help file for accessing archives at hrc

[Dan Troxel]

this is the help file from hrc!archives:

UPDATED 07/10/89
This message comes to you from the archive server at hrc,
archives at hrc.UUCP. It received a message from you asking for help.

The archive server is a mail-response program. That means that you mail it a
request, and it mails back the response.

The archive server is a very dumb program and does not have much error checking.

The archive server has just a few commands. Each command must be the first 
word on a line. The archive server reads your entire message before it does 
anything, so you can have several different commands in a single message. The 
archive server does not recognize the "Subject:" header line.


"help" command: The "send help" causes the server to
	send you the help file. You already know this, of course, because
	you are reading the help file.


The archives are organized into a series of directories and subdirectories.
Each subdirectory has an index. The index will also give you the last date of 
entry. This will help you to know I entered more files into the archive. 
To get a general list of where the indexes are, send the following message 
containing the line

	send /hd1/archives/main.index

When you get the index back, it will give you the names of all of the indexes
and where to locate them. Example:

>/hd1/archives/unix/v01/INDEX current as of Mon May 15 13:02:22 MST 1989


To retrieve the above index, send the following line

send /hd1/archives/unix/v01/INDEX

You will get:

>/hd1/archives/unix/v01/INDEX current as of Wed May 24 16:10:45 MST 1989
>
>./ansi.c.Z     : (  7028 )   : Yacc and Lex for 11/12/84 draft of ANSI C
>./bed.Z        : (  9055 )   : Bed version 1.0 (editor for binary files).
>[rest of index deleted]

To retrieve ansi.c.Z above:

send /hd1/archives/unix/v01/ansi.c.Z

The .Z extension in a compressed file, and the archiver will uncompress the
file, and send it to you in ascii form. You would save it to disk as ansi.c

You may send for several indexes. Example:

send /hd1/archives/misc/v03/INDEX
send /hd1/archives/misc/v05/INDEX
send /hd1/archives/unix/v01/INDEX
send /hd1/archives/alt/INDEX

Each index will be mailed seperatly to you. To send for a ls -lR listing 
of the archives:

send /hd1/archives/ls.indexes


To send for all indexes in one file:

send /hd1/archives/all.indexes


	You may put as many "send" commands as you like into one message
	to the server, but the more you ask for, the longer it will take
	to receive. See "FAIRNESS", below, for an explanation.

"send path" command: The "send path" command exists to help in case you do not
	get responses from the server when you mail to it.

	Sometimes the server is unable to return mail over the incoming path.
	There are dozens of reasons why this might happen, and if you are a
	true wizard, you already know what those reasons are. If you are an
	apprentice wizard, you might not know all the reasons but you might
	know a way to circumvent them.

	If you put in a "send path" command, then everything that the server
	mails to you will be mailed to that address, rather than to the
	return address on your mail. For example, if you say
	    send path pyramid!rutgers!zakkaroo!jj
	then all mail sent by the server will be sent to that address.

	If you would like the server to determine a uucp path for you,
	using the most recent pathalias data, then put in a "send path" command
	with yoursite!sitename

	    send path yoursite!sitename

	As you probably know, the pathalias data is sometimes wrong, but it
	is often right. 

EXAMPLES:

1) Find out the list of catagories that are in the archive. Send this message:
	To: hrc!archives
	Subject: hi there

	send /hd1/archives/main.index

2) Get the ansi file from the archive (you have learned
   the file name from the list that was sent to you in step 1).
	To: hrc!archives
	Subject: a send on the subject line will do you no good!

	send /hd1/archives/unix/v01/ansi.c.Z

3) Get the ansi file, and send them over the exact path to my site:
	To: asuvax!hrc!archives

	send path mcdphx!sun!nud!mysite
	send /hd1/archives/unix/v01/ansi.c.Z

NOTES:

The archive server acknowledges every request by return mail. If you don't
get a message back in a day or two (depending on how close you are to hrc
on the network) you should assume that something is going wrong, and perhaps
try a "send path" command. If you aren't getting anywhere and you don't know a
wizard to help you, try putting

	send path mysite!myname

in your message, where "myname" is your mailbox name and "site" is the uucp
name of your machine. 

The delays in sending out large items from the archives are intentional, to
make it difficult to get copies of everything in the archives. If you are new
to the network and would like to get all back issues of everything, you
should post a request to a regional newsgroup asking whether someone who is
geographically near you can provide them.

Don't send mail with long lines. If you want to ask for 20 items in one
request, you don't need to put all 20 of them in one "send" command. The
archive server is quite able to handle long lines, but before your mail
message is received by the archive server it might pass through relay
computers that will choke on long lines.

If you wish to get the indexes automatically when there is an update, please
send mail to hrc!dan, and ask to be put on the list.

FAIRNESS:

The archive server contains many safeguards to ensure that it is not
monopolized by people asking for large amounts of data. The mailer is set up
so that it will send no more than a fixed amount of data each day. If the
work queue contains more requests than the day's quota, then the unsent files
will not be processed until the next day. Whenever the mailer is run to send
its day's quota, it sends the requests out shortest-first. 

If you have a request waiting in the work queue and you send in another
request, the new request is added to the old one (thereby increasing its
size) rather than being filed anew. This prevents you from being able to
send in a large number of small requests as a way of beating the system.
If you request 10 items together, you will get substantially higher
priority than if you make 10 requests for 1 item each.

The reason for all of these quotas and limitations is that the delivery 
resources are finite, and there are many tens of thousands of people who
would like to make use of the archive. 

--
Dan Troxel @ Handwriting Research Corporation                  WK 1-602-957-8870
Camelback Corporate Center  2821 E. Camelback Road  Suite 600  Phoenix, AZ 85016
ncar!noao!asuvax!hrc!dan          zardoz!hrc!dan          hrc!dan at asuvax.asu.edu
-- 
Dan Troxel @ Handwriting Research Corporation                  WK 1-602-957-8870
Camelback Corporate Center  2821 E. Camelback Road  Suite 600  Phoenix, AZ 85016
ncar!noao!asuvax!hrc!dan          zardoz!hrc!dan          hrc!dan at asuvax.asu.edu