How to use Archie

	If you are looking for files on ftp servers, then archie is the right service to use. Archie originally has a command line based user interface. You can connect to an archie, using a telnet client. There are also other clients (window based) available.
	What do I need ? You can connect to Archie in various ways. You can use a telnet client, a special Archie Client or a World Wide Web Interface. If you do not want to use a telnet client to connect to an archie server (which I would recommend as it is the most easy and fastest way), you can have a look at the following locations to find a suitable archie client: CWSApps Archie section fp Archie WS Archie Internet Mac Software Mac Helpers Mac Internet Apps If can't find a suitable client for your archie tasks, then you might want to use one of the following World Wide Web to Archie gateways: Archie Request Form Archiplex. Not exactly and Archie, but another great service for locating files can be found at filez.com Among other options, the above service allows you to specifically search for Windows, Unix, MacIntosh, etc. file. Great ! However, if you want to get the most out of these interfaces, I strongly recommend to continue reading so that you can take advantage of the various search settings. Top
	Where can I connect to ? To connect to an archie server, start your telnet client and log on to archie. Here are some addresses, that you could use (sorted by country): Australia Austria Austria Belgium Canada Canada Canada Finland UK USA (MD) France Germany Israel Italy Japan Korea Korea Korea USA (NE) USA (NJ) New Zealand Norway Poland Spain Sweden Switzerland Taiwan UK USA (NJ) USA (NJ)
	All the links above require a telnet client and that your browser is properly configured for telnet. If you are using a special archie client, then you might have to choose the archie server you want to connect to from a special menu. There you will probably find additional archie servers not listed here. Top
	How do I work with Archie ? You can reflect to Archie as a large database. If you want to search for a file, then you have to send a query to Archie, which it will process. After processing your query, Archie will display a list with found items. This list displays the name of the host , the filename and directory where the file is stored and, of course, the size of the file. Logging on to Archie The following sections will show you how to use a command line based archie interface. If you prefer to use a window based client, you should read this section anyway, as it contains important information on how to set search parameters and other things. In order to log on to an archie server start your telnet client and select open host or type telnet <hostname> if you are using a unix client. If you don't know an archie server, you can use one of the above. Note: clicking on a server's name will start your telnet client and automatically connect to the server. The following listing is an example of a connection procedure to an Archie server from a unix session. telnet archie.univie.ac.at Trying 131.130.1.23... Connected to archie.univie.ac.at. Escape character is '^]'. SunOS UNIX (archie.univie.ac.at) login: archie If the connection has successfully established you will be prompted for a login name (username Don't worry. You don't need to have a special login name. Simply type archie at the login: prompt. If you are prompted for a password after hitting the return key, then you most likely misspelled archie at the login prompt. So when you see the password: prompt, type in an imaginary password, hit return, and you will receive something like unknown user - login failed. Again, no reason to panic. You should now see the login: prompt again. Start all over and type in archie. Type slowly, use no capitals. After you have successfully logged on, Archie will proceed you in order to perform your search. Here is an example of what could be displayed after you have logged on. If you have any problems with archie, send mail to archie-admin@univie.ac.at. # Bunyip Information Systems, Inc., 1993, 1994, 1995 # Terminal type `dec-vt220' is unknown to this system. # `erase' character is `^?'. # `search' (type string) has the value `sub'. archie.aco.net> Searching for a file To perform a search, type the little word prog followed by a filename and hit the return key. This will send your query to Archie and perform the search. Please be patient. Archie searches can last from a few seconds to a few minutes depending on what you have entered, which search options are set and how many queries will be processed before yours. Here is how this might look like: archie.aco.net> prog winzip.exe When archie processes your search, then you should see something like this: # Your queue position: 3 # Estimated time for completion: 5 seconds. This means, that there are two other queries to be processed, before your query will be. The second line show the estimated time for completion. My experiences are, that this is a very vague estimation, so don't rely on it. You might also see a changing character being displayed, indicating that the search is still in progress. The search result If the search was successful, then a list will be displayed. This list will be displayed without any warning and will scroll by very fast. The list containing the found files shows the hostname and the path, where the file is located. This is an example how this list might look: Host ftp.virginia.edu (128.143.2.7) Last updated 05:05 19 Dec 1995 Location: /public_access/eg_slides/utilities FILE -rw-rw-rw- 320779 bytes 15:44 9 Nov 1995 winzip.exe Host indri.inria.fr (138.96.24.41) Last updated 06:39 22 Dec 1995 Location: /pub/win95 FILE -rw-rw-r-- 345015 bytes 13:12 5 Sep 1995 winzip.exe Host ftp.univie.ac.at (193.170.56.40) Last updated 11:43 21 Dec 1995 Location: /archive/magazines/pcmag/shareware FILE -r--r--r-- 294736 bytes 13:49 30 Jun 1995 winzip.exe If the list is too long to read it entirely online or has scrolled by too fast, and you would like to review it with something to drink and popcorn handy, then it would be a good idea, to save the list. Archie won't leave you alone here. It offers the mailto: command. This command will send the whole list to a specified e-mail address (preferably yours). To get the whole list via e-mail type mailto: at the prompt, followed by your e-mail address. archie.aco.net> mailto: <email> Note that this will only work for the current list of found files. You can't perform 3 or 4 searches and then let Archie mail the lists to you. You have to issue the mailto: command right after Archie has finished displaying the list. If Archie couldn't find any files that match your specification, then you will see a simple message: No Matches This is no reason to give up. Try to search again, using other search settings or another (shorter) filename. Example: If you searched for winzip67.lzh and you became the No Matches message, then try searching for winzip only. This will produce a much longer list of found files, but you have a greater chance, that the file you wanted is on the list. Note that winzip67.lzh is an imaginary name. It doesn't exist. Enhancing your search If you got a No Matches message or for any other reason you might want to define how archie searches its database. For this purpose, Archie offers a lot of options you can set. In order to do this, type the following at the prompt: archie.aco.net> set search <option> where <option> can be one of the following settings: sub, subcase, exact, regex, regexp. Note that some Archie servers will only accept regex and some only regexp. But the meaning of these options are the same. Setting Explanation Sub short for: substring. Setting is case insensitive. prog is will find "Island", "this" and "poison". Subcase short for: substring casesensitive. This setting works like the above, only that the search is case sensitive. This means prog TeX will find "LaTeX", but not "Latex". Exact The search string must exactly match the entries in the database including case (!). prog winzip60.exe will find "winzip60.exe" but not "winzip60a.exe" or "Winzip60.exe". regex(p) (default) short for: regular expression: You can use expressions to enhance your search. If you type a normal search string, then the search is handled like in "sub". See below for a detailed description of available expressions. TABLE 2.1.1: Search settings If you choose regex as your search setting (which also is the default setting), then you can specify your search string using an expression (that's why it's called regular expression !). This setting will do this: W*point Will find all entries, containing zero or more "W" followed by the string "point". "*" means zero ore more occurrences of the preceding expression. #.*# Would match anything beginning with a "#", followed by zero or more occurrences of any character ("." Stands for any character) and ending with a "#". [abcd] Will match one of the four letters contained in "[ ]". [^abcd] If "^" is at the first position, this means, that any character not in the list will be matched. [a-z] Another way to specify a range. This search string will match any character ranging from "a" to "z". [^a-z] Will match any not lower character. [a-z0-9] You can also combine more ranges. This search string will find any lower character or digit from "0" to "9". [Ww]inzip/.exe If you want to match a character that has a special meaning (like the "."), you should precede it with a "/". This setting will find all entries beginning with either a "W" or a "w", followed by the string "inzip.exe". TABLE 2.1.2: Search examples for search setting regex

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