Re: Draft: 'How to FTP' doc

[Stephen Tihor 212 998 3052 <[e-mail]>]

Some comments:

	Anonymous FTP is a means by which archive sites allow
	general access to their archives of information.  These
	sites create a special account called "anonymous."  User
	"anonymous" has limited access rights to the archive host,
	as well as some operating restrictions.  In fact, basically
	the only operations allowed are logging in, 
					logging in using FTP, 


							listing the
	contents of a limited set of directories, and retrieving
	files.  Note that usually "anonymous" users are not allowed
	to transfer files TO the archive site, merely retrieve files
	from such a site.

	available files will not specifically say, "This file is 
	available for anonymous ftp form X host with Y pathname."

	available for anonymous ftp from X host with Y pathname."

	However, if a file is publicly announced as available and


<generally emeded:>

	A Sample Session

	To start an ftp session on a UNIX or VMS host, you usually
	type "ftp" and the host name or host IP address.  As an example, 
	if you wish to access the DDN Newtork Information Center (NIC)
	archive site, you would normally execute one of the
	following commands at the UNIX prompt:

	        ftp nic.ddn.mil
	or
	        ftp 192.112.36.5

	Observe that the first form uses the fully-qualified domain
	name and the second uses the Internet address.


	 3. It is possible to "browse" in archives, but often users
	    already know the pathname of the file they want.  

If not look for a file with a name such as README, or AAAREADME.1st,
or the like.


								The
	    pathname for FYI 4 is rfc/fyi4.txt.  In the example, we
	    first connect to the 'rfc' directory (cd rfc), then get
	    the specific file we know we want.
    

  - You may set BINARY mode to transfer executable programs or files
    of data.  Type "binary" to do so.  Usually
    ftp programs assume files use only 7 bits per byte, the norm for
    standard ASCII-encoded files.  The BINARY command allows you to
    transfer files that use the full 8 bits per byte without error
but this may have implications on how the file is transformed 
to your local system. 

<<    If you are not sure what format a file is in, it does not hurt
      to user BINARY mode as a default.
-- this is just plain wrong >>


  - You may transfer multiple files at the same time.  To set this
    mode, type "mget."
You them supply a file name pattern that the remote system 
understands and it tries to transfer each file in turn.  
If your local FTP user agent can not transform the remote 
file names into legal local file names or if there are 
some files that must be transfer in ASCII mode and some that
must be transfered in BINARY mode you may not be able to 
take advantage of this facility.




  4) uuencode/uudecode

  Transforms ASCII to binary ("uuencode") and the reverse ("uudecode")
  transformation in a standard manner.  Originally used in the UUCP
  ("Unix to Unix CoPy") mail/USENET system.  No bundling or
  compression mechanisms are used.  

					Naming convetions often add
  a .uu at then end of the file name.


  9) shar

  Bourse shell archives package files text or binary into a single longer
  file which when executed will created the component files.  Because this 
  format is is vulnerable to misuse most users use a special tool unshar
  to decode these archives.  Files in this format by convention have a 
  filename extension of ".shar".

  10) VMS_SHARE

  DCL archives package files text or binary into a single longer
  file which when executed will created the component files.  Because this 
  format is is vulnerable to misuse care must be take to examine such an
  archive before executing it.  Files in this format by convention have a 
  filename extension of ".shar".

  11) Multipart shar/vms_share files

  Sometimes these shell archive files are broken into multiple small parts 
  to simplify their transfer over other forms of fileserver sharing the
  same archive tree.  In such cases the parts of usually sufficied with 
  a part number ( eg: xyz.01 xyz.02 xyz.03 ...) or even .01-of-05.  
  Collect all the parts,m concatenate them on your local system, and then
  apply the normal tool to the result.
 
"foobar.tar.Z".  As this is a binary file, it would require a further
transformation into printable ASCII by a program such as "uuencode" in
order to be transmitted over traditional email or USENET facilities so
it might end up as "foobar.tar.Z.uu".   

Some oeprating systems can not handle multiple periods and in such cases 
they are often replaced by -, _ or by detailed instructions in the 
"read me" files in the directories.