

                                    ARCHIE

                                       

What is ARCHIE



   Archie is a service which helps users to locate files and directories

   on anonymous FTP servers anywhere on the Internet.

   

   Administrators all over the world register anonymous FTP servers with

   the archie service; once a month the archie service runs a program

   which scans the directories and filenames contained in each of the

   registered FTP servers, and generates a grand merged list of all the

   files and directories contained in all the registered servers. More

   than 1000 anonymous FTP sites are now represented in this list, which

   is referred to as the archie database. The archie database currently

   contains more than 2,100,000 filenames.

   

   The archie database is made available on several archie servers, all

   of which contain the same information.

   

   Administrators can also provide a short description of software

   packages contained in the files or directories at their site, but do

   not have to do so. The descriptions may or may not be kept up to date:

   there is no pressure on administrators to do this.

   

   Files made available at anonymous FTP sites contain software packages

   for various systems (MS-Windows, MS-DOS, Macintosh, Unix, etc.),

   utilities, information or documentation, mailing lists or Usenet group

   discussion archives. At most FTP sites, the resources are organized

   hierarchically in directories and subdirectories. The archie database

   contains both the directory path and the file names.

   

Who can use ARCHIE



   The archie database is available to all users of the Internet, and can

   also be accessed via electronic mail. See the section Using ARCHIE

   below for details.

   

How to get to ARCHIE



   The archie database is maintained in the following locations:

     _________________________________________________________________

   

Host                        Country



archie.au                   Australia

archie.aco.net              Austria

archie.cs.mcgill.ca         Canada

archie.uqam.ca              Canada

archie.funet.fi             Finland

archie.univ-rennes1.fr      France

archie.th-darmstadt.de      Germany

archie.ac.il                Israel

archie.unipi.it             Italy

archie.kyoto-u.ac.jp        Japan

archie.wide.ad.jp           Japan

archie.hana.nm.kr           Korea

archie.sogang.ac.kr         Korea

archie.nz                   New Zealand

archie.uninett.no           Norway

archie.rediris.es           Spain

archie.luth.se              Sweden

archie.switch.ch            Switzerland

archie.ncu.edu.tw           Taiwan

archie.twnic.net            Taiwan

archie.doc.ic.ac.uk         United Kingdom

archie.hensa.ac.uk          United Kingdom

archie.ans.net              USA

archie.internic.net         USA

archie.rutgers.edu          USA

archie.sura.net             USA

archie.unl.edu              USA

     _________________________________________________________________

   

   There are three ways to access the archie database: via a local

   client, interactive Telnet session or electronic mail. Each type of

   access is described below in the Using ARCHIE section.

   

Using ARCHIE



   You are requested to respect a few basic rules when you look for

   information on an archie server:

     * avoid connecting during working hours; most of the archie servers

       are not dedicated machines - they have local functions as well.

     * make your queries as specific as possible; the response will be

       quicker and shorter.

     * user interfaces installed on your computer help to reduce the load

       on the server sites, so please use them.

     * use the archie server closest to you and, in particular, don't

       overload the transatlantic lines.

       

   The three ways of accessing the archie database, via a local client,

   via an interactive Telnet session or using electronic mail, are

   described below.

   

   Note that version 3.0 of the archie server is now available, and some

   of the commands for interactive access and the e-mail interface are

   slightly different from previous versions of the server (2.11 and

   earlier). Command formats marked with a (+) are valid in version 3.0

   only, those marked with a (*) are acceptable only in previous

   versions. You can use the version command to find out which version is

   installed at any particular server.

   

   Using a local client

   

   You are encouraged to use a local archie client because the archie

   server does not then have to provide you with an interactive

   interface: requests from your local client to the archie server will

   be non-interactive, and will thus place less of a burden on the

   server. Server performance will be increased and response time will

   improve for all users.

   

   Public domain clients for accessing archie servers are available for:

   Macintosh, MS-DOS, OS/2, VMS, NeXT, Unix and X-Windows. All these

   platforms support a simple command line client; the xarchie client for

   the X Window System provides a graphical user interface. The clients

   are available from the archie sites using anonymous FTP, and are in

   the directories /pub/archie/clients or /archie/clients.

   

   Archie client command and parameters

   

   A graphical interface (GUI), enables you to access the archie

   functions by pressing mouse buttons in order to select menu options.

   

   archie clients written for use without a graphical user interface

   require you to type in the command archie, followed by one or more

   parameters. If you omit the parameters you are given a list of the

   possible parameters with a short description of each one. A

   description of the parameters is given below, where angle brackets

   (<>) indicate an optional parameter and a vertical bar (|) indicates a

   choice of parameters.

     _________________________________________________________________

   

archie <-parameters> string | pattern

     _________________________________________________________________

   

   where the optional parameters are:

   

   o

          specifies an output file name to store the results (not

          available with all clients).

          

   l

          lists the result one match per line. This form is suitable for

          parsing by programs.

          

   t

          sorts the result by date.

          

   m#

          specifies maximum number of matches to return (# within the

          range 0 to 1000). The default value is 95.

          

   h archie-server

          specifies which archie server should be used; if this parameter

          is not given, then the query will be sent to the default archie

          server, if one is defined.

          

   L

          lists known servers and current default server.

          

   The following group of optional parameters determines the kind of

   search performed on the database. They are mutually exclusive.

   

   s

          a match occurs if the file/directory name contains string. The

          search is case insensitive.

          

   c

          as above, but the search is case sensitive.

          

   e

          string must EXACTLY match (including case) the file/directory

          name in the database. This is the DEFAULT search method.

          

   r

          searches the database using pattern. It contains special

          characters which must be interpreted before performing the

          search.

          

   There may be slight differences in the options available with

   different clients on different platforms.

   

   The result is a list of FTP site addresses which contain files or

   directories matching the argument, together with the size of the file,

   its last modification date and its directory. By default, the list is

   sorted by host address. See the Examples section below for an example

   of archie output.

   

   Using Telnet

   

   You can use Telnet to connect to an archie server interactively (see

   the list of servers in the section How to get to ARCHIE above). At the

   login: prompt enter archie. The login procedure leaves the user at the

   prompt archie> indicating that the server is ready for user requests.

   

   Archie servers respond to the commands listed below; the way they

   respond can be defined using the special command set, which changes

   the values of a set of variables described at the end of this section.

   

   The following commands are available:

   

   exit, quit, bye

          exits archie.

          

   help <command-name>

          invokes the on-line help. If a command-name is given, the help

          request is restricted to that command. Pressing the RETURN key

          exits from the on-line help.

          

   list <pattern>

          provides a list of the FTP servers in the database and the time

          at which they were last updated. The result is a list of site

          names, with the site IP address and date of the last update in

          the database. The optional parameter limits the list to sites

          matching pattern: the command list with no pattern will list

          all sites in the database (more than 1000 sites!). E.g.

          



list \.de$



   will list all German sites

          

   site(*) site-name

          lists the directories and subdirectories held in the database

          from a particular site-name. The result may be very long.

          

   whatis string

          searches the database of software package descriptions for

          string. The search is case-insensitive.

          

   prog string | pattern

          

   find(+) string | pattern

          searches the database for string or pattern. Searches may be

          performed in a number of different ways specified in the

          variable search, which also determines whether the parameter is

          treated as a string or as a pattern. The search produces a list

          of FTP site addresses which contain filenames matching the

          pattern or containing the string, the size of the file, its

          last modification date and its directory path. The number of

          matches is limited by the maxhits variable. The list can be

          sorted in different ways, depending on the value of the sortby

          variable. By default, the variables search, maxhits and sortby

          are set to, respectively, exact match search on string, 1000

          hits and unsorted resulting list. A search can be aborted by

          typing the keyboard interrupt character; the list produced at

          that point will be displayed. See the Examples section below

          for an example of the prog command and its results.

          

   mail <email> <,email2...>

          places the result of the last command in a mail message and

          dispatches specified e-mail address(es). If no mail address is

          specified as a parameter, the result is sent to the address

          specified in the variable mailto.

          

   show <variable>

          displays the value of the given variable. If issued with no

          argument, it displays all variables. The archie variables are

          shown below with the details of the set command.

          

   set variable value

          changes the value of the specified archie variable. The

          variables specify how other archie commands should operate.

          

   Variables and values are:

   

   compress(+) compress-method

          specifies the compression method (none or compress) to be used

          before mailing a result with the mail command. The default is

          none.

          

   encode(+) encode-method

          specifies the encoding method (none or uuencode) to be used

          before mailing a result with the mail command. This variable is

          ignored if compress is not set. The default is none.

          

   mailto email <,email2 ...>

          specifies the e-mail address(es) to be used when the mail

          command is issued with no arguments.

          

   maxhits number

          specifies the maximum number of matches prog will generate

          (within the range 0 to 1000). The default value is 1000.

          

   search search-value

          determines the kind of search performed on the database by the

          command: prog string | pattern. search-values are:

          

        sub

                a partial and case insensitive search is performed with

                string on the database, e.g.:

                



"is" will match "islington" and "this" and "poison"



        subcase

                as above but the search is case sensitive, e.g.

                



"TeX" will match "LaTeX" but not "Latex"



        exact

                the parameter of prog (string) must EXACTLY match the

                string in the database (including case). The fastest

                search method of all, and the default.

                

        regex

                pattern is used as a Unix regular expression to match

                filenames during the database search.

                

        sortby sort-value

                describes how to sort the result of prog. sort-values

                are:

                

              hostname

                      on the FTP site address in lexical order.

                      

              time

                      by the modification date, most recent first.

                      

              size

                      by the size of the files or directories in the

                      list, largest first.

                      

              filename

                      on file or directory name in lexical order.

                      

              none

                      unsorted (default)

                      

                Reverse sorts can be carried out by prepending r to the

                sortby value given (e.g. rhostname instead of hostname).

                

        term terminal-type <number-of-rows <number-of-columns>>

                tells the archie server what type of terminal you are

                using, and optionally its size in rows and columns, e.g.

                



set term xterm 24 100



   Using electronic mail

   

   Users limited to electronic mail connectivity can access the archie

   servers. The domain addresses of the servers are listed in the section

   How to get to ARCHIE (e.g. archie@archie.ac.il).

   

   The electronic mail interface to an archie server recognizes a subset

   of the commands described in Using Telnet. These are described below.

   An empty message, or a message containing no valid requests, is

   treated as a help request.

   

   Archie commands are sent in the body part of the mail message, but the

   Subject: line is processed as if it were part of the main body.

   Command lines begin in the first column; all lines that do not match a

   valid command are ignored.

   

   help

          sends you the help file. The help command is exclusive, so

          other commands in the same message are ignored.

          

   path return-address

          

   set mailto(+) return-address

          specifies a return e-mail address different from that which is

          extracted from the message header. If you do not receive a

          reply from the archie server within several hours, you might

          need to add a path command to your message request.

          

   list pattern <pattern2 ...>

          requests a list of the sites in the database that match

          pattern, with the time at which they were last updated. The

          result is a list with site names, site IP addresses and date of

          each site's last update in the database.

          

   site(*) site-name

          lists the directories and subdirectories of site-name in the

          database.

          

   whatis string <string2 ...>

          searches the descriptions of software packages for each string.

          The search is case insensitive.

          

   prog pattern <pattern2 ...>

          

   find(+) pattern <pattern2>

          uses pattern as a Unix regular expression to be matched when

          searching the database. If multiple patterns are placed on one

          line, the results will be mailed back in one message. If

          several lines are sent, each containing a prog command, then

          multiple messages will be returned, one for each prog line.

          Results are sorted by FTP site address in lexical order. If

          pattern contains spaces, it must be quoted with single (') or

          double (") quotes. The search is case insensitive.

          

   compress(*)

          causes the result of the current request to be compressed and

          uuencoded. When you receive the reply, you should run it

          through uudecode, to produce a .Z file. You can then run

          uncompress on the .Z file and get the result of your request.

          

   set compress(+) compress-method

          specifies the compression method (none or compress) to be used

          before mailing the result of the current request. The default

          is none.

          

   set encode(+) encode-method

          specifies the encoding method (none or uuencode) to be used

          before mailing the result of the current request. This variable

          is ignored if compress is not set. The default is none.

          

          Note: set compress compress and set encode uuencode would

          produce the same result as the former compress command.

          

   quit

          nothing past this point is interpreted. Useful if a signature

          is automatically appended to the end of your mail messages.

          

   Description of pattern

   

   A pattern is a specification of a character string, and may include

   characters which take a special meaning. The special meaning will be

   lost if "\" is put before the character. The special characters are:

   

   .

          (period) this is the wildcard character that replaces any

          single character, e.g. "...." will match any 4-character

          string.

          

   ^

          (caret) if "^" appears at the beginning of the pattern, then

          only strings which start with the substring following the "^"

          will match the pattern. If the substring occurs anywhere else

          in the string it does not match the pattern, e.g.

          



"^efghi" will match "efghi" or "efghijlk" but not "abcefghi"



   $

          (dollar) if "$" appears at the end of the pattern, then the

          searched string must end with the substring preceding the "$".

          If the substring occurs anywhere else in the searched string,

          it is not considered to match, e.g.

          



"efghi$" will match "efghi" or "abcdefghi" but not "efghijkl"



Examples



   If you are using an archie client, and enter the command:

archie -s eudora



   or if you send, by e-mail or during a Telnet session, the command:

prog eudora



   or

find eudora



   then archie will send you the following results:

Host ftp.ascii.co.jp    (133.152.1.1)

Last updated 03:38  8 Aug 1993



 Location: /pub/MAC

   DIRECTORY  drwxrwxr-x 2048 bytes 00:00  6 May 1992  eudora



Host ftp.ascii.co.jp    (133.152.1.1)

Last updated 03:38  8 Aug 1993



 Location: /pub/MAC/eudora

   FILE  -r--r--r-- 281139 bytes 00:00 21 Oct 1991  eudora1.2.2.sit.hqx



Host ftp.ci.ua.pt    (192.80.21.201)

Last updated 04:53  9 Aug 1993



 Location: /pub/NetNews/comp.binaries.mac

   FILE  -rw-r--r-- 438 bytes 12:04 10 Jul 1993  Eudora1.3.readme



Host ftp.ci.ua.pt    (192.80.21.201)

Last updated 04:53  9 Aug 1993



 Location: /pub/NetNews/comp.binaries.mac

   FILE  -rw-r--r-- 278912 bytes 12:04 10 Jul 1993  Eudora1.3.sit.bin



   etc.

   

   If you send the command list \.de$ by e-mail or in a Telnet session,

   then you will get the following results:



alice.fmi.uni-passau.de          132.231.1.180  12:31  8 Aug 1993

askhp.ask.uni-karlsruhe.de       129.13.200.33  12:25  8 Aug 1993

athene.uni-paderborn.de           131.234.2.32  15:21  6 Aug 1993

bseis.eis.cs.tu-bs.de             134.169.33.1  00:18 31 Jul 1993

clio.rz.uni-duesseldorf.de        134.99.128.3  12:10  8 Aug 1993

cns.wtza-berlin.de                141.16.244.4  16:08 31 Jul 1993



   etc.

   

   If you send the command whatis compression by e-mail or in a Telnet

   session then you will get the following results:



RFC 468      Braden, R.T. FTP data compression 1973 March 8; 5p.

arc          PC compression program

deltac       Image compression using delta modulation

spl          Splay tree compression routines

squeeze      A file compression program

uncrunch     Uncompression program

unsqueeze    Uncompression programs



Learning more about ARCHIE



   However you communicate with the archie server, on-line help is

   available.

   

   If you have any questions about archie, write to the Archie Group,

   Bunyip Information Systems Inc. at info@bunyip.com.

   

   Bug reports, comments, suggestions, etc. should be mailed to

   archie-group@bunyip.com. In addition, the database administrator at a

   particular archie server can be contacted at

   archie-admin@address.of.archie.server, e.g. archie-admin@archie.ac.il.

   

   Mailing list: archie-people@bunyip.com

   To subscribe send a mail to: archie-people-request@bunyip.com

   

   Archie was developed by Alan Emtage, Peter Deutsch, and Bill Heelan

   from the McGill University Computing Center, Canada. Archie is now

   supported by Bunyip Information Systems Inc., Canada.

