From: ftpmail@cs.uow.edu.au
Newsgroups: aus.general,aus.mail,aus.archives,aus.aarnet
Subject: ftpmail - automatic monthly posting
Date: 25 Aug 92 01:13:05 GMT
Reply-To: ftpmail@cs.uow.edu.au
Distribution: aus
Organization: University of Wollongong

The ftpmail service is designed to provide a ftp service to
those sites without Internet access. The ftpmail gateway
parses mail items to extract requests to fetch files or
obtain directory listings from Internet ftp hosts.

The address of the gateway is

ftpmail@cs.uow.edu.au

To mail to the maintainer of the ftpmail service send mail to

ftpmail-adm@cs.uow.edu.au

The following is a copy of the help file ftpmail returns
when it does not understand your request.

====================================================================


Welcome to the University of Wollongong MAIL to FTP gateway.

This message is the response the gateway sends when it does
not understand your request.

The gateway is a simple attempt to provide a service to those
people who have electronic mail but no access to Internet
for FTP.

Requests
========

	To access the gateway send mail to

	ftpmail@cs.uow.edu.au

The gateway software will examine the body of your mail item
(headers are ingored) and try to determine what machine you
wish to access and what file you want fetched.

It also implements a interface to the "archie" system
for locating files available for anonymous ftp.
Archie searches a database of files available for
ftp from a list of major archive sites.

For example, you may know of a product called
"amd" but not know where it is available on the
Internet. You could use the "archie" command to find out
where a copy of "amd" is available. Some information on using the
"archie" command is enclosed at the end of this document.

Using FTPMAIL
============

Normally, ftpmail attempts to connect with the target machine as an anonymous
ftp user. It is possible to override the user name ftpmail will use for the
connection as well as specify a password (see below).

If the above step is successful it then attempts the transfer in binary
mode and if successful mails the files to you. All files are sent uuencoded.
If the file is large it is split into smaller pieces and
each piece is sent separately.

Each request must contain a single line of the form

HOST hostname

to specify the remote host you wish to access. The "hostname" field above
may be a INTERNET style domain name or an IP address in dotted notation.
Wherever possible, names should be used rather than IP numbers.
You may only have a single "HOST" line per FTPMAIL request.
If using dotted decimal notation, do not enclose the address inside
[] style brackets.

To specify the file to transfer your request must contain
a line of the form

GET filename-1 filename-2 ........

Each request can only contain one GET command but each GET command
may specify several file names.

If you wish to list the files available on a remote machine
your request should contain a line of the form

DIR directory-1 directory-2 .......

A request may contain only one of either a GET or a DIR line.

If you have a problem send mail to ftpmail-adm@cs.uow.edu.au
or the postmaster. The system is experimental and probably contains
many bugs. If you find a bug, please notify the above address so
it can be fixed.

Ftpmail normally sends fetched files back to you as a series
of shell archives. If you are not on a UNIX system
(my condolences) you may specify you want the uuencoded segments
"raw" by specifying a line of the form

PLAINMAIL

in your request. In this case you may combine the uuencoded segments
by hand. There is no way to avoid the uuencoding or the
splitting of large files.


Using a specified user name
===========================

Ftpmail allows the user to specify the user name and password
to use for the connection. If you use this facility remember that
the password you specify appears in the mail item as PLAIN
TEXT. Mail is not secure so sending plain text passwords should be
used with extreme caution. In general, only publicly available
passwords should be sent in this manner.

The commands for specifying a user name and password are

USER username      (no spaces allowed)

and

PASSWORD password     (no spaces allowed)

Ftpmail will attempt to connect to the specified server
(from the HOST command) and use the specified user name
and password.


Using ARCHIE
============

If your request contains a line of the form

ARCHIE parameters

then ftpmail will invoke the "archie" command with the parameters
specified. For example, if you sent mail containing the line

ARCHIE amd

then ftpmail will invoke "archie" with the argument amd.

The output from the command is mailed back exactly as it
is printed by the "archie" command.

The man page for "archie" follows.




ARCHIE(1)                USER COMMANDS                  ARCHIE(1)



NAME
     archie - query archie anonymous ftp databases using Prospero

SYNOPSIS
     archie [ -c | -e | -r | -s ] [ -l ] [ -t ] [ -m number ]  [
     -h host ] [ -v ] string

DESCRIPTION
     archie queries an archie anonymous ftp database looking  for
     the  specified  string  using  the  Prospero protocol.  This
     client is based on Prospero version Beta.4.2.

     The general method of use is

     % archie string

     For example,

     % archie emacs

     will find all anonymous FTP sites  in  the  archie  database
     that  have the word emacs among their listed files.  Regular
     expressions, such as

     % archie -r '[xX][lL]isp'

     may also be used for searches.


OPTIONS
     The options currently available to this archie client are:

     -c   Case sensitive substring search.

     -e   Exact string match.  (This is the default.)

     -r   Regular expression search.

     -s   Case insensitive substring search.

     -l   List one match per line.

     -t   Sort inverted by date.

     -m  number
          Specifies the  maximum  number  of  hits  (matches)  to
          return.  By default, this value is 95.

     -h host
          Specifies the server host to query.

     -v   Display the version of Prospero  that  this  client  is



Archie (Prospero)   Last change: 31 July 1991                   1






ARCHIE(1)                USER COMMANDS                  ARCHIE(1)



          based upon.

SEE ALSO
     For  more  information  on  regular  expressions,  see   the
     man[ual] pages on:

     regex(3) , ed(1)


NOTES
     If you have any questions about Archie (the service) itself,
     write to archie-l@cs.mcgill.ca.  If you have questions about
     Prospero, write to info-prospero@cs.washington.edu.  If  you
     have   questions  about  this  specific  package,  write  to
     brendan@cs.widener.edu (Brendan Kehoe).




Peter Gray                    Internet: pdg@draci.cs.uow.EDU.AU
Professional Officer          UUCP:     ...!munnari!draci.cs.uow.EDU.AU!pdg  
Dept of Computer Science      MHSnet:   pdg@draci.cs.uow.oz.au
University of Wollongong      Phone: +61 42 213770                       
N.S.W.  2500  Australia       Fax :  +61 42 213262