Internet Info 1994 March/Internet Info CD-ROM (Walnut Creek) (March 1994).iso/networking/info-service/prospero/mail/info-prospero.arc

Internet Message Format | 1993-06-17 | 22.8 KB

From bcn@n1dmm  Tue Dec  4 02:33:36 1990
Received: from n1dmm.cs.washington.edu by june.cs.washington.edu (5.64/7.0jh)
    id AA24763; Tue, 4 Dec 90 02:33:36 -0800
Received: by n1dmm.cs.washington.edu (5.64/7.0h)
    id AA08497; Tue, 4 Dec 90 02:33:31 -0800
Date: Tue, 4 Dec 90 02:33:31 -0800
From: [e-mail] (Clifford Neuman)
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Welcome to the INFO-PROSPERO mailing list

Welcome to [e-mail].  This mailing list is
really two one-way mailing lists.  Send mail to INFO-PROSPERO to
obtain information about Prospero, papers, or the release.  Mail to
INFO-PROSPERO will not be passed on to subscribers.  INFO-PROSPERO is
also the list to which I will send status updates and information on
how to obtain new releases.

A second mailing list, [e-mail], is for general
discussion of PROSPERO, and initially for announcements of new sites
that have come on board, and new directories that people have created
to organize the information already accessible.  The volume on the
PROSPERO mailing list will be higher, so no one will be added unless
they specifically request it.  Request for that list should be sent to
[e-mail].

There are presently two Prospero Beta release available.  Both are
available by anonymous FTP from cs.washington.edu.  The file
pub/pros-srv-usr.tar.Z (280 blocks) contains the sources necessary to
run the Prospero server and client.  pub/pros-usr.tar.Z (256 blocks)
contains only the code for the client.

This is a Beta release, and there are still likely to be minor
glitches (primarily if I haven't compiled it on your machine type).
Bug reports are encouraged, and can be sent to [e-mail].

    ~ Cliff

From bcn@n1dmm  Thu Dec  6 02:31:01 1990
Received: from n1dmm.cs.washington.edu by june.cs.washington.edu (5.64/7.0jh)
    id AA25223; Thu, 6 Dec 90 02:31:01 -0800
Received: by n1dmm.cs.washington.edu (5.64/7.0h)
    id AA12880; Thu, 6 Dec 90 02:30:55 -0800
Date: Thu, 6 Dec 90 02:30:55 -0800
From: [e-mail] (Clifford Neuman)
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Update to initial release

An update to the initial release of Prospero is available.  This
update includes a number of minor changes.  Among them:

  1) Improved log file format

  2) vfsetenv now uses either setenv OR putenv, depending
     on which is available in your C library.

  3) Vestigal code has been removed from vget.  This eliminates a few
     of the machine dependencies.

  4) A few of the error messages have been improved.

  5) vln will no longer allow a user to specify a null component name.

  6) The file pmachine.h has been added to define machine dependent
     parameters (byte-order, putenv/setenv, etc.).

The update can be found in /releases/prospero/update.tar.Z (from the
guest virtual system).  If you don't have it running yet, you can
obtain it by anonymous FTP from n1dmm.cs.washington.edu in the file
pub/prospero/misc/update.tar.Z.  I have updated the major release to
reflect the changes, so the update will be disappearing in about a
week.

To install the update, remove the user/vget hierarchy, connect to the
top of the source tree, then untar the update.  Change the
include/pmachine.h file to set/specify your machine type.  Only a few
machine and OS types are presently defined.  Please add your own, and
feed the changes back to me ([e-mail]).  Right
now, only the byte-order and putenv/setenv choice need to be
specified.  Both are defined in pmachine.h.

I'd like to thank Joseph Boykin (Encore) and Dave Keppel (UofW) for
their help and suggestions on several of these changes.

    ~ Cliff

From bcn@n1dmm  Fri Dec  7 11:30:33 1990
Received: from n1dmm.cs.washington.edu by june.cs.washington.edu (5.64/7.0jh)
    id AA17605; Fri, 7 Dec 90 11:30:33 -0800
Received: by n1dmm.cs.washington.edu (5.64/7.0h)
    id AA15287; Fri, 7 Dec 90 11:30:27 -0800
Date: Fri, 7 Dec 90 11:30:27 -0800
From: [e-mail] (Clifford Neuman)
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Another update for vget

A further update to the vget program is available by anonymous FTP
from n1dmm.cs.washington.edu.  The file is pub/prospero/misc/vget.tar.
This update removes even more vestigal code, but more importantly, the
use of VARARGS has been eliminated.  This update is only required if
you have been unable to get vget to run correctly.  The master release
will be updated to reflect these changes, so the update will only
exist for about a week.

    ~ Cliff


From bcn@n1dmm  Mon Dec 10 01:51:05 1990
Received: from n1dmm.cs.washington.edu by june.cs.washington.edu (5.64/7.0jh)
    id AA28781; Mon, 10 Dec 90 01:51:05 -0800
Received: by n1dmm.cs.washington.edu (5.64/7.0h)
    id AA19608; Mon, 10 Dec 90 01:50:58 -0800
Date: Mon, 10 Dec 90 01:50:58 -0800
From: [e-mail] (Clifford Neuman)
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Support for closure in mail and news messages
X-Virtual-System-Name: #/INET/EDU/WASHINGTON/CS/bcn

An update supporting closure for mail and news messages is now
available in the file /releases/prospero/mclose.tar.

Description:

'vln' and 'vget' will now check to see if their standard input
has been redirected.  If it has, they will read the standard
input looking for a line of the form ...Virtual-System-Name:
name ...  If found, the first file name will be resolved
relative to the closed virtual system.  The second file name
will still be treated as a local Unix file (for vget) or a
virtual file name relative to your own active virtual system
(for vln).

If your mail or news reader allows you to pipe a message into a
program you can pipe it into vget or vln to retrieve a file or
create a link.  If you are sending a message that references an
object relative to your virtual system, you should add the
Virtual-System-Name header with the ugly-name for your active
virtual system.  The ugly-name may be determined by reading the
VSNAME environment variable, or by using the vwho alias.  Many
mail and news sending programs can be configured to send such a
header automatically.

    ~ Cliff

From bcn@n1dmm  Fri Jan 25 23:42:26 1991
Received: from n1dmm.cs.washington.edu by june.cs.washington.edu (5.64/7.0jh)
    id AA22672; Fri, 25 Jan 91 23:42:26 -0800
Received: by n1dmm.cs.washington.edu (5.64/7.0h)
    id AA21108; Fri, 25 Jan 91 23:42:21 -0800
Date: Fri, 25 Jan 91 23:42:21 -0800
From: [e-mail] (Clifford Neuman)
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Third Beta release of Prospero is now available
X-Virtual-System-Name: #/INET/EDU/WASHINGTON/CS/bcn
X-Virtual-File-Name: /releases/prospero/prospero.tar.Z

The third Beta release of the Prospero file system is now available by
anonymous FTP from cs.washington.edu in the file pub/prospero.tar.Z
(248 blocks).  It can also be obtained through Prospero itself from
/releases/prospero/prospero.tar.Z

Changes since the last major release include the following:

 . It is now possible to add links to files on sites that
   are not running Prospero.

 . Support for symbolic links

 . Support for file attributes

 . Support for forwarding pointers

 . Support for mail and news message closure

 . Exponential back-off for retries

 . Various bug fixes and fixes for some machine dependencies

I would like to thank the following people for bug fixes and for
porting Prospero to other machine types (and feeding back the changes):

  Joseph Boykin           Encore Computer Corporation
  Case Larsen             U.C. Berkeley
  Gaute Nessan            University of Tromsoe, Norway

As usual, please report bugs to [e-mail].

    ~ Cliff

From bcn  Sat Jun  8 20:38:32 1991
Received: by june.cs.washington.edu (5.64a/7.0jh)
    id AA17600; Sat, 8 Jun 91 20:38:32 -0700
Date: Sat, 8 Jun 91 20:38:32 -0700
From: [e-mail] (Clifford Neuman)
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Alpha 4.4 of Prospero now available
X-Virtual-System-Name: #/INET/EDU/WASHINGTON/CS/bcn
X-Virtual-File-Name: /releases/prospero/prospero.tar.Z

An alpha release of version 4 of the Prospero file system is now
available by anonymous FTP from cs.washington.edu in the file
pub/prospero.tar.Z (352 blocks).  It can also be obtained through
Prospero itself from /releases/prospero/prospero.tar.Z

Changes since the last major release include the following:

 . Support for access control lists on directories and on individual
   links within a directory.

 . Support for resolving multiple components of a name in a single
   query (reducing the number of messages required to resolve long names).

 . Support for Archie

 . Support for the Andrew File System

 . Support for shells other than the C shell.

 . The compatibility library is included.  This means that applications
   linked with the library can use the open call to open existing files
   named through Prospero.  The library will automatically select an
   appropriate access method if one is available.  For reading, files
   available by anonymous FTP will be automatically retrieved and
   a file descriptor for the locally cached copy returned.

 . Various bug fixes and fixes for some machine dependencies

I am calling this an Alpha release because the compatibility library
has only been run on three machine types.  The VAX, DEC MIPS machines,
and Suns.  Adding a new system type should only require writing a five
line assembly language routine that makes a system call.  Please feed
back any changes.

I would like to thank the following people for bug fixes and for porting
Prospero to other machine types (and feeding back the changes):

  John Curran         NSF Network Service Center (NNSC)
  Case Larsen        Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory
  Rainer Orth           University of Cologne, Germany

As usual, please report bugs to [e-mail].

    ~ Cliff

From bcn  Wed Jun 12 23:23:39 1991
Received: by june.cs.washington.edu (5.64a/7.0jh)
    id AA18119; Wed, 12 Jun 91 23:23:39 -0700
Date: Wed, 12 Jun 91 23:23:39 -0700
From: [e-mail] (Clifford Neuman)
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail], [e-mail]
Subject: Archie client/server code and Prospero
X-Virtual-System-Name: #/INET/EDU/WASHINGTON/CS/bcn
X-Virtual-File-Name: /releases/prospero/prospero.tar.Z

The Archie database at McGill University can now be queried using
Prospero and a standalone Archie client supporting the Archie "prog"
query is available.

For users running Prospero, the database can be found in the Prospero
directory /archive-sites/archie.  If you connect to that directory
using Prospero, you will see subdirectories "host" and "regex".

If you look in "host", you will see nothing, but if you look in
"host/hostname", you will see Archie's view of the root directory for
that host.  You can connect to or list individual subdirectories as
well.

The directory "regex" also appears to be empty, but if you specify a
regular expression as a file name, you will see a directory containing
the results of the Archie query.

Version Alpha.4.5 of Prospero is available by anonymous FTP from
cs.washington.edu from the file pub/prospero.tar.Z.  Older version
continue to work, but pre-version 4 clients are more likely to time
out on long queries.  This release includes a standalone Archie client
that, once compiled, can be run from systems that aren't running
Prospero.  Those who have already installed Prospero Version 4.4 can
retrieve the Archie client separately from pub/pfs/files/prog.tar.Z on
cs.washington.edu.

Although useful in its own right, the Archie client should be
considered a sample client.  It shows how an application can query the
Archie database using the Prospero protocol.  Others are encouraged to
build their own applications around it.

    ~ Cliff

From bcn  Sat Jul 20 11:08:15 1991
Received: by june.cs.washington.edu (5.64a/7.1ju)
    id AA12743; Sat, 20 Jul 91 11:08:15 -0700
Date: Sat, 20 Jul 91 11:08:15 -0700
From: bcn (Clifford Neuman)
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Beta.4.2 of Prospero now available
X-Virtual-System-Name: #/INET/EDU/WASHINGTON/CS/bcn
X-Virtual-File-Name: /releases/prospero/prospero.tar.Z

A beta release of version 4 of the Prospero file system is now
available by anonymous FTP from cs.washington.edu in the file
pub/prospero.tar.Z (376 blocks).  It can also be obtained through
Prospero itself from /releases/prospero/prospero.tar.Z

Changes since version 3 include the following:

 . Support for access control lists on directories and on individual
   links within a directory.

 . Support for resolving multiple components of a name in a single
   query (reducing the number of messages required to resolve long names).

 . Support for Archie

 . Support for the Andrew File System

 . Support for shells other than the C shell.

 . The compatibility library is included.  This means that applications
   linked with the library can use the open call to open existing files
   named through Prospero.  The library will automatically select an
   appropriate access method if one is available.  For reading, files
   available by anonymous FTP will be automatically retrieved and
   a file descriptor for the locally cached copy returned.

Changes since the alpha release:

 . It is now possible to log specific events to syslog instead of or
   in addition to logging them to the Prospero log file.

 . Changes to the reliable datagram protocol that improve lost packet
   behavior for long responses (this is important for the archie client).

 . Portability improvements for compatibility library, and optional
   fall back to real file names if virtual file name is not found.

 . Various bug fixes and fixes for some machine dependencies

I would like to thank the following people for bug fixes and for porting
Prospero to other machine types since Version 3.

  John Curran         NSF Network Service Center (NNSC)
  Jonathan Kamens    MIT Project Athena
  Case Larsen        Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory
  Rainer Orth           University of Cologne, Germany

As usual, please report bugs to [e-mail].

    ~ Cliff


From [e-mail]  Fri Feb 21 09:23:33 1992
Received: from venera.isi.edu by june.cs.washington.edu (5.64a/7.1ju)
    id AA20120; Fri, 21 Feb 92 09:23:33 -0800
Received: from tgo.isi.edu by venera.isi.edu (5.65c/5.65+local-2)
    id <AA22153>; Fri, 21 Feb 1992 09:25:35 -0800
Date: Fri, 21 Feb 92 09:22:41 PST
Posted-Date: Fri, 21 Feb 92 09:22:41 PST
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
Received: by tgo.isi.edu (4.1/4.0.3-4)
    id <AA18405>; Fri, 21 Feb 92 09:22:41 PST
From: [e-mail] (Clifford Neuman)
Sender: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]
Subject: New Prospero release

A new release of Prospero, Beta.4.2E, is available from
cs.washington.edu in /pub/prospero.tar.Z.  The changes since earlier
versions are minor.  The primary difference includes a change to the
server that allows file attributes to be retrieved at the time that a
directory is listed, instead of requiring a separate message.  This
can significantly reduce the time to list the attributes of the files
in a directory.

The release also includes a preliminary version of als (an alternative to
vls) written by Steve Cliff ([e-mail]).  I eventually plan
to replace vls with this program.  als supports recursive listing of
directories (detecting cycles), and its -l option makes use of the
change the the server described in the first paragraph, to quickly
list the attributes of the files in a directory.

    ~ Cliff

From bcn  Tue Feb  2 01:35:19 1993
Received: from tgo.isi.edu by venera.isi.edu (5.65c/5.65+local-7)
    id <AA18499>; Tue, 2 Feb 1993 09:35:55 -0800
Date: Tue, 2 Feb 93 09:35:19 PST
Posted-Date: Tue, 2 Feb 93 09:35:19 PST
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
Received: by tgo.isi.edu (4.1/4.0.3-4)
    id <AA15153>; Tue, 2 Feb 93 09:35:19 PST
From: Clifford Neuman <bcn>
To: [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail],
        [e-mail], info-prospero
Subject: Use of Ansi C for new release

We are putting finishing touches on an alpha release of Version 5 of
Prospero.  Version 5 is written to use ANSI C (and in particular, the
gcc compiler).  We expect that those wanting to compile without ANSI C
will have to do a little bit of work.  There are some code ifdefed for
old C compilers, but not everything that needs to be.

Anyway, these ifdefs make the code more difficult to follow, and the
occasional need for two almost identical pieces of code make it
difficult to maintain.  I am sending this message to get input on
whether we should not bother supporting old C compilers, and instead
require the use of a more modern one.  If any of you require support
for non ANSI C in order to port Prospero or parts of Prospero to a
particular architecture, please let us know.  Thanks,

    ~ Cliff

From swa  Fri Mar 26 07:26:50 1993
Received: from zephyr.isi.edu by venera.isi.edu (5.65c/5.65+local-8)
    id <AA17446>; Fri, 26 Mar 1993 15:26:52 -0800
Received: by zephyr.isi.edu (5.65c/5.61+local-10)
    id <AA19506>; Fri, 26 Mar 1993 15:26:50 -0800
Date: Fri, 26 Mar 1993 15:26:50 -0800
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
From: Steven Seger Augart <swa>
To: info-prospero
Subject: Alpha.5.0 of Prospero now available
Reply-To: info-prospero
X-Virtual-System-Name: #/INET/EDU/ISI/swa

An Alpha release of version 5 of the Prospero file system is now
available by anonymous FTP from PROSPERO.ISI.EDU in the file
pub/prospero/prospero.tar.Z (840 blocks).  It can also be obtained
through Prospero itself from /releases/prospero/prospero.tar.Z

The most important change since the last major release is that the
protocol has been significantly revised.  Quoting, a feature that the
previous version of the protocol mentioned but which was never
implemented, is now fully supported.  This means that filenames and
object names with spaces and other strange characters in their names
now work.  This is important, since Prospero is being increasingly used to
index and organize other types of data than UNIX files.  The server
will still speak the older version of the protocol to older clients.

Other significant changes since the last major release include the
following

 . The code is now in ANSI C.

 . Remote modification and retrieval of attributes on links and files
   is now fully supported.  Attributes have changed significantly.
   You can modify attributes through the new set_atr client program or
   through the pset_at() and pset_linkat() library routines.
   Attributes that happen to be stored on the VLINK structure (such as
   the link name) are now treated the same as all other attributes and
   can be modified with the same commands used to modify other
   attributes.

 . The MAGIC-NUMBER mechanism has been generalized into an ID
   mechanism.  This allows Prospero to be used to experiment with
   unique document identifiers (currently the subject of an IETF
   working group).

 . The ACCESS-METHOD attribute has been generalized.  It no longer
   assumes that the host providing directory information about an
   object is the same host from which the object should be retrieved.

 . Support for the GOPHER access method (at the moment, only on
   EXTERNAL links) is now included.  This means that objects of
   interest you discover through Gopher can be added to the Prospeo
   namespace.

 . Filters have been generalized considerably.  This release includes
   support for PREDEFINED filters that run on the server side.  Such
   filters solve the security and portability problems that have
   plagued filters in the past.  A later release will come with a
   number of predefined standard server and client filters.

 . Various bug fixes and fixes for some machine dependencies

 . Additional features in the Asynchronous Reliable Delivery Protocol
   (ARDP; formerly the Reliable Datagram Protocol) that support new
   features in the archie server and client, such as the ability for a
   client to ask for how long it must wait until its query will be
   serviced, and the ability to cancel pending requests.  The ARDP
   library is now a separate component from the rest of prospero, and
   we encourage developers to use it in their applications.

 . Kerberos Version 5 is now available as an authentication mechanism.

 . It is now possible for the same binaries to support users running C
   shell variants and Bourne shell variants.

 . The server now can provide a message of the day, and the client
   libraries provide support for retrieving it.

 . The protocol manual has been considerably expanded and improved.

 . Introduced in the last beta release and still present:  a
   standalone client to query archie servers, and an alternative ls
   program (ALS).

The release has been tested on Suns running SunOS, DEC MIPS machines
running ULTRIX, and HP 9000 series 700 workstations running HP-UX.

Please report bugs to [e-mail]

We would like to thank the following people for bug fixes, for porting
Prospero to other machine types (and feeding back the changes), or for
adding new features.

Eric Anderson           Carnegie Mellon University
Joseph Boykin           Encore Computer Corporation
Steve Cliffe            University of Wollongong
John Curran         NSF Network Service Center (NNSC)
Alan Emtage             Bunyip Information Systems
George Ferguson         Univeristy of Rochester
Jonathan Kamens        MIT Project Athena
Brendan Kehoe           Cygnus
Case Larsen        Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory
Gaute Nessan            University of Tromsoe, Norway
Rainer Orth             University of Cologne, Germany

  -- Clifford Neuman and Steven Augart

From bcn  Wed Jun 16 13:26:50 1993
Received: from darkstar.isi.edu by venera.isi.edu (5.65c/5.61+local-12)
    id <AA05503>; Wed, 16 Jun 1993 20:26:51 -0700
Received: by darkstar.isi.edu (5.65c/5.61+local-11)
    id <AA05864>; Wed, 16 Jun 1993 20:26:50 -0700
Date: Wed, 16 Jun 1993 20:26:50 -0700
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
From: Clifford Neuman <bcn>
To: [e-mail], [e-mail], info-prospero
Subject: New papers available on Prospero

Two new papers on Prospero are available from prospero.isi.edu in the
directory /pub/papers/prospero.

The first paper, "Prospero: A Base for Building Information
Infrastructure", describes how Prospero can be used to integrate
internet information services, including Gopher, WAIS, Archie, and
World Wide Web.  The paper will be presented at INET'93 in August. The
file is prospero-bii.ps.Z.

The second paper, "Using Prospero to Support Integrated
Location-Independent Computing", describes how the Prospero Directory
Service can be used to solve the server selection problem and the user
location problem.  The paper will be presented in August at the
Usenix Symposium on Mobile and Location-Independent Computing.  The
file is prospero-smlic.ps.Z.

    ~ Cliff