v14INF1: Introduction to comp.sources.unix
Rich Salz
rsalz at bbn.com
Tue Mar 15 09:40:23 AEST 1988
Submitted-by: rsalz
Posting-number: Volume 14, Info 1
Archive-name: index14.1
This is the first of two introductory articles about comp.sources.unix.
This one describes how to submit source to the newsgroup, where the
archive sites are, and how to contact them. The companion articles lists
all previously-published sources.
I am always looking for suggestions on how to improve the usefulness
of the newsgroup, and can be contacted as listed below.
-Rich $alz
--------------------
Subject: Submitting source for publication
Items intended for posting or queries and problem notes should be sent to
uunet!sources. In Australia, Robert Elz is a "sub-moderator"; people
there can work with him (kre at munnari.OZ) to get postings out more easily.
If you want verification of arrival, so say in a cover note, or at the
beginning of your submission, if it is small. I try to verify that a
program works, and if I can't get it to work, I may hold up posting it
for a couple of days. Please note that, except in rare cases, source
without documentation and a Makefile will not be published. The backlog
from receipt to posting varies from one to four weeks depending mostly
on the set of submissions currently in my queue.
--------------------
Subject: The structure of comp.sources.unix articles
Each posting in comp.sources.unix is called an "issue"; there are roughly 100
issues to a volume. The division is arbitrary, and has varied greatly in
the past. There are two types of articles in comp.sources.unix; sources
and "information postings." They can be distinguished by the subject
line:
Subject: v07INF8: Index for Volume 7 and other info
This first word in the title identifies this as the eighth info posting of
volume seven. Similarly, the subject line shown below:
Subject: v07i081: Public-domain Unix kernel
identifies this as the 81st source article in Volume 7. Large sources are
broken up into smaller pieces, and have subject lines that look like
this:
Subject: v07i082: System VI Source Distribution, Part03/08
The first few lines of an article are auxiliary headers that look like this:
Submitted-by: root at freeware.ATT.COM
Posting-number: Volume 7, Issue 82
Archive-name: new-login
The "Submitted by" is the author of the program. If you have comments about
the sources published in comp.sources.unix, this is the person to contact.
When possible, this address is in domain form, otherwise it is a UUCP bang
path relative to some major site such as "uunet."
The second line repeats the volume/issue information for the aide of NOTES
sites and automatic archiving programs.
The Archive-name is the "official" name of this source in the archive. Large
postings will have names that look like this:
Archive-name: patch2/Part01
Please try to use this name when requesting that sources be mailed to you.
Also, note that the "part number" given in the title, and the archive name
given in the auxiliary header need not be identical.
--------------------
Subject: Reporting and tracking bugs and patches to postings
You should probably subscribe to comp.sources.bugs.
Some of the larger postings have established channels for distributing
bug reports (e.g., Larry Wall posts patches in comp.sources.bugs; C News
has update bulletins there and in one of the news groups, etc.). Others
are sort of "catch as catch can."
Sometimes, when new versions of previously-published software is available,
just patches are put out, usually in the form of shar files containing
input for the "patch" program, new files, etc. Sometimes complete new
versions are put out. Which method is used depends on the poster and
the moderator.
To report bugs, contact the person listed in the Submitted-to header.
Often there is a contact address in a README file, too. I do not maintain
the sources I moderate, so don't send your bug reports to me.
--------------------
Subject: Accessing the archives
The complete archives are fairly large; an average volume is three to
four megabytes.
There are several active archive sites around the net. Archive sites in
France and England are being set up, and may be extended to provide full
European coverage; I will post more information as soon as things are
settled. Thanks to Scott Bradner at Harvard, there will soon be a BITNET
retrieval service available.
When you request something before Volume 6, please make sure to be as
descriptive as possible as articles before then do not have official
names.
Some sites below will send tapes through the mail. For those sites, send
a 1/2" mag tape WITH RETURN POSTAGE and RETURN MAILER. Tapes without
postage or mailer will not be returned. No other methods (COD, etc.) are
available; please don't ask.
At the present time, I do not have ready access to the archives, nor
the support of my employer to do this. Please don't ask me for missing
issues, unless you are sure you are reporting a net-wide problem of
propogation.
--------------------
Subject: Listing of archive sites in no particular order
1. The Danish UNIX user group (DKUUG) is running a mail based archive
service at diku, it is only available to EUnet users in Denmark because
of accounting. It features access to the latest EUUG tape distribution
which includes sources from comp.sources.unix and comp.sources.games.
Also some specially collected items like GNU emacs is available.
To get in contact with this archive service, do:
mail diku!archive
Subject: help
Archive mail enjoys a 100 % surcharge compared to ordinary mail.
2. Peter Collinson at the University of Kent has set up an mail-based server
for UK sites. The UK archive resides on ukc's backbone machine. Volumes 7
and upwards are on-line. Some issues are missing and efforts are being
made to make good the lossage. For reasons of cost access is limited to
UK users only. Mail to "info-server at ukc" and supply the lines
request: comp.sources.unix
topic: help
topic: index
for some help on how to access the files and an index of the files currently
online. For human help, mail to uknet at ukc.
3. Ron Heiby has set up access for the archives. If there is enough interest,
I will post his full note, but for now I am just giving the summary info.
The machine is "mcdch1" which has a single 1200bps modem at 1-312-576-7902.
Send an initial carraige return, then log in with the name "pduucp" and
password "public". This will not work from 8am to 6pm Chicago time Monday
through Friday, so we can get our real work done. The first thing you
will want to do is pick up the detailed instructions and a list of what
is available.
uucp mcdch1!~/howto.snarf !~/MYNAME/
uucp mcdch1!~/directory !~/MYNAME/
Do not use full pathnames or wildcards; they will not work.
The Systems file entry for doing this looks something like:
(For HoneyDanBer UUCP (BNU) users. Combine into a single line.)
mcdch1 Wk1800-0730,Sa,Su ACU 1200 3125767902
"" \r\c in:--in: pduucp word: public
This is not an official service of Motorola and may be discontinued at
any time. The contents of the comp.sources.unix archive have been donated
by the submitters of the files to the Usenet comp.sources.unix moderator
for free availability throughout the community. Motorola assumes no
responsibility for the contents of these files, including the suitability
for their use in any application on any hardware. (Some of the material,
for example is known not to run on systems sold by Motorola.) Any questions
about suitability, problems with the software or documentation, or anything
else related to the contents of the files should be directed to the persons
who submitted the material originally (usually the authors).
4. Pyramid Technology maintains a general user-contributed-software archive,
including comp.sources.unix and comp.sources.games. Source modules are
arranged both topically and by volume/issue number. New UUCP connections
are welcome, although sites outside Northern California will be harrassed
about why they haven't yet signed up for UUNet.* Pyramid will also make
tapes on a *very* limited basis for people willing to stop by during off
hours and wait while the tape is written. This is being managed by Rick
Preston with Carl Gutekunst kibitzing. Contact usenet at pyramid.com for
more information. [ *Don't take this 100% seriously. ]
5. Bill Wisner (killer!billw) is building a comp.sources.unix archive that
will be available to the general public via anonymous UUCP. Interested
parties may contact him to obtain a uucp login and password. There are
no restrictions on the amount of material transferred as long as it's
your dime (killer is reachable through PC pursuit). If you contact
Bill in advance he can arrange to make portions of the archive cpio'd
or compress'd for easier copying.
6. Robert Elz (kre at munnari.OZ) keeps sources in different ways depending
on his available disk space; contact him for more info.
7. Thos Sumner at UCSF will respond to requests for material, but cannot
promise an ongoing commitment. Anyone requesting material via mail
should supply a path from ucbvax. Anyone requesting tape should
contact him first. Contact him at thos at cca.ucsf.edu, or
ucbvax!ucsfcgl!cca.UCSF!thos
8. Michael Squires (sir-alan!mikes) of the Department of Political
Science at Allegheny College has established an anonymous UUCP
account that contains almost everything he has from mod.sources,
net.sources, comp.sources.unix, and comp.sources.misc. The following
entry should work:
sir-alan Any ACU 2400 18143336728 login:--login:--login: pdsrc
The modem is a Paradyne FDX 2400 which handles baud rate switching
itself; 300/1200/2400 is supported. There is no access limit,
although this will probably change. The collection is not complete;
a subject/filename listing can be found in the file
/usr/spool/pdsrc/all.subjects. Mike recently got a new disk and a
full tape of the archives, so everything will be available shortly.
Mike can be reached at: Department of Political Science, Allegheny
College, Meadville PA 16335.
9. Rick Adams (rick at uunet.uu.net) provides archive access to those on the
Internet. Access is available directly via anonymous FTP; look in
~ftp/comp.sources.unix/volumeN. Rick and I have managed to work out
an arrangement so that these archives are always current -- right as
the sources are published. UUNET subscribers can also UUCP missing
files directly.
10. Internet sites may also retrieve archives from j.cc.purdue.edu via
anonymous ftp. The archive is in the directory
~ftp/news/comp/sources/unix/volumeX. Due to disk space
considerations, many of the sources are compressed; these may be
recognized by the ".Z" suffix. If you don't have compress & friends,
they are in ~ftp/pub/compress.shar for the taking. This is being
managed by Rich Kulawiec (Wombat), rsk at j.cc.purdue.edu. They would
appreciate it if you would avoid large file transfers in the middle of
the day. [Rick also points out that the FTP'able archies also contain
mod.amiga, a bunch of kermit sources, news 2.11, rn 4.3, nntp, and
whatever else happens to be in ~ftp/pub at the moment.]
11. The CSNET CIC has been doing a fair amount of work to bring their
automated retrieval up-to-speed, and are awaing more disk space to
get the newer sources. Send a request for "mod.sources" with the
topics "help" and "index" to the Info-Server, or or contact
postmaster at sh.cs.net.
--
Please send comp.sources.unix-related mail to rsalz at uunet.uu.net.
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