About Archie...



What's Archie (go top)


Archie was developed at McGill University School of Computer Science (Canada) by Alan Emtage, Bill Heelan and Peter Deutsch. Archie locate files on anonymous FTP servers anywhere on the Internet. Periodically Archie verify every FTP registered server, so it can update a list (named Internet Archive Database) which contains all the files and directories found in every FTP server checked. All archie servers contain the same list. You can access the archie database: via a local client, Telnet session, www, or electronic mail. However, when you look for informations on an archie server, you should respect these rules:


Using a local client (go top)


Using a local archie client is better than using remote client. In fact if you are accessing Archie via telnet session, the Archie server has to provide an interactive interface. What does it means? Well, it means that Archie has to work more for you, because it has to wait for any your command, check any key you push and so on...On the contrary, if you use a local client, those operations are performed by your client program, and then sent to the Archie server. So any your request is lined up with other users requests. In this way, Archie answers to your request, as soon as possible.

By using a local client therefore, server performance and response time will improve.

So, sometimes, when you try to connect to an archie server via telnet session, that server can be busy, and maybe it can't accept other users. In that case, Archie send a message which says to try again later, and a list of other archie servers.

But if you are using a local client, you have not this problem.

Public domain clients for accessing archie servers are available from the archie sites using anonymous FTP, and are in the directories /pub/archie/clients or /archie/clients. However you can find archie client for your system (Windows for example) also trying on Tucows sites or look at http://www.shareware.com for example.


Using Telnet (go top)

Telnet nameserver

At the 'login:' prompt, enter archie.

Commands

  • exit, quit, bye exits archie.
  • help invokes the on-line help. If a command-name is given, the help request is restricted to that command. To exit from the on-line help, type 'done' and press enter.
  • find search for specific string.
  • list provides a list of the FTP servers known by the server you are connected. You can limit the list (more than 1000 sites!) by an optional parameter. For example: list \.it$ will list only Italian sites.
  • mail <,email2...> send the result of the last command to specified e-mail address(es).
  • show displays the value of the given variable. Without arguments, it displays all variables.
  • set variable value changes the value of a specified variable.
  • server show a list of servers known by that server which you are connected.
  • whatis string searches for a string inside of the descriptions of files. The search is case insensitive.
    •

    Variables and values are:

  • compress compress-method specifies the compression method (none or compress) to be used in mailing a result with the mail command.
  • encode encode-method specifies the encoding method (none or uuencode) to be used in mailing a result with the mail command.
  • mailto email <,email2 ...> specifies the e-mail address(es) to send result of your request.
  • match_domains limit search to specific domain.
  • match_path limit search to specific directory.
  • maxhits number specifies the maximum number of matches will be generated. The default value is 1000. To improve server performance, set maxhits to a lower value (25 for example).
  • search search-value determines the kind of search performed on the database by the command. Search values are:
    •
  • sortby sort-value describes how the result will be sorted. (hostname, time, size, filename).
  • output_format terse|verbose tells to Archie how it has to show result: by using 'terse' output will be more synthetic. 'Verbose' will show all informations.
  • pager color="#80FFFF"> tells the archie server how to scroll results on the screen. Archie will show a single page at time. You can scroll pages by press space bar. You can exit by typing 'q' and then press enter.
  • term terminal-type tells the archie server what type of terminal you are using, and optionally its size in rows and columns (example: set term xterm 24 100).
    •

    Using electronic mail (go top)

    Archie commands are written in the text of the mail message. An empty message means an help request. Help sends you the help file. The help command is exclusive, so other commands in the same message are ignored. Set mailto return-address, specifies a return e-mail address different from that which is extracted from the message header. Example:

    send to: archie@name
    subject:nothing

    text:

    set mailto userid@host
    set search sub
    set maxhits 50
    find fax
    whatis fax
    quit


    Learning more about ARCHIE (go top)


    If you have any questions about archie, write to the Archie Group, Bunyip Information Systems Inc. at info@bunyip.com. The database administrator at a particular archie server can be contacted at archie-admin@address.of.archie.server, e.g. archie-admin@archie.ac.il. Mailing list: archie-people@bunyip.com. To subscribe send a mail to: archie-people-request@bunyip.com.


    Public server list (go top)

    (Last Update: Mar 14th 1995) 

    Archie is now supported by Bunyip Information Systems Inc., Canada.

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