles, alt.sex and/or soc.women,
     Zionism discussions should be kept to talk.politics.mideast and
     not in soc.culture.jewish; likewise, discussions of Jesus or of
     religions other than Judaism should go to newsgroups for the
     appropriate religion or to talk.religion.misc or alt.messianic.
     Any attempts to proselytize any religious view belongs in
     talk.religion.misc, if it belongs on the net at all.
     Discussions on the merits of Affirmative Action and racial quotas
     belong in talk.politics or alt.discrimination, not in
     soc.culture.african.american.  Discussions about evolution vs.
     creationism should be confined to the talk.origins group.

     USENET newsgroups are named for mostly historical reasons, and
     are not intended to be fully general discussion groups for
     everything about the named topic.  Please accept this and post
     articles in their appropriate forums.

13.  soc.singles: What do MOTOS, MOTSS, MOTAS, and SO stand for?
     What does LJBF mean?

     Member of the opposite sex, member of the same sex, and member of
     the appropriate sex, respectively.  SO stands for "significant
     other."

     LJBF means "Let's just be friends."  This phrase is often heard
     when you least want it.

14.  soc.singles and elsewhere:  What does HASA stand for?

     The acronym HASA originated with the Heathen and Atheistic SCUM
     Alliance; the Hedonistic Asti-Spumante Alliance, Heroes Against
     Spaghetti Altering, the Society for Creative Atheism (SCATHE),
     SASA, SALSA, PASTA, and many others too numerous to mention all
     followed.  HASA started in (what is now) talk.religion.misc and
     also turns up in soc.singles, talk.bizarre, et al. because members
     post there too.

15.  sci.space.shuttle: Shouldn't this group be merged with sci.space?

     No.  sci.space.shuttle is for timely news bulletins.  sci.space is for
     discussions.

16.  How do I use the "Distribution" feature?

     When your posting software (e.g., Pnews or postnews) prompts you
     for a distribution, it's asking how widely distributed you want
     your article.  The set of possible replies is different,
     depending on where you are, but at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New
     Jersey, possibilities include (for example):
    local    local to this machine
    mh    Bell Labs, Murray Hill Branch
    nj    all sites in New Jersey
    btl    All Bell Labs machines
    att    All AT&T machines
    usa    Everywhere in the USA
    na    Everywhere in North America
    world    Everywhere on USENET in the world
     Many of the posting programs will provide a list of
     distributions, if your site admin has kept the files up-to-date.

     If you hit return, you'll get the default, which is usually
     "world.".  This default is often not appropriate -- PLEASE take a
     moment to think about how far away people are likely to be
     interested in what you have to say.  Used car ads, housing wanted
     ads, and things for sale other than specialized equipment like
     computers certainly shouldn't be distributed to Europe and Korea,
     or even to the next state.

     It is generally not possible to post an article to a distribution
     that your own machine does not receive.  For instance, if you
     live in Indiana, you can't post an article for distribution only
     in New Jersey or Germany unless your site happens to exchange
     those particular distributions with another site.  Try mailing
     the article to someone in the appropriate area and asking them to
     post it for you.