Usenet 1994 October/usenetsourcesnewsgroupsinfomagicoctober1994disk2.iso/misc/volume27/intro27

Text File | 1991-12-27 | 48KB | 1,008 lines

Newsgroups: comp.sources.misc
From: [e-mail] (Kent Landfield)
Subject:  v27INF1:  Introduction to comp.sources.misc
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
X-Md4-Signature: c3e6728e69c501f9229683b61397f5cc
Date: Mon, 23 Dec 1991 23:09:56 GMT
Approved: [e-mail]

Submitted-by: [e-mail] (Kent Landfield)
Posting-number: Volume 27, Info 1
Archive-name: intro27

This is the first of six introductory messages about comp.sources.misc.
It describes the newsgroup's history, how to submit sources to c.s.misc,
where the archive sites are, and how to contact and access them.  The
second, third, fourth and fifth postings together comprise the index of
previously posted software. The sixth article is a cross-index of patches
that have been posted to this newsgroup.

As always, I am looking for suggestions on how to improve the usefulness
of the newsgroup.  *Please* do not hesitate to send suggestions to
[e-mail].

            -Kent+
--------------------
Subject:  Introduction

Comp.sources.misc is sort of a "catch-all" sources group.  The group
is run in a generally informal manner.  *Any* program source code will
be accepted. Discussion and "sources wanted" requests will be discarded
with a message back to the sender advising him/her to post to the correct
newsgroup.  Please do not send either to me, they don't belong here.

The moderated comp.sources.misc replaced the unmoderated net.sources in
May 1987.  This was done by the Usenet backbone in response to the observed
fact that net.sources was largely NON-sources. The initial moderator of
comp.sources.misc was Brandon Allbery.  Mail Brandon received at the time
indicated that the majority of people were willing to trade the small
delays (mainly caused by network delays in mail) for having a source
group that wasn't full of noise.

As stated above, the only reason a submission will be rejected is if it is
non-source.  I am striving to get things out as quickly as possible. Testing
of the source is not done. I will, however, assure that postings are in shar
format and that shar'ed submissions can be unshar'ed correctly. If a patch
is submitted, I assure that the patch can be applied to the sources it is to
patch. If the submission is something that needs testing, it probably should
be sent to comp.sources.unix or comp.sources.reviewed instead.

(Send submissions to [e-mail] or
                  to [e-mail] in that case.)

--------------------
Subject: Deciding where to post your software

There are four choices for sources newsgroups, not counting local sources
groups (fl.sources) or groups for specific systems (comp.sys.sun, et al.).
Choosing between them can be somewhat difficult for the novice, and even for
seasoned sources posters with unusual submissions.  Here, then, is a
discussion of the various "primary" sources groups, their advantages and
disadvantages, and a crude attempt at quantifying when to use them.

First off is comp.sources.unix, the major sources group.  It is rather
unfortunately named, but don't let that stop you from trying to submit
something if it fits the group's guidelines otherwise.  The benefits you'll
get are testing of source on at least some machines before posting and
guaranteed archiving at many Internet and UUCP sites.  The problem is that
smaller postings aren't usually accepted, especially if they don't come with a
Makefile and README file -- and sometimes the moderator declares a moratorium
on certain types of postings, like text editors.  Trying doesn't hurt,
however; if the moderator rejects something, he dumps it into the c.s.misc
mailbox.  I should also note that the current policy of comp.sources.unix is
not to accept "shareware" programs, programs which request or require a fee to
the author for continued use.

Second is comp.sources.reviewed. It is using a Peer Review process to accept
or reject submissions.  Similar to the process used for academic journals,
submissions are sent to a moderator who then sends the sources to Peer
Review volunteers for evaluation.  The Reviewers try to provide a timely
evaluation of the software by compiling and running it on their machine.
If the Moderator and Peer Reviewers judge a submission to be acceptable,
the sources are posted along with the written comments provided by the
Reviewers.  If a submission is not found to be acceptable, the author
is provided with the Reviewers' comments, and they have the option of
addressing those comments and submitting the sources again. The benefits
of this group are that your software will be thoroughly tested by multiple
reviewers on multiple systems prior to it being posted to the world.

For small sources and beta copies of programs (which probably should not be
archived, in favor of the production release), one might choose alt.sources.
It has one major advantage over the other possibilities:  there is no
moderation, meaning no delays and no rules for formatting.  (It is suggested
that you add an "Archive-name:" to your postings so as to help out those who
do archive the group.)  You're free to just pipe a source file to inews if the
fit takes you (not that I recommend it).  It also has one major disadvantage:
since the group isn't moderated, there is nothing preventing people from
starting up discussions ranging from source code topics to why EUnet works
the way it does.  This, if you'll recall, is what caused comp.sources.misc
to be created in the first place.  Another disadvantage is that, being an
"alt" group, it doesn't get as wide a distribution as the "mainstream" Usenet.
(For further information on the "alt" hierarchy, see the "Alternative Newsgroup
Hierarchies" document posted once a month by Gene Spafford in news.lists.)

And then there's this group, comp.sources.misc.  The original charter called
for moderation solely to reject non-source postings, nothing more; the intent
was to provide net.sources without the noise.  This grew as a policy was
adopted of letting the group be controlled more by its users (submitters,
readers, archivers) than by "moderative fiat".  The advantages of posting
here are that archiving is as widespread as that of comp.sources.unix, that
anything that is source code can be posted, and that it's guaranteed not to
be lost in non-source, discussion postings; the disadvantages are that there
is a slight delay caused by having to filter stuff through the moderator.

So which do you choose?  While there are no hard rules, there does seem to be
an evolving rationale for the use of the groups:  if your software is in need
of beta-testing and it is not quite ready for mainstream archiving, post it to
alt.sources.  After the beta period is over, submit it to the appropriate
comp.sources.whichever group for worldwide distribution and archiving.

In general, games usually are sent to comp.sources.games regardless of their
size.  Programs which are specific to a particular computer might be better
off in an specialized sources group like comp.sources.sun or comp.sources.amiga,
and X-Window based applications can be posted through comp.sources.x.
Released, major programs usually go to comp.sources.unix, and comp.sources.misc
is used for the rest.

Remember though, it's up to you to decide to which newsgroup a your submission
should be posted to.

--------------------
Subject:  The structure of comp.sources.misc articles

Each posting in comp.sources.misc 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.misc; sources
and "informational postings."  They can be distinguished by the subject line.

    Subject:  v03INF1:  Introduction to comp.sources.misc

This first word in the title identifies this as the first info posting of
volume three.  Similarly, the subject line shown below:

    Subject:  v014i082:  lc - Categorize and List Files In Columns, Part01/02

identifies this as the 82nd source article in Volume 14.  In the above
example, the Part01/02 indicates that this is the first part of a two
part posting.  The first few lines of an article are auxiliary headers
that look like this:

    Submitted-by: [e-mail] (Kent Landfield)
    Posting-number: Volume 14, Issue 82
    Archive-name: lc/part01

The "Submitted-by" line in each issue is the author of the program.  IF YOU
HAVE COMMENTS ABOUT AN ISSUE PUBLISHED IN COMP.SOURCES.MISC, 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 such as rkive.

The Archive-name is the "official" name of this source in the archive.

All source postings will be treated as multi-part postings have been done
in the past.  All source postings will be stored in a subdirectory within
the volume directory.  This gives me a place to store patches as well as
allows me to have more informative archive names without having to worry
how many spaces the part numbering, patch indicator or compression suffix
will take up.  Postings will have names that look like this:

    Source posting
        Archive-name: lc/part01

    Patch posting
        Archive-name: lc/patch01

Note that the part number and patch number will be zero padded for convenience
sake as was requested by several people.  Also, note that the "part number"
given in the title will be used to give the reader an indication of the total
number of parts that make up the complete set of sources. The example below
shows that this is part 21 of a 23 part submission.

v17i102: calentool - day/week/month/year-at-a-glance SunView tool, Part21/23

Informational (INF) postings such as this posting will not be stored in a
subdirectory as are the source postings. INF postings will have archive
names such as indx22v1-7 and patchlog22.  From an archiving perspective,
archive names for all INFormational postings will be specified so as to
store the INF postings directly in the volume's base directory.  Archive
names for source postings will be specified so as to store the sources in
subdirectories within the volume's base directory.

To support the tracking of patches the Patch-To: line is used in c.s.misc.
The Patch-To: line exists for articles that are patches to previously posted
software. The Patch-To: line only appears in articles that are posted,
"Official", patches. The initial postings do not contain the Patch-To:
auxiliary header line.

    Patch-To: syntax
        Patch-To: package-name: Volume X, Issue x[-y,z]

Patch-To: examples. These are examples and do not reflect the accurate
volume/issue numbering for rkive.

In the first example, the article that contains the following line
is a patch to a single part posting.
    Patch-To: rkive: Volume 22, Issue 122

This example shows that the 122-124 indicates the patch applies to
a multi-part posting. The '-' is used to mean "article A through article
B, inclusive..
    Patch-To: rkive: Volume 22, Issue 122-124

If a patch applies to multiple part postings that are not consecutive, the
',' is used to separate the part issue numbers. It is possible to mix both
',' and '-' on a single Patch-To: line.
    Patch-To: rkive: Volume 22, Issue 122,125,126,127
                       or
    Patch-To: rkive: Volume 22, Issue 122,125-127

If a new release is posted instead of a large set of patches, the new
posting will contain a Supersedes: header line with a format similar
to the Patch-To: header.

    Supersedes: syntax
        Supersedes: package-name: Volume X, Issue x[-y,z]

    Supersedes: example
        Supersedes: rkive: Volume 22, Issue 122-127

The Supersedes: line is helpful for cleaning archives by providing a pointer
to previous versions that the archive administrators can then remove from
their archives.

The Environment: auxiliary header line is included to give you a quick
indication which resources are required to use a particular issue.

In a newsgroup not restricted to one type of operating system, one type of
machine or one type of architecture there is a need for this type of information
in the header.  The intent is to provide you more external information about
the package contained within the posting.  This allows you to determine if the
package has special requirements that may prevent you from using it.  It is
extremely irritating to take the time to unpack something just to find out
that you can't use it.

The news Keyword: line has been used to a certain extent for this,
but if news articles are saved with 'w' rather than 's' from "rn"
then the news headers don't get saved with the article.

    Environment: syntax
        Environment: Keyword [, keyword ..]

    Environment: example
        Environment: SunView, XView, X11R4, termcap

The keywords usage is case insensitive. There is also a NOT indicator
(e.g. !AIX) so that the moderator can specify that the package runs
on everything "but" the specified keyword.

The following is a list of keywords used within articles that have been
posted to c.s.misc and their meanings.  Keywords are added to this list
on a first-use basis.

    Operating Systems:
        AIX       - should operate on any AIX
        AIX3.1    - should operate on AIX Version 3.1
        AMIGA     - should operate on AMIGA OS
        ATARI     - should operate on an Atari ST
        BSD       - should operate on any BSD based unix
        CPM-68K   - should operate on CPM based 68000
        COHERENT  - should operate on Mark Williams Coherent OS
        DOS       - should operate on DOS (oops)
        ISC-UNIX  - should operate on ISC UNIX
        ISC       - should operate on ISC UNIX (oops)
        MS-DOS    - should operate on MSDOS
        OS/2      - should operate on IBM's OS/2
        OSF/1     - should operate on OSF/1
    SCO       - should operate on SCO UNIX
    SCOXENIX  - should operate on SCO XENIX
        SUNOS     - should operate on SUNOS
        SYSV      - should operate on System 5
        SYSV/386  - should operate on a 386 running System 5
        SYSVR2    - should operate on System 5.2
        SYSVR3    - should operate on System 5.3
        SYSVR4    - should operate on System 5.4
        VMS       - should operate on VMS
        UNIX      - should operate on any unix system... (right...)
        ULTRIX    - should operate on Ultrix
        XENIX     - should operate on XENIX OSs

    Language Support:  (C is the default so not specified)

        ANSI-C    - Requires ANSI compatible C compiler
        AWK       - pattern scanning and processing language
        C++       - Requires C++ Programming language
        Flex      - fast lexical analyzer generator
        Fortran   - Written in Fortran
        Icon      - Written in the Icon Programming Language
    INET      - Requires BSD networking support
        LaTex     - Requires the LaTex support
        MIPS      - Mips C compiler
        Pascal    - Requires a pascal compiler
        Perl      - Practical Extraction and Report Language
        Pro*C     - Requires Oracle Pro*C compiler
        TurboC    - Requires Turbo C

    Windowing Support:

        Curses    - Requires the curses library
        Sunview   - Requires the Xview library
        Xlib      - Requires the X Windows library
        Xview     - Requires the Xview library
        X11R4     - Requires the X Window System Release 4

    System Support:  System Utilities needed

        Cnews     - USENET network news
        Csh       - The C-Shell command interpreter
        C-shell   - The C-Shell command interpreter (oops)
        DBX       - BSD based source-level debugger
    Emacs     - GNU Emacs
        getopt    - parse command options in shell scripts
        MMDF      - MMDF mail transport
        Oracle    - Oracle Database
        pathalias - mail routing tool
        Sendmail  - BSD based mail transport
    Smail     - Smail3 mail transport
    tput      - Initialize a terminal or query the terminfo database

    Functionality Support:  System supported functionality

    symlink   - System supports symbolic links
    INET      - Requires BSD based networking facilities

    Hardware Tested on:

        SGI       - Runs on Silicon Graphics systems
        DEC       - Runs on DEC Risc Workstations
    Cray2     - Runs on a Cray2 supercomputer with UniCos
    Alliant   - Runs on Alliant minisupercomputers
    Convex    - Runs on Convex minisupercomputers
    Amdahl    - Runs on Amdahl mainframes
    Sun       - Runs on Sun Microsystems Workstations
    Mac       - Runs on Mac
    PC        - Runs on PCs or PC compatibles running DOS
    MIDI      - You will need a MIDI to run this.
        HPLJ      - HP Laserjet II or III printer or compatible
        CDROM     - Requires a cdrom player.

    General Notes:
    !16BIT   - Don't try to to run on a 16 bit machine (8088,186,286)
    32BIT    - Requires 32 Bit Architecture

As you can probably see from my mounting mistakes, I have not yet automated
[dummy-proofed :-)] the process of keyword selection within my posting
software. Its coming... It really is. :-)

Prior to January 1, 1988, a different archive header system was used.  At the
time, it was not expected that comp.sources.misc would be welded into the
then-evolving standard for sources archiving.  There was only one special
header line, and it resided in the main header.  It looked like

        X-Archive: yymm/nn

where "yymm" was the year and month of the submission date and "nn" was
a sequence number.  Please keep this in mind when dealing with archive
submissions from 1987.

--------------------
Subject: Guidelines for submitting source for publication

Items intended for posting and problem notes should be sent to
"[e-mail]" or to "[e-mail]".

Newsgroup-related mail that is *not* a submission should be sent to me at
    [e-mail]
            or
    [e-mail].

I have changed my policy of notification when sources are submitted
to comp.sources.misc.  In the past I have not notified everyone that
their submissions were received.  This has caused some problems that
could have been avoided if both parties knew how to deal with the other.

When you submit a package to comp.sources.misc I will respond letting you
know that I have received it.  If you do not hear from me in 72 hours,
there may be a problem!  I hope that by making everyone aware of this
new policy, the newsgroup will get a better throughput as authors aren't
waiting for me to respond when I do not know to respond...

To make life easier for both myself and the users of the comp.sources.misc
newsgroup, I request that all submissions follow the following guidelines.
Not following these guidelines may result in longer delays, since some things
*must* be fixed for news to accept the submission, and others fixed so that
I can spend time processing submissions rather than responding to flames.  ;-)

First, uuencoded postings are heavily frowned upon.  If at all possible,
binary data files should be translated to an ASCII format that is usable
by others.  If it's not possible, consider sending the machine-dependent
parts of the posting to another newsgroup.  If all else fails, it will be
accepted if it is not the only component of the submission; otherwise, it
may be better to announce the availability of the item via anonymous FTP,
UUCP, FTAM, etc.

A corollary of the above rule is that uuencoded (ABEd, btoa'd, BinHexed, ...)
compressed (packed, ...) archives are not acceptable regardless of the
compression and/or archiving method used.  Not everyone has ARC, PKZIP, ZOO,
StuffIt, or even cpio or tar and the "compress" program.

The second rule is that "shell archives" as created by "shar", "cshar",
"bundle", etc. be used to package files.  Preferably, use cshar:  it guards
against mangling by older news programs, Bitnet mailers, etc.  I must repack
non-shar'ed submissions so that they have a better chance of surviving older
mail/news systems and inter-network gateways.

Third, *please* send me a Subject: to be used in posting your submission.
Certain large postings in the past have arrived sans Subject:.  Not only does
this force me to make one up for the archive list, but you have to live with
what I make up... :-)

Fourth, *please* send me an archive-name or package name that you want the
submission archived by.  If you do not send me one then I get to name your
sources in the archives...   Do you see a pattern forming here... :-)

Fifth, I need Environment: header information.  If your submission has
limitations, such as it does not run on SYSV or limited to a specific
version of SUNOS, or whatever the conditions, *PLEASE* inform me so that
it can be included in the Environment: header line.  This way people who
are not able to run your submission will not take the time to ftp or unpack
it.  I will try to determine the Environment: information if you do not
supply any but if you want it right...

If the submission is a complete reposting of a previous posted package,
let me know that the posting is superseding your previous submission.

Each of the postings should contain a "blurb" that describes what the posting
is/does/contains. This should only be a paragraph or two.  When you submit
your sources, please include the blurb on the first part. If you do not write
it yourself, I will have to grab it out of the submission somewhere.

Please do not package executable programs and sources in the same
submission.  Executable binary programs are inherently system-dependent, and
therefore should be posted to a system-specific "binaries" group.  And, as a
special case, Un*x executables should NEVER be posted to the Usenet.

Please keep source filenames to 12 or fewer characters in length.
Not everyone has long filenames... :-(

I have been receiving a number of messages with uucp addresses that are not
reachable.  Please specify a domain based address if possible. If you do not
know what your domain based address is, please ask the administrator of your
site or that of your upstream news feed.

Other nice things to consider/supply when submitting sources...
   1.  A Makefile.
   2.  A manual page is highly recommended for any substantial sized
       submissions.
   3.  A README file is also highly desirable. This should contain
       a brief description of what the posting is and any special
       considerations in building it. The README should
       also contain a list of authors and the distribution
       and copying policy.
   4.  A patchlevel.h -- This file can be used to keep track
       of how many official patches have been applied.

Other considerations:

The posting software I use reads the submission and prompts me for all
the information needed to post. It uses information in the header supplied
by you as the default information.  The Subject: line is usually munged.
The auxiliary headers supplied in the submission are used where appropriate.

The following headers are passed through the software untouched.

        Keywords:, Organization:, Reply-To: and Summary:

If you supplied them, they are put into the posted article.

Again, Please let me know what should go in the Environment: line.  If you
don't take the time to do that I have to try to determine what is accurate.
Sometimes that's hard to do without full blown testing.  Archive-name:,
Subject:, and Environment: are the three pieces of information that I really
need.  Otherwise I get to make up what is supplied there.  Don't complain to
me if I get it wrong and you didn't take the time to send me the correct info
in the first place... If you did send me the information and I got it wrong,
give it to me with both barrels...

-----------------
Subject: Patches Handling

Patches will be handled as swiftly as possible. Authors of sources posted
to c.s.misc should send all patches to me so that I can post them back through
the newsgroup in order that the patches can be archived. This has not been
done in the past in other sources groups and has lead to lost patches. If
the patches must get out *real* fast, post them to comp.sources.bugs and
send me a copy at the same time so that they will be available when they
are needed in the future. Again, patches will receive priority processing
so make sure I get them...

I would prefer not to post patches that are not sent by the author of the
original posting unless special arrangements have been made with the author.
Please send your unofficial patches to the author so that the author can
incorporate them into their postings baseline.  Unofficial patches can
be posted to comp.sources.bugs as a method of letting the community use
the fix or enhancement during the interim.

It is up to the author to determine if there have been major enough
changes to warrant a complete reposting. This may be necessary if the
size of the patches exceeds the size of the source but in most cases
only patches are posted. Total repostings should be treated as an
initial posting. What follows pertains to patches...

    1.  When patches are submitted, they should be in context diff
        format.  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 comp.sources.unix archives. GNU diff can also be
        used to create context diffs.
    2.  A patch to patchlevel.h should be done to reflect that the
        patch has been applied if a patchlevel.h existed in the initial
        posting. If one was not included initially, maybe now is a
        good time to consider including one... :-)
    3.  Include information about which previously posted issues
        the patch pertains to if they were initially posted to c.s.misc.

For more information on patch see patch.man in util/patch/patch.man
in the X11 Release 4 distribution or in volume7 of the comp.sources.unix
archives.

------------------------
Subject: Special services

One way to solve the problem of an announcement not going out the same day as
the posting it announces is to send the announcement to me under separate
cover. Please, it slows things down if I have to break a submission apart to
get at the file.  Please supply instructions as to where it should be posted,
and I will insure that both go out the same day, if possible.  (If one of the
other newsgroups is also moderated, there's not a whole lot I can do about it.)
The same goes for binaries and/or other material associated with a source; send
it under separate cover and tell me what to do with it, and I will try to
arrange for them to all go out at the same time.

--------------------
Subject: Reporting and tracking bugs.

You should subscribe to comp.sources.bugs.

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 should update the
patchlevel.h file.  Major updates should follow the guidelines for
initial postings.

To report bugs, contact the person listed in the Submitted-by: 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.  That just
forces a delay in the right person getting them as I will forward them on
to the author.  Likewise, I normally do not post patches for a package from
anyone except the author. If you have patches you would like to see included
in the package, send them to the person listed in the Submitted-by:
header.

------------------------
Subject: Newsgroup Status Information.

You should subscribe to comp.sources.d.

In some newsgroups, postings such as "I will be out of town..." and
"What's in the queue to post..." have been posted as INF postings with
an Archive-name: of /dev/null or .junk.  I will not post these types of
messages to c.s.misc due to the limited amount of time that information of
this type is useful.  I will post these kinds of messages to comp.sources.d
as the need arises.  In this manner, the informational c.s.d postings can
expire as they should and will not be archived taking up disk space forever.

--------------------
Subject: Accessing the archives

The complete archives are fairly large; an average volume is four megabytes.

There are several active archive sites around the net.  I am currently
trying to locate archive sites in Europe, and Asia.  If you are interested
*please* contact me.

Some sites below will send tapes through the mail.  For those sites, send
the appropriate type of tape media 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.  You will need to contact the
individual archive sites to determine if they can support your type of media.

There a couple sites that provide email access to their archives. Please
use them when you need to locate a missing issue. Please don't ask me for
missing issues, unless you are sure you are reporting a net-wide problem of
propagation. At the end are detailed instructions on how to access
the archives.  More sites will be listed there in the future.

I have access to archives here at Sterling. I do not have ftp or email
archive access available at the present time.  Coming RSN...  I have as
complete a set of archives as I have found. I have all the issues listed in
the indexes except for the first volume. If you have articles from volume 1
please send me a list of articles so I can see if there are some I do not have.

If anyone has an article that was posted to the group that is not listed
in the indexes, please send me the information and a copy of the article
so that I can update the archive sites that I maintain.  Nothing from April
and May 1987 was ever archived to my knowledge. If I'm wrong, send them my
way... I am willing to contribute a tape to a site on the internet that is
willing to make the archives available.

Submissions prior to July, 1987 have no auxiliary header information at all.
At the time, the group's original charter was in full force, and archiving
was not considered to be important.

**** Work-in-progress:
****
****  Volume 1 and 2 articles are currently being assigned auxiliary headers.
****  I am planning on making the corrected articles available to archive
****  sites and anyone else who wish them when I have completed the task.
****  If you want to have me notify you when I am done, send me some mail.

--------------------
Subject: Archive access via ftp

If an archive site provides "anonymous FTP" access, sites directly on the
Internet (that is, sites possessing an IP address, which looks like four
small numbers separated with periods) can use the "ftp" program to get at
sources.  Sites which aren't on the Internet (more properly, the NSFnet) can
not use ftp to retrieve this information.  And no, having the ftp program
does not mean that you can access NSFnet:  there are many systems which use
TCP/IP over local networks only, and at least one brand of system which has a
program called "ftp" that has nothing to do with the Internet at all.

You should check with a local system administrator to find out the details of
using ftp.  On most systems and to most archive sites, the following will
work:  type the command "ftp system.domain" (example:  "ftp uunet.uu.net" --
case does not matter), enter "anonymous" when it asks for a user name, and
enter *your* Internet address for the password.  If "ftp" says that the
system doesn't exist, check your spelling -- if the system name is spelled
correctly, look for an IP address for the archive site and badger your system
administrator to install a version of ftp which knows about nameservers.  You
should also be warned that some systems (like uunet) will not accept FTP
connections from sites not registered with a nameserver.

Once you are logged in to the archive system, you will get a prompt that
looks like "ftp>".  (It may not be identical, since it is possible to change
the ftp prompt with a command in many versions of ftp.)  At this point, you
can use "cd" to change directories, "ls" or "dir" to list files, and "get" to
retrieve them.  For sources archives, it is not necessary to worry about file
types unless the files are compressed; in that case, you must use the
"binary" command for Unix or VMS hosts and "tenex" on Tenex (TOPS-10, TENEX,
TOPS-20/TWENEX) hosts.  *** Not switching the file type can result in a
garbled file, especially on Tenex hosts, which do not store binary data the
same way as Unix hosts. ***  To disconnect from the archive site, enter the
"bye" command.

--------------------
Subject: Archive access via uucp

UUCP archives aren't quite as standardized as FTP archives; check the archive
list for the user name and password to use, and ask your system administrator
to arrange to be able to poll the archive site.  (If s/he/it refuses, you are
stuck.)

The "uucp" command is used to request files from a UUCP archive.  Unlike FTP,
UUCP does not (usually) do the transfer immediately; this is because most
UUCP sites must be called over phone lines, so long-distance calls will
usually be made in the early morning hours.

Since you can't look around in the archives, you must know the pathname of
the article to be retrieved.  Most archives have an index file available via
UUCP; check the archive list in the next posting.  It's a good idea to
retrieve this file before getting anything from the archive, since things can
move around without warning.

The command to retrieve a submission looks like

         uucp -r archivesite!path/to/file

"archivesite" is the name of the archive site, and "path/to/file" is the
pathname listed in the archive index for that site.  Please be warned that
for security reasons, it is not usually possible to specify wildcards (?, *,
[], or ~name) in the pathname.  Also, while more recent versions of uucp
allow a uucp command to traverse multiple systems (uucp -r
systemA!systemB!file), for security reasons this is usually disabled.  In
both cases you won't find out until after the archive site has been called.

--------------------
Subject: Archive access via email

Some archive sites have mail servers that will accept mail from you and mail
back files from the archive.  There are no standards here; however, it's
usually safe to mail a message containing the single word "help" to the mail
server.  Check the archive list for more information.

As an example, to receive the index from the comp.sources.misc archives on
uunet, send the following one line as the body of a message to uunet!netlib.

send index from comp.sources.misc

IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER: Mail Based Archive Servers (MBAS) are there for the
convenience of the community and are *easily* abused. Please do not request to
have a MBAS send you GCC or X11R4.  A good deal of this traffic goes through
intermediate sites that have not advertised this service.  You would be
taking resources away that are not yours to take...  This type of
irresponsibility will do nothing but irritate the sites that feed you and
may jeopardize your facilities in the process...

--------------------
Subject: Extracting a retrieved archive member

If the article came from an archive site, it may be compressed; if it was
sent by a mail server, it may also be uuencoded.  Compressed files have an
extension of ".Z".  Uuencoded files can be recognized by a line saying
"begin 666 filename", followed by lines of what looks like random gobbledygook.
(If a mail server splits a file into multiple parts, you may just have the
gobbledygook.  In this case, the server will include a message saying which
part of the file it is, and will tell you how to combine them.)

To extract a uuencoded file, give the command "uudecode filename".  This will
create a (binary, usually compressed) file in the current directory.

To extract a compressed file, give the command "uncompress filename".  The
".Z" extension will be removed from the file.  The original, compressed file
will be removed as part of this operation.

After doing this, you should be left with a news article exactly as it is
stored in the news spool directories.  This file will contain a news header,
a description (usually), and a "shell archive" ("shar").  Move to an empty
directory (important!) and unpack the archive.  Some systems have a command
"unshar" to unpack these files; if yours does, use it.  Otherwise, you can
use an editor to remove the header, then just say "sh filename".  I use a
small (one line) shell script:

                        sed '1,/^[#:]/d' $1 | sh

which will handle anything (I hope!) in the comp.sources.misc archives.  I do
attempt to confirm that a shell archive contains nothing dangerous, but if
you unpack as root and the archive removes your /etc directory or something
equally unpleasant, I don't want to hear about it.  Unpack shell archives as
an unprivileged user.

Once you've unpacked the archive, you're on your own.  Keep the header from
the submission handy, in case you can't figure out what's going on; the
address in the "Submitted-by:" line can be used to contact the author of the
program.

------------------------
Subject: Becoming an archive site

If you collect comp.sources.misc 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 whether you use rkive or not... :-)

I am currently looking for archive sites outside the US.  If you can provide
access to your archives send me some email and I will get you some publicity...
:-)  If you need automated tools to build and maintain your archives, I have
those too .. :-) If you need a tape of the archives to get you jump-started,
let me know.

PLEASE NOTE: Mail Based Archive Servers (MBAS) are there for the convenience
of the community but are too easily abused.  Because of this, I can not,
in good conscience, list archive sites whose *sole* access is mail based.
If you can't supply anonymous ftp as a secondary method for accessing your
archives then consider uucp.  It is easy enough to set up a uucp account for
archive access with the appropriate security to protect your other system
resources.

--------------------
Subject: Listing of archive sites in no particular order

Here is what each field means:
Site:        The name of the site nice enough to act as an archive site.
Contact:     The name of the person to contact and their mail address
Location:    The general area of the world the site is located in.
Modems:      For providing UUCP access, what types of modems are available.
UUCP:        Type of UUCP access is available.
FTP:         Type of FTP access is available.
Mail Server: Account address of the automated mail server if available.
Additional:  Additional information pertaining to accessing the archive.

NA - Not Available

            ************************
                 U S A - EASTERN
            ************************

Site:         bhjat
Contact:      Burt Janz (bhjat!bhj)
Location:     Nashua, NH
UUCP:         Anonymous uucp (login: nuucp  password: nuucp)
Modems:       2400 Baud N81 - [phone]
FTP:          N/A
Mail Server:  Not yet available.
Additional:   Index location: /usr5/archives/ls-lR.Z
              Archiving c.s.games-misc-unix-x, alt.sources,
              comp.sys.handhelds

Site:        schizo.samsung.com
Contact:     Andy Rosen ([e-mail])
Location:    Andover, MA
Modems:      NA
UUCP:        NA
FTP:         Anonymous
Mail Server: None
Additional:  Files are stored by volume number, archive name and are
             compressed.  Volumes 1 through 6 and 11 through 15 are present.
             Examples:
               /pub/usenet-archives/comp.sources.misc/volume15/fb/part01.Z
               /pub/usenet-archives/comp.sources.misc/volume6/gone-2.0.Z


Site:        slug.pws.bull.com [128.35.10.203]
Contact:     Warren Lavallee <[e-mail]>
Location:    Billerica, MA.  (NEARnet)
Modems:      T2500
UUCP:        NA
FTP:         anonymous ftp 24 hours day.  limit 6 users at a time
Mail Server: NA
Additional:  Due to internal restructuring, this site may not be
             accessible some times over the next month.
             Carry FULL comp.sources.* archives (since the
             beginning).  Usenet archives are currently taking 170M.


Site:         uunet.uu.net
Contact:      Kent Landfield ([e-mail]) [phone]
Location:     Fairfax, VA
Modems:       Telebit
UUCP:         uunet uucp customers and 1-900-GOT-SRCS
FTP:          anonymous ftp
Mail server:  netlib@uunet
Additional:   UUNET is keeping archives in ~ftp/comp.sources.misc, and
              I will be maintaining them.  Volume 1 as well as shareware
              which has been posted to the group are not available from
              uunet.  Volume 1 will be put back up in the near future.
              In the mean time, if you need any of those issues please
              send me some mail and I will arrange to get them to you.
              For more information concerning the archives on uunet, send
              an email message [e-mail] with the following as
              the body of the message:
            send index from comp.sources.misc
              You can also use 1-900-GOT-SRCS to access this archive.


            ************************
                 U S A - CENTRAL
            ************************

Site:         sparky
Contact:      Kent Landfield ([e-mail]) [phone]
Location:     Omaha/Bellevue, NE
Modems:       Telebit
UUCP:         On request
FTP:          NA
Mail server:  NA
Additional:   Tapes made on request


Site:         sir-alan
Contact:      [e-mail] (812-855-3974 days 812-333-6564 eves)
Location:     Bloomington, IN
Modems:       Telebit (812-333-0450)
UUCP:         Anonymous uucp
FTP:          Coming..
Mail server:  NA
Additional:   Archive site for comp.sources.[games,misc,sun,unix,x],
              some alt.sources, XENIX(68K/286/386)
              uucp-anon: ogin: nuucp password: anon-uucp
              uucp-anon directory: /u/pdsrc, /u/pubdir, /u/uunet,
              help in /u/pubdir/HELP


Site:         wuarchive.wustl.edu [128.252.135.4]
Contact:      Wuarchive Maintainers <[e-mail]>
Location:     Saint Louis, Missouri.  Connected to MIDnet Regional.
UUCP:         Subscription UUCP access available ($300.00/year flat fee)
Modems:       Telebit Trailblazer Plus and T2500.
FTP:          Anonymous FTP.  T1 connectivity - 24 hours/day, 7 days/week.
Mail Server:  NA
Additional:   Access during all hours is encouraged.  Plenty of available
              bandwidth.  Wuarchive has everything! :-) :-)


            ************************
                 U S A - WESTERN
            ************************

Site:         aeras
Contact:      Stewart Boutcher (stewart@aeras) [phone]
Location:     San Jose, CA
Modems:       2400, 9600 & 19200
UUCP:         Anonymous
FTP:          NA
Mail server:  NA
Additional:   SnailMail tapes (Under duress)
     Systems/L.sys information:
     aeras Any 2400  4089439152 "" "" ogin:--ogin: uugarch word: freebee
     aeras Any 9600  4089439396 "" "" ogin:--ogin: uugarch word: freebee
     aeras Any 19200 4089439246 "" "" ogin:--ogin: uugarch word: freebee

     Suggested places to get additional information:
         /u3/archive/sources/LISTING.Z
     LISTING.Z 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 16 bit compression.  All multiple
     file programs have been stored in separate directories, then compressed.

     More information about the files stored in a particular volume are
     kept in files called LOGFILE. Such as:
         /u3/archive/sources/x/vol1/LOGFILE
     would be the one to get to examine the exact contents of volume 1
     of the x 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 recommended tools.


Site:        lll-winken.llnl.gov (128.11514.1)
Contact:     Joe Carlson ([e-mail])
Location:    San Francisco, CA
Modems:      NA
UUCP:        NA
FTP:         Anonymous FTP
Mail Server: Account address of the automated mail server if available.
Additional:  Articles are stored by X-Archive: index in subdirectories of
             comp.sources.misc/volN.  Note that these archives start from
             9/87; anything from April to August isn't available.
  *NOTICE*:  lll-winken is not permitting anonymous FTP for the time being.
             The archives are temporarily available on polaris.llnl.gov,
             128.115.14.19.


            ************************
                    Australia
            ************************


Site:        ftp.Adelaide.EDU.AU [129.127.40.3]
Contact:     Mark Prior <[e-mail]>
Location:    The University of Adelaide
             Adelaide, AUSTRALIA
Modems:      NA
UUCP:        NA
FTP:         Anonymous ftp, ftp.Adelaide.EDU.AU [129.127.40.3]
Mail Server: NA
Additional:  Also available via ACSnet fetchfile (sirius.ua.oz)

             The comp.sources.misc archive is in the subdirectory
             pub/sources/misc and is archived in compressed form by
             issue number (subdirectories for each volume). The
             file INDEX in the pub/soures/misc directory lists the
             issues available.

             We will also make tapes (1600/6250bpi) or QIC-11/24 if
             you supply the tape AND a return mailer. No promises
             for speed for this though.


            ************************
                    Canada
            ************************


Site:        array.UUCP
Contact:     Rob Marchand, [e-mail] || ...uunet!attcan!lsuc!array!rob
Location:    Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Modems:      2400 baud, perhaps TB in the future (hopefully :-)
UUCP:        On Request.
FTP:         NA
Mail Server: NA
Additional:  I have most stuff for comp.sources.unix, comp.sources.misc,
             comp.sources.bugs and alt.sources.


            ************************
                    France
            ************************

Site:        irisa.irisa.fr
Contact:     Didier Lamballais ([e-mail])
             Raymond Trepos    ([e-mail])
Location:    Institut de Recherche en Informatique et Systemes Aleatoires
         Campus universitaire de Beaulieu
         35042 Rennes Cedex
         FRANCE
UUCP:        NA
Modems:      NA
FTP:         Anonymous FTP (login: ftp or anonymous,
                            Password: your e-mail address)
Mail Server: NA
Additional:  Additional information pertaining to accessing the archive.
         List of archived newsgroups :
         alt.sources, comp.binaries.atari.st, comp.binaries.ibm.pc,
         comp.binaries.mac, comp.sources.atari.st, comp.sources.games,
         comp.sources.mac, comp.sources.misc, comp.sources.sun,
         comp.sources.unix, comp.sources.x, comp.sys.sun
         under "News" directory.
         Some local stuff and RFCs are also available.

--
Kent Landfield                   INTERNET: [e-mail]
Sterling Software, IMD           UUCP:     uunet!sparky!kent
Phone:    [phone]         FAX:      [phone]
Please send comp.sources.misc-related mail to [e-mail].