www.pudn.com > socks5.zip > archie.hlp
1 ARCHIE ARCHIE is a utility to query the Archie anonymous FTP databases using Prospero. It will check the databases for entries about the files that are available via anonymous FTP from sites around the world. Format: $ ARCHIE [-option]This will query an ARCHIE server and ask it to look for all known sites that have a file named `string' in their FTP area. ARCHIE will wait and then print out any matches. 2 Options ARCHIE is originally a Unix utility so its options make use of the Unix `-option' and not the VMS `/qualifier' syntax. With the `-L' and `-N#' options you must enclose the option in double quotes (ie "-L" and "-N#") to prevent the server from translating them into lowercase options. 3 -ecsr These are search-modifying options: -e Exact string match. (This is the default.) -c Search substrings paying attention to upper and lower case. -s Search substrings ignoring the case of the letters. -r Search using a regular expression. `-c', `-s' and `-r' are mutually exclusive; only the last one counts. If you specify `-e' with any of them the server will first check for an exact match, then fall back to the case-sensitive, case-insensitive, or regular expression search. This is so if there are matches that are particularly obvious, it will use a minimal amount of search time. 3 -h Instruct ARCHIE to query another ARCHIE server with the name `hostname', instead of its default server. ARCHIE is compiled with a specific default server host. This default can be changed by defining the symbol ARCHIE_HOST as one of the other available hosts. The `-h' option will override these defaults. (Use option -L to get the list of available hosts.) 3 -o To redirect the output of ARCHIE to a file (rather than use the standard output), give the `filename' it should store the results in. 3 -l Output results in a form suitable for parsing by programs. 3 -m# Specifies the maximum number of hits (matches) to return. The default is 95 hits. 3 -t Sort the results in reverse date order. 3 -L Lists the Archie servers known to the program when it was compiled, as well as the name of the default Archie server. (Note: You MUST put quotes around this argument or it will be converted to lowercase.) 3 -N[#] Sets the `niceness' of a query. The default niceness is 0. Using `-N' without an argument sets it to 35765 (the maximum). If you use `-N' with an argument between 0 and 35765, it will adjust itself accordingly. (Note: You MUST put quotes around this argument or it will be converted to lowercase.) (See also the subtopic `Niceness') 3 -V Provide some reassuring messages when a search is taking a long time. 3 -v Print the version of the client. 2 String This can be either the name of a file or a substring of a filename. If you use a substring, then you must use one of the search-modifying options `-c', `-r' or `-s'. Otherwise ARCHIE will only respond with only those files that match exactly the substring! If the search string starts with a `-' you must precede it with another `-'. For example $ archie -s - -old will search for all filenames that contain the string `-old'. 2 Examples 1. $ archie emacs This will find all anonymous FTP sites in the ARCHIE database that have files named `emacs' somewhere in their FTP area. (This particular query would probably return a lot of direc- tories.) 2. $ archie -c emacs This will produce a list of every file that contains the string `emacs' anywhere in the filename. 3. Regular expressions may also be used for searches: $ archie -r '[xX][lL]isp' If a string is enclosed in brackets [] ARCHIE will attempt to match any single character from the string. In the above example it will try and match either `x' or `X' plus either `l' or `L' followed by `isp'. It is recommended that you enclose the whole expression in single quotes to prevent the server misinterpreting it. 2 Niceness Niceness is the (Unix) concept of `being nice' to other users by lowering the priority of non-urgent jobs. You should use the `-N' option whenever you do not demand immediacy, or when you are requesting things that could generate large responses. Here is a list of what would be considered as `nice' values that accurately reflect the priority of a request to the server. Normal 0 Nice 500 Nicer 1000 Very Nice 5000 Extremely Nice 10000 Nicest 32765 The last priority, Nicest, would be used when a job should wait until the queue is essentially empty before running. You should pick one of these values to use, possibly modifying it slightly depending on where you think your priority should land. For example, 32760 would mean wait until the queue is empty, but jump ahead of other jobs that are `Nicest'. 2 Bugs There are none; only a few unexpected features. 2 VMS Notes Please note that there are some options (e.g., -a) that aren't very useful under VMS, so are not documented in this help file. To use the ARCHIE program, define it as a symbol to point to the ARCHIE.EXE image, or the arguments won't get processed properly: $ ARCHIE :== $THE$DISK:[SOME.DIR]ARCHIE Any further enhancements for VMS for this client are welcome and encouraged. 2 Background ARCHIE runs as a client and queries an Archie anonymous FTP database looking for the specified search string, using the Prospero protocol. This client is based on Prospero version Beta.4.2 and is provided to encourage non-interactive use of the Archie servers (and subsequently better performance on both sides). The ARCHIE service was conceived and implemented by Alan Emtage (bajan@cs.mcgill.ca), Peter Deutsch (peterd@cs.mcgill.ca), and Bill Heelan (wheelan@cs.mcgill.ca). The entire Internet is in their debt. The Prospero system was created by Clifford Neuman (bcn@isi.edu); write to info-prospero@isi.edu for more information on the protocol and its use. This stripped client was put together by Brendan Kehoe (brendan@cygnus.com), with modifications by Clifford Neuman and George Ferguson (ferguson@cs.rochester.edu). This help file was written by John Armstrong (armstrong@leva.leeds.ac.uk).