Otherware/Otherware_1_SB_Development.iso/mac/util/unix/ftpscrip.tz/ftpscrip/FtpExtra/readme

Text File | 1991-09-16 | 9.8 KB | 196 lines

*Please* finish reading this readme file.  It will tell you everything I can
think of regarding the scripts in this package.  I have tried to break things
up into some sort of logical order, but I tend to ramble on, sort of
_Stream of Conciousness_ documentation if you will.  Please forgive the
poor spelling, grammer, etc.  There are additional comments in many of
the scripts.

The Minimum You Have To Do -
    At the very least you have to set a few variables in the runme file,
and a few defines in ftpmenu.c  Please take the time to do that. If you dont
nothing will work right.  If you're like me you typed 'make' before
'more readme', well I suppose you'll live.  It probably didnt work due
to the fact I dont understand 'make' yet, so I used a shell script to
do everything, you can use 'runme', just pretend its a make file, it
would be if I knew what I was doing. Anyway, almost all of these
scripts rely on csh.  If youre csh _isn't_ at /bin/csh then they wont run.
They also rely on the berkeley curses C library, and a pager (more, less)
Ive tried to note restrictions and requirements.  Then just type ftpnightly,
this should get the ball rolling.  Things should take care  of updating
themselves after that, you can just use the routines. If you just want
to see how things work then skip typing ftpnightly.  Youll be working
with old data, but at least youll be able to see what the interfaces to
ftpnew, and ftpmenu are like.

The Makefile -
    See the comments at the front of the makefile for a list of everything
it will do.  It adds lines to your .cshrc, and adds a directory at your
home level among others.


The Scripts -

The basic idea -
    At a high level heres how things work.  You set up an 'at' job that
runs every night.  It will do a bunch of stuff for you automatically.  In
general it gets the new listings and abstract files.  Then when you log in
for the day, you can use some other scripts to view the information.  Of
course things get filtered along the way, and all this information eats
up disk space, but it sure speeds up routine archive checking.  If you
let things go it doesnt matter, since todays files replace yesterdays, and
the onlything wasted is the automatic ftp to your archive sites in the
middle of the night.  More recently Ive added the ability to automatically
mirror the last few days of new stuff to a local directory.  If you always
want to look at the new things, this is a godsend. (A friend of mine hacked
this one actually.)  _Beware_ a hell of a lot of stuff can get  posted in
two days.  It averages around 1M, but its been as high as 15M, and 3-4M is
not uncommmon.  If you want to enable this, you'll have to take a look
at $FTPEXTRAS/bin/ftpnightly.  $FTPEXTRAS is an environment variable that
tells where all this stuff goes.  The make file will create FtpExtra/ in
your home directory unless you tell it otherwise. Oh yea, I almost forgot,
script files, in  $FTPEXTRAS/scripts/ tell this nightly job exactly
what it is looking for.  My examples should be explanation enough.  Reading
the comments in the script files, really will aid your understanding. Yipes..
Ive used script in two differnet ways.  Shell script, and ftpcheck script.
The files in $FTPEXTRAS/scripts/ are internally used.  Things in
$FTPEXTRAS/bin/ are shell scripts you can run from the prompt. These are the
ones with comments.


The scripts you will use -
    'call <place>' - uses the info in your .netrc file to save you typing
e.g. I type 'call sum' instead of 'ftp sumex-aim.stanford.edu'  Basically
it does a substring search and ftp's to any match.
    'ftpnew [month]' - uses data files that get automatically generated
to show you a listing of whats new this (or the specified) month.  I originally
used this as an easy way to see if anything new was posted to sumex, long
before I knew about info-mac.digest.
    'ftpmenu' - Menu driven program based on the curses package allows
you to retrieve recent posts releatively easily.  A good tool for browsing
if you've been away for a few weeks.
    'undo' - unbinhexes everything in the current dierectory, and
trashes the .hqx if successful


The scripts that run behind the scenes -
    'ftpcheck' - Runs script files you set up to get information
from your favorite ftp sites.
    'ftpdoc' - If you are  running the mirroring option, then this
script takes care of exttracting doc files.
    'ftpmenubase' - the real meat of ftpmenu
    'ftpnightly' - runs automatically every night.
    'mirror.etc.etc.etc.and.more.stuff' - if it starts off mirror. then
it has something to do with mirroring.  (Obviously I suppose)


Some aliases -
    sumex - Goes directly to the directory holding the sumex mirror.



Dependancies -
    less,more - If you dont have a one of these pagers the abstract
function of 'ftpmenu' wont work.
    mcread - Available at sumex-aim, this utility can translate
MacWrite macbinary files into text. I use it to extract docs with ftpdoc
during the mirroring operation.
    unsit - Also used by ftpdoc.
    mcvert - Debinhexes files.  Used by undo, and during mirroring.
    macbin - used by ftpdoc.
All of these should be availible at sumex-aim.stanford.edu


Questions -
    Q: How can I add sites to the ones already being watched?  How can
I add remove directories from those being watched?
    A: This is controlled by two things.  Your .netrc, and the scripts
in $FTPEXTRAS/scripts/  When the automatic stuff runs, it looks in your
.netrc. It steps to each line and reads the entry, if a script (internal)
is present then it gets run.  So to add a site: add it to your .netrc,
and then create a script file.  The script file should  be named
script.host.domain and be in $FTPEXTRAS/scripts/  Please note that
the spacing of the .netrc file is important, since I check specific columns
for this or that info.  To change directories, simply modify an existing
script.  It should be obvious if you look at  one of them, they are
simply sequential ftp commands.

    Q: How can I change the number of days I am mirroring?  How can just
mirror permanently?
    A: These are controled in mirror.sumex-aim.stanford.edu and
mirror.sumex.filter.  To change the number of days, look for the foreach,
and include more or less numbers depending on your preference.  To miror
permanently, comment out the 'rm *' line that gets rid of yesterdays files.

    Q: How do I use ftpmenu?
    A: The idea behind this program is to let you easily retrieve files
from ftp sites.  When you run the program, it should tell you that it is
loading some information.  You will then see a menu of sites.  Pick a site,
then pick a directory from the new menu.  You will then see a list of files,
just go to the file, you want and hit space.  It will get marked (visibly).
You can mark other files, etc..  When you are done, exit the program, and
the files will be retrieved into the current directory.  A short help
screen is available by hitting 'h' or '?'

    Q: When I use ftpmenu, and try and look at an abstract, I dont
see one.  Not only that the controls stop working right, and when I hit
^C to get out of the program, my keypresses dont echo properly.
    A: This occurs because somefile doesnt exist.  Heres what you
should check.  The path to 'less' or 'more' at the very beginning
of ftpmenu.c.  Make sure this points to a valid copy.  If this path is
invalid you will get screwy behavior as above.  Another thing that could
be wrong is the absense of an abstract file.  Make sure the parameter
that ftpmenu (the script) passes to ftpmenubase (the realprogram) is
valid.  If you havent been fiddling, then It should work the way I have
it set up.  The last thing you should do is mail me, and tell me to
include real error checking.  (Like checking whether  files exist)
I have really poor checking in this program, since I orginally developed
it for _me_ and of course I know what should go where.

    Q: How can I change the order of things when using 'ftpnew'?
    A: If you chnage the order things are listed in your .netrc
then the ordering in both ftpnew and ftpmenu, will change.  To change
the order of directories, change the order of your $FTPEXTRAS/scripts/whatever
file.

    Q: When I run ftpmenu, all the choices appear twice, how come?
    A: Look in your .netrc. Probably you have the site listed twice.
This could happen easily if you ran 'runme' more than once. Youve probably
got duplicate lines in youre .cshrc also.

    Q: How do I get ftpmenu to show me abstracts from other sites
besides Sumex?
    A: You need to see if the site has an abstract file you can get.
For instance mac.archive.umich.edu could be added by following these steps.
1) Modify the $FTPEXTRAS/script/script.mac.archive.umich.edu file
so that it gets the /mac/00help/index.txt file.  Take a look at the
script for sumex to see how to do this.
2) Add a line to ftpnightly, that will 'cat' the two abstract files together.
such as 'cat abstract.sumex-aim.stanford.edu abstract.umich > totalabstract'
3) Change 'ftpmenu' so that the abstract file is totalabstract  instead
of the sumex abstract.
Make sense?

    Q: Some other miscellaneous problem?
    A: Mail me, and ask.  Maybe Ill know.

About Me -
    I'm a Junior in computer science at University California, Davis.
You can reach me at [e-mail].  Id be happy to explain,
or make small changes, if I have time.  As soon as school starts back up
(its summer now) Ill be fairly busy though.  But please feel free to ask.
Now could you do me a favor: write me a brief note saying what you, like
dont like about this whole thing.  Or if you got it running at all.  If
you work somewhere that has official letterhead, and you use these, then
take the time to boost my ego by expressing it on that official letterhead,
and sending it to:

James Davis
6708 Austin Way
Sacramento, CA 95823

Incidentally thats my parents address so it should be good for quite
a while, as opposed to my local address  which changes quite often.

At this point you should go modify: ftpmenu.c, runme, bin/ftpnightly