NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #30

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Text File | 1992-12-21 | 11.3 KB | 206 lines

Newsgroups: comp.os.vms Path: sparky!uunet!mcsun!sunic!sejnet.sunet.se!eric From: eric@sejnet.sunet.se (Eric Thomas) Subject: >>> New VMS software repository for BITNET users <<< Message-ID: <1992Dec18.181046.1@sejnet.sunet.se> Lines: 194 Sender: news@sunic.sunet.se Reply-To: ERIC@SEARN.SUNET.SE Organization: SUNET, Stockholm, Sweden Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 18:10:46 GMT My apologies if you have already seen this announcement - the INFO-VAX gateway doesn't seem to work and someone reported that he saw the announcement, but it "disappeared" from his news server. VMS Store - introduction and short user's guide ----------------------------------------------- Last update: 18 Dec 92 Are you tired of sluggish FTP transfers that time out after you've waited 15 minutes? Don't you hate wading through 20 screens of unix packages on archie in the hope of finding the host that has what you are looking for, only to discover half an hour later that it was a 1988 version? Wouldn't you just love being able to say, "hey, send me a copy of FOO and let me know whenever it is updated", rather than having to check newsgroups full of flame threads just so you can know when a new version is available? If you answered YES to any of these questions, we think you will like the VMS Store. What IS the VMS Store? ---------------------- The VMS Store is a repository of public-domain or otherwise free VMS software which is *automatically* updated from its *official source*. If a package is available from the VMS Store, it is the latest version or it has just been updated and we'll have the latest version within 24h, barring network failures. And the Store is located on the most reliable of the EARN core sites - on the same ethernet as the main IP routers in one of the hub sites of the european IP network. The VMS Store is targeted to have everything a VMS user might want. Of course we can't read people's mind and there will probably be things you would have wanted to order, but which we don't store yet. In that case all you have to do is tell us what it is and who wrote/maintains it, and we'll add it to our inventory if the maintainer allows us to. And remember, once it is in the Store it is automatically kept up to date. The Store is managed by LISTSERV (the real one). This means you can not only order files or directories of files, but also request notification of updates - or simply ask the server to automatically ship you a new copy whenever the file is updated. All packages are stored in VMSDUMP format so that you can use the files directly after receiving them: no KLUDGE.C to resurrect savesets, no need to wait 10 minutes for a VMS_SHARE extraction or to worry about damaged RMS attributes. Well of course some people may insist on packaging their software in one unixoid format or another, and then there's not much we can do about it, but real VMS files will arrive as genuine VMS files. This however does not mean you have to put up with IBMish syntax, 00README files showing after everything else or stupid truncated filenames. You send commands like: GET [MX.MX031]01README.REVC_UPGRADE and it works as you'd expect it. You do have to say INDEX rather than DIR for a directory, but again your get the result you would expect: ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Directory SEARN::VMS-SW:[MX...] [MX.CONTRIB]00README.TXT;1 8 21-MAY-1992 08:25:00 [MX.CONTRIB]ALL-IN-1_TO_MX.TXT;1 16 21-MAY-1992 08:25:00 [MX.CONTRIB]ALL-IN-1_TO_MX_2.TXT;1 16 21-MAY-1992 08:25:00 [MX.CONTRIB]ALL-IN-1_TO_MX_3.TXT;1 16 21-MAY-1992 08:25:00 [MX.CONTRIB]DECNET_NAME_CONVERSION.VMS_SHARE;1 40 21-MAY-1992 08:25:00 [MX.CONTRIB]DECNET_NAME_CONVERSION_MX031.VMS_SHARE;1 48 21-MAY-1992 08:25:00 [MX.CONTRIB]HELP_FILE.VMS_SHARE;1 32 21-MAY-1992 08:25:00 [MX.CONTRIB]MAIL_NEWS.VMS_SHARE;1 72 21-MAY-1992 08:25:00 [MX.CONTRIB]MAIL_VERIFICATION.VMS_SHARE;1 24 21-MAY-1992 08:25:00 [MX.CONTRIB]MXSUM.VMS_SHARE;1 96 21-AUG-1992 09:15:00 [MX.CONTRIB]MX_ALIAS.COM;1 48 21-MAY-1992 08:25:00 [MX.CONTRIB]MX_BULL.VMS_SHARE;1 88 21-MAY-1992 08:25:00 [MX.CONTRIB]TROUBLESHOOTING_GUIDE.TXT;1 24 21-MAY-1992 08:25:00 [MX.CONTRIB]VMSMAIL_PATCH.TXT;1 48 21-MAY-1992 08:25:00 [MX.MX031]00README.TXT;1 8 21-MAY-1992 08:25:00 [MX.MX031]01README.ABOUT_DOCS;1 8 21-MAY-1992 08:25:00 [MX.MX031]01README.BITNET_UPDATE;1 16 21-MAY-1992 08:25:00 [MX.MX031]01README.REVC_UPGRADE;1 8 21-MAY-1992 08:25:00 [MX.MX031]MX031.A_Z;1 112 21-MAY-1992 08:25:00 [MX.MX031]MX031.B_Z;1 304 21-MAY-1992 08:25:00 [MX.MX031]MX031.C_Z;1 704 21-MAY-1992 08:25:00 [MX.MX031]MX031.D_Z;1 136 21-MAY-1992 08:25:00 [MX.MX031]MX031.E_Z;1 168 21-MAY-1992 08:25:00 [MX.MX031]MX031.F_Z;1 112 21-MAY-1992 08:25:00 [MX.MX031]MX031.G_Z;1 136 21-MAY-1992 08:25:00 [MX.MX031]MX031.H_Z;1 128 21-MAY-1992 08:25:00 [MX.MX031]MX031.I_Z;1 64 21-MAY-1992 08:25:00 [MX.MX031]MX031.J_Z;1 216 21-MAY-1992 08:25:00 [MX.MX031]MX031.K_Z;1 2136 21-MAY-1992 08:25:00 [MX.MX031]MX031.L_Z;1 80 21-MAY-1992 08:25:00 [MX.MX031]MX031.M_Z;1 304 21-MAY-1992 08:25:00 [MX.MX031]MX031_SRC.BCK_Z;1 2520 21-MAY-1992 08:25:00 [MX.MX031]MX_REVC_UPGRADE031.A_Z;1 800 21-MAY-1992 08:25:00 [MX]CONTRIB.DIR;1 1 15-DEC-1992 12:33:27 [MX]MX031.DIR;1 1 15-DEC-1992 12:33:27 Total of 35 files, 8538 blocks. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Using the VMS Store ------------------- You access the Store by sending commands to LISTSERV@SEARN, either via SEND or via e-mail. The command to order a file is GET, followed by a directory name and file specification (do not specify any device name). As usual you can use either square or angle brackets in the directory name. You can use wildcards to order selected files, but only from a single sub-directory. For instance, "GET <MX.MX031>*.*" is acceptable, but "GET <000000...>*.*" is not, because it would span more than one directory. Note that the decision is based on the directories in which files were actually found, rather than in the amount of directories searched. This means you can try "GET <000000...>XYZ*.BCK" if you do not remember the exact directory or fileid, and it will work as long as the selected files are all in the same directory. To order a directory listing, send an INDEX command followed by a directory name and optional file specification. The listing will be returned to you in a file called VMSFILE.LIS. Note that there is no "default directory" - if you say just INDEX, you will get the regular LISTSERV index. So send "INDEX <000000>" to get started, or if you want a list of all directories, "INDEX <000000...>*.DIR". Sometimes you will find a file called "something.PACKAGE" in a directory. This means that you can order the whole package by just sending a GET command for that one file. And if you don't remember the directory, you can always use "<000000...>". To request notification of updates to a particular file, the command is FUI ADD (for File Update Information), followed by the directory name and fileid. If you would rather have a copy shipped to you automatically, use AFD ADD instead (Automatic File Distribution). You can get your FUI and AFD lists by sending an "FUI LIST" or "AFD LIST" command, and you can remove files from these lists with FUI DEL or AFD DEL followed by the directory name and fileid. Current restrictions -------------------- The block counts in directory listings are approximate and usually a bit higher than the actual size. They are still good enough for estimating the amount of space you will need. Unfortunately, the '%' wildcard character is not supported for the time being, and the messages returned by the AFD and FUI commands are not particularly attractive. But they do work, and this will be fixed in the long term. You must have BITNET connectivity in order to retrieve files, because we think that using layered kludges on top of regular e-mail to retrieve large packages is like using a screwdriver as a pry bar. Sure, it will usually work up to a certain point, but given that we have people out there who need the screwdriver for what it was meant to do and that we are the ones who are responsible for any problem with the screwdriver, we just don't want to let people order files via e-mail. Sorry. Unfortunately it is not possible to make the files available via anonymous FTP, as this would require the development of a special FTP server. Before you start flaming, remember that the whole point of the exercise is to use BITNET delivery rather than FTP because it is more convenient and guarantees that the RMS attributes are preserved. If the package you wanted is not in the Store... ------------------------------------------------ ...please write to VMS-Store@SEARN and tell us about it. Remember to tell us where the package is available from and who wrote it (if you know the author's e-mail address, make sure to tell us!). In principle we will add all requested packages to the Store, but there are a few exceptions: 1. We will always contact the author for permission. We will not add any package against its author's will. 2. We only want up to date software. If for any reason we cannot have the software updated automatically, we will not store it. For instance if the package is available only from a unix machine with one of these multiple-dots filenames, we will not store it. Our daily batch jobs can handle most VMS-based FTP servers, but the same is not true for unix. 3. While we do have a reasonable amount of disk space (our initial quota if 500M), there are things we cannot afford to store because there are too little potential users or because they are just too big. We have seen graphics packages which come in 4 savesets of 100M each, and we simply cannot store this sort of things. They are best distributed on a tape, too! Acknowledgements ---------------- The VMS Store is a joint effort between the EARN office and the Swedish University Network (SUNET). SUNET provides the hardware resources and manpower to maintain and improve the "VMS<->LISTSERV gateway" software which was developed for this purpose, while EARN takes care of the administration of the Store itself - registering new products, contacting their authors, and so on.