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Subj: #1(3) File: "PDGET HELP"
Date: 93-10-09 03:22:23 EDT
From: LISTSERV@VM1.NODAK.EDU
To: Monk OTY
Mail Split By AOL Gateway
------- cut here --------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Accessing the SIMTEL20 archives from BITNET
Updated 11 Jan 1993
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This document describes a method for users of systems connected to
BITNET to obtain files from selected archives kept at the MILNET node
WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL. The information applies specifically to the
file servers installed at NDSUVM1 and RPITSVM. (A similar service is
provided to EARN and other areas of the world by a set of servers
collectively known as "TRICKLE"; those servers accept similar, but
not identical, commands.)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Background
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The U.S. Army maintains a huge collection of public domain (and
"shareware") software and information on WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL, a
DECSYSTEM-20 machine running the TOPS-20 operating system at White Sands
Missile Range, New Mexico. The collection covers a spectrum of
interests, including files of interest to CP/M and MSDOS users.
The collection is "open to the public"; anyone may obtain copies
of the files using the Internet file transfer protocol, FTP. The bad
news is that FTP is not a protocol available over BITNET. BITNET users
can not directly obtain files from the SIMTEL20 collection. The good
news is that there are several file servers located throughout BITNET
that will accept requests for SIMTEL20 files and perform the appropriate
file transfer on the requestor's behalf. However, please understand
that...
The BITNET servers that provide access to the SIMTEL20 archives
have no affiliation with the U.S. Army nor with White Sands Missile
Range. Also, the BITNET servers are made available in the true
spirit of volunteerism (both of the institutions where they are
installed and of the individuals that support them) without any
outside sponsorship for the service.
Also...
Due to the large number of files available, neither the
archive maintainers at SIMTEL20 nor the server maintainers in
BITNET can possibly attempt to validate the proper operation of
the various programs. When a program bug is reported to an
archive maintainer, immediate action is taken to either correct
the error or remove the offending program from the archives.
Still, users must understand that archive programs are offered
AS-IS, and the archive maintainers and server maintainers
specifically disclaim any liability should these programs
malfunction or cause damage, incidental or otherwise. When
testing ANY software, be certain that all information stored on
disk is backed-up before you start so that you can recover if files
are damaged or erased. This is particularly true if you have a
hard disk, in which case malfunctions can be spectacularly
disasterous.
The BITNET servers provide access to the following subset of the
software archives residing at SIMTEL20:
CPM Software and information for CP/M system users. Contributions
are gathered from a variety of sources, including the members
of the Info-CPM electronic mail discussion group. This archive
is updated very frequently.
MSDOS Software and information for PC-DOS and MSDOS system users.
Contributions are gathered from a variety of sources, including
the members of the Info-IBMPC electronic mail discussion group.
This archive is updated very frequently.
SIGM Software and information for CP/M system users. The archive
contains the files distributed by the SIG/M Users group. New
files are added as they become available.
MISC Software and information for miscellaneous systems (mostly
large systems like IBM/370 and DEC VAX). Contributions are
gathered from a variety of sources.
The following directories may have different structures than the
previous ones and may be less well supported. They are included
for the convenience of those working with them.
ADA ADA language information.
ARCHIVES Miscellaneous archives kept at simtel20 (eg. APPLE, FORTH,
VIDEOTECH, etc.). We have only one source for the archives
so retrieval may take longer than for other directories.
MACINTOSH Various Macintosh software files.
UNIX-C Various Unix and C topics.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
SIMTEL20 path names, file names and file types
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The TOPS-20 operating system supports a hierarchical file system
structure not unlike that found on Unix, Vax/VMS, and even MSDOS
systems. At SIMTEL20, the software collection is divided into
individual archives by category, each with its own file system
directory. The archives are subdivided by topic into sub-directories.
The following example is a typical path name for a SIMTEL20 file:
PD:<MSDOS.STARTER>UUDECODE.BAS
Here, PD is the name of the disk where the archives reside. (Well,
actually it is an alias for a group of disks PD1, PD2, and so on.)
MSDOS is the name for the archive; STARTER is a sub-directory containing
generally useful programs and information. UUDECODE.BAS is the name for
one such file in the STARTER sub-directory.
File names of files in the SIMTEL20 archives generally conform to
the conventions of the target system (e.g. CP/M and MSDOS). From the
example above, UUDECODE.BAS is a uudecode program written in BASIC.
(MSDOS.STARTER also contains UUDECODE.PAS and UUDECODE.C, versions of
the same program written in Pascal and C, respectively.) The model of
"name.extension" should be familiar to most. Extensions of DOC, HEX,
INF and ASM are associated with ASCII text files; COM and EXE, with
binary executables. However, in an effort to reduce the online storage
required by the files, and to organize software into packages, most of
the files at SIMTEL20 have been through some flavor of data compaction
and/or library utility. The file extensions used for such beasts may
be less familiar to some:
ARC a collection of related files compacted and collected together
into a single package, and called an ARChive. An un-archive
utility is needed to extract individual files from the package.
ARK exactly the same as ARC. ARK is used in preference to ARC in
the CP/M archives.
LBR a collection of related files compacted and collected together
into a single package, and called a LiBRary. An un-library
utility is needed to extract individual files from the package.
xQx a file that has been compacted using a Huffman encoding method
known as sQueezing. The extension is derived from that of the
original file with the letter Q substituted in the middle. (An
ASM file that was squeezed would be stored as AQM.) An
un-squeeze utility is needed to recover the original file data.
xZx the same as xQx except that an LZW-variant method known as
crunching has been used. An un-crunch utility is needed to
recover the original file data.
ZIP Similar to, but not the same as, the ARC format in concept.
Requires PKUNZIP (VERSION 1.10 OR HIGHER!) on the PC to
extract the individual file contents. Versions of UNZIP are
available for non-PC extraction.
Most of the software for MSDOS systems are stored in the ARC format.
All four formats are used in the software for CP/M systems. (ARK and
ARC represent the same thing, but ARK is the more commonly used name.)
Only a few "first-time-user" type files (like UUDECODE.BAS) are stored
in their raw form. The section below titled "Getting Started" gives
some guidance about handling them.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Using the BITNET Servers
------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the United States, there are two BITNET servers that provide
access to the SIMTEL20 archives:
LISTSERV@NDSUVM1 North Dakota State University.
LISTSERV@RPITSVM Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Those addresses are for the BITNET network. From the INTERNET, the
servers are
LISTSERV@VM1.NODAK.EDU North Dakota State University.
LISTSERV@VM.ITS.RPI.EDU Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
--------Note--------Note--------Note--------Note--------Note-----------
In Europe, there are many EARN servers. However, the information
provided here is specifically for the BITNET servers. The EARN servers
have a similar user interface and may accept the same set of commands,
but information about using them is beyond the scope of this document.
The locations of the EARN servers and the principle contact person for
each are:
TRICKLE@TREARN ("Turgut Kalfaoglu" <TURGUT@TREARN>)
TRICKLE@BBRNSF11 ("Kris Van Hees" <VUBA005@BBRNSF11>)
TRICKLE@TAUNIVM ("Hank Nussbacher" <HANK@BARILVM>)
TRICKLE@IMIPOLI ("Marco Gandolfi" <MARCO@IMIPOLI>)
TRICKLE@DB0FUB11 ("Wolfram Fassbender" <EARNIE@DB0FUB11>)
TRICKLE@AWIWUW11 ("Gustaf Neumann" <NEUMANN@AWIWUW11>)
TRICKLE@BANUFS11 ("Michel Daulie" <DAULIE@BANUFS11>)
TRICKLE@EB0UB011 ("Oriol Robert" <ZCCBORR@EB0UB011>)
TRICKLE@HEARN ("Jos Wennmacker" <U001222@HEARN>)
TRICKLE@FRMOP11 ("Dominique Dumas" <BRUCH@FRMOP11>)
Trickles in other areas:
TRICKLE@TWNMOE10 ("Shea Nai Wen" <SNW@TWNMOE10>)
TRICKLE@UNALCOL ("Rodrigo Gutierrez" <IU254178@UNALCOL>)
TRICKLE@USACHVM1 ("Gonzalo M. Rojas" <GROJASCO@USACHVM1>)
--------Note--------Note--------Note--------Note--------Note-----------
Requests may be sent to a server as RFC822-style mail. The
commands to the server must appear in the body of the message, not the
Subject: line. The server uses the From: header to determine how to
address the files to be returned. The FROM: header must therefore
specify a VALID, REACHABLE, NETWORK ADDRESS from the server's point of
view. Mail received from outside BITNET, particularly from UUCP,
sometimes has unusable return addresses.
Requests may also be sent as interactive BITNET messages if your
system supports such a facility. On an IBM system, this service is
provided by the TELL command, as in
TELL LISTSERV AT nodename servercommand
The server does enforce some limits on how much can be requested
by whom and from where. Requests from EARN are not accepted; they
must be delivered to the nearest TRICKLE server in EARN. For others,
the server restricts how many files and how many bytes of data a user
may request per day. It also restricts how many files and how many
bytes a host system may request per day. The limits are changed on
occasion, they are but they are in the neighborhood of at least
3 files/USER/day 10 files/HOST/day
150 Kbytes/USER/day 600 Kbytes/HOST/day
There are some files that are larger than the per-day limit for a user
(or host) would permit, so the server does allow the first request from
a user (or host) on any given day to exceed the byte limit. Also, the
"host" in this context means what appears after the at-sign (@) in the
return address. Mailed requests that pass through a gateway usually
appear to be from that gateway host, and so the server applies its host
limits accordingly.
--------Note--------Note--------Note--------Note--------Note-----------
Although requests are SENT TO THE LISTSERV ADDRESS, the requests
are actually processed by userid TRICKLE. Files sent back to you will
be from TRICKLE. Do not let this mislead you, though: Your requests
must go to LISTSERV, and not to TRICKLE at either NDSUVM1 or RPITSVM.
In EARN, LISTSERV is not used, and TRICKLE does accept requests
from users. NOT IN BITNET. Your requests must go to LISTSERV.
--------Note--------Note--------Note--------Note--------Note-----------
THE /PDDIR COMMAND
The /PDDIR command is used to list the names of files that match some
pattern. The command has several forms. They are:
/PDDIR
/PDDIR PD:<directory>
/PDDIR PD:<directory.subdirectory>filename.ext age
The first form lists the names of all the archives known to the
server. At present these are CPM, SIGM, PC-BLUE, MSDOS, and MISC. The
second form lists the names of all the subdirectories in a particular
archive. (The directory name must be one of the known archives: CPM,
SIGM, etc.) The third form lists the names of files in the archive that
match a particular pattern. The age parameter limits how old a file in
the archive may be and still be considered. If omitted, the default is
30, meaning 30 days old. The directory name must be one of CPM, SIGM,
PC-BLUE, MSDOS, or MISC. The subdirectory, filename, and ext may
include asterisks ('*') a "wild-card" characters. The following are
examples.
/PDDIR PD:<MSDOS> --Lists subdirectories in the MSDOS archive.
/PDDIR PD:<SIGM.*>*.* --Lists files added in the last 30 days
/PDDIR PD:<MISC.VAXVMS>*.* 9999 --Lists VAX/VMS related files.
/PDDIR PD:<CPM.*>UUDECODE*.* 9999 --Lists uudecoders for CP/M.
THE /PDGET COMMAND
The /PDGET command is used to request a specific file. No pattern-
matching is allowed. The syntax for this command is as follows:
/PDGET format simtel.filename encoding
The format specifies how the file is to be transmitted. Allowed
values are NETDATA, PUNCH, and MAIL.
NETDATA -- suitable for transfer to BITNET hosts that can accept
files in IBM Netdata format.
BITSEND -- suitable for transfer to BITNET hosts that can accept
files in IBM Netdata format.
PUNCH -- suitable for transfer to BITNET hosts that can accept
files but cannot decode the Netdata format. Files
are sent as 80-byte card-images.
MAIL -- suitable for transfer to hosts that can accept only
mail or are accessible to BITNET only through gateways.
Large files sent via mail are split into several
smaller files that the recipient must reassemble.
If the format is omitted, NETDATA is assumed for BITNET hosts and MAIL
for all others.
The encoding specifies any special translation for the file data:
------- cut here --------
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Subject: #1(3) File: "PDGET HELP"
AOL-Member: monkoty