Table of contents
archie - Internet archive server listing service
archie
The
archie
system allows the user to query a database containing a list of software
which is available on hosts connected to the Internet network.
For hosts connected to the Internet,
software located through this service can be obtained by means of
ftp(1);
otherwise,
for hosts with access to BITNET/NetNorth/EARN,
it can be obtained by electronic mail through the Princeton
bitftp
service.
The system can be accessed in an interactive fashion or via electronic mail.
In order to use the interactive system:
-
1)
-
Connect to host
quiche.cs.mcgill.ca
(132.206.2.3 or 132.206.51.1) with
telnet(1).
-
2)
-
Login as user
archie
(no capitals, no password required).
The system prints a banner message and status report.
-
3)
-
Type ``help'' for further information.
For full details,
refer to the section entitled
which appears below.
In order to use the email interface, send requests to:
archie@cs.mcgill.ca
Send the word ``help'' in a message to obtain a list of available commands
and features.
This is a completely automated interface,
acting without human intervention.
For full details,
refer to the section entitled
which appears below.
This experimental database service is maintained by the
Computer Science Department of McGill University.
General comments and suggestions should be sent to:
archie-l@cs.mcgill.ca
Communications requesting additions to the set of hosts surveyed
for the database,
modifications to the Software Description Database,
or pertaining to other administrative matters,
should be sent to:
archie-admin@cs.mcgill.ca
Arguments to commands shown in square brackets '[]' are optional;
all others are mandatory.
-
help
-
List the valid
archie
commands.
-
list [pattern]
-
List the sites currently stored in the database,
and the time at which they were last updated.
The optional regular expression argument can be used to limit the list
to specific sites.
Note that the numerical (IP) address associated with a site name is
valid at the listed time,
but may have been changed.
Furthermore,
the listed IP address is the primary address
as listed in the DNS database
(secondary addresses are not stored).
Example:
list
lists all sites in the database,
while
list \.de$
lists all German sites.
-
mail [address1,[address2...]]
-
Mail the output of the last command
to the specified address or comma-separated list of addresses
(no spaces must appear in the address list).
Example:
mail user1@hello.edu,user2@goodbye.com
In the absence of an argument, the mail is sent to the address
specified by the
mailto
variable.
Example:
mail
Conventional Internet addressing styles are understood.
BITNET sites should use the convention:
user@sitename.bitnet
UUCP addresses can be specified as
user@sitename.uucp
-
prog pattern
-
Find all occurrences of programs with names matching
pattern.
The interpretation of
pattern
depends upon the value of the
search
variable.
The output lists the names of hosts with matching entries,
the size of the matching program,
its last modification date, and its path.
The results are sorted according to the value of the
sortby
variable,
and are limited in number by the
maxhits
variable.
-
set variable-name
-
Set the specified variable.
See the section below concerning available variables,
as well as the entries for
unset
and
show.
-
show [variable-name]
-
Display the value of a particular variable.
If no variable is specified, display
all
variables.
Example:
show maxhits
-
site sitename
-
Produce a full table of contents for a specified
ftp(1)
site in the
archie
database.
The output format is similar to that of the UNIX command:
ls -lR
Example:
site col.hp.com
-
unset variable
-
Remove any value associated with the specified variable.
This may cause counter-intuitive behavior in some cases;
for example, if
maxhits
is not defined by the user,
prog
will print the default number of matches rather than an
unlimited number of matches.
-
whatis substring
-
Search the Software Description Database for the given substring,
ignoring case.
This database consists of names and short descriptions of many
software packages,
documents (like RFCs and educational material),
and data files stored on the Internet.
Example:
whatis uucp
in part gives as a result:
findpath.sh UUCP Pathfinder
logfile-stats UUCP LOGFILE analyzer
mapstats UUCP map statistics program
The behavior of
archie
can be modified by certain variables,
the values of which may be changed using the
set
command, or removed entirely by the
unset
command.
There are three variable types:
-
boolean
-
(Set or unset)
-
numeric
-
(Integer within a defined range)
-
string
-
(String of characters, may or may not be restricted).
-
pager
-
Filter all output through the pager
less(1L)
(default: unset).
When using the pager you may also want to set the
term
variable to your terminal type (see
term
variable).
Example:
set pager
-
status
-
During the database search,
display a status-line containing the number of matches and percentage of
the database searched (default: set).
-
autologout
-
Set the length of idle time
(in minutes)
allowed before automatic logout
(permissible range: 1-300; default: 60).
Example:
set autologout 45
logs the user out after 45 minutes of idle time.
-
maxhits
-
Allow the
prog
command to generate at most the specified number of matches
(permissible range: 0-1000; default: 1000).
Set this to a smaller value if
archie
is too slow.
Example:
set maxhits 100
halts
prog
after 100 matches have been found.
-
mailto
-
If the
mail(1)
command is issued with no arguments,
mail the output of the last command to the address
specified by this string variable,
which may contain a single mail address,
or a comma-separated list of addresses
(lists must not contain whitespace).
Example:
set mailto user@frobozz.com
Example:
set mailto user1@hello.edu,user2@goodbye.com
Conventional Internet addressing styles are understood.
BITNET sites should use the convention:
user@sitename.bitnet
UUCP addresses can be specified as
user@sitename.uucp
-
search
-
Define the type of search to be performed by the
prog
command.
The following values are permitted:
-
exact
-
Exact match (the fastest method).
A match occurs if the file (or directory)
name in the database corresponds
exactly
to the user-given substring (including case).
For example,
this type of search could be used to locate all
xlock.tar.Z
files.
-
regex
-
Allow user-specified (search) strings to take the form of
ed(1)
regular expressions (the default search method).
Note:
unless specifically anchored to the beginning (with ^) or end
(with $) of a line,
ed(1)
regular expressions (effectively) have ``.*'' prepended and
appended to them.
For example,
it is not necessary to type
prog .*xnlock.*
because
prog xnlock
suffices.
In this instance,
the
regex
match is equivalent a simple substring match.
Those unfamiliar with regular expressions should refer to the
section entitled
which appears below.
-
sub
-
Substring (case insensitive).
A match occurs if the file (or directory)
name in the database contains the user-given substring,
without regard to case.
Example:
The pattern:
is
matches any of the following:
islington
this
poison
-
subcase
-
Substring (case sensitive).
As above,
but taking case as significant.
Example:
The pattern:
TeX
will match:
LaTeX
but neither of the following:
Latex
TExTroff
-
sortby
-
Set the method of sorting to be applied to output from
prog.
Typing the keyboard interrupt character (generally Ctl-C on UNIX hosts)
aborts a search.
Results obtained to that point will be sorted according to the
sortby
variable and sent as output.
The output phase may be aborted by typing the abort character a second time.
The five permitted methods (and their associated reverse orders) are:
-
none
-
Unsorted (default; no reverse order, though
rnone
is accepted)
-
filename
-
Sort files/directories by name, using lexical order (reverse order:
rfilename)
-
hostname
-
Sort on the archive hostname, in lexical order (reverse order:
rhostname)
-
size
-
Sort by size, largest files/directories first (reverse order:
rsize)
-
time
-
Sort by modification time,
with the most recent file/directory names first (reverse order:
rtime)
-
term
-
Specify the type of terminal in use
(and optionally, its size in rows and columns).
This information is used by the pager.
The usage is:
set term <terminal-type> [<#rows> [<#columns>]]
The terminal type is mandatory,
but the number of rows and columns is optional;
specify either rows only,
or both rows and columns (default: 24 rows, 80 columns).
Examples:
set term vt100
set term xterm 60
set term xterm 24 100
The
archie
email interface currently accepts a limited subset of
the interactive interface commands, plus a few of its own.
Variables are not supported in the email interface.
The ``Subject:'' line in incoming mail is processed as if it
were part of the main message body.
The
help
command is exclusive;
all other commands in the same message are ignored.
A message not containing a valid request will be treated as a
help
request.
The server recognizes the following commands:
-
compress
-
Process the mail message with the
compress(1)
and
uuencode(1)
programs.
Upon receiving the reply,
the recipient should
remove the mail header and run the rest of the file through
uudecode(1),
producing a file with a name of the form:
file.Z
Process this file with
uncompress(1)
to obtain the results of the request.
-
help
-
Send a message describing how to use the email interface.
-
path path
-
Override the return address that would normally be extracted from the header.
The path describes how to mail a message from
cs.mcgill.ca,
which is fully connected to the Internet,
to your address.
Consider adding a
path
command to a request to provide an explicit return address if the
archie
server does not respond to the original request within several hours.
BITNET users should use the convention:
user@site.bitnet
UUCP users should use the convention:
user@site.uucp
-
prog <reg exp1> [<reg exp2> ...]
-
Search of database for each
./RI < "reg exp" >
(an
ed(1)-style)
regular expression,
and return any matches.
Multiple
regular expressions may be placed on one line,
in which case the results will be mailed back in one message.
Where regular expressions appear on multiple lines,
multiple messages will be returned,
one for each line (not working correctly yet).
Any regular expression containing spaces must be quoted with single
or double quotes.
Searches are case sensitive.
The
prog
command is executed as if the
search
variable were set to
regex.
Those unfamiliar with regular expressions should refer to the
section entitled
which appears below.
-
quit
-
Stop interpreting the request.
This prevents the inadvertent interpretation of
text in an email signature which might accidentally resemble a valid
archie
command.
-
site <site name> | <site IP address>
-
Return a list of the contents of the specified
<site name>.
The fully qualified domain name or IP address may be used.
Regular expressions follow the conventions of the
ed(1)
command,
allowing sophisticated pattern matching.
In the following discussion,
the string containing a regular expression will be called
the ``pattern'',
and the string against which it is to be matched is called
the ``reference string''.
Regular expressions imbue certain characters with special meaning,
providing a quoting mechanism to remove this special meaning
when required.
The rules governing regular expression are:
-
c
-
A character
c
matches itself unless it has been assigned a special meaning as listed below.
A special character loses its special meaning
when preceded by the character '\'.
This does not apply to '{',
which is non-special
until
it is so treated.
Thus, although '*' normally has special meaning,
the string '\*' matches itself.
Example:
The pattern
acdef
matches any of the following:
s83acdeffff
acdefsecs
acdefsecs
but neither of the following:
accdef
aacde1f
Example:
Normally the characters '*' and '$' are special, but the pattern
a\*bse\$
acts as above.
Any reference string containing:
*abse$
as a substring will be flagged as a match.
-
.
-
A period
(known as a
wildcard
character)
matches any character except the newline character.
Example:
The pattern
....
will match any 4 characters in the reference string,
except a newline character.
-
^
-
A caret (^) appearing at the beginning of a pattern
requires that the reference string must
start
with the specified pattern
(an escaped caret,
or a caret appearing elsewhere in the pattern,
is treated as a non-special character).
Example:
The pattern
^efghi
The pattern will match only those reference strings starting with
efghi;
thus, it will match either of the following:
efghi
efghijlk
but not:
abcefghi
-
$
-
A dollar sign ($) appearing at the end of a pattern
requires that the pattern appear at the end of a reference string
(an escaped dollar sign, or a dollar sign appearing elsewhere,
is treated as a regular character).
Example:
The pattern
efghi$
Will match either of the following:
efghi
abcdefghi
but not:
efghijkl
-
\<
-
Match something at the beginning of a
word
(the beginning of a line,
or just before a letter,
digit,
or underline character,
or just after a character which is not one of the foregoing).
Example:
The pattern
\<abc
matches the last abc in the reference string:
@hijabc#+abc
but not the first, since the first abc did not start on a word boundary.
-
\>
-
Match the following one-character regular expression at the end of a word,
as defined above.
-
[string]
-
Match any single character within the brackets.
The caret (^) has a special meaning if it is the first character in
the series:
the pattern will match any character
other
than one in the list.
Example:
The pattern
[^abc]
Will match any character
except
one of:
a
b
c
To match a right bracket (]) in the list,
put it first, as in:
[]ab01]
A caret appearing anywhere but the in first position is treated as a
regular character.
The minus (-) character is special within square brackets.
It is used to define a range of ASCII characters to be matched.
For example, the pattern:
[a-z]
matches any lower case letter.
The minus can be made non-special by placing it first or last
within the square brackets.
The characters '$', '*' and '.'
are not special within square brackets.
Example:
The pattern
[ab01]
matches a single occurrence of a character from the set:
a
b
0
1
Example:
The pattern
[^ab01]
will match any single character other than one from the set:
a
b
0
1
Example :
The pattern
[a0-9b]
matches one of the characters:
a
b
or a digit between 0 and 9,
inclusive.
Example :
The pattern
[^a0-9b.$]
matches any single character which is not in the set:
a
b
.
$
or a digit between 0 and 9, inclusive.
-
*
-
Match zero or more occurrences of an immediately preceding regular expression.
Example:
The pattern
a*
matches zero or more occurrences of the character:
a
Example:
The pattern
[A-Z]*
matches zero or more occurrences of the upper case alphabet.
-
\{m\}
-
Match exactly
m
occurrences of a preceding regular expression,
where
m
is a non-negative integer between 0 and 255 (inclusive).
Example:
The pattern
ab\{3\}
matches any substring in the reference string consisting of the character
`a' followed by exactly three `b' characters.
-
\{m,\}
-
Match at least
m
occurrences of the preceding regular expression.
Example:
The pattern
ab\{3,\}
matches any substring in the reference string of the character `a'
followed by at least three `b' characters.
-
\{m,n\}
-
Match between
m
and
n
occurrences of the preceding regular expression
(where
n
is a non-negative integer between 0 and 255, and
n>m).
Example:
The pattern
ab\{3,5\}
matches any substring in the reference string consisting of the character
`a' followed by at least three but at most five `b' characters.
-
1)
-
When matching a substring it is not necessary to use the wildcard
character to match the part of the reference string preceding and
following the substring.
Example:
The pattern
abcd
will match any reference string containing this pattern.
It is not necessary to use
.*abcd.*
as the pattern.
-
2)
-
In order to constrain a pattern to the entire reference pattern,
use the construction:
^pattern$
-
3)
-
The '[]' operator provides an easy mechanism
to obtain case insensitivity.
For example,
to match the word:
hello
regardless of case, use the pattern:
[Hh][Ee][Ll][Ll][Oo]
The
archie
database subsystem maintains a list of about 600 Internet
ftp(1)
archive sites.
Each night, the database subsystem executes an anonymous
ftp(1)
to a subset of these sites and fetches a recursive directory listing (or
a file containing the recursive directory listing if this exists).
Currently, each site gets updated approximately once a month.
The directory listings are stored on
quiche.cs.mcgill.ca
(132.206.2.3),
where they are available to the Internet community via anonymous
ftp(1).
They appear in the directory
~ftp/archie/listings
in compressed form.
-
1)
-
Only UNIX sites are included in the database.
-
2)
-
The user can not limit searches to specific sites.
-
3)
-
There is no graphical user interface.
-
4)
-
There is no way to abort the help facility completely.
The
archie
system is regarded as developmental,
and is not presently being released to outside sites.
The current database requires about 70 MB of disk storage,
and the updates and searches put a noticeable load
on the Sun 4/280 on which it operating.
We hope to distribute
archie
to several other sites throughout the world, at a later date.
We welcome comments and suggestions;
please send them to
archie-l@cs.mcgill.ca.
bitftp (1L),
ftp(1),
telnet(1)
Alan Emtage (bajan@cs.mcgill.ca) and
Bill Heelan (wheelan@cs.mcgill.ca), McGill University.
Manual page by R. P. C. Rodgers,
UCSF School of Pharmacy, San Francisco,
California 94143 (rodgers@maxwell.mmwb.ucsf.edu),
Nelson H. F. Beebe (beebe@math.utah.edu),
and Alan Emtage.