hrc archive site help file

[Dan Troxel]

UPDATED 01/18/90
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.

VERY IMPORTANT! This archive server is set up mainly for the southwest region
of the United States. If you are outside this area, please contact an archive
site closer to you.

This site batches the requests to be run once-a-week. This is due to the
archives being so large, and the requests have to be pulled from tape.

The archive server has several 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 when more files were entered into the 
archive. To get a general list of where the indexes are, send the following 
message containing the line

   send index.main

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

>index.x.v00 current as of Mon May 15 13:02:22 MST 1989


To retrieve the above index, send the following line

send index.x.v00

You will get:

>           ********hrc archives/x/v00 index as of 01/15/90********
>
>
>      Note: For additional information on receiving this index in a
>            variety of different formats, use the command 'send help'.
>
>
>filename : date installed in archives
> size of file : description
>
>archives/x/v00/awm/part01.Z : 11/15/89
>   61K : v00i002:  Ardent Window Manager(X11), Part01/13
>
>archives/x/v00/awm/part02.Z : 11/15/89
>   55K : v00i003:  Ardent Window Manager(X11), Part02/13
>
>archives/x/v00/awm/part03.Z : 11/15/89
>   53K : v00i004:  Ardent Window Manager(X11), Part03/13
>
>[rest of file deleted]

To retrieve part01.Z above:

send archives/x/v00/awm/part01.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:

	ansiawm/part01

You may send for several indexes. Example:

send index.unix.v01
send index.misc.v04
send index.x.v00
send index.games.v06
send index.games.v07

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

send index.ls


To send for all indexes:

send index.all


   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. You must include the
   full path to your site from my box. I have had many of the archives mailed,
   only to come back becuase of a bad path.
   IT MUST BE ON THE FIRST LINE IN THE MESSAGE BEFORE ANY OTHER SEND COMMAND!

   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, 
   and lately, quite a bit. So due to the many errors in the past 
   from the maps, please send a full path from my site to yours.

"uucppath" command: The "uucppath" command exists to allow users who are
   connected directly to me, to have the files uucp'ed over. Almost all
   of the files are in compressed format, and thus will make the transfer
   faster, and take less disk space. You will also need to use the
   "uucpname" command to get notified of the transfer. The uucppath command
   requires a full path to place the file. Generally this will be in your
   uucppublic directory. Example:

      uucppath your_site_name!~/your_login_name
      uucpname your_login_name
      send archives/unix/v19/file_name

   This will uucp the file to your machine in directory:

      /usr/spool/uucppublic/your_login_name/archives/unix/v19/file_name

   The uucppublic directory may be different on your machine, but most sites
   keep it as '/usr/spool/uucppublic'. The reason for such a long
   directory path, is that there are many files that have the same name.
   If you request files with the same name, without removing them from
   your uucppublic directory, you would lose your first requested file, to
   be replaced with the latest transfer. Also, this will seperate file
   transfers between users, who may be asking for archives, who reside
   on the same box.


EXAMPLES:

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

   send index.main

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 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!yourmachine!yourname
   send 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 week, 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 yoursite!yourname

in your message, where "yourname" is your mailbox name and "youyrsite" 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. We will send tapes to those who
request it.

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 week. If the
work queue contains more requests than the week's quota, then the unsent files
will not be processed until the next week. Whenever the mailer is run to send
its week'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