From: Erik Naggum <SGML@ifi.uio.no>
Reply-To: Erik Naggum <enag@ifi.uio.no>
Date: 15 Dec 1992 00:15:28 +0100
Supersedes: <19921212.003@erik.naggum.no>
Subject: FTP, mail server, archive stuff

The mail addresses in the previous messages didn't work out, so there
are a few changes in the mail addresses.  No more changes this year, I
promise.

Summary of changes:
    FTP-by-mail:
	sgml@ftp.ifi.uio.no	=> sgml.ftp@ifi.uio.no
    mail-to-news gateway:
	sgml@nntp.ifi.uio.no	=> sgml.nntp@ifi.uio.no
    news-to-mail gateway:
	sgml@ifi.uio.no		=> sgml.request@ifi.uio.no
    everything else:
	sgml@ifi.uio.no		=> sgml@ifi.uio.no (i.e., no change)

An updated announcement follows.  The previous one has been cancelled.

Best regards,
</Erik>

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

There have been some changes to the SGML archive services at the
Department of Informatics of the University of Oslo recently.  The
archive receipt that all frequent posters know by heart by now has been
reduced to a one-liner for those who have posted something in the
previous eight weeks.  For infrequent or new posters, a longer intro is
sent with the archive receipt.  It basically goes like this:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Since it appears that you are an infrequent or new poster to the
newsgroup, I have taken the liberty to include some information about
the archive.

If you have direct access to the Internet, two very convenient access
options apply.

(1) With the WAIS source comp.text.sgml.src.  This source allows fuzzy
    keyword searches.  Warning: You may get a large number of hits.

(2) With anonymous FTP to ftp.ifi.uio.no.  Articles are archived both
    by Message-ID and by date, in /pub/SGML/comp.text.sgml/by.msgid
    and /pub/SGML/comp.text.sgml/by.date, respectively.  This can be
    used to retrieve articles that you missed, based on message-ids in
    the References header.

Search requests can also be mailed to <sgml@ifi.uio.no> for manual
processing.

An experimental FTP-by-mail service is available by sending FTP commands
to <sgml.ftp@ifi.uio.no>.  (See RFC 959 for a list of commands, or send
a HELP command.)

If you should be unable to _post_ to the newsgroup, articles mailed to
<sgml.news@ifi.uio.no> will be posted to comp.text.sgml.  The headers
may be edited to include a missing References header in replies, but
will be posted automatically if all required headers are present and
valid.

If you should be unable to _read_ the newsgroup, you may request to be
added to the comp.text.sgml mailing list by sending a message with the
subject "subscribe comp.text.sgml" to <sgml.request@ifi.uio.no>.

If you have any questions about the archive, just reply to this message.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'd like the two paragraphs about access to the newsgroup for people
with no access to USENET to be distributed as far as possible.  Your
help is appreciated.

The FTP-by-mail service is experimental, which means that I may change
its behavior without prior warning.  However, such changes only apply to
the messages that are returned from the service, not commands sent to
it.  (SGML is about letting the information survive the system, and so
is the intent with the interface to this service.)  As mentioned above,
the commands are taken from RFC 959, which defines the FTP protocol.
For our purposes, both the subject header and the message body can
contain commands.  Garbage in the subject field is ignored.  The first
non-command line in the message is treated as QUIT.  A full transaction
log is sent by return mail.  (I haven't decided yet whether I will
always return retrieved files in separate messages or in-line, or mix
and match according to size and other variables.)  (For the mail
connoisseurs: the References and In-Reply-To field will contain the
Message-ID of the request message for all returned messages, and the
subject field will contain the type of response.)

The reason for choosing the FTP commands is that they're proven to work,
and simple programs can be written to do "batch FTP" with a mail server.

The HELP command produces this response:

214-The following commands are recognized:
   -Administrative:
   -	USER	Login as user (first half of login operation)
   -	PASS	Password (second half of login operation)
   -	QUIT	Terminate service
   -	HELP	Retrieve this message
   -
   -File transfer and manipulation:
   -	TYPE	Transfer type (default: ASCII)
   -	RETR	Retrieve file
   -	STOR*	Store file
   -	APPE*	Append to file
   -	RNFR*	Rename From (first half of rename operation)
   -	RNTO*	Rename To (second half of rename operation)
   -	DELE*	Delete file
   -	CWD	Change working directory (initial: /pub/SGML)
   -	LIST	List files in local system format
   -	NLST	List names of files (not directories)
   -	MKD *	Make directory
   -	RMD *	Remoe directory
   -	PWD	Print working directory
   -	CDUP	Change to parent directory
   -	STOU*	Store unique
   -	SIZE	Report size of file
   -
   -Special offers:
   -	PORT	Select data transfer method
   -	MDTM	Report modification time
   -	FIND	Search for regular expression in file name
   -	GREP	Search for regular expression in directory
   -	ENCD	Mail encoding (default: uuencode)
   -
   -Commands marked * requires login.  Enquiries to sgml@ifi.uio.no.
214 Send requests to sgml.ftp@ifi.uio.no, comments to sgml@ifi.uio.no

PORT is abused.  It takes as argument where to send the response, and
can be one of "In-line", "Message", or an e-mail address where the data
files should be sent.  This is not according to RFC 959!

ENCD takes an argument which specifies the encoding to use for image
(binary) transfers.  Supported values are "uuencode", "xxencode",
"btoa", and "base64".  TYPE will revert to IMAGE if the file is
suspected to be binary, and trigger the mail encoding.  If set to IMAGE,
it will not revert to ASCII for text files.

To aid the batch user, file names matched by regular expressions in
LIST, NLST, or FIND are used as the default file name(s) in subsequent
commands if the argument is the special token "<>".  Commands take only
one argument, but this will cause iteration over the "selected" file
names.

To help avoid the annoying problem of changing to the right directory, a
search for the full directory name will be made if the argument doesn't
match a subdirectory of the current directory, and it doesn't contain
directory separators (/).

A typical request will look like this:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: user@major.net
To: sgml.ftp@ifi.uio.no

CWD  comp.text.sgml/by.msgid
RETR Bz4BF1.AI9@bcstec.ca.boeing.com
QUIT
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

The return message will look somewhat like this, depending on what I do
with this software:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: sgml.request@ifi.uio.no
To: user@major.net

220-ftp.ifi.uio.no FTP-by-mail server (version 0.0) ready
220 Defaults: USER=ANONYMOUS PASS=user@major.net PORT=in-line TYPE=ascii
230 ANONYMOUS user logged in
>>> CWD comp.text.sgml/by.msgid
250 CWD command successful
>>> RETR Bz4BF1.AI9@bcstec.ca.boeing.com
150-Sending /pub/SGML/comp.text.sgml/by.msgid/Bz4BF1.AI9@bcstec.ca.boeing.com
150 Text file follows, ending with "." on line by itself.
Newsgroups: comp.text.sgml
From: vanzwol@bcstec.ca.boeing.com (Ted Van Zwol)
Subject: (1) PD Parser;  (2) Arbortext
Organization: Boeing
Date: 11 Dec 1992 23:18:36 (19921211231836)
	.
	.
	.
.
226 Transfer complete (1220 characters, 28 lines/records).
>>> QUIT
221 Thanks for using the SGML FTP-by-mail server.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

I won't claim that all these commands will actually be implemented from
day one (i.e. today), but at least this is what I think we need.  Most
probably, the more esoteric commands will be implemented as requests
using them com ein.  The login feature will be used to allow people to
store and control files in the archive, if anybody wants it.  Send me
mail for more information.  Some files may be protected and will thus
also require a password to access them.  More on this when (if?) it's
used.

Give it a try!

Best regards,
</Erik>
--
Erik Naggum                 ISO  8879 SGML                    +47 295 0313
                            ISO 10744 HyTime
<erik@naggum.no>            ISO  9899 C                 Memento, terrigena
<enag@ifi.uio.no>           ISO 10646 UCS             Memento, vita brevis
--
Erik Naggum                 ISO  8879 SGML                    +47 295 0313
                            ISO 10744 HyTime
<erik@naggum.no>            ISO  9899 C                 Memento, terrigena
<enag@ifi.uio.no>           ISO 10646 UCS             Memento, vita brevis
Newsgroups: comp.text.sgml