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From: peterd@cc.mcgill.ca (Peter Deutsch)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin
Subject: Re: Where to find software!
Message-ID: <1991Aug30.171708.16942@thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu>
Date: 30 Aug 91 17:17:08 GMT
References: <1991Aug30.005005.18372@ccu1.aukuni.ac.nz>
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Russell J Fulton;ccc032u writes
>(Christian Rohrmeier) writes:
> 
> >A number of you have posted asking for anonymous ftp listings
> >for various programs. You can search for just about anything
> >your self usuing the archie anonymous ftp database:
> 
> >telnet quiche.cs.mcgill.ca (132.206.2.3)
> >login: archie

Hi from one of the archie gang. Mr. Rohrmeier's posting is accurate,
but I've a couple of additions and bits of news.

Plans call for us to move the Montreal archie server some time in the 
not too distant future to another machine. To help smooth the
transition, we've set up a CNAME and are encouraging people to get
use to the address "archie.mcgill.ca". The Finnish site is also
now known as "archie.funet.fi" and the Australian site is
"archie.au" (Wow! We're talking about getting our own domain! :-)

> >You can now scan archies vast up-to-date database for files using
> >the "prog" command:
> 
> >prog emacs
> 
> >would search for all entries with "emacs" in them.

Note that the "telnet" interface to archie has a total of
four different search methods, including Exact Match, Regular
Expression, etc. See the help command or the archie man page
(available for anon ftp from archie.mcgill.ca in the "archie/doc"
directory).

  .  .
> Even better get and install the archie client that was posted to one  
of
> the source groups recently (either alt.sources or comp.misc.sources)
> Using the client is faster and puts less load on quiche....

A number of people are working on archie clients, mostly
working through the Prospero archie server. I know of an Xwindows
version, a Perl version, an sh version (I think this used telnet)
etc. Some are still in beta, but should be available soon.

The archie clients are being collected on "archie.mcgill.ca" as they
come out of beta. There are now two in the "archie/clients" directory.
In addtion, a stand-alone Prospero client is available as part of the
Prospero release on "june.cs.washington.edu". Cliff Neumann (the
author of Prospero) has moved to ISI and I suspect that the release
will follow him there but I just checked and it is still available in
the pub directory on "june" ("prospero.tar.Z") There is a stand-alone
command for those that don't want the entire Prospero release.

> Also remember there are several other archie servers around the world
> now. Us the one closest to you.

I've already mentioned the Australian and Finnish servers. We've
given source to another 10 groups (mostly regionals) and hope to see
more North American servers up soon. Ask your regional about us!

> Archie is fine if you know exactly what you are looking for. If you  
have
> general queries they should be posted to one of the *.wanted groups.

Actually, we also have a "whatis" command that works a lot like
a "man -k". The current whatis database is a collection of about 
3,500 names and descriptions of packages (not just software, we also
have RFCs, other docs, etc). If you've published something on the net
and we don't have it, please send us a description and we'll add it
to the database.

We plan to add additional databases as soon as one of us can find the
time to hack it in. Things we'd like to see are up to date Frequently 
Asked Questions postings, the "list of lists" that describe public
mailing lists, a list of archive sites for Usenet newsgroups,
etc. Suggestions for new lists (or anything else we could track
for you) are welcome and should be sent to the
archie maintainers' list "archie-l@cs.mcgill.ca" (that too will change,
but we're moving our mail guru machine and want to stabilize that
first).

That's about it for now. Additional documentation on archie is
(painfully and slowly) being prepared and will be in the "archie/doc"
directory for anon ftp as it is finished. Suggestions, comments,
criticisms, etc are welcome and should be sent to the
"archie-l@cs.mcgill.ca" list.


				- peterd