v02INF1: Introduction to comp.sources.x
Mike Wexler
mikew at wyse.wyse.com
Sat Oct 15 03:52:13 AEST 1988
Submitted-by: mikew at wyse.com (Mike Wexler)
Posting-number: Volume 2, Info 1
Archive-name: intro2.1
This is the first of two introductory articles about comp.sources.x.
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.
-Mike Wexler
--------------------
Subject: Submitting source for publication
Items intended for posting or queries and problem notes should be sent to
wyse.com!x-sources.
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
that doesn't meet the guidelines will not be published.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 and my current work load.
-------------------
Subject: Guidelines
To make life easier for both me and the users of the comp.sources.x
newsgroup, I will require that the following be included in postings.
1. shell commands to extract all the files - This means
the postings should be in shar format.
2. source code - Fonts in bdf format are ok, but may be
posted differently.
3. a README file - This should be a brief description
of what this program does.
4. a Makefile
5. a man page
6. a patchlevel.h -- This keeps track of how many official
patches have been applied. When you send out a
modification it should be in context diff format
and it should update the patchlevel.h file.
If any of the above are not included, I will tell the poster and
wait until they are included before I post the program.
The following things should be included, but are not required yet.
1. A list of authors and their copying policy. Please put
this in a file called AUTHOR.
2. filenames that are 12 or fewer characters long
3. #include <X11/Xos.h> instead of things like types.h, strings.h
and time.h
4. use -display displayname and -geometry geomspec instead of old
style.
5. an Imakefile
BTW, items 1 & 2 in the optional list are required by MIT if you want to
be put on their source tape.
--------------------
Subject: The structure of comp.sources.x articles
Each posting in comp.sources.x 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.x; 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: v01i060: select: a selection widget, Part01/01
identifies this as the 60th source article in Volume 1. All sources are
broken up into pieces. This is part 1 of a 1 part posting.
Subject: v01i056: xphoon: Show phase of the Moon on root window, Part01/04
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.X, 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. Minor updates must be in patch form and update the
patchlevel.h file. Major updates should me the guidelines for postings.
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: Becoming an archive site
If you collect comp.sources.x postings and are willing and able to make
your collection available to other people, please let me know. Benefits
include the undying gratitude of your colleagues, and a promise from me to
try to make sure you never lose an article. Also I will set up direct
connections to archivers in the United States that have a Telebit modem
available.
--------------------
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
the U.K., Canada, and Switzerland are set up, and may be extended to
provide full European coverage. If you are interested please contact me.
I would love to have a Asia, Australia, and BITNET archives.
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. At the end are detailed instructions on how to access
the archives. More sites will be listed there in the future.
--------------------
Subject: Listing of archive sites in no particular order
Here is what each field means:
Person/Site: The name of the person and their mail address
Where: The general area they are located in
Service: How people will access their archive
Direct connect: Whether we can establish a UUCP connection for the
purposes of insuring that the archives are up to date.
Modems: For sites providing UUCP access, what types of modems are
available.
Person/Site: Rick Adams(postmaster at uunet)
Where: Fairfax, VA
Service: contact the postmaster for more information
Person/Site: Jason Winters (jason at aeras)
Where: San Jose, CA
Service: Anonymous UUCP & SnailMail tapes (Under duress)
Modems: 1200, 2400, Telebit (3 lines)
Person/Site: James Turner (turner at daisy):
Where: Mtn View, CA
Service: Anonymous UUCP & SnailMail tapes
Direct connect: Yes
Modems: 1200/2400, Telebits RSN
Person/Site: Rich Kulawiec (rsk at j.cc.purdue.edu)
Where: Indiana
Service: Anonymous FTP
Direct connect: No
Person/Site: Lee Daniels (lee at hhb)
Where: New Jersey
Service: anonymous UUCP
Direct connect: Yes
Modems: connect: 1200/2400
Person/Site: Paul Vixie (vixie at decwrl.dec.com)
Where: Palo Alto, California
Service: Anonymous FTP(decwrl.dec.com), UUCP to existing neighbors
Direct connect: No
Person/Site: Ron Heiby (heiby at mcdchg)
Where: Illinois
Service: Anonymous UUCP
Direct Connect: Yes
Modems: 1200 Baud
Person/Site: Sharan Kalwani (shan at mcf.uucp or mcf!shan at umix.cc.umich.edu)
Where: Michigan
Service: mail server and possible UUCP access
Direct connect: Yes
Modems: 1200/2400, Trailblazer
Person/site: David Herron (david at e.ms.uky.edu)
Where: Kentucky
Service: UUCP and anonymous FTP
Direct connect: ?
Modems: Trailblazer
Person/site: Russell Brown (russell at imtec)
Where: Peterborough, Cambrideshire, U.K.
Service: anonymous UUCP
Direct connect: Probably not
Modems: Steebek Quatro - V.22 V.22bis V.23
Person/Site: David Haynes (x-depot at geac)
Where: Markham, Ontario CANADA
Service: Mail server, tarmail, Anonymous UUCP, Tape Duplication
Direct connect: Yes
Modems: Telebits (X.25 soon)
Person/Site: Jamie Watson (mcvax!cernvax!pan!jw)
Where: Solothurn, Switzerland
Service: Anonymous UUCP, SnailMail tapes/diskettes
Direct connect: No.
Modems: Multitech 1200/2400
Person/Site: Lee McLoughlin (lmjm at doc.ic.ac.uk)
Where: Imperial College, London, United Kingdom
Service: Janet/PSS NIFTP, mail info-server
Direct connect: No
Modems: Indirectly thru' modems onto Janet 300/1200/2400
Person/site: Jeff Beadles (jeff at tekcsc.mkt.tek.com)
Where: Wilsonville, Oregon
Service: mail server, tapes, possible uucp
Direct connect: Yes
Modems: Trailblazer
Person/site: (svnet at unixprt)
Where:
Service:
Direct connect:
Modems:
Person/Site: X Users Group (harden at ics or xug at zermatt.lcs.mit.edu)
Where: Long Island, New York or Cambridge, Mass.
Service: ?
Direct connect: ?
Modems: ?
Person/Site: pax at dune
Fidonet: 369/6 - The Eye of Osiris OPUS/UFGATE 305-973-1947
Service: Fidonet archive, anonymous UUCP
Direct connect: ?
Modems: ?
Detailed instructions:
Person/Site: jason at aeras
Good morning Mister Phelps:
Your mission, should you decide to accept it is to recover the archive
files saved from the USENET Comp.sources.* groups. The wellbeing of
the users of your machine make it imperative that you succeed.
Current informants state that sources.unix, games, and misc are being
held for future generations of hackers.
Target machine: Arete' System 1200
System Statistics:
aeras Any 1200 4089439152 "" "" ogin:--ogin: uugarch word: freebee
aeras Any 19200 4089439246 "" "" ogin:--ogin: uugarch word: freebee
aeras Any 2400 4089439396 "" "" ogin:--ogin: uugarch word: freebee
Suggested places to get additional information:
/u3/archive/sources/LISTING
It has been rumored that the file LISTING contains the names of all the
programs stored in the archives, and the sizes. Note: all archives have
probably been stored in compressed form, with 12 bit compression
(for machines that can't handle 16 bit). All multiple file programs
have been stored in seperate directories, then compressed.
Best sources currently state that more information about the files stored
in a particular volume are kept in files called LOGFILE. Such as:
/u3/archive/sources/games/vol1/LOGFILE
would be the one to get to examine the exact contents of volume 1 of the
games section.
Additional information from files: sample command to recover files:
uucp aeras!/u3/archive/sources/games/vol1/LOGFILE /tmp/.
Special note: wild cards have been proven to not be reliable, so to assure
success they are not recommened tools.
Good luck.
As always: should you or anyone of your IM Force be caught, the
secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions or phone number.
This e-mail will self destruct upon typeing 'rm -rf /*' from the root console.
Person/Site: shan at mcf.uucp (Sharan Kalwani)
Sharan Kalwani at the Michigan Cancer Foundation (shan at mcf.uucp) has
set up a mail-based server. The archive resides on mcf's machine.
Comp.sources.x, comp.sources.unix and other stuff are available.
Mail to "archives at mcf.uucp" and supply the text
send index from comp.sources.x
for some help on how to access the files and an index of the files
currently online.
For human help, mail to shan at mcf.uucp or shan%mcf.uucp at umix.cc.umich.edu.
Person/Site: lee at hhb (Lee Daniels)
The East Coast Xarchive is now available. The purpose of this archive is
to provide access to all publicly available X Window System based soft-
ware through UUCP. The archive contains a complete comp.sources.x direct-
ory and a copy of what can be found on expo/contrib and expo/pub. The
expo directories will be updated roughly once a month.
The archive can currently be accessed at 1200 and 2400 baud. I am hoping
to get a Telebit Trailblazer added in the near future.
I am setting up this archive to be pseudo annonymous. In other words, I
am giving everyone access, but I want you to ask for a connection using
the attached form. When you submit the form, I will authorize your host
to call the archive and I will send you back a copy of the L.sys entry
for the archive. By not making the archive totally annonymous, I will be
able to document the usage of the archive in order to help justify its
existence to the system administrator and upper management. I am hoping
to have enough information to help justify adding the Telebit Trailblazer.
I am not going to generally provide other access to the archive other than
UUCP but if you have a special need, send me mail and maybe something can
be worked out. Please fill out the following form completely and I will
send you the rest of the information.
Lee Daniels princeton!hhb!lee at uunet.uu.net
HHB Systems
1000 Wyckoff Avenue (201) 848-8000
Mahwah, New Jersey 07430
---------------------------- c u t h e r e ---------------------------------
Name:
Email address:
Phone number:
Company:
Company address:
UUCP system's hostname:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: heiby at mcdchg.UUCP (Ron Heiby)
Here's a copy of the current "howto.snarf" file for comp.sources.unix
archives I maintain. It will have to be modified for addition of the
"X" archives. Specifically, people will have to snarf something like
"~/unix/vol01/ZZZZ" or "~/x/vol01/ZZZZ" for the .unix and .x archives,
respectively. When it's set up, I'll send you an updated "howto.snarf".
Ron.
-----
05/17/88 How to snarf files from the comp.sources.unix archives
This file explains how to get files from the comp.sources.unix archive being
maintained by the Motorola Microcomputer Div. sales office in Schaumburg, IL.
This is not an official service of Motorola and may be discontinued 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).
(Now that I think I've covered my behind sufficiently...)
The comp.sources.unix archives are currently resident on a Motorola VME Delta
Series Model 2616 running System V/68 Release 3.0 named "mcdchg". This system
is used throughout the day, but one modem line has been made available during
evening and weekend hours for getting sources from the archives. When logging
in using these procedures, mcdchg will identify itself as "mcdch1". At some
time in the future, we may go back to a two-machine networked approach. Any
sites that already have an established uucp connection with mcdchg should send
me mail to have archive access "turned on" for your uucp login, as this
procedure will not work for you as is.
In order to ensure that the archive service does not interfere with real
work, the uucico for the archive login will be have its "x" permission bits
turned off at 8 a.m. Chicago local time (CST6CDT) and on again at 6 p.m. on
weekdays. Execute permission will be turned on throughout Saturday and Sunday.
The following description of how to set up your system's uucp configuration
files is based on the Honey DanBer UUCP (Basic Networking Utilities)
implementation, as it's the only one I've used that made any sense.
You may have to adjust what I say to fit your system's requirements.
The phone number for "mcdch1" is (currently) 1-312-576-7902. There is
a single line on that number. The modem will answer at 1200bps and will
require a carraige return to get a "login:" prompt. In response to the
login prompt, your system should send the login id, "pduucp". The password
is "public". As I said above, all this is turned off between about 8 a.m.
and 6 p.m. Chicago time Monday through Friday, so we can get our real work
done, so don't bother trying it during those periods.
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 chicago5767902
"" \r\c in:--in: pduucp word: public
Once you have your system set up to place an outgoing UUCP call to
"mcdch1", you can retrieve material from the archives. There are two files
that are excellent choices for testing your link. This file is file
mcdch1!~/howto.snarf. The current directory of what is stored in the
comp.sources.unix archives is found in the file mcdch1!~/directory.
To get either of these, execute a command like:
uucp mcdch1!~/howto.snarf !~/MYNAME/
uucp mcdch1!~/directory !~/MYNAME/
The directory is simply the output from "ls -sRxF" on the comp.sources.unix
archive disk hierarchy. It is updated just before 6 p.m. every day.
Here is an old sample from the directory:
total 15 0 directory 1 make.dir* 2 vol1/
./vol1:
total 941 16 ANSI.C.Z 12 C-Kermit.ann
41 Digest.Z 12 NIC 13 Smail.Z
1 UK-1.1/ 1 Xlisp1.4/ 20 bed.Z
./vol1/UK-1.1:
total 105 4 Anno 48 Part1.Z 31 Part2.Z 22 Part3.Z
This sample shows part of the first volume of comp.sources.unix. The entries
with a slash "/" at the end of their names are directories, whose contents are
detailed below (e.g. UK-1.1). The number preceding each name is the
approximate size of the file in 512 byte blocks. Entries whose name ends with
a ".Z" have been compressed by the program compress 4.0, which can be found
(in uncompressed form) in volume 2.
Be sure to look carefully to be sure you are getting the latest version
available. Also, look for "index" files to help find what you want.
NOTE: There are occasionally inconsistencies between the archive names we have
on disk and those published in the index by the comp.sources.unix moderator.
WARNING: These files are not stored under /usr/spool/uucppublic, so requests
that specify an absolute pathname, rather than one under "~" will almost
certainly fail.
WARNING: Please be aware that uucp commands asking for file names containing
wild cards will almost certainly not work. This is because all of the
implementations I know of submit a uux job to the remote system asking
it to run "uucp" on the wild card filename. Systems logging in with
"pduucp" are prohibited from executing "uucp" or other commands via "uux".
So, be sure to ask for each file separately.
Steve Pearse (wp3b01!pearse) sent the following script which helps make
the uucp commands easier to issue. I've modified it somewhat. I hope I
didn't break it too much.
##########################
# getmod - Get comp.sources.unix archives files via uucp
if [ "$1" = "" ]
then
echo "type files in form of [ N/file or N/dir/file ], where"
echo "N is the volume number (as in volN)"
echo "or getmod -l to get list of available files"
exit 1
fi
if [ "$1" = "-l" ]
then
uucp -m mcdch1!~/directory !~/receive/src.unix/
exit 0
fi
for file
do
uucp -m mcdch1!~/vol"$file" !~/receive/src.unix/
done
echo "requested file(s) $* on `date`" |tee -a $HOME/modreqs
exit 0
##########################
If you can't figure out why the comp.sources.unix archive doesn't work,
re-read this file. If you still have trouble, talk with your system
administrator. If you are the system administrator, send electronic
mail to me at heiby at mcdchg.UUCP (mcdchg!heiby). Have fun! Ron.
-----
--
Please send comp.sources.x-related mail to mikew at wyse.com
--
Mike Wexler(wyse!mikew) Phone: (408)433-1000 x1330
Moderator of comp.sources.x
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