Path: gmdzi!unido!unidui!math.fu-berlin.de!fauern!ira.uka.de!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!bloom-picayune.mit.edu!athena.mit.edu!jik
From: j...@athena.mit.edu (Jonathan I. Kamens)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.wanted,alt.sources.wanted
Subject: Information about finding sources (READ THIS BEFORE POSTING)
Message-ID: <csw_faq_672995433@athena.mit.edu>
Date: 30 Apr 91 07:10:44 GMT
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I. Table of contents
This article contains the following sections.
I. Table of contents
II. Introduction
III. How do you find sources?
IV. Things not do do
V. Searching techniques in detail
1. Usenet source newsgroups
2. The "archie" database
3. Jon Granrose's anonymous ftp directory
4. Comp.archives
5. Comp.sources.wanted
VI. File retrieval techniques in detail
1. Anonymous ftp
2. Hrc mail archive
3. Uunet mail archive
4. BITFTP
5. Anonymous UUCP archives
6. Periodic posting archives
7. AT&T's netlib archive
To find a particular section, search forward for a line beginning with
the Roman numeral corresponding to the desired section. For example,
search forward for "IV." at the beginning of the line to find the
section entitled "Things not to do".
II. Introduction
This posting discusses the resources available to people who are
looking for source code. Please read it before posting source code
requests to comp.sources.wanted, alt.sources.wanted or any other
newsgroup.
Comments about, suggestions about or corrections to this posting are
welcomed.
III. How do you find sources?
The method you use for locating sources depends on exactly what you
are looking for. Here are several possible routes to follow; pick the
one that best suits your needs. The descriptions below mention
general techniques (e.g. "Check the Usenet source newsgroup indices.")
which are described in detail later in this posting. These
descriptions are listed in order from most preferred to least
preferred solution. You will notice that "Post in
comp.sources.wanted" is listed last. This is because posting
a message in comp.sources.wanted should only be used as a last resort
when you have exhausted all other alternatives.
Once you have located your source code using the instructions below,
you can retrieve it via E-mail or anonymous ftp (depending on what is
accessible to you and on where the code is archived); this is
described in detail later in this posting.
Before following *any* of the routes below, the first thing you should
do is exhaust the local resources that are available to you. Often, a
program that you are looking for will already be accessible somewhere
on your system. Since each site has different local resources, it's
impossible to give details here about the resources at any specific
site. All that can be said is, "Find someone at your site to ask."
Nearly every site has someone whose job it is to answer questions from
other users, and the sites that don't have someone doing it officially
often have someone doing it unofficially. If you cannot find what you
want after checking things out locally, or if you can't find anyone to
ask, then proceed as follows.
1. "I know the name of the program I want, but I don't know where to
get it."
a. Check the indices for the various main Usenet source newsgroups.
b. Check with archie.
c. Check Jon Granrose's anonymous ftp directory.
d. Check comp.archives.
e. Post to comp.sources.wanted.
2. "I know the name of the program I want, and I know which newsgroup
it was posted in, but either (a) I didn't get some of the parts of
it, or (b) I didn't save it when it was posted and now I find that
I need it."
DO NOT post a message to comp.sources.wanted saying, "I didn't save
all of this when it was archived, could someone please send it to
me?" If the code was posted in a source newsgroup, then it is
archived somewhere. Follow the instructions below for retrieving
code from Usenet source newsgroup archives.
3. "I am looking for source code that does <x>."
Follow the same process as (1) above, but instead of searching for
the name of the program, search for keywords in your description of
what you're looking for. For example, if you're looking for
graphical clocks that run under the X window system, you might
search for the word "clock" in the index for comp.sources.x.
4. "I am looking for source code that does <x>," where <x> is
something algorithmic or mathematical that is commonly solved with
computers.
Check AT&T's "netlib" archive, and if that doesn't work, proceed as
in (3) above.
5. "I am looking for source code that does <x> under the X window
system."
As in (3), but after checking the Usenet source newsgroup indices
(most importantly, that of comp.sources.x), check the anonymous ftp
archive on export.lcs.mit.edu.
See also the postings entitled "Frequently Asked Questions about X
with Answers," posted monthly in comp.windows.x and various other
X-related newsgroups. Those postings discuss in detail how to get
X sources of various sorts. If these postings have expired at your
site, see the documentation below about retrieving postings from
the periodic posting archive.
6. "I'm looking for neat programs to run on my <x> machine."
Don't post questions like this. The amount of source code
available on the Usenet is incredible; you are essentially asking
for a summary of all of it. Browse through the various archives
mentioned in this posting if you want to find something like this.
7. "I'm looking for NetNews software <x>."
See the posting entitled "USENET Software: History and Sources,"
posted periodically in news.admin and news.announce.newusers. If
it has expired at your site, see the documentation below about
retrieving postings from the periodic posting archive.
8. "I'm looking for the source code for Unix."
Most implementations of Unix contain source code that is, at least
to some extent, proprietary and not freely redistributable. If you
are looking for the source code to a particular Unix utility, you
may have better luck looking for a public-domain reimplementation
of that utility, using (1) or (3) above. Furthermore, the Free
Software Foundation may distribute a freely redistributable version
of the utility, protected by the Gnu Public License (Jon Granrose's
list mentions many anonymous ftp archive sites for FSF software;
furthermore, the hrc mail server archives some FSF software).
Finally, if the utility was written by the folks who do the BSD
variant of Unix, then it might be available in the various BSD
source archives (the best one is probably gatekeeper.dec.com;
ftp.uu.net has a bsd-sources directory too, and it contains some
sources that are not in the gatekeeper archive, but the sources
there are for 4.3reno BSD and might be difficult to compile under
other types of Unix) on the net (see Jon Granrose's list to find
them).
9. "I'm looking for a dictionary," or, "I'm looking for a thesaurus."
There aren't any freely redistributable dictionary or thesaurus
databases. If you've already got the database (e.g. on a NeXT
machine), you may be able to find sources for code to manipulate
it; see (3) above. If you don't, then you probably aren't going to
get any useful answers if you ask this question.
IV. Things not to do
1. Don't post messages to source newsgroups (e.g. comp.sources.unix,
comp.sources.misc, etc.) asking for sources.
There are newsgroups specifically for source requests. If you post
a request to a moderated source newsgroup, then the moderator has
to deal with it (and he probably doesn't want to have to deal with
source requests from all over the Usenet), and if you post a
request to an unmoderated source newsgroup, then archives of that
newsgroup end up with cruft (i.e. your request) in them.
V. Searching techniques in detail
1. Usenet source newsgroups
There are many Usenet newsgroups in which source code is posted,
and most of them are archived. They include:
alt.sources
comp.sources.3b1
comp.sources.acorn
comp.sources.amiga
comp.sources.apple2
comp.sources.atari.st
comp.sources.games
comp.sources.mac
comp.sources.misc
comp.sources.sun
comp.sources.unix
comp.sources.x
vmsnet.sources
vmsnet.sources.games
If you're looking for software for a particular machine or
operating system, you should check the source archives that are
appropriate (e.g. checking "comp.sources.mac" if you're looking for
programs to run under SunOS probably wouldn't be very profitable),
as well as the general archives such as alt.sources or
comp.sources.misc.
Sites that archive Usenet source newsgroups usually provide some
method of getting an index of the files in each newsgroup's
archive. If you are accessing an anonymous ftp archive, then this
index will usually appear as a file called "index" or "Index" in
the top-level archive of the newsgroup, or in each volume of the
newsgroup's archive.
If you are accessing a mail archive, then the instructions for
using that archive should explain how to get indices of the
newsgroups that are archived.
If you are accessing an anonymous UUCP archive (see below), you are
usually told when you are given the phone number and password for
the archive how to get the top-level index for the archive, which
will tell you how to get other indices and files.
To find anonymous ftp archives of Usenet newsgroups, check Jon
Granrose's anonymous ftp directory (see below). The most
well-known Usenet newsgroup archive is probably ftp.uu.net, which
archives comp.sources.3b1, comp.sources.amiga, comp.sources.games,
comp.sources.misc, comp.sources.sun, comp.sources.unix, and
comp.sources.x, among other things. Another large Usenet archive
site is wuarchive.wustl.edu, which archives alt.sources,
comp.sources.mac, and comp.sources.apple2, in addition to most of
the newsgroups archived on ftp.uu.net.
The vmsnet newsgroups are archived on black.cerritos.edu and
acfcluster.nyu.edu. See also the posting "Monthly info posting:
vmsnet.sources archive sites" in vmsnet.sources.d and comp.os.vms;
if it has expired at your site, see the documentation below about
retrieving postings from the periodic posting archive.
The mail archive server on hrc.UUCP (see below) archives
alt.sources, comp.sources.unix, comp.sources.games,
comp.sources.misc, comp.sources.x, and comp.sources.sun, among
other things.
2. The "archie" database
"Archie" is a database of anonymous ftp sites and their contents.
The software for it was written by the "Archie Group" at McGill
University in Montreal, Canada, and they maintain the database as
well.
"Archie" keeps track of the entire contents of a very large number
of anonymous ftp sites, and allows you to search for files on those
sites using various different kinds of filename searches. Archie
also has a software description database (with contents similar to
the output of the "whatis" command under Unix), on which you can do
keyword searches.
If you have Internet access, then you access archie by telnet'ing
to the host quiche.cs.mcgill.ca (132.206.2.3 or 132.206.51.1) and
logging in as "archie" with no password. Type "help" at that point
for more information.
If you do not have Internet access, then send a mail message to
arc...@quiche.cs.mcgill.ca with "help" in the body of the message
to find out how to access archie via mail. Note that the mail
interface to archie does not currently provide all of the
functionality that the interactive interface provides; for example,
the software description database is not accessible through the
mail interface.
3. Jon Granrose's anonymous ftp directory
Jon Granrose maintains an extensive list of anonymous ftp sites and
overviews of their contents. The list is posted monthly to
comp.misc, comp.sources.wanted and alt.sources.wanted. If it has
expired at your site, see the documentation below about retrieving
postings from the periodic posting archive.
4. Comp.archives
The comp.archives newsgroup, moderated by Ed Vielmetti, contains
announcements of archive sites and their contents. If you cannot
find what you're looking for in the comp.archives postings
available at your site at any given time, then you can read the
newsgroup for a while and watch for new postings that are of
interest to you, or you can try to find an archive site that
archives the postings in comp.archives. One such site is the
anonymous ftp archives on wuarchive.wustl.edu.
5. Comp.sources.wanted
When you post a message to comp.sources.wanted or
alt.sources.wanted, the important thing to remember is to BE
SPECIFIC. If you're working under Unix, make sure to mention that;
possibly, mention even what type of Unix. If you're not working
under Unix, make sure to mention what operating system and machine
type you *are* working under.
Remember to choose a meaningful Subject line for your message;
something like, "Can you help me?" is very unhelpful to people who
ARE willing to help, and may just cause some of them to not bother
reading your posting. Try to summarize what you're looking for
meaningfully in your Subject line.
Also, it is usually a good idea to ask for people to send you
E-mail rather than posting responses. Say that if enough people
write to you and ask for copies of whatever responses you get, then
you'll summarize the responses in a later posting to the newsgroup,
and if that happens, then DO post the summary.
Finally, don't say, "Would someone please mail me <x>?" Say,
"Would someone please tell me where I can get <x>, or what's
available that does <x>? If you can mail it to me, please let me
know, and I'll let you know if I want you to." This avoids the
problem of several people mailing you what you requested and
overflowing your mailbox.
VI. File retrieval techniques in detail
1. Anonymous ftp
If you are on a site that is connected to the Internet and allows
its users to ftp out to other Internet sites, then you have
anonymous ftp access. The usual procedure for using anonymous ftp
is to type the command "ftp machine-name", where "machine-name" is
the name of the machine to which you want to connect, and then to
use "anonymous" as the username and "user@host" (i.e. your E-mail
address) as the password when you are prompted for it by ftp.
Type "help" inside ftp to get a list of commands, and/or read the
man page for ftp, or any other documentation about it available at
your site for more information. If they don't answer your
question, then ask someone at your site for help.
If you don't have Internet and ftp access, then you can use the
BITFTP server to retrieve files from anonymous ftp archives.
However, you should only use BITFTP when the same files are not
available form a dedicated mail archive server. See the BITFTP
instructions below.
2. Hrc mail archive
As mentioned above, the UUCP host "hrc" maintains an archive of
Usenet source newsgroups and other things. To find out how to use
it, send mail to "hrc!archives", or "archi...@hrc.UUCP", or
whatever format your site uses to send mail to the user "archives"
on the machine "hrc", and include the following commands in the
body of the message:
send path <address>
send help
You should replace <address> with a path from hrc to you. If you
know a prominent UUCP site that has you in its path, then your path
can start at that site, e.g. "uunet!mit-athena!jik" (PLEASE don't
use that address, or I'll get the responses to your requests!). If
you're on a site that has a name registered with the Internet name
servers, you can use "uunet!athena.mit.edu!jik".
3. Uunet mail archive
Uunet.uu.net provides E-mail access to the sources it archived (see
the discussion about ftp.uu.net above for some idea of what is
available). The address to which to send requests is
"net...@uunet.uu.net". You can send a message containing "help" in
its body for more information.
4. BITFTP
The BITFTP server, run by Princeton University, allows you to
retrieve via E-mail files at anonymous ftp archive sites. To find
out how to use it, send mail to "bit...@pucc.princeton.edu" with
"help" in the body.
5. Anonymous UUCP archives
There are various UUCP sites on the net that publish their modem
telephone numbers and a public username and password that can be
used to transfer files from the sites via UUCP. For more
information about doing this, see the documentation for the "uucp"
command on your system.
One place to find information about anonymous UUCP archives is the
Nixpub listing of public access Unix sites, maintained by Phil
Eschallier and posted in comp.misc and alt.bbs. If that posting
has expired at your site, you can get copies of it from the
Periodic posting archive described below.
6. Periodic posting archive
As mentioned above, The machine pit-manager.mit.edu (18.72.1.58)
maintains an archive of periodic Usenet postings. You can access
it via anonymous ftp, or via mail server. To find out how to use
the mail server, send a message to
"mail-ser...@pit-manager.mit.edu" with Subject "help".
7. AT&T's netlib archive
AT&T's "netlib" archive is the repository for a large body of
source code and other material, much of it mathematical,
algorithmic or scientific in nature.
The archive is accessible only via electronic mail. To find out
how to use it, send mail to "net...@research.att.com" with "help"
in the body of the message.
Jonathan Kamens USnail:
MIT Project Athena 11 Ashford Terrace
j...@Athena.MIT.EDU Allston, MA 02134
Office: 617-253-8085 Home: 617-782-0710
Path: gmdzi!unido!mcsun!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!mintaka!bloom-picayune.mit.edu!athena.mit.edu!jik
From: j...@athena.mit.edu (Jonathan I. Kamens)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.wanted,alt.sources.wanted
Subject: How to find sources (READ THIS BEFORE POSTING)
Message-ID: <csw_faq_675586806@athena.mit.edu>
Date: 30 May 91 07:00:15 GMT
Expires: 13 Jun 91 15:00:06 EDT
Sender: n...@athena.mit.edu (News system)
Followup-To: poster
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Lines: 480
Supersedes: <csw_faq_674290...@athena.mit.edu>
[$Id: csw_faq,v 1.10 91/05/30 00:05:11 jik Exp $]
I. Table of contents
This article contains the following sections.
I. Table of contents
II. Introduction
III. How do you find sources?
IV. Things not do do
V. Searching techniques in detail
1. Usenet source newsgroups
2. The "archie" database
3. Jon Granrose's anonymous ftp directory
4. Comp.archives
5. Comp.sources.wanted
VI. File retrieval techniques in detail
1. By anonymous ftp
2. By anonymous UUCP
3. By mail
a. Hrc mail archive
b. Uunet mail archive
c. BITFTP
d. DEC's ftpmail
e. AT&T's netlib archive
f. Periodic posting archives
g. Other mail servers
To find a particular section, search forward for a line beginning with
the Roman numeral corresponding to the desired section. For example,
search forward for "IV." at the beginning of the line to find the
section entitled "Things not to do".
II. Introduction
This posting discusses the resources available to people who are
looking for source code. Please read it before posting source code
requests to comp.sources.wanted, alt.sources.wanted or any other
newsgroup.
Comments about, suggestions about or corrections to this posting are
welcomed.
III. How do you find sources?
The method you use for locating sources depends on exactly what you
are looking for. Here are several possible routes to follow; pick the
one that best suits your needs. The descriptions below mention
general techniques (e.g. "Check the Usenet source newsgroup indices.")
which are described in detail later in this posting. These
descriptions are listed in order from most preferred to least
preferred solution. You will notice that "Post in
comp.sources.wanted" is listed last. This is because posting
a message in comp.sources.wanted should only be used as a last resort
when you have exhausted all other alternatives.
Once you have located your source code using the instructions below,
you can retrieve it via E-mail or anonymous ftp (depending on what is
accessible to you and on where the code is archived); this is
described in detail later in this posting.
Before following *any* of the routes below, the first thing you should
do is exhaust the local resources that are available to you. Often, a
program that you are looking for will already be accessible somewhere
on your system. Since each site has different local resources, it's
impossible to give details here about the resources at any specific
site. All that can be said is, "Find someone at your site to ask."
Nearly every site has someone whose job it is to answer questions from
other users, and the sites that don't have someone doing it officially
often have someone doing it unofficially. If you cannot find what you
want after checking things out locally, or if you can't find anyone to
ask, then proceed as follows.
1. "I know the name of the program I want, but I don't know where to
get it."
a. Check the indices for the various main Usenet source newsgroups.
b. Check with archie.
c. Check Jon Granrose's anonymous ftp directory.
d. Check comp.archives.
e. Post to comp.sources.wanted.
2. "I know the name of the program I want, and I know which newsgroup
it was posted in, but either (a) I didn't get some of the parts of
it, or (b) I didn't save it when it was posted and now I find that
I need it."
DO NOT post a message to comp.sources.wanted saying, "I didn't save
all of this when it was archived, could someone please send it to
me?" If the code was posted in a source newsgroup, then it is
archived somewhere. Follow the instructions below for retrieving
code from Usenet source newsgroup archives.
3. "I am looking for source code that does <x>."
Follow the same process as (1) above, but instead of searching for
the name of the program, search for keywords in your description of
what you're looking for. For example, if you're looking for
graphical clocks that run under the X window system, you might
search for the word "clock" in the index for comp.sources.x.
4. "I am looking for source code that does <x>," where <x> is
something algorithmic or mathematical that is commonly solved with
computers.
Check AT&T's "netlib" archive, and if that doesn't work, proceed as
in (3) above.
5. "I am looking for source code that does <x> under the X window
system."
As in (3), but after checking the Usenet source newsgroup indices
(most importantly, that of comp.sources.x), check the anonymous ftp
archive on export.lcs.mit.edu.
See also the postings entitled "Frequently Asked Questions about X
with Answers," posted monthly in comp.windows.x and various other
X-related newsgroups. Those postings discuss in detail how to get
X sources of various sorts. If these postings have expired at your
site, see the documentation below about retrieving postings from
the periodic posting archive.
6. "I'm looking for neat programs to run on my <x> machine."
Don't post questions like this. The amount of source code
available on the Usenet is incredible; you are essentially asking
for a summary of all of it. Browse through the various archives
mentioned in this posting if you want to find something like this.
7. "I'm looking for NetNews software <x>."
See the posting entitled "USENET Software: History and Sources,"
posted periodically in news.admin and news.announce.newusers. If
it has expired at your site, see the documentation below about
retrieving postings from the periodic posting archive.
8. "I'm looking for the source code for Unix."
Most implementations of Unix contain source code that is, at least
to some extent, proprietary and not freely redistributable. If you
are looking for the source code to a particular Unix utility, you
may have better luck looking for a public-domain reimplementation
of that utility, using (1) or (3) above. Furthermore, the Free
Software Foundation may distribute a freely redistributable version
of the utility, protected by the Gnu Public License (Jon Granrose's
list mentions many anonymous ftp archive sites for FSF software;
furthermore, the hrc mail server archives some FSF software).
Finally, if the utility was written by the folks who do the BSD
variant of Unix, then it might be available in the various BSD
source archives (the best one is probably gatekeeper.dec.com;
ftp.uu.net has a bsd-sources directory too, and it contains some
sources that are not in the gatekeeper archive, but the sources
there are for 4.3reno BSD and might be difficult to compile under
other types of Unix) on the net (see Jon Granrose's list to find
them).
9. "I'm looking for a dictionary," or, "I'm looking for a thesaurus."
There aren't any freely redistributable dictionary or thesaurus
databases. If you've already got the database (e.g. on a NeXT
machine), you may be able to find sources for code to manipulate
it; see (3) above. If you don't, then you probably aren't going to
get any useful answers if you ask this question.
IV. Things not to do
1. Don't post messages to source newsgroups (e.g. comp.sources.unix,
comp.sources.misc, etc.) asking for sources.
There are newsgroups specifically for source requests. If you post
a request to a moderated source newsgroup, then the moderator has
to deal with it (and he probably doesn't want to have to deal with
source requests from all over the Usenet), and if you post a
request to an unmoderated source newsgroup, then archives of that
newsgroup end up with cruft (i.e. your request) in them.
V. Searching techniques in detail
1. Usenet source newsgroups
There are many Usenet newsgroups in which source code is posted,
and most of them are archived. They include:
alt.sources
comp.sources.3b1
comp.sources.acorn
comp.sources.amiga
comp.sources.apple2
comp.sources.atari.st
comp.sources.games
comp.sources.mac
comp.sources.misc
comp.sources.sun
comp.sources.unix
comp.sources.x
vmsnet.sources
vmsnet.sources.games
If you're looking for software for a particular machine or
operating system, you should check the source archives that are
appropriate (e.g. checking "comp.sources.mac" if you're looking for
programs to run under SunOS probably wouldn't be very profitable),
as well as the general archives such as alt.sources or
comp.sources.misc.
Sites that archive Usenet source newsgroups usually provide some
method of getting an index of the files in each newsgroup's
archive. If you are accessing an anonymous ftp archive, then this
index will usually appear as a file called "index" or "Index" in
the top-level archive of the newsgroup, or in each volume of the
newsgroup's archive.
If you are accessing a mail archive, then the instructions for
using that archive should explain how to get indices of the
newsgroups that are archived.
If you are accessing an anonymous UUCP archive (see below), you are
usually told when you are given the phone number and password for
the archive how to get the top-level index for the archive, which
will tell you how to get other indices and files.
To find anonymous ftp archives of Usenet newsgroups, check Jon
Granrose's anonymous ftp directory (see below). The most
well-known Usenet newsgroup archive is probably ftp.uu.net, which
archives comp.sources.3b1, comp.sources.amiga, comp.sources.games,
comp.sources.misc, comp.sources.sun, comp.sources.unix, and
comp.sources.x, among other things. Another large Usenet archive
site is wuarchive.wustl.edu, which archives alt.sources,
comp.sources.mac, and comp.sources.apple2, in addition to most of
the newsgroups archived on ftp.uu.net.
The vmsnet newsgroups are archived on black.cerritos.edu and
acfcluster.nyu.edu. See also the posting "Monthly info posting:
vmsnet.sources archive sites" in vmsnet.sources.d and comp.os.vms;
if it has expired at your site, see the documentation below about
retrieving postings from the periodic posting archive.
The mail archive server on hrc.UUCP (see below) archives
alt.sources, comp.sources.unix, comp.sources.games,
comp.sources.misc, comp.sources.x, and comp.sources.sun, among
other things.
2. The "archie" database
"Archie" is a database of anonymous ftp sites and their contents.
The software for it was written by the "Archie Group" at McGill
University in Montreal, Canada, and they maintain the database as
well.
"Archie" keeps track of the entire contents of a very large number
of anonymous ftp sites, and allows you to search for files on those
sites using various different kinds of filename searches. Archie
also has a software description database (with contents similar to
the output of the "whatis" command under Unix), on which you can do
keyword searches.
If you have Internet access, then you access archie by telnet'ing
to the host quiche.cs.mcgill.ca (132.206.2.3 or 132.206.51.1) and
logging in as "archie" with no password. Type "help" at that point
for more information.
If you do not have Internet access, then send a mail message to
arc...@quiche.cs.mcgill.ca with "help" in the body of the message
to find out how to access archie via mail. Note that the mail
interface to archie may not provide all of the functionality that
the interactive interface provides.
3. Jon Granrose's anonymous ftp directory
Jon Granrose maintains an extensive list of anonymous ftp sites and
overviews of their contents. The list is posted monthly to
comp.misc, comp.sources.wanted and alt.sources.wanted. If it has
expired at your site, see the documentation below about retrieving
postings from the periodic posting archive.
4. Comp.archives
The comp.archives newsgroup, moderated by Ed Vielmetti, contains
announcements of archive sites and their contents. If you cannot
find what you're looking for in the comp.archives postings
available at your site at any given time, then you can read the
newsgroup for a while and watch for new postings that are of
interest to you, or you can try to find an archive site that
archives the postings in comp.archives. One such site is the
anonymous ftp archives on wuarchive.wustl.edu.
5. Comp.sources.wanted
When you post a message to comp.sources.wanted or
alt.sources.wanted, the important thing to remember is to BE
SPECIFIC. If you're working under Unix, make sure to mention that;
possibly, mention even what type of Unix. If you're not working
under Unix, make sure to mention what operating system and machine
type you *are* working under.
Remember to choose a meaningful Subject line for your message;
something like, "Can you help me?" is very unhelpful to people who
ARE willing to help, and may just cause some of them to not bother
reading your posting. Try to summarize what you're looking for
meaningfully in your Subject line.
Also, it is usually a good idea to ask for people to send you
E-mail rather than posting responses. Say that if enough people
write to you and ask for copies of whatever responses you get, then
you'll summarize the responses in a later posting to the newsgroup,
and if that happens, then DO post the summary.
Finally, don't say, "Would someone please mail me <x>?" Say,
"Would someone please tell me where I can get <x>, or what's
available that does <x>? If you can mail it to me, please let me
know, and I'll let you know if I want you to." This avoids the
problem of several people mailing you what you requested and
overflowing your mailbox.
VI. File retrieval techniques in detail
1. By anonymous ftp
If you are on a site that is connected to the Internet and allows
its users to ftp out to other Internet sites, then you have
anonymous ftp access. The usual procedure for using anonymous ftp
is to type the command "ftp machine-name", where "machine-name" is
the name of the machine to which you want to connect, and then to
use "anonymous" as the username and "user@host" (i.e. your E-mail
address) as the password when you are prompted for it by ftp.
Type "help" inside ftp to get a list of commands, and/or read the
man page for ftp, or any other documentation about it available at
your site for more information. If they don't answer your
question, then ask someone at your site for help.
If you don't have Internet and ftp access, then you can use an
ftp-mail server such as Princeton's BITFTP or DEC's ftpmail to
retrieve files from anonymous ftp archives. However, you should
only use an ftp-mail server when the same files are not available
from a dedicated mail archive server. See the BITFTP and ftpmail
instructions below.
2. By anonymous UUCP
There are various UUCP sites on the net that publish their modem
telephone numbers and a public username and password that can be
used to transfer files from the sites via UUCP. For more
information about doing this, see the documentation for the "uucp"
command on your system.
One place to find information about anonymous UUCP archives is the
Nixpub listing of public access Unix sites, maintained by Phil
Eschallier and posted in comp.misc and alt.bbs. If that posting
has expired at your site, you can get copies of it from the
Periodic posting archive described below.
3. By mail
a. Hrc mail archive
As mentioned above, the UUCP host "hrc" maintains an archive of
Usenet source newsgroups and other things. To find out how to use
it, send mail to "hrc!archives", or "archi...@hrc.UUCP", or
whatever format your site uses to send mail to the user "archives"
on the machine "hrc", and include the following commands in the
body of the message:
send path <address>
send help
You should replace <address> with a path from hrc to you. If you
know a prominent UUCP site that has you in its path, then your path
can start at that site, e.g. "uunet!mit-athena!jik" (PLEASE don't
use that address, or I'll get the responses to your requests!). If
you're on a site that has a name registered with the Internet name
servers, you can use "uunet!athena.mit.edu!jik".
b. Uunet mail archive
Uunet.uu.net provides E-mail access to the sources it archived (see
the discussion about ftp.uu.net above for some idea of what is
available). The address to which to send requests is
"net...@uunet.uu.net". You can send a message containing "help" in
its body for more information.
c. BITFTP
The BITFTP server, run by Princeton University, allows you to
retrieve via E-mail files at anonymous ftp archive sites. To find
out how to use it, send mail to "bit...@pucc.princeton.edu" with
"help" in the body. Note that the software running the BITFTP
server has recently been modified so that requests from non-BITNET
sites will probably be rejected. If you're not on the BITNET and
you need to do anonymous ftp retrieval via E-mail, you should use
DEC's ftpmail (see below).
d. DEC's ftpmail
The ftpmail server, run at DEC, allows you to retrieve via E-mail
files at anonymous ftp archive sites. To find out how to use it,
send mail to "ftpm...@decwrl.dec.com" with "help" in the body.
NOTE: Don't do something bogus like send your requests both to
BITFTP and ftpmail, hoping that one of them will get back to you
first. Choose one server for your request, and use it.
e. AT&T's netlib archive
AT&T's "netlib" archive is the repository for a large body of
source code and other material, much of it mathematical,
algorithmic or scientific in nature.
The archive is accessible only via electronic mail. To find out
how to use it, send mail to "net...@research.att.com" with "help"
in the body of the message.
f. Periodic posting archive
As mentioned above, The machine pit-manager.mit.edu (18.72.1.58)
maintains an archive of periodic Usenet postings. You can access
it via anonymous ftp, or via mail server. To find out how to use
the mail server, send a message to
"mail-ser...@pit-manager.mit.edu" with Subject "help".
g. Other mail servers
There are other mail servers besides the ones listed above. If you
want to find out more about a server, send a message to it with
"help" in the body and see what it sends back.
xst...@expo.lcs.mit.edu MIT X Consortium files, mainly
patches
net...@uunet.uu.net A large subset of what is available
from uunet via anonymous ftp or
anonymous uucp.
serv...@nic.ddn.mil Internet RFCs and FYIs, NIC database
registration, WHOIS database lookup
mails...@garbo.uwasa.fi Frequently asked questions in various
areas, some Usenet source archives
info-ser...@sh.cs.net Internet community calendar, E-mail
ftp server (currently unavailable),
CSNET general information documents,
CREN information, NSFNET information,
Some Internet RFCs, a small amount of
source code
net...@ornl.gov Similar to the AT&T netlib archive
info-ser...@doc.ic.ac.uk
mail-ser...@cs.ruu.nl GIFs, Atari ST software, random
documentation, ELM sources, Usenet FAQ
postings, GNU software HP-UX software,
NN sources, SGI software, TeX software
and TeXhax and TeXmag archives, random
UNIX software, X11 software, other stuff
archive-ser...@rice.edu Sun-spots, sun-source and sun-icons,
plus other software written or
influenced by people at Rice
info-ser...@cl.cam.ac.uk Various random stuff, including bmx,
btoa, c-nrs, gdb, soft-gen, spad, top,
unix-niftp, ups (Unix PostScript
interpreter)
libr...@cme.nist.gov Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory
(MEL) at the National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST)
archive
Jonathan Kamens USnail:
MIT Project Athena 11 Ashford Terrace
j...@Athena.MIT.EDU Allston, MA 02134
Office: 617-253-8085 Home: 617-782-0710
Path: gmdzi!unido!mcsun!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!bloom-picayune.mit.edu!athena.mit.edu!jik
From: j...@athena.mit.edu (Jonathan I. Kamens)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.wanted,alt.sources.wanted
Subject: How to find sources (READ THIS BEFORE POSTING)
Message-ID: <csw_faq_676882805@athena.mit.edu>
Date: 14 Jun 91 07:00:18 GMT
Expires: 28 Jun 91 15:00:05 EDT
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[$Id: csw_faq,v 1.23 91/06/10 21:31:04 jik Exp $]
I. Table of contents
This article contains the following sections.
I. Table of contents
II. Introduction
III. How do you find sources?
IV. Things not do do
V. Searching techniques in detail
1. Usenet source newsgroups
2. The "archie" database
3. Jon Granrose's anonymous ftp directory
4. Comp.archives
5. Comp.sources.wanted
VI. File retrieval techniques in detail
1. By anonymous ftp
2. By anonymous UUCP
3. By mail
a. Hrc mail archive
b. Uunet mail archive
c. BITFTP
d. DEC's ftpmail
e. AT&T's netlib archive
f. Periodic posting archives
g. Other mail servers
VII. Credits
To find a particular section, search forward for a line beginning with
the Roman numeral corresponding to the desired section. For example,
search forward for "IV." at the beginning of the line to find the
section entitled "Things not to do".
II. Introduction
This posting discusses the resources available to people who are
looking for source code. Please read it before posting source code
requests to comp.sources.wanted, alt.sources.wanted or any other
newsgroup.
Comments about, suggestions about or corrections to this posting are
welcomed.
III. How do you find sources?
The method you use for locating sources depends on exactly what you
are looking for. Here are several possible routes to follow; pick the
one that best suits your needs. The descriptions below mention
general techniques (e.g. "Check the Usenet source newsgroup indices.")
which are described in detail later in this posting. These
descriptions are listed in order from most preferred to least
preferred solution. You will notice that "Post in
comp.sources.wanted" is listed last. This is because posting
a message in comp.sources.wanted should only be used as a last resort
when you have exhausted all other alternatives.
Once you have located your source code using the instructions below,
you can retrieve it via E-mail or anonymous ftp (depending on what is
accessible to you and on where the code is archived); this is
described in detail later in this posting.
Before following *any* of the routes below, the first thing you should
do is exhaust the local resources that are available to you. Often, a
program that you are looking for will already be accessible somewhere
on your system. Since each site has different local resources, it's
impossible to give details here about the resources at any specific
site. All that can be said is, "Find someone at your site to ask."
Nearly every site has someone whose job it is to answer questions from
other users, and the sites that don't have someone doing it officially
often have someone doing it unofficially. If you cannot find what you
want after checking things out locally, or if you can't find anyone to
ask, then proceed as follows.
1. "I know the name of the program I want, but I don't know where to
get it."
a. Check the indices for the various main Usenet source newsgroups.
b. Check with archie.
c. Check Jon Granrose's anonymous ftp directory.
d. Check comp.archives.
e. Post to comp.sources.wanted.
2. "I know the name of the program I want, and I know which newsgroup
it was posted in, but either (a) I didn't get some of the parts of
it, or (b) I didn't save it when it was posted and now I find that
I need it."
DO NOT post a message to comp.sources.wanted saying, "I didn't save
all of this when it was archived, could someone please send it to
me?" If the code was posted in a source newsgroup, then it is
archived somewhere. Follow the instructions below for retrieving
code from Usenet source newsgroup archives.
3. "I am looking for source code that does <x>."
Follow the same process as (1) above, but instead of searching for
the name of the program, search for keywords in your description of
what you're looking for. For example, if you're looking for
graphical clocks that run under the X window system, you might
search for the word "clock" in the index for comp.sources.x.
4. "I am looking for source code that does <x>," where <x> is
something algorithmic or mathematical that is commonly solved with
computers.
Check AT&T's "netlib" archive (which is accessible via E-mail as
described below, or via anonymous ftp to research.att.com {username
"netlib" instead of "anonymous"}), and if that doesn't work,
proceed as in (3) above.
5. "I am looking for source code that does <x> under the X window
system."
As in (3), but after checking the Usenet source newsgroup indices
(most importantly, that of comp.sources.x), check the anonymous ftp
archive on export.lcs.mit.edu.
See also the postings entitled "Frequently Asked Questions about X
with Answers," posted monthly in comp.windows.x and various other
X-related newsgroups. Those postings discuss in detail how to get
X sources of various sorts. If these postings have expired at your
site, see the documentation below about retrieving postings from
the periodic posting archive.
6. "I'm looking for neat programs to run on my <x> machine."
Don't post questions like this. The amount of source code
available on the Usenet is incredible; you are essentially asking
for a summary of all of it. Browse through the various archives
mentioned in this posting if you want to find something like this.
7. "I'm looking for NetNews software <x>."
See the posting entitled "USENET Software: History and Sources,"
posted periodically in news.admin and news.announce.newusers. If
it has expired at your site, see the documentation below about
retrieving postings from the periodic posting archive.
8. "I'm looking for the source code for Unix."
Most implementations of Unix contain source code that is, at least
to some extent, proprietary and not freely redistributable. If you
are looking for the source code to a particular Unix utility, you
may have better luck looking for a public-domain reimplementation
of that utility, using (1) or (3) above. Furthermore, the Free
Software Foundation may distribute a freely redistributable version
of the utility, protected by the Gnu Public License (Jon Granrose's
list mentions many anonymous ftp archive sites for FSF software;
furthermore, the hrc mail server archives some FSF software).
Finally, if the utility was written by the folks who do the BSD
variant of Unix, then it might be available in the various BSD
source archives (the best one is probably gatekeeper.dec.com;
ftp.uu.net has a bsd-sources directory too, and it contains some
sources that are not in the gatekeeper archive, but the sources
there are for 4.3reno BSD and might be difficult to compile under
other types of Unix) on the net (see Jon Granrose's list to find
them).
9. "I'm looking for a dictionary," or, "I'm looking for a thesaurus."
There aren't any freely redistributable dictionary or thesaurus
databases. If you've already got the database (e.g. on a NeXT
machine), you may be able to find sources for code to manipulate
it; see (3) above. If you don't, then you probably aren't going to
get any useful answers if you ask this question.
IV. Things not to do
1. Don't post messages to source newsgroups (e.g. comp.sources.unix,
comp.sources.misc, etc.) asking for sources.
There are newsgroups specifically for source requests. If you post
a request to a moderated source newsgroup, then the moderator has
to deal with it (and he probably doesn't want to have to deal with
source requests from all over the Usenet), and if you post a
request to an unmoderated source newsgroup, then archives of that
newsgroup end up with cruft (i.e. your request) in them.
V. Searching techniques in detail
1. Usenet source newsgroups
There are many Usenet newsgroups in which source code is posted,
and most of them are archived. They include:
alt.sources
comp.sources.3b1
comp.sources.acorn
comp.sources.amiga
comp.sources.apple2
comp.sources.atari.st
comp.sources.games
comp.sources.mac
comp.sources.misc
comp.sources.sun
comp.sources.unix
comp.sources.x
vmsnet.sources
vmsnet.sources.games
If you're looking for software for a particular machine or
operating system, you should check the source archives that are
appropriate (e.g. checking "comp.sources.mac" if you're looking for
programs to run under SunOS probably wouldn't be very profitable),
as well as the general archives such as alt.sources or
comp.sources.misc.
Sites that archive Usenet source newsgroups usually provide some
method of getting an index of the files in each newsgroup's
archive. If you are accessing an anonymous ftp archive, then this
index will usually appear as a file called "index" or "Index" in
the top-level archive of the newsgroup, or in each volume of the
newsgroup's archive.
If you are accessing a mail archive, then the instructions for
using that archive should explain how to get indices of the
newsgroups that are archived.
If you are accessing an anonymous UUCP archive (see below), you are
usually told when you are given the phone number and password for
the archive how to get the top-level index for the archive, which
will tell you how to get other indices and files.
To find anonymous ftp archives of Usenet newsgroups, check Jon
Granrose's anonymous ftp directory (see below). The most
well-known Usenet newsgroup archive is probably ftp.uu.net, which
archives comp.sources.3b1, comp.sources.amiga, comp.sources.games,
comp.sources.misc, comp.sources.sun, comp.sources.unix, and
comp.sources.x, among other things. Another large Usenet archive
site is wuarchive.wustl.edu, which archives alt.sources,
comp.sources.mac, and comp.sources.apple2, in addition to most of
the newsgroups archived on ftp.uu.net.
The vmsnet newsgroups are archived on black.cerritos.edu and
acfcluster.nyu.edu. See also the posting "Monthly info posting:
vmsnet.sources archive sites" in vmsnet.sources.d and comp.os.vms;
if it has expired at your site, see the documentation below about
retrieving postings from the periodic posting archive.
The mail archive server on hrc.UUCP (see below) archives
alt.sources, comp.sources.unix, comp.sources.games,
comp.sources.misc, comp.sources.x, and comp.sources.sun, among
other things.
2. The "archie" database
"Archie" is a database of anonymous ftp sites and their contents.
The software for it was written by the "Archie Group" at McGill
University in Montreal, Canada, and they maintain the database as
well.
"Archie" keeps track of the entire contents of a very large number
of anonymous ftp sites, and allows you to search for files on those
sites using various different kinds of filename searches. Archie
also has a software description database (with contents similar to
the output of the "whatis" command under Unix), on which you can do
keyword searches.
If you have Internet access, then you access archie by telnet'ing
to the host quiche.cs.mcgill.ca (132.206.2.3 or 132.206.51.1) and
logging in as "archie" with no password. Type "help" at that point
for more information.
If you do not have Internet access, then send a mail message to
arc...@quiche.cs.mcgill.ca with "help" in the body of the message
to find out how to access archie via mail. Note that the mail
interface to archie may not provide all of the functionality that
the interactive interface provides.
3. Jon Granrose's anonymous ftp directory
Jon Granrose maintains an extensive list of anonymous ftp sites and
overviews of their contents. The list is posted monthly to
comp.misc, comp.sources.wanted and alt.sources.wanted. If it has
expired at your site, see the documentation below about retrieving
postings from the periodic posting archive.
4. Comp.archives
The comp.archives newsgroup, moderated by Ed Vielmetti, contains
announcements of archive sites and their contents. If you cannot
find what you're looking for in the comp.archives postings
available at your site at any given time, then you can read the
newsgroup for a while and watch for new postings that are of
interest to you, or you can try to find an archive site that
archives the postings in comp.archives (e.g. wuarchive.wustl.edu,
cs.dal.ca).
5. Comp.sources.wanted
When you post a message to comp.sources.wanted or
alt.sources.wanted, the important thing to remember is to BE
SPECIFIC. If you're working under Unix, make sure to mention that;
possibly, mention even what type of Unix. If you're not working
under Unix, make sure to mention what operating system and machine
type you *are* working under.
Remember to choose a meaningful Subject line for your message;
something like, "Can you help me?" is very unhelpful to people who
ARE willing to help, and may just cause some of them to not bother
reading your posting. Try to summarize what you're looking for
meaningfully in your Subject line.
Also, it is usually a good idea to ask for people to send you
E-mail rather than posting responses. Say that if enough people
write to you and ask for copies of whatever responses you get, then
you'll summarize the responses in a later posting to the newsgroup,
and if that happens, then DO post the summary.
Finally, don't say, "Would someone please mail me <x>?" Say,
"Would someone please tell me where I can get <x>, or what's
available that does <x>? If you can mail it to me, please let me
know, and I'll let you know if I want you to." This avoids the
problem of several people mailing you what you requested and
overflowing your mailbox.
VI. File retrieval techniques in detail
1. By anonymous ftp
If you are on a site that is connected to the Internet and allows
its users to ftp out to other Internet sites, then you have
anonymous ftp access. The usual procedure for using anonymous ftp
is to type the command "ftp machine-name", where "machine-name" is
the name of the machine to which you want to connect, and then to
use "anonymous" as the username and "user@host" (i.e. your E-mail
address) as the password when you are prompted for it by ftp.
Type "help" inside ftp to get a list of commands, and/or read the
man page for ftp, or any other documentation about it available at
your site for more information. If they don't answer your
question, then ask someone at your site for help.
If you don't have Internet and ftp access, then you can use an
ftp-mail server such as Princeton's BITFTP or DEC's ftpmail to
retrieve files from anonymous ftp archives. However, you should
only use an ftp-mail server when the same files are not available
from a dedicated mail archive server. See the BITFTP and ftpmail
instructions below.
2. By anonymous UUCP
There are various UUCP sites on the net that publish their modem
telephone numbers and a public username and password that can be
used to transfer files from the sites via UUCP. For more
information about doing this, see the documentation for the "uucp"
command on your system.
One place to find information about anonymous UUCP archives is the
Nixpub listing of public access Unix sites, maintained by Phil
Eschallier and posted in comp.misc and alt.bbs. If that posting
has expired at your site, you can get copies of it from the
Periodic posting archive described below.
3. By mail
a. Hrc mail archive
As mentioned above, the UUCP host "hrc" maintains an archive of
Usenet source newsgroups and other things. To find out how to use
it, send mail to "hrc!archives", or "archi...@hrc.UUCP", or
whatever format your site uses to send mail to the user "archives"
on the machine "hrc", and include the following commands in the
body of the message:
send path <address>
send help
You should replace <address> with a path from hrc to you. If you
know a prominent UUCP site that has you in its path, then your path
can start at that site, e.g. "uunet!mit-athena!jik" (PLEASE don't
use that address, or I'll get the responses to your requests!). If
you're on a site that has a name registered with the Internet name
servers, you can use "uunet!athena.mit.edu!jik".
b. Uunet mail archive
Uunet.uu.net provides E-mail access to the sources it archived (see
the discussion about ftp.uu.net above for some idea of what is
available). The address to which to send requests is
"net...@uunet.uu.net". You can send a message containing "help" in
its body for more information.
c. BITFTP
The BITFTP server, run by Princeton University, allows people on
the BITNET to retrieve via E-mail files at anonymous ftp archive
sites. To find out how to use it, send mail to
"bit...@pucc.princeton.edu" with "help" in the body. The BITFTP
server will reject requests from non-BITNET addresses, so if you're
not on the BITNET and you need to do anonymous ftp retrieval via
E-mail, you should use DEC's ftpmail (see below).
d. DEC's ftpmail
The ftpmail server, run at DEC, allows you to retrieve via E-mail
files at anonymous ftp archive sites. To find out how to use it,
send mail to "ftpm...@decwrl.dec.com" with "help" in the body. If
you're on the BITNET, please use the BITFTP server (see above)
rather than ftpmail.
NOTE: Don't do something bogus like send your requests both to
BITFTP and ftpmail, hoping that one of them will get back to you
first. Choose one server for your request, and use it.
e. AT&T's netlib archive
AT&T's "netlib" archive is the repository for a large body of
source code and other material, much of it mathematical,
algorithmic or scientific in nature.
The archive is accessible only via electronic mail. To find out
how to use it, send mail to "net...@research.att.com" with "help"
in the body of the message.
f. Periodic posting archive
As mentioned above, The machine pit-manager.mit.edu (18.72.1.58)
maintains an archive of periodic Usenet postings. You can access
it via anonymous ftp, or via mail server. To find out how to use
the mail server, send a message to
"mail-ser...@pit-manager.mit.edu" with Subject "help".
g. Other mail servers
There are other mail servers besides the ones listed above. If you
want to find out more about a server, send a message to it with
"help" in the body and see what it sends back.
archive-ser...@ames.arc.nasa.gov
Space archives (also accessible via
anonymous ftp to ames.arc.nasa.gov)
archive-ser...@athena-dist.mit.edu
MIT Project Athena papers and source
code (also accessible via anonymous
ftp to athena-dist.mit.edu)
archive-ser...@bcm.tmc.edu UUCP maps, source-code for BCM WHOIS
database, NFS and PC-NFS information
and source-code, Unisys U-series
information and source code, other
stuff
archive-ser...@cc.purdue.edu NeXT stuff (also accessible via
anonymous ftp to sonta.cc.purdue.edu
or nova.cc.purdue.edu)
archive-ser...@chsun1.uchicago.edu
Computer Underground Digest and
references
archive-ser...@cs.leidenuniv.nl
IPX, "patch" for MS-DOS, "sps" diffs
for SunOS 4.1
archive-ser...@dsi.com Datacomp Systems, Inc.
archive-ser...@eclectic.com Mac-security digest, information about
Eclectic, other stuff
archive-ser...@joshua.atherton.com
archive-ser...@ncsa.uiuc.edu NCSA stuff, especially telnet and tcp
for mac/pc
archive-ser...@rice.edu Sun-spots, sun-source and sun-icons,
plus other software written or
influenced by people at Rice (also
accessible via anonymous ftp to
titan.rice.edu)
archive-ser...@st.cs.uiuc.edu
Ralph Johnson's UIUC smalltalk archive
(also accessible via anonymous ftp to
st.cs.uiuc.edu)
archive-ser...@sun.soe.clarkson.edu
IBM and other good stuff (also
accessible via anonymous ftp to
sun.soe.clarkson.edu)
archive-ser...@wdl1.wdl.loral.com
WDL archive server: snfs, tsig stuff
cube...@gmuvax2.gmu.edu iPSC User's Group
doc-ser...@prl.dec.com Paris Research Lab (PRL) technical
reports, articles, and notes; bignum
package
files...@shsu.bitnet General and VMS-specific TeX/LaTeX
sources, sty files, extensions, etc.;
mailing list archives; sources for VMS
packages of various sorts
gene-ser...@bchs.uh.edu Genbnak gene database server
goodies-...@cs.man.ac.uk Manchester smalltalk goodies archive
graf-bib-ser...@decwrl.dec.com
Graphix bibliography server; put
keywords in mail Subject (also
accessible via anonymous ftp to
gatekeeper.dec.com)
info-ser...@cl.cam.ac.uk Various random stuff, including bmx,
btoa, c-nrs, gdb, soft-gen, spad, top,
unix-niftp, ups (Unix PostScript
interpreter)
info-ser...@doc.ic.ac.uk Usenet source newsgroups, GNU, X11,
news software, other stuff
info-ser...@hp4nl.nluug.nl Macintosh, Sun, IBM-PC, Unix sources,
some documents, GNU, graphics, Usenet
archives (or lots of newsgroups), X
window system, TeX, programming
languages (lisp, icon, abc, others),
news sources, network sources, other
stuff
info-ser...@sh.cs.net Internet community calendar, E-mail
ftp server (currently unavailable),
CSNET general information documents,
CREN information, NSFNET information,
Some Internet RFCs, a small amount of
source code
libr...@cme.nist.gov Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory
(MEL) at the National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST)
archive
l...@cs.uni-sb.de AI bibliographical server; put
"lidosearch help" in mail Subject
lists...@dhdurz1.bitnet
lists...@orion.bitnet Erotica
lists...@ubvm.bitnet Russian TeX
lists...@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu Same as lists...@ubvm.bitnet
lists...@vm1.nodak.edu Lots of stuff from simtel-20; put "get
pdget help" in mail body
mail-ser...@cs.ruu.nl GIFs, Atari ST software, random
documentation, ELM sources, Usenet FAQ
postings, GNU software HP-UX software,
NN sources, SGI software, TeX software
and TeXhax and TeXmag archives, random
UNIX software, X11 software, other
stuff (also accessible via anonymous
ftp to praxis.cs.ruu.nl)
mail-ser...@rusmv1.rus.uni-stuttgart.de
German TeX archives (also accessible
via anonymous ftp to
rusmv1.rus.uni-stuttgart.de)
mails...@garbo.uwasa.fi Frequently asked questions in various
areas, some Usenet source archives,
some PC software archives
net...@draci.cs.uow.edu.au Australian Netlib (also accessible via
anonymous ftp to draci.cs.uow.edu.au)
net...@ornl.gov Similar to the AT&T netlib archive
net...@uunet.uu.net A large subset of what is available
from uunet via anonymous ftp or
anonymous uucp.
net...@ukc.ac.uk UK netlib server (mostly same contents
as AT&T's netlib) (some files also
accessible via anonymous ftp to
harrier.ukc.ac.uk {username "guest"})
next-arch...@cc.purdue.edu NeXT stuff (also accessible via
anonymous ftp to sonta.cc.purdue.edu
or nova.cc.purdue.edu)
nist...@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov Benchmarks, GOSIP
nptser...@cme.nist.gov NIST Cals server (also accessible via
anonymous ftp to durer.cme.nist.gov)
object-archive-ser...@decwrl.dec.com
OFF format (?) objects
ps-file-ser...@adobe.COM PostScript stuff
reduce-net...@rand.org Sources related to REDUCE (A SAM
system with emphasis on nuclear
physics)
repo...@midgard.ucsc.edu Comp.os.research tech reports (also
accessible via anonymous ftp to
midgard.ucsc.edu)
requ...@legato.com NFS benchmarking for determining if
Legato board will help your server
r...@math.princeton.edu Searchable database of MS-DOS software
(also accessible via anonymous ftp to
math.princeton.edu, in pub/rjc/csip)
sea...@genbank.bio.net FASTA program for nucleic acid
sequence
serv...@nic.ddn.mil Internet RFCs and FYIs, NIC database
registration, WHOIS database lookup
stat...@lib.stat.cmu.edu XLISP-STAT, other statistical software
(also accessible via anonymous ftp to
umnstat.stat.umn.edu)
tech-repo...@cs.columbia.edu Experimental server (?) address might
point to a human
telecom-archive-requ...@letni.lonestar.org
Comp.dcom.telecom archive
wrl-techrepo...@decwrl.dec.com
DEC WRL technical reports and
abstracts
wsc...@ecn.purdue.edu HP 48 programs; put HP-MAIL-SERVER in
mail Subject
xst...@expo.lcs.mit.edu MIT X Consortium files, mainly
patches
VII. Credits
Bill Wohler <woh...@sap-ag.de> provided many of the addresses in the
"Other mail servers" section above, and provided suggestions for
several other sections. Andrew Purshottam <an...@ibmpa.awdpa.ibm.com>
also provided many mail archive server addresses.
Tom Cunningham <t...@bouwsma.sps.mot.com> and Ed Vielmetti
<e...@ox.com> provided feedback and corrections.
Jonathan Kamens USnail:
MIT Project Athena 11 Ashford Terrace
j...@Athena.MIT.EDU Allston, MA 02134
Office: 617-253-8085 Home: 617-782-0710
Path: gmdzi!unido!mcsun!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!bloom-picayune.mit.edu!athena.mit.edu!jik
From: j...@athena.mit.edu (Jonathan I. Kamens)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.wanted,alt.sources.wanted
Subject: How to find sources (READ THIS BEFORE POSTING)
Message-ID: <csw_faq_678178807@athena.mit.edu>
Date: 29 Jun 91 07:00:18 GMT
Expires: 13 Jul 91 15:00:07 EDT
Sender: n...@athena.mit.edu (News system)
Followup-To: poster
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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Supersedes: <csw_faq_676882...@athena.mit.edu>
[$Id: csw_faq,v 1.29 91/06/25 18:28:50 jik Exp $]
I. Table of contents
This article contains the following sections.
I. Table of contents
II. Introduction
III. How do you find sources?
IV. Things not do do
V. Searching techniques in detail
1. Usenet source newsgroups
2. The "archie" database
3. Jon Granrose's anonymous ftp directory
4. Comp.archives
5. Comp.sources.wanted
6. Prospero
VI. File retrieval techniques in detail
1. By anonymous ftp
2. By anonymous UUCP
3. By mail
a. Hrc mail archive
b. Uunet mail archive
c. BITFTP
d. DEC's ftpmail
e. AT&T's netlib archive
f. Periodic posting archives
g. Other mail servers
VII. Credits
To find a particular section, search forward for a line beginning with
the Roman numeral corresponding to the desired section. For example,
search forward for "IV." at the beginning of the line to find the
section entitled "Things not to do".
II. Introduction
This posting discusses the resources available to people who are
looking for source code. Please read it before posting source code
requests to comp.sources.wanted, alt.sources.wanted or any other
newsgroup.
Comments about, suggestions about or corrections to this posting are
welcomed.
III. How do you find sources?
The method you use for locating sources depends on exactly what you
are looking for. Here are several possible routes to follow; pick the
one that best suits your needs. The descriptions below mention
general techniques (e.g. "Check the Usenet source newsgroup indices.")
which are described in detail later in this posting. These
descriptions are listed in order from most preferred to least
preferred solution. You will notice that "Post in
comp.sources.wanted" is listed last. This is because posting
a message in comp.sources.wanted should only be used as a last resort
when you have exhausted all other alternatives.
Once you have located your source code using the instructions below,
you can retrieve it via E-mail or anonymous ftp (depending on what is
accessible to you and on where the code is archived); this is
described in detail later in this posting.
Before following *any* of the routes below, the first thing you should
do is exhaust the local resources that are available to you. Often, a
program that you are looking for will already be accessible somewhere
on your system. Since each site has different local resources, it's
impossible to give details here about the resources at any specific
site. All that can be said is, "Find someone at your site to ask."
Nearly every site has someone whose job it is to answer questions from
other users, and the sites that don't have someone doing it officially
often have someone doing it unofficially. If you cannot find what you
want after checking things out locally, or if you can't find anyone to
ask, then proceed as follows.
1. "I know the name of the program I want, but I don't know where to
get it."
a. Check the indices for the various main Usenet source newsgroups.
b. Check with archie.
c. Check Jon Granrose's anonymous ftp directory.
d. Check comp.archives.
e. Post to comp.sources.wanted.
2. "I know the name of the program I want, and I know which newsgroup
it was posted in, but either (a) I didn't get some of the parts of
it, or (b) I didn't save it when it was posted and now I find that
I need it."
DO NOT post a message to comp.sources.wanted saying, "I didn't save
all of this when it was archived, could someone please send it to
me?" If the code was posted in a source newsgroup, then it is
archived somewhere. Follow the instructions below for retrieving
code from Usenet source newsgroup archives.
3. "I am looking for source code that does <x>."
Follow the same process as (1) above, but instead of searching for
the name of the program, search for keywords in your description of
what you're looking for. For example, if you're looking for
graphical clocks that run under the X window system, you might
search for the word "clock" in the index for comp.sources.x.
4. "I am looking for source code that does <x>," where <x> is
something algorithmic or mathematical that is commonly solved with
computers.
Check AT&T's "netlib" archive (which is accessible via E-mail as
described below, or via anonymous ftp to research.att.com {username
"netlib" instead of "anonymous"}), and if that doesn't work,
proceed as in (3) above.
5. "I am looking for source code that does <x> under the X window
system."
As in (3), but after checking the Usenet source newsgroup indices
(most importantly, that of comp.sources.x), check the anonymous ftp
archive on export.lcs.mit.edu.
See also the postings entitled "Frequently Asked Questions about X
with Answers," posted monthly in comp.windows.x and various other
X-related newsgroups. Those postings discuss in detail how to get
X sources of various sorts. If these postings have expired at your
site, see the documentation below about retrieving postings from
the periodic posting archive.
6. "I'm looking for neat programs to run on my <x> machine."
Don't post questions like this. The amount of source code
available on the Usenet is incredible; you are essentially asking
for a summary of all of it. Browse through the various archives
mentioned in this posting if you want to find something like this.
7. "I'm looking for NetNews software <x>."
See the posting entitled "USENET Software: History and Sources,"
posted periodically in news.admin and news.announce.newusers. If
it has expired at your site, see the documentation below about
retrieving postings from the periodic posting archive.
8. "I'm looking for the source code for Unix."
Most implementations of Unix contain source code that is, at least
to some extent, proprietary and not freely redistributable. If you
are looking for the source code to a particular Unix utility, you
may have better luck looking for a public-domain reimplementation
of that utility, using (1) or (3) above. Furthermore, the Free
Software Foundation may distribute a freely redistributable version
of the utility, protected by the Gnu Public License (Jon Granrose's
list mentions many anonymous ftp archive sites for FSF software;
furthermore, the hrc mail server archives some FSF software).
Finally, if the utility was written by the folks who do the BSD
variant of Unix, then it might be available in the various BSD
source archives (the best one is probably gatekeeper.dec.com;
ftp.uu.net has a bsd-sources directory too, and it contains some
sources that are not in the gatekeeper archive, but the sources
there are for 4.3reno BSD and might be difficult to compile under
other types of Unix) on the net (see Jon Granrose's list to find
them).
9. "I'm looking for a dictionary," or, "I'm looking for a thesaurus."
There aren't any freely redistributable dictionary or thesaurus
databases. If you've already got the database (e.g. on a NeXT
machine), you may be able to find sources for code to manipulate
it; see (3) above. If you don't, then you probably aren't going to
get any useful answers if you ask this question.
IV. Things not to do
1. Don't post messages to source newsgroups (e.g. comp.sources.unix,
comp.sources.misc, etc.) asking for sources.
There are newsgroups specifically for source requests. If you post
a request to a moderated source newsgroup, then the moderator has
to deal with it (and he probably doesn't want to have to deal with
source requests from all over the Usenet), and if you post a
request to an unmoderated source newsgroup, then archives of that
newsgroup end up with cruft (i.e. your request) in them.
V. Searching techniques in detail
1. Usenet source newsgroups
There are many Usenet newsgroups in which source code is posted,
and most of them are archived. They include:
alt.sources
comp.sources.3b1
comp.sources.acorn
comp.sources.amiga
comp.sources.apple2
comp.sources.atari.st
comp.sources.games
comp.sources.mac
comp.sources.misc
comp.sources.sun
comp.sources.unix
comp.sources.x
vmsnet.sources
vmsnet.sources.games
If you're looking for software for a particular machine or
operating system, you should check the source archives that are
appropriate (e.g. checking "comp.sources.mac" if you're looking for
programs to run under SunOS probably wouldn't be very profitable),
as well as the general archives such as alt.sources or
comp.sources.misc.
Sites that archive Usenet source newsgroups usually provide some
method of getting an index of the files in each newsgroup's
archive. If you are accessing an anonymous ftp archive, then this
index will usually appear as a file called "index" or "Index" in
the top-level archive of the newsgroup, or in each volume of the
newsgroup's archive.
If you are accessing a mail archive, then the instructions for
using that archive should explain how to get indices of the
newsgroups that are archived.
If you are accessing an anonymous UUCP archive (see below), you are
usually told when you are given the phone number and password for
the archive how to get the top-level index for the archive, which
will tell you how to get other indices and files.
To find anonymous ftp archives of Usenet newsgroups, check Jon
Granrose's anonymous ftp directory (see below). The most
well-known Usenet newsgroup archive is probably ftp.uu.net, which
archives comp.sources.3b1, comp.sources.amiga, comp.sources.games,
comp.sources.misc, comp.sources.sun, comp.sources.unix, and
comp.sources.x, among other things. Another large Usenet archive
site is wuarchive.wustl.edu, which archives alt.sources,
comp.sources.mac, and comp.sources.apple2, in addition to most of
the newsgroups archived on ftp.uu.net.
The vmsnet newsgroups are archived on black.cerritos.edu and
acfcluster.nyu.edu. See also the posting "Monthly info posting:
vmsnet.sources archive sites" in vmsnet.sources.d and comp.os.vms;
if it has expired at your site, see the documentation below about
retrieving postings from the periodic posting archive.
The mail archive server on hrc.UUCP (see below) archives
alt.sources, comp.sources.unix, comp.sources.games,
comp.sources.misc, comp.sources.x, and comp.sources.sun, among
other things.
2. The "archie" database
"Archie" is a database of anonymous ftp sites and their contents.
The software for it was written by the "Archie Group" at McGill
University in Montreal, Canada, and they maintain the database as
well.
"Archie" keeps track of the entire contents of a very large number
of anonymous ftp sites, and allows you to search for files on those
sites using various different kinds of filename searches. Archie
also has a software description database (with contents similar to
the output of the "whatis" command under Unix), on which you can do
keyword searches.
If you have Internet access, then you access archie by telnet'ing
to the host quiche.cs.mcgill.ca (132.206.2.3 or 132.206.51.1) and
logging in as "archie" with no password. Type "help" at that point
for more information.
If you are in Australia or New Zealand (and please, *only* if you
are in Australia or New Zealand, you can use the archie server on
sol.deakin.oz.au (128.184.1.1), which is running the same software
as the main archive server at McGill.
If you do not have Internet access, then send a mail message to
arc...@quiche.cs.mcgill.ca with "help" in the body of the message
to find out how to access archie via mail. Note that the mail
interface to archie may not provide all of the functionality that
the interactive interface provides. The Australia archie can be
reached at arc...@sol.deakin.oz.au (again, please use this server
only if you are in Australia or New Zealand).
3. Jon Granrose's anonymous ftp directory
Jon Granrose maintains an extensive list of anonymous ftp sites and
overviews of their contents. The list is posted monthly to
comp.misc, comp.sources.wanted and alt.sources.wanted. If it has
expired at your site, see the documentation below about retrieving
postings from the periodic posting archive.
4. Comp.archives
The comp.archives newsgroup, moderated by Ed Vielmetti, contains
announcements of archive sites and their contents. If you cannot
find what you're looking for in the comp.archives postings
available at your site at any given time, then you can read the
newsgroup for a while and watch for new postings that are of
interest to you, or you can try to find an archive site that
archives the postings in comp.archives (e.g. wuarchive.wustl.edu,
cs.dal.ca).
5. Comp.sources.wanted
When you post a message to comp.sources.wanted or
alt.sources.wanted, the important thing to remember is to BE
SPECIFIC. If you're working under Unix, make sure to mention that;
possibly, mention even what type of Unix. If you're not working
under Unix, make sure to mention what operating system and machine
type you *are* working under.
Remember to choose a meaningful Subject line for your message;
something like, "Can you help me?" is very unhelpful to people who
ARE willing to help, and may just cause some of them to not bother
reading your posting. Try to summarize what you're looking for
meaningfully in your Subject line.
Also, it is usually a good idea to ask for people to send you
E-mail rather than posting responses. Say that if enough people
write to you and ask for copies of whatever responses you get, then
you'll summarize the responses in a later posting to the newsgroup,
and if that happens, then DO post the summary.
Finally, don't say, "Would someone please mail me <x>?" Say,
"Would someone please tell me where I can get <x>, or what's
available that does <x>? If you can mail it to me, please let me
know, and I'll let you know if I want you to." This avoids the
problem of several people mailing you what you requested and
overflowing your mailbox.
6. Prospero
If you are a Unix site on the Internet, you can use the Prospero
system (whose author is Clifford Neuman) to search through archives
of various sorts all over the Internet, and to retrieve files once
you have found them. Prospero uses a virtual filesystem which
allows you to transparently view directories and retrieve files.
There is some overlap between Prospero and other resources
mentioned in this document; for example, both archie and the
periodic posting archives on pit-manager.mit.edu are accessible via
Prospero.
The Prospero software is available in /pub/prospero.tar.Z on
cs.washington.edu; the user software may already be installed at
your site, and if not, you can get it and install it yourself. For
more information about Prospero, send mail to
info-prosp...@isi.edu.
VI. File retrieval techniques in detail
1. By anonymous ftp
If you are on a site that is connected to the Internet and allows
its users to ftp out to other Internet sites, then you have
anonymous ftp access. The usual procedure for using anonymous ftp
is to type the command "ftp machine-name", where "machine-name" is
the name of the machine to which you want to connect, and then to
use "anonymous" as the username and "user@host" (i.e. your E-mail
address) as the password when you are prompted for it by ftp.
Type "help" inside ftp to get a list of commands, and/or read the
man page for ftp, or any other documentation about it available at
your site for more information. If they don't answer your
question, then ask someone at your site for help.
If you don't have Internet and ftp access, then you can use an
ftp-mail server such as Princeton's BITFTP or DEC's ftpmail to
retrieve files from anonymous ftp archives. However, you should
only use an ftp-mail server when the same files are not available
from a dedicated mail archive server. See the BITFTP and ftpmail
instructions below.
2. By anonymous UUCP
There are various UUCP sites on the net that publish their modem
telephone numbers and a public username and password that can be
used to transfer files from the sites via UUCP. For more
information about doing this, see the documentation for the "uucp"
command on your system.
One place to find information about anonymous UUCP archives is the
Nixpub listing of public access Unix sites, maintained by Phil
Eschallier and posted in comp.misc and alt.bbs. If that posting
has expired at your site, you can get copies of it from the
Periodic posting archive described below.
3. By mail
a. Hrc mail archive
As mentioned above, the UUCP host "hrc" maintains an archive of
Usenet source newsgroups and other things. To find out how to use
it, send mail to "hrc!archives", or "archi...@hrc.UUCP", or
whatever format your site uses to send mail to the user "archives"
on the machine "hrc", and include the following commands in the
body of the message:
send path <address>
send help
You should replace <address> with a path from hrc to you. If you
know a prominent UUCP site that has you in its path, then your path
can start at that site, e.g. "uunet!mit-athena!jik" (PLEASE don't
use that address, or I'll get the responses to your requests!). If
you're on a site that has a name registered with the Internet name
servers, you can use "uunet!athena.mit.edu!jik".
b. Uunet mail archive
Uunet.uu.net provides E-mail access to the sources it archived (see
the discussion about ftp.uu.net above for some idea of what is
available). The address to which to send requests is
"net...@uunet.uu.net". You can send a message containing "help" in
its body for more information.
c. BITFTP
The BITFTP server, run by Princeton University, allows people on
the BITNET to retrieve via E-mail files at anonymous ftp archive
sites. To find out how to use it, send mail to
"bit...@pucc.princeton.edu" with "help" in the body. The BITFTP
server will reject requests from non-BITNET addresses, so if you're
not on the BITNET and you need to do anonymous ftp retrieval via
E-mail, you should use DEC's ftpmail (see below).
d. DEC's ftpmail
The ftpmail server, run at DEC, allows you to retrieve via E-mail
files at anonymous ftp archive sites. To find out how to use it,
send mail to "ftpm...@decwrl.dec.com" with "help" in the body. If
you're on the BITNET, please use the BITFTP server (see above)
rather than ftpmail.
NOTE: Don't do something bogus like send your requests both to
BITFTP and ftpmail, hoping that one of them will get back to you
first. Choose one server for your request, and use it.
e. AT&T's netlib archive
AT&T's "netlib" archive is the repository for a large body of
source code and other material, much of it mathematical,
algorithmic or scientific in nature.
The archive is accessible only via electronic mail. To find out
how to use it, send mail to "net...@research.att.com" with "help"
in the body of the message.
f. Periodic posting archive
As mentioned above, The machine pit-manager.mit.edu (18.72.1.58)
maintains an archive of periodic Usenet postings. You can access
it via anonymous ftp, or via mail server. To find out how to use
the mail server, send a message to
"mail-ser...@pit-manager.mit.edu" with Subject "help".
The archive on pit-manager is also accessible via WAIS. If you
don't know what that is, don't worry about it; if you do know what
it is, you can search through periodic Usenet postings by
connecting to the "usenet" WAIS database on pit-manager.mit.edu.
g. Other mail servers
There are other mail servers besides the ones listed above. If you
want to find out more about a server, send a message to it with
"help" in the body and see what it sends back.
archive-ser...@ames.arc.nasa.gov
Space archives (also accessible via
anonymous ftp to ames.arc.nasa.gov)
archive-ser...@athena-dist.mit.edu
MIT Project Athena papers and source
code (also accessible via anonymous
ftp to athena-dist.mit.edu)
archive-ser...@bcm.tmc.edu UUCP maps, source-code for BCM WHOIS
database, NFS and PC-NFS information
and source-code, Unisys U-series
information and source code, other
stuff
archive-ser...@cc.purdue.edu NeXT stuff (also accessible via
anonymous ftp to sonta.cc.purdue.edu
or nova.cc.purdue.edu)
archive-ser...@chsun1.uchicago.edu
Computer Underground Digest and
references
archive-ser...@cs.leidenuniv.nl
IPX, "patch" for MS-DOS, "sps" diffs
for SunOS 4.1
archive-ser...@dsi.com Datacomp Systems, Inc.
archive-ser...@eclectic.com Mac-security digest, information about
Eclectic, other stuff
archive-ser...@joshua.atherton.com
archive-ser...@ncsa.uiuc.edu NCSA stuff, especially telnet and tcp
for mac/pc
archive-ser...@rice.edu Sun-spots, sun-source and sun-icons,
plus other software written or
influenced by people at Rice (also
accessible via anonymous ftp to
titan.rice.edu)
archive-ser...@st.cs.uiuc.edu
Ralph Johnson's UIUC smalltalk archive
(also accessible via anonymous ftp to
st.cs.uiuc.edu)
archive-ser...@sun.soe.clarkson.edu
IBM and other good stuff (also
accessible via anonymous ftp to
sun.soe.clarkson.edu)
archive-ser...@wdl1.wdl.loral.com
WDL archive server: snfs, tsig stuff
cube...@gmuvax2.gmu.edu iPSC User's Group
doc-ser...@prl.dec.com Paris Research Lab (PRL) technical
reports, articles, and notes; bignum
package
files...@shsu.bitnet General and VMS-specific TeX/LaTeX
sources, sty files, extensions, etc.;
mailing list archives; sources for VMS
packages of various sorts
gene-ser...@bchs.uh.edu Genbank gene database server
goodies-...@cs.man.ac.uk Manchester smalltalk goodies archive
graf-bib-ser...@decwrl.dec.com
Graphix bibliography server; put
keywords in mail Subject (also
accessible via anonymous ftp to
gatekeeper.dec.com)
info-ser...@cl.cam.ac.uk Various random stuff, including bmx,
btoa, c-nrs, gdb, soft-gen, spad, top,
unix-niftp, ups (Unix PostScript
interpreter)
info-ser...@doc.ic.ac.uk Usenet source newsgroups, GNU, X11,
news software, other stuff
info-ser...@hp4nl.nluug.nl Macintosh, Sun, IBM-PC, Unix sources,
some documents, GNU, graphics, Usenet
archives (or lots of newsgroups), X
window system, TeX, programming
languages (lisp, icon, abc, others),
news sources, network sources, other
stuff
info-ser...@sh.cs.net Internet community calendar, E-mail
ftp server (currently unavailable),
CSNET general information documents,
CREN information, NSFNET information,
Some Internet RFCs, a small amount of
source code
libr...@cme.nist.gov Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory
(MEL) at the National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST)
archive
l...@cs.uni-sb.de AI bibliographical server; put
"lidosearch help" in mail Subject
lists...@dhdurz1.bitnet
lists...@orion.bitnet Erotica
lists...@ubvm.bitnet Russian TeX
lists...@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu Same as lists...@ubvm.bitnet
lists...@vm1.nodak.edu Lots of stuff from simtel-20; put "get
pdget help" in mail body
mail-ser...@cs.ruu.nl GIFs, Atari ST software, random
documentation, ELM sources, Usenet FAQ
postings, GNU software HP-UX software,
NN sources, SGI software, TeX software
and TeXhax and TeXmag archives, random
UNIX software, X11 software, other
stuff (also accessible via anonymous
ftp to praxis.cs.ruu.nl)
mail-ser...@rusmv1.rus.uni-stuttgart.de
German TeX archives; benchmarks,
journal indices, RFCs, network info,
unix info; X, mac, pc, sun, aix, vax,
and other software (also accessible
via anonymous ftp to
rusmv1.rus.uni-stuttgart.de)
mails...@garbo.uwasa.fi Frequently asked questions in various
areas, some Usenet source archives,
some PC software archives
net...@draci.cs.uow.edu.au Australian Netlib (also accessible via
anonymous ftp to draci.cs.uow.edu.au)
net...@ornl.gov Similar to the AT&T netlib archive
net...@uunet.uu.net A large subset of what is available
from uunet via anonymous ftp or
anonymous uucp.
net...@ukc.ac.uk UK netlib server (mostly same contents
as AT&T's netlib) (some files also
accessible via anonymous ftp to
harrier.ukc.ac.uk {username "guest"})
next-arch...@cc.purdue.edu NeXT stuff (also accessible via
anonymous ftp to sonta.cc.purdue.edu
or nova.cc.purdue.edu)
nist...@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov Benchmarks, GOSIP
nptser...@cme.nist.gov NIST Cals server (also accessible via
anonymous ftp to durer.cme.nist.gov)
object-archive-ser...@decwrl.dec.com
OFF format (?) objects
ps-file-ser...@adobe.COM PostScript stuff
reduce-net...@rand.org Sources related to REDUCE (A SAM
system with emphasis on nuclear
physics)
repo...@midgard.ucsc.edu Comp.os.research tech reports (also
accessible via anonymous ftp to
midgard.ucsc.edu)
requ...@legato.com NFS benchmarking for determining if
Legato board will help your server
r...@math.princeton.edu Searchable database of MS-DOS software
(also accessible via anonymous ftp to
math.princeton.edu, in pub/rjc/csip)
sea...@genbank.bio.net FASTA program for nucleic acid
sequence
serv...@nic.ddn.mil Internet RFCs and FYIs, NIC database
registration, WHOIS database lookup
stat...@lib.stat.cmu.edu XLISP-STAT, other statistical software
(also accessible via anonymous ftp to
umnstat.stat.umn.edu)
tech-repo...@cs.columbia.edu Experimental server (?) address might
point to a human
telecom-archive-requ...@letni.lonestar.org
Comp.dcom.telecom archive
wrl-techrepo...@decwrl.dec.com
DEC WRL technical reports and
abstracts
wsc...@ecn.purdue.edu HP 48 programs; put HP-MAIL-SERVER in
mail Subject
xst...@expo.lcs.mit.edu MIT X Consortium files, mainly
patches
VII. Credits
Bill Wohler <woh...@sap-ag.de> provided many of the addresses in the
"Other mail servers" section above, and provided suggestions for
several other sections. Andrew Purshottam <an...@ibmpa.awdpa.ibm.com>
also provided many mail archive server addresses.
Tom Cunningham <t...@bouwsma.sps.mot.com>, Jon Whellams
<mg...@cc.flinders.edu.au>, Adri Verhoef <a...@rivm39.rivm.nl> and Ed
Vielmetti <e...@ox.com> provided feedback and corrections.
Jonathan Kamens USnail:
MIT Project Athena 11 Ashford Terrace
j...@Athena.MIT.EDU Allston, MA 02134
Office: 617-253-8085 Home: 617-782-0710
Path: gmdzi!unido!fauern!ira.uka.de!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!spool.mu.edu!olivea!mintaka!bloom-picayune.mit.edu!athena.mit.edu!jik
From: j...@athena.mit.edu (Jonathan I. Kamens)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.wanted,alt.sources.wanted
Subject: How to find sources (READ THIS BEFORE POSTING)
Message-ID: <csw_faq_679474804@athena.mit.edu>
Date: 14 Jul 91 07:00:17 GMT
Expires: 28 Jul 91 15:00:04 EDT
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[$Id: csw_faq,v 1.31 91/07/07 19:07:11 jik Exp $]
I. Table of contents
This article contains the following sections.
I. Table of contents
II. Introduction
III. How do you find sources?
IV. Things not do do
V. Searching techniques in detail
1. Usenet source newsgroups
2. The "archie" database
3. Jon Granrose's anonymous ftp directory
4. Comp.archives
5. Comp.sources.wanted
6. Prospero
VI. File retrieval techniques in detail
1. By anonymous ftp
2. By anonymous UUCP
3. By mail
a. Hrc mail archive
b. Uunet mail archive
c. BITFTP
d. DEC's ftpmail
e. AT&T's netlib archive
f. Periodic posting archives
g. Other mail servers
VII. Credits
To find a particular section, search forward for a line beginning with
the Roman numeral corresponding to the desired section. For example,
search forward for "IV." at the beginning of the line to find the
section entitled "Things not to do".
II. Introduction
This posting discusses the resources available to people who are
looking for source code. Please read it before posting source code
requests to comp.sources.wanted, alt.sources.wanted or any other
newsgroup.
Comments about, suggestions about or corrections to this posting are
welcomed.
III. How do you find sources?
The method you use for locating sources depends on exactly what you
are looking for. Here are several possible routes to follow; pick the
one that best suits your needs. The descriptions below mention
general techniques (e.g. "Check the Usenet source newsgroup indices.")
which are described in detail later in this posting. These
descriptions are listed in order from most preferred to least
preferred solution. You will notice that "Post in
comp.sources.wanted" is listed last. This is because posting
a message in comp.sources.wanted should only be used as a last resort
when you have exhausted all other alternatives.
Once you have located your source code using the instructions below,
you can retrieve it via E-mail or anonymous ftp (depending on what is
accessible to you and on where the code is archived); this is
described in detail later in this posting.
Before following *any* of the routes below, the first thing you should
do is exhaust the local resources that are available to you. Often, a
program that you are looking for will already be accessible somewhere
on your system. Since each site has different local resources, it's
impossible to give details here about the resources at any specific
site. All that can be said is, "Find someone at your site to ask."
Nearly every site has someone whose job it is to answer questions from
other users, and the sites that don't have someone doing it officially
often have someone doing it unofficially. If you cannot find what you
want after checking things out locally, or if you can't find anyone to
ask, then proceed as follows.
1. "I know the name of the program I want, but I don't know where to
get it."
a. Check the indices for the various main Usenet source newsgroups.
b. Check with archie.
c. Check Jon Granrose's anonymous ftp directory.
d. Check comp.archives.
e. Post to comp.sources.wanted.
2. "I know the name of the program I want, and I know which newsgroup
it was posted in, but either (a) I didn't get some of the parts of
it, or (b) I didn't save it when it was posted and now I find that
I need it."
DO NOT post a message to comp.sources.wanted saying, "I didn't save
all of this when it was archived, could someone please send it to
me?" If the code was posted in a source newsgroup, then it is
archived somewhere. Follow the instructions below for retrieving
code from Usenet source newsgroup archives.
3. "I am looking for source code that does <x>."
Follow the same process as (1) above, but instead of searching for
the name of the program, search for keywords in your description of
what you're looking for. For example, if you're looking for
graphical clocks that run under the X window system, you might
search for the word "clock" in the index for comp.sources.x.
4. "I am looking for source code that does <x>," where <x> is
something algorithmic or mathematical that is commonly solved with
computers.
Check AT&T's "netlib" archive (which is accessible via E-mail as
described below, or via anonymous ftp to research.att.com {username
"netlib" instead of "anonymous"}), and if that doesn't work,
proceed as in (3) above.
5. "I am looking for source code that does <x> under the X window
system."
As in (3), but after checking the Usenet source newsgroup indices
(most importantly, that of comp.sources.x), check the anonymous ftp
archive on export.lcs.mit.edu.
See also the postings entitled "Frequently Asked Questions about X
with Answers," posted monthly in comp.windows.x and various other
X-related newsgroups. Those postings discuss in detail how to get
X sources of various sorts. If these postings have expired at your
site, see the documentation below about retrieving postings from
the periodic posting archive.
6. "I'm looking for neat programs to run on my <x> machine."
Don't post questions like this. The amount of source code
available on the Usenet is incredible; you are essentially asking
for a summary of all of it. Browse through the various archives
mentioned in this posting if you want to find something like this.
7. "I'm looking for NetNews software <x>."
See the posting entitled "USENET Software: History and Sources,"
posted periodically in news.admin and news.announce.newusers. If
it has expired at your site, see the documentation below about
retrieving postings from the periodic posting archive.
8. "I'm looking for the source code for Unix."
Most implementations of Unix contain source code that is, at least
to some extent, proprietary and not freely redistributable. If you
are looking for the source code to a particular Unix utility, you
may have better luck looking for a public-domain reimplementation
of that utility, using (1) or (3) above. Furthermore, the Free
Software Foundation may distribute a freely redistributable version
of the utility, protected by the Gnu Public License (Jon Granrose's
list mentions many anonymous ftp archive sites for FSF software;
furthermore, the hrc mail server archives some FSF software).
Finally, if the utility was written by the folks who do the BSD
variant of Unix, then it might be available in the various BSD
source archives (the best one is probably gatekeeper.dec.com;
ftp.uu.net has a bsd-sources directory too, and it contains some
sources that are not in the gatekeeper archive, but the sources
there are for 4.3reno BSD and might be difficult to compile under
other types of Unix) on the net (see Jon Granrose's list to find
them).
9. "I'm looking for a dictionary," or, "I'm looking for a thesaurus."
There aren't any freely redistributable dictionary or thesaurus
databases. If you've already got the database (e.g. on a NeXT
machine), you may be able to find sources for code to manipulate
it; see (3) above. If you don't, then you probably aren't going to
get any useful answers if you ask this question.
IV. Things not to do
1. Don't post messages to source newsgroups (e.g. comp.sources.unix,
comp.sources.misc, etc.) asking for sources.
There are newsgroups specifically for source requests. If you post
a request to a moderated source newsgroup, then the moderator has
to deal with it (and he probably doesn't want to have to deal with
source requests from all over the Usenet), and if you post a
request to an unmoderated source newsgroup, then archives of that
newsgroup end up with cruft (i.e. your request) in them.
V. Searching techniques in detail
1. Usenet source newsgroups
There are many Usenet newsgroups in which source code is posted,
and most of them are archived. They include:
alt.sources
comp.sources.3b1
comp.sources.acorn
comp.sources.amiga
comp.sources.apple2
comp.sources.atari.st
comp.sources.games
comp.sources.mac
comp.sources.misc
comp.sources.sun
comp.sources.unix
comp.sources.x
vmsnet.sources
vmsnet.sources.games
If you're looking for software for a particular machine or
operating system, you should check the source archives that are
appropriate (e.g. checking "comp.sources.mac" if you're looking for
programs to run under SunOS probably wouldn't be very profitable),
as well as the general archives such as alt.sources or
comp.sources.misc.
Sites that archive Usenet source newsgroups usually provide some
method of getting an index of the files in each newsgroup's
archive. If you are accessing an anonymous ftp archive, then this
index will usually appear as a file called "index" or "Index" in
the top-level archive of the newsgroup, or in each volume of the
newsgroup's archive.
If you are accessing a mail archive, then the instructions for
using that archive should explain how to get indices of the
newsgroups that are archived.
If you are accessing an anonymous UUCP archive (see below), you are
usually told when you are given the phone number and password for
the archive how to get the top-level index for the archive, which
will tell you how to get other indices and files.
To find anonymous ftp archives of Usenet newsgroups, check Jon
Granrose's anonymous ftp directory (see below). The most
well-known Usenet newsgroup archive is probably ftp.uu.net, which
archives comp.sources.3b1, comp.sources.amiga, comp.sources.games,
comp.sources.misc, comp.sources.sun, comp.sources.unix, and
comp.sources.x, among other things. Another large Usenet archive
site is wuarchive.wustl.edu, which archives alt.sources,
comp.sources.mac, and comp.sources.apple2, in addition to most of
the newsgroups archived on ftp.uu.net.
The vmsnet newsgroups are archived on black.cerritos.edu and
acfcluster.nyu.edu. See also the posting "Monthly info posting:
vmsnet.sources archive sites" in vmsnet.sources.d and comp.os.vms;
if it has expired at your site, see the documentation below about
retrieving postings from the periodic posting archive.
The mail archive server on hrc.UUCP (see below) archives
alt.sources, comp.sources.unix, comp.sources.games,
comp.sources.misc, comp.sources.x, and comp.sources.sun, among
other things.
2. The "archie" database
"Archie" is a database of anonymous ftp sites and their contents.
The software for it was written by the "Archie Group" (Peter
Deutsch, Alan Emtage, Bill Heelan, and Mike Parker) at McGill
University in Montreal, Canada, and they maintain the database as
well.
"Archie" keeps track of the entire contents of a very large number
of anonymous ftp sites, and allows you to search for files on those
sites using various different kinds of filename searches. Archie
also has a software description database (with contents similar to
the output of the "whatis" command under Unix), on which you can do
keyword searches.
If you have Internet access, then you access archie by telnet'ing
to the host quiche.cs.mcgill.ca (132.206.2.3 or 132.206.51.1) and
logging in as "archie" with no password. Type "help" at that point
for more information.
If you are in Australia or New Zealand (and please, *only* if you
are in Australia or New Zealand, you can use the archie server on
sol.deakin.oz.au (128.184.1.1), which is running the same software
as the main archive server at McGill.
Archie sites will soon be available elsewhere as well.
If you do not have Internet access, then send a mail message to
arc...@quiche.cs.mcgill.ca with "help" in the body of the message
to find out how to access archie via mail. Note that the mail
interface to archie may not provide all of the functionality that
the interactive interface provides. The Australian archie can be
reached at arc...@sol.deakin.oz.au (again, please use this server
only if you are in Australia or New Zealand).
If you would like more information about archie, you can write to
archi...@cs.mcgill.ca.
3. Jon Granrose's anonymous ftp directory
Jon Granrose maintains an extensive list of anonymous ftp sites and
overviews of their contents. The list is posted monthly to
comp.misc, comp.sources.wanted and alt.sources.wanted. If it has
expired at your site, see the documentation below about retrieving
postings from the periodic posting archive.
4. Comp.archives
The comp.archives newsgroup, moderated by Ed Vielmetti, contains
announcements of archive sites and their contents. If you cannot
find what you're looking for in the comp.archives postings
available at your site at any given time, then you can read the
newsgroup for a while and watch for new postings that are of
interest to you, or you can try to find an archive site that
archives the postings in comp.archives (e.g. wuarchive.wustl.edu,
cs.dal.ca).
5. Comp.sources.wanted
When you post a message to comp.sources.wanted or
alt.sources.wanted, the important thing to remember is to BE
SPECIFIC. If you're working under Unix, make sure to mention that;
possibly, mention even what type of Unix. If you're not working
under Unix, make sure to mention what operating system and machine
type you *are* working under.
Remember to choose a meaningful Subject line for your message;
something like, "Can you help me?" is very unhelpful to people who
ARE willing to help, and may just cause some of them to not bother
reading your posting. Try to summarize what you're looking for
meaningfully in your Subject line.
Also, it is usually a good idea to ask for people to send you
E-mail rather than posting responses. Say that if enough people
write to you and ask for copies of whatever responses you get, then
you'll summarize the responses in a later posting to the newsgroup,
and if that happens, then DO post the summary.
Finally, don't say, "Would someone please mail me <x>?" Say,
"Would someone please tell me where I can get <x>, or what's
available that does <x>? If you can mail it to me, please let me
know, and I'll let you know if I want you to." This avoids the
problem of several people mailing you what you requested and
overflowing your mailbox.
6. Prospero
If you are a Unix site on the Internet, you can use the Prospero
system (whose author is Clifford Neuman) to search through archives
of various sorts all over the Internet, and to retrieve files once
you have found them. Prospero uses a virtual filesystem which
allows you to transparently view directories and retrieve files.
There is some overlap between Prospero and other resources
mentioned in this document; for example, both archie and the
periodic posting archives on pit-manager.mit.edu are accessible via
Prospero.
The Prospero software is available in /pub/prospero.tar.Z on
cs.washington.edu; the user software may already be installed at
your site, and if not, you can get it and install it yourself. For
more information about Prospero, send mail to
info-prosp...@isi.edu.
VI. File retrieval techniques in detail
1. By anonymous ftp
If you are on a site that is connected to the Internet and allows
its users to ftp out to other Internet sites, then you have
anonymous ftp access. The usual procedure for using anonymous ftp
is to type the command "ftp machine-name", where "machine-name" is
the name of the machine to which you want to connect, and then to
use "anonymous" as the username and "user@host" (i.e. your E-mail
address) as the password when you are prompted for it by ftp.
Type "help" inside ftp to get a list of commands, and/or read the
man page for ftp, or any other documentation about it available at
your site for more information. If they don't answer your
question, then ask someone at your site for help.
If you don't have Internet and ftp access, then you can use an
ftp-mail server such as Princeton's BITFTP or DEC's ftpmail to
retrieve files from anonymous ftp archives. However, you should
only use an ftp-mail server when the same files are not available
from a dedicated mail archive server. See the BITFTP and ftpmail
instructions below.
2. By anonymous UUCP
There are various UUCP sites on the net that publish their modem
telephone numbers and a public username and password that can be
used to transfer files from the sites via UUCP. For more
information about doing this, see the documentation for the "uucp"
command on your system.
One place to find information about anonymous UUCP archives is the
Nixpub listing of public access Unix sites, maintained by Phil
Eschallier and posted in comp.misc and alt.bbs. If that posting
has expired at your site, you can get copies of it from the
Periodic posting archive described below.
3. By mail
a. Hrc mail archive
As mentioned above, the UUCP host "hrc" maintains an archive of
Usenet source newsgroups and other things. To find out how to use
it, send mail to "hrc!archives", or "archi...@hrc.UUCP", or
whatever format your site uses to send mail to the user "archives"
on the machine "hrc", and include the following commands in the
body of the message:
send path <address>
send help
You should replace <address> with a path from hrc to you. If you
know a prominent UUCP site that has you in its path, then your path
can start at that site, e.g. "uunet!mit-athena!jik" (PLEASE don't
use that address, or I'll get the responses to your requests!). If
you're on a site that has a name registered with the Internet name
servers, you can use "uunet!athena.mit.edu!jik".
b. Uunet mail archive
Uunet.uu.net provides E-mail access to the sources it archived (see
the discussion about ftp.uu.net above for some idea of what is
available). The address to which to send requests is
"net...@uunet.uu.net". You can send a message containing "help" in
its body for more information.
c. BITFTP
The BITFTP server, run by Princeton University, allows people on
the BITNET to retrieve via E-mail files at anonymous ftp archive
sites. To find out how to use it, send mail to
"bit...@pucc.princeton.edu" with "help" in the body. The BITFTP
server will reject requests from non-BITNET addresses, so if you're
not on the BITNET and you need to do anonymous ftp retrieval via
E-mail, you should use DEC's ftpmail (see below).
d. DEC's ftpmail
The ftpmail server, run at DEC, allows you to retrieve via E-mail
files at anonymous ftp archive sites. To find out how to use it,
send mail to "ftpm...@decwrl.dec.com" with "help" in the body. If
you're on the BITNET, please use the BITFTP server (see above)
rather than ftpmail.
NOTE: Don't do something bogus like send your requests both to
BITFTP and ftpmail, hoping that one of them will get back to you
first. Choose one server for your request, and use it.
e. AT&T's netlib archive
AT&T's "netlib" archive is the repository for a large body of
source code and other material, much of it mathematical,
algorithmic or scientific in nature.
The archive is accessible only via electronic mail. To find out
how to use it, send mail to "net...@research.att.com" with "help"
in the body of the message.
f. Periodic posting archive
As mentioned above, The machine pit-manager.mit.edu (18.72.1.58)
maintains an archive of periodic Usenet postings. You can access
it via anonymous ftp, or via mail server. To find out how to use
the mail server, send a message to
"mail-ser...@pit-manager.mit.edu" with Subject "help".
The archive on pit-manager is also accessible via WAIS. If you
don't know what that is, don't worry about it; if you do know what
it is, you can search through periodic Usenet postings by
connecting to the "usenet" WAIS database on pit-manager.mit.edu.
g. Other mail servers
There are other mail servers besides the ones listed above. If you
want to find out more about a server, send a message to it with
"help" in the body and see what it sends back.
archive-ser...@ames.arc.nasa.gov
Space archives (also accessible via
anonymous ftp to ames.arc.nasa.gov)
archive-ser...@athena-dist.mit.edu
MIT Project Athena papers and source
code (also accessible via anonymous
ftp to athena-dist.mit.edu)
archive-ser...@bcm.tmc.edu UUCP maps, source-code for BCM WHOIS
database, NFS and PC-NFS information
and source-code, Unisys U-series
information and source code, other
stuff
archive-ser...@cc.purdue.edu NeXT stuff (also accessible via
anonymous ftp to sonta.cc.purdue.edu
or nova.cc.purdue.edu)
archive-ser...@chsun1.uchicago.edu
Computer Underground Digest and
references
archive-ser...@cs.leidenuniv.nl
IPX, "patch" for MS-DOS, "sps" diffs
for SunOS 4.1
archive-ser...@dsi.com Datacomp Systems, Inc.
archive-ser...@eclectic.com Mac-security digest, information about
Eclectic, other stuff
archive-ser...@joshua.atherton.com
archive-ser...@ncsa.uiuc.edu NCSA stuff, especially telnet and tcp
for mac/pc
archive-ser...@rice.edu Sun-spots, sun-source and sun-icons,
plus other software written or
influenced by people at Rice (also
accessible via anonymous ftp to
titan.rice.edu)
archive-ser...@st.cs.uiuc.edu
Ralph Johnson's UIUC smalltalk archive
(also accessible via anonymous ftp to
st.cs.uiuc.edu)
archive-ser...@sun.soe.clarkson.edu
IBM and other good stuff (also
accessible via anonymous ftp to
sun.soe.clarkson.edu)
archive-ser...@wdl1.wdl.loral.com
WDL archive server: snfs, tsig stuff
cube...@gmuvax2.gmu.edu iPSC User's Group
doc-ser...@prl.dec.com Paris Research Lab (PRL) technical
reports, articles, and notes; bignum
package
files...@shsu.bitnet General and VMS-specific TeX/LaTeX
sources, sty files, extensions, etc.;
mailing list archives; sources for VMS
packages of various sorts
gene-ser...@bchs.uh.edu Genbank gene database server
goodies-...@cs.man.ac.uk Manchester smalltalk goodies archive
graf-bib-ser...@decwrl.dec.com
Graphix bibliography server; put
keywords in mail Subject (also
accessible via anonymous ftp to
gatekeeper.dec.com)
info-ser...@cl.cam.ac.uk Various random stuff, including bmx,
btoa, c-nrs, gdb, soft-gen, spad, top,
unix-niftp, ups (Unix PostScript
interpreter)
info-ser...@doc.ic.ac.uk Usenet source newsgroups, GNU, X11,
news software, other stuff
info-ser...@hp4nl.nluug.nl Macintosh, Sun, IBM-PC, Unix sources,
some documents, GNU, graphics, Usenet
archives (or lots of newsgroups), X
window system, TeX, programming
languages (lisp, icon, abc, others),
news sources, network sources, other
stuff
info-ser...@sh.cs.net Internet community calendar, E-mail
ftp server (currently unavailable),
CSNET general information documents,
CREN information, NSFNET information,
Some Internet RFCs, a small amount of
source code
libr...@cme.nist.gov Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory
(MEL) at the National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST)
archive
l...@cs.uni-sb.de AI bibliographical server; put
"lidosearch help" in mail Subject
lists...@dhdurz1.bitnet
lists...@orion.bitnet Erotica
lists...@ubvm.bitnet Russian TeX
lists...@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu Same as lists...@ubvm.bitnet
lists...@vm1.nodak.edu Lots of stuff from simtel-20; put "get
pdget help" in mail body
mail-ser...@cs.ruu.nl GIFs, Atari ST software, random
documentation, ELM sources, Usenet FAQ
postings, GNU software HP-UX software,
NN sources, SGI software, TeX software
and TeXhax and TeXmag archives, random
UNIX software, X11 software, other
stuff (also accessible via anonymous
ftp to praxis.cs.ruu.nl)
mail-ser...@rusmv1.rus.uni-stuttgart.de
German TeX archives; benchmarks,
journal indices, RFCs, network info,
unix info; X, mac, pc, sun, aix, vax,
and other software (also accessible
via anonymous ftp to
rusmv1.rus.uni-stuttgart.de)
mails...@garbo.uwasa.fi Frequently asked questions in various
areas, some Usenet source archives,
some PC software archives
net...@draci.cs.uow.edu.au Australian Netlib (also accessible via
anonymous ftp to draci.cs.uow.edu.au)
net...@ornl.gov Similar to the AT&T netlib archive
net...@uunet.uu.net A large subset of what is available
from uunet via anonymous ftp or
anonymous uucp.
net...@ukc.ac.uk UK netlib server (mostly same contents
as AT&T's netlib) (some files also
accessible via anonymous ftp to
harrier.ukc.ac.uk {username "guest"})
next-arch...@cc.purdue.edu NeXT stuff (also accessible via
anonymous ftp to sonta.cc.purdue.edu
or nova.cc.purdue.edu)
nist...@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov Benchmarks, GOSIP
nptser...@cme.nist.gov NIST Cals server (also accessible via
anonymous ftp to durer.cme.nist.gov)
object-archive-ser...@decwrl.dec.com
OFF format (?) objects
ps-file-ser...@adobe.COM PostScript stuff
reduce-net...@rand.org Sources related to REDUCE (A SAM
system with emphasis on nuclear
physics)
repo...@midgard.ucsc.edu Comp.os.research tech reports (also
accessible via anonymous ftp to
midgard.ucsc.edu)
requ...@legato.com NFS benchmarking for determining if
Legato board will help your server
r...@math.princeton.edu Searchable database of MS-DOS software
(also accessible via anonymous ftp to
math.princeton.edu, in pub/rjc/csip)
sea...@genbank.bio.net FASTA program for nucleic acid
sequence
serv...@nic.ddn.mil Internet RFCs and FYIs, NIC database
registration, WHOIS database lookup
stat...@lib.stat.cmu.edu XLISP-STAT, other statistical software
(also accessible via anonymous ftp to
umnstat.stat.umn.edu)
tech-repo...@cs.columbia.edu Experimental server (?) address might
point to a human
telecom-archive-requ...@letni.lonestar.org
Comp.dcom.telecom archive
wrl-techrepo...@decwrl.dec.com
DEC WRL technical reports and
abstracts
wsc...@ecn.purdue.edu HP 48 programs; put HP-MAIL-SERVER in
mail Subject
xst...@expo.lcs.mit.edu MIT X Consortium files, mainly
patches
VII. Credits
Bill Wohler <woh...@sap-ag.de> provided many of the addresses in the
"Other mail servers" section above, and provided suggestions for
several other sections. Andrew Purshottam <an...@ibmpa.awdpa.ibm.com>
also provided many mail archive server addresses.
Tom Cunningham <t...@bouwsma.sps.mot.com>, Peter Deutsch
<pet...@opus.cs.mcgill.ca>, Jon Whellams <mg...@cc.flinders.edu.au>,
Adri Verhoef <a...@rivm39.rivm.nl> and Ed Vielmetti <e...@ox.com>
provided feedback and corrections.
Jonathan Kamens USnail:
MIT Project Athena 11 Ashford Terrace
j...@Athena.MIT.EDU Allston, MA 02134
Office: 617-253-8085 Home: 617-782-0710
Path: gmdzi!unido!mcsun!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!bloom-picayune.mit.edu!athena.mit.edu!jik
From: j...@athena.mit.edu (Jonathan I. Kamens)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.wanted,alt.sources.wanted
Subject: How to find sources (READ THIS BEFORE POSTING)
Message-ID: <csw_faq_680770807@athena.mit.edu>
Date: 29 Jul 91 07:00:18 GMT
Expires: 12 Aug 91 15:00:07 EDT
Sender: n...@athena.mit.edu (News system)
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Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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[$Id: csw_faq,v 1.32 91/07/15 13:43:10 jik Exp $]
I. Table of contents
This article contains the following sections.
I. Table of contents
II. Introduction
III. How do you find sources?
IV. Things not do do
V. Searching techniques in detail
1. Usenet source newsgroups
2. The "archie" database
3. Jon Granrose's anonymous ftp directory
4. Comp.archives
5. Comp.sources.wanted
6. Prospero
VI. File retrieval techniques in detail
1. By anonymous ftp
2. By anonymous UUCP
3. By mail
a. Hrc mail archive
b. Uunet mail archive
c. BITFTP
d. DEC's ftpmail
e. AT&T's netlib archive
f. Periodic posting archives
g. Other mail servers
VII. Credits
To find a particular section, search forward for a line beginning with
the Roman numeral corresponding to the desired section. For example,
search forward for "IV." at the beginning of the line to find the
section entitled "Things not to do".
II. Introduction
This posting discusses the resources available to people who are
looking for source code. Please read it before posting source code
requests to comp.sources.wanted, alt.sources.wanted or any other
newsgroup.
Comments about, suggestions about or corrections to this posting are
welcomed.
III. How do you find sources?
The method you use for locating sources depends on exactly what you
are looking for. Here are several possible routes to follow; pick the
one that best suits your needs. The descriptions below mention
general techniques (e.g. "Check the Usenet source newsgroup indices.")
which are described in detail later in this posting. These
descriptions are listed in order from most preferred to least
preferred solution. You will notice that "Post in
comp.sources.wanted" is listed last. This is because posting
a message in comp.sources.wanted should only be used as a last resort
when you have exhausted all other alternatives.
Once you have located your source code using the instructions below,
you can retrieve it via E-mail or anonymous ftp (depending on what is
accessible to you and on where the code is archived); this is
described in detail later in this posting.
Before following *any* of the routes below, the first thing you should
do is exhaust the local resources that are available to you. Often, a
program that you are looking for will already be accessible somewhere
on your system. Since each site has different local resources, it's
impossible to give details here about the resources at any specific
site. All that can be said is, "Find someone at your site to ask."
Nearly every site has someone whose job it is to answer questions from
other users, and the sites that don't have someone doing it officially
often have someone doing it unofficially. If you cannot find what you
want after checking things out locally, or if you can't find anyone to
ask, then proceed as follows.
1. "I know the name of the program I want, but I don't know where to
get it."
a. Check the indices for the various main Usenet source newsgroups.
b. Check with archie.
c. Check Jon Granrose's anonymous ftp directory.
d. Check comp.archives.
e. Post to comp.sources.wanted.
2. "I know the name of the program I want, and I know which newsgroup
it was posted in, but either (a) I didn't get some of the parts of
it, or (b) I didn't save it when it was posted and now I find that
I need it."
DO NOT post a message to comp.sources.wanted saying, "I didn't save
all of this when it was archived, could someone please send it to
me?" If the code was posted in a source newsgroup, then it is
archived somewhere. Follow the instructions below for retrieving
code from Usenet source newsgroup archives.
3. "I am looking for source code that does <x>."
Follow the same process as (1) above, but instead of searching for
the name of the program, search for keywords in your description of
what you're looking for. For example, if you're looking for
graphical clocks that run under the X window system, you might
search for the word "clock" in the index for comp.sources.x.
4. "I am looking for source code that does <x>," where <x> is
something algorithmic or mathematical that is commonly solved with
computers.
Check AT&T's "netlib" archive (which is accessible via E-mail as
described below, or via anonymous ftp to research.att.com {username
"netlib" instead of "anonymous"}), and if that doesn't work,
proceed as in (3) above.
5. "I am looking for source code that does <x> under the X window
system."
As in (3), but after checking the Usenet source newsgroup indices
(most importantly, that of comp.sources.x), check the anonymous ftp
archive on export.lcs.mit.edu.
See also the postings entitled "Frequently Asked Questions about X
with Answers," posted monthly in comp.windows.x and various other
X-related newsgroups. Those postings discuss in detail how to get
X sources of various sorts. If these postings have expired at your
site, see the documentation below about retrieving postings from
the periodic posting archive.
6. "I'm looking for neat programs to run on my <x> machine."
Don't post questions like this. The amount of source code
available on the Usenet is incredible; you are essentially asking
for a summary of all of it. Browse through the various archives
mentioned in this posting if you want to find something like this.
7. "I'm looking for NetNews software <x>."
See the posting entitled "USENET Software: History and Sources,"
posted periodically in news.admin and news.announce.newusers. If
it has expired at your site, see the documentation below about
retrieving postings from the periodic posting archive.
8. "I'm looking for the source code for Unix."
Most implementations of Unix contain source code that is, at least
to some extent, proprietary and not freely redistributable. If you
are looking for the source code to a particular Unix utility, you
may have better luck looking for a public-domain reimplementation
of that utility, using (1) or (3) above. Furthermore, the Free
Software Foundation may distribute a freely redistributable version
of the utility, protected by the Gnu Public License (Jon Granrose's
list mentions many anonymous ftp archive sites for FSF software;
furthermore, the hrc mail server archives some FSF software).
Finally, if the utility was written by the folks who do the BSD
variant of Unix, then it might be available in the various BSD
source archives (the best one is probably gatekeeper.dec.com;
ftp.uu.net has a bsd-sources directory too, and it contains some
sources that are not in the gatekeeper archive, but the sources
there are for 4.3reno BSD and might be difficult to compile under
other types of Unix) on the net (see Jon Granrose's list to find
them).
9. "I'm looking for a dictionary," or, "I'm looking for a thesaurus."
There aren't any freely redistributable dictionary or thesaurus
databases. If you've already got the database (e.g. on a NeXT
machine), you may be able to find sources for code to manipulate
it; see (3) above. If you don't, then you probably aren't going to
get any useful answers if you ask this question.
IV. Things not to do
1. Don't post messages to source newsgroups (e.g. comp.sources.unix,
comp.sources.misc, etc.) asking for sources.
There are newsgroups specifically for source requests. If you post
a request to a moderated source newsgroup, then the moderator has
to deal with it (and he probably doesn't want to have to deal with
source requests from all over the Usenet), and if you post a
request to an unmoderated source newsgroup, then archives of that
newsgroup end up with cruft (i.e. your request) in them.
V. Searching techniques in detail
1. Usenet source newsgroups
There are many Usenet newsgroups in which source code is posted,
and most of them are archived. They include:
alt.sources
comp.sources.3b1
comp.sources.acorn
comp.sources.amiga
comp.sources.apple2
comp.sources.atari.st
comp.sources.games
comp.sources.mac
comp.sources.misc
comp.sources.sun
comp.sources.unix
comp.sources.x
vmsnet.sources
vmsnet.sources.games
If you're looking for software for a particular machine or
operating system, you should check the source archives that are
appropriate (e.g. checking "comp.sources.mac" if you're looking for
programs to run under SunOS probably wouldn't be very profitable),
as well as the general archives such as alt.sources or
comp.sources.misc.
Sites that archive Usenet source newsgroups usually provide some
method of getting an index of the files in each newsgroup's
archive. If you are accessing an anonymous ftp archive, then this
index will usually appear as a file called "index" or "Index" in
the top-level archive of the newsgroup, or in each volume of the
newsgroup's archive.
If you are accessing a mail archive, then the instructions for
using that archive should explain how to get indices of the
newsgroups that are archived.
If you are accessing an anonymous UUCP archive (see below), you are
usually told when you are given the phone number and password for
the archive how to get the top-level index for the archive, which
will tell you how to get other indices and files.
To find anonymous ftp archives of Usenet newsgroups, check Jon
Granrose's anonymous ftp directory (see below). The most
well-known Usenet newsgroup archive is probably ftp.uu.net, which
archives comp.sources.3b1, comp.sources.amiga, comp.sources.games,
comp.sources.misc, comp.sources.sun, comp.sources.unix, and
comp.sources.x, among other things. Another large Usenet archive
site is wuarchive.wustl.edu, which archives alt.sources,
comp.sources.mac, and comp.sources.apple2, in addition to most of
the newsgroups archived on ftp.uu.net.
The vmsnet newsgroups are archived on black.cerritos.edu and
acfcluster.nyu.edu. See also the posting "Monthly info posting:
vmsnet.sources archive sites" in vmsnet.sources.d and comp.os.vms;
if it has expired at your site, see the documentation below about
retrieving postings from the periodic posting archive.
The mail archive server on hrc.UUCP (see below) archives
alt.sources, comp.sources.unix, comp.sources.games,
comp.sources.misc, comp.sources.x, and comp.sources.sun, among
other things.
2. The "archie" database
"Archie" is a database of anonymous ftp sites and their contents.
The software for it was written by the "Archie Group" (Peter
Deutsch, Alan Emtage, Bill Heelan, and Mike Parker) at McGill
University in Montreal, Canada, and they maintain the database as
well.
"Archie" keeps track of the entire contents of a very large number
of anonymous ftp sites, and allows you to search for files on those
sites using various different kinds of filename searches. Archie
also has a software description database (with contents similar to
the output of the "whatis" command under Unix), on which you can do
keyword searches.
If you have Internet access, then you access archie by telnet'ing
to the host quiche.cs.mcgill.ca (132.206.2.3 or 132.206.51.1) and
logging in as "archie" with no password. Type "help" at that point
for more information.
If you are in Australia or New Zealand (and please, *only* if you
are in Australia or New Zealand, you can use the archie server on
sol.deakin.oz.au (128.184.1.1), which is running the same software
as the main archive server at McGill.
Archie sites will soon be available elsewhere as well.
If you do not have Internet access, then send a mail message to
arc...@quiche.cs.mcgill.ca with "help" in the body of the message
to find out how to access archie via mail. Note that the mail
interface to archie may not provide all of the functionality that
the interactive interface provides. The Australian archie can be
reached at arc...@sol.deakin.oz.au (again, please use this server
only if you are in Australia or New Zealand).
If you would like more information about archie, you can write to
archi...@cs.mcgill.ca.
3. Jon Granrose's anonymous ftp directory
Jon Granrose maintains an extensive list of anonymous ftp sites and
overviews of their contents. The list is posted monthly to
comp.misc, comp.sources.wanted and alt.sources.wanted. If it has
expired at your site, see the documentation below about retrieving
postings from the periodic posting archive.
4. Comp.archives
The comp.archives newsgroup, moderated by Ed Vielmetti, contains
announcements of archive sites and their contents. If you cannot
find what you're looking for in the comp.archives postings
available at your site at any given time, then you can read the
newsgroup for a while and watch for new postings that are of
interest to you, or you can try to find an archive site that
archives the postings in comp.archives (e.g. wuarchive.wustl.edu,
cs.dal.ca).
5. Comp.sources.wanted
When you post a message to comp.sources.wanted or
alt.sources.wanted, the important thing to remember is to BE
SPECIFIC. If you're working under Unix, make sure to mention that;
possibly, mention even what type of Unix. If you're not working
under Unix, make sure to mention what operating system and machine
type you *are* working under.
Remember to choose a meaningful Subject line for your message;
something like, "Can you help me?" is very unhelpful to people who
ARE willing to help, and may just cause some of them to not bother
reading your posting. Try to summarize what you're looking for
meaningfully in your Subject line.
Also, it is usually a good idea to ask for people to send you
E-mail rather than posting responses. Say that if enough people
write to you and ask for copies of whatever responses you get, then
you'll summarize the responses in a later posting to the newsgroup,
and if that happens, then DO post the summary.
Finally, don't say, "Would someone please mail me <x>?" Say,
"Would someone please tell me where I can get <x>, or what's
available that does <x>? If you can mail it to me, please let me
know, and I'll let you know if I want you to." This avoids the
problem of several people mailing you what you requested and
overflowing your mailbox.
6. Prospero
If you are a Unix site on the Internet, you can use the Prospero
system (whose author is Clifford Neuman) to search through archives
of various sorts all over the Internet, and to retrieve files once
you have found them. Prospero uses a virtual filesystem which
allows you to transparently view directories and retrieve files.
There is some overlap between Prospero and other resources
mentioned in this document; for example, both archie and the
periodic posting archives on pit-manager.mit.edu are accessible via
Prospero.
The Prospero software is available in /pub/prospero.tar.Z on
cs.washington.edu; the user software may already be installed at
your site, and if not, you can get it and install it yourself. For
more information about Prospero, send mail to
info-prosp...@isi.edu.
VI. File retrieval techniques in detail
1. By anonymous ftp
If you are on a site that is connected to the Internet and allows
its users to ftp out to other Internet sites, then you have
anonymous ftp access. The usual procedure for using anonymous ftp
is to type the command "ftp machine-name", where "machine-name" is
the name of the machine to which you want to connect, and then to
use "anonymous" as the username and "user@host" (i.e. your E-mail
address) as the password when you are prompted for it by ftp.
Type "help" inside ftp to get a list of commands, and/or read the
man page for ftp, or any other documentation about it available at
your site for more information. If they don't answer your
question, then ask someone at your site for help.
If you don't have Internet and ftp access, then you can use an
ftp-mail server such as Princeton's BITFTP or DEC's ftpmail to
retrieve files from anonymous ftp archives. However, you should
only use an ftp-mail server when the same files are not available
from a dedicated mail archive server. See the BITFTP and ftpmail
instructions below.
2. By anonymous UUCP
There are various UUCP sites on the net that publish their modem
telephone numbers and a public username and password that can be
used to transfer files from the sites via UUCP. For more
information about doing this, see the documentation for the "uucp"
command on your system.
One place to find information about anonymous UUCP archives is the
Nixpub listing of public access Unix sites, maintained by Phil
Eschallier and posted in comp.misc and alt.bbs. If that posting
has expired at your site, you can get copies of it from the
Periodic posting archive described below.
3. By mail
a. Hrc mail archive
As mentioned above, the UUCP host "hrc" maintains an archive of
Usenet source newsgroups and other things. To find out how to use
it, send mail to "hrc!archives", or "archi...@hrc.UUCP", or
whatever format your site uses to send mail to the user "archives"
on the machine "hrc", and include the following commands in the
body of the message:
send path <address>
send help
You should replace <address> with a path from hrc to you. If you
know a prominent UUCP site that has you in its path, then your path
can start at that site, e.g. "uunet!mit-athena!jik" (PLEASE don't
use that address, or I'll get the responses to your requests!). If
you're on a site that has a name registered with the Internet name
servers, you can use "uunet!athena.mit.edu!jik".
b. Uunet mail archive
Uunet.uu.net provides E-mail access to the sources it archived (see
the discussion about ftp.uu.net above for some idea of what is
available). The address to which to send requests is
"net...@uunet.uu.net". You can send a message containing "help" in
its body for more information.
c. BITFTP
The BITFTP server, run by Princeton University, allows people on
the BITNET to retrieve via E-mail files at anonymous ftp archive
sites. To find out how to use it, send mail to
"bit...@pucc.princeton.edu" with "help" in the body. The BITFTP
server will reject requests from non-BITNET addresses, so if you're
not on the BITNET and you need to do anonymous ftp retrieval via
E-mail, you should use DEC's ftpmail (see below).
d. DEC's ftpmail
The ftpmail server, run at DEC, allows you to retrieve via E-mail
files at anonymous ftp archive sites. To find out how to use it,
send mail to "ftpm...@decwrl.dec.com" with "help" in the body. If
you're on the BITNET, please use the BITFTP server (see above)
rather than ftpmail.
NOTE: Don't do something bogus like send your requests both to
BITFTP and ftpmail, hoping that one of them will get back to you
first. Choose one server for your request, and use it.
e. AT&T's netlib archive
AT&T's "netlib" archive is the repository for a large body of
source code and other material, much of it mathematical,
algorithmic or scientific in nature.
The archive is accessible only via electronic mail. To find out
how to use it, send mail to "net...@research.att.com" with "help"
in the body of the message.
f. Periodic posting archive
As mentioned above, The machine pit-manager.mit.edu (18.72.1.58)
maintains an archive of periodic Usenet postings. You can access
it via anonymous ftp, or via mail server. To find out how to use
the mail server, send a message to
"mail-ser...@pit-manager.mit.edu" with Subject "help".
The archive on pit-manager is also accessible via WAIS. If you
don't know what that is, don't worry about it; if you do know what
it is, you can search through periodic Usenet postings by
connecting to the "usenet" WAIS database on pit-manager.mit.edu.
g. Other mail servers
There are other mail servers besides the ones listed above. If you
want to find out more about a server, send a message to it with
"help" in the body and see what it sends back.
archive-ser...@ames.arc.nasa.gov
Space archives (also accessible via
anonymous ftp to ames.arc.nasa.gov)
archive-ser...@athena-dist.mit.edu
MIT Project Athena papers and source
code (also accessible via anonymous
ftp to athena-dist.mit.edu)
archive-ser...@bcm.tmc.edu UUCP maps, source-code for BCM WHOIS
database, NFS and PC-NFS information
and source-code, Unisys U-series
information and source code, other
stuff
archive-ser...@cc.purdue.edu NeXT stuff (also accessible via
anonymous ftp to sonta.cc.purdue.edu
or nova.cc.purdue.edu)
archive-ser...@chsun1.uchicago.edu
Computer Underground Digest and
references
archive-ser...@cs.leidenuniv.nl
IPX, "patch" for MS-DOS, "sps" diffs
for SunOS 4.1
archive-ser...@dsi.com Datacomp Systems, Inc.
archive-ser...@eclectic.com Mac-security digest, information about
Eclectic, other stuff
archive-ser...@joshua.atherton.com
archive-ser...@ncsa.uiuc.edu NCSA stuff, especially telnet and tcp
for mac/pc
archive-ser...@rice.edu Sun-spots, sun-source and sun-icons,
plus other software written or
influenced by people at Rice (also
accessible via anonymous ftp to
titan.rice.edu)
archive-ser...@st.cs.uiuc.edu
Ralph Johnson's UIUC smalltalk archive
(also accessible via anonymous ftp to
st.cs.uiuc.edu)
archive-ser...@sun.soe.clarkson.edu
IBM and other good stuff (also
accessible via anonymous ftp to
sun.soe.clarkson.edu)
archive-ser...@wdl1.wdl.loral.com
WDL archive server: snfs, tsig stuff
cube...@gmuvax2.gmu.edu iPSC User's Group
doc-ser...@prl.dec.com Paris Research Lab (PRL) technical
reports, articles, and notes; bignum
package
files...@shsu.bitnet General and VMS-specific TeX/LaTeX
sources, sty files, extensions, etc.;
mailing list archives; sources for VMS
packages of various sorts
gene-ser...@bchs.uh.edu Genbank gene database server
goodies-...@cs.man.ac.uk Manchester smalltalk goodies archive
graf-bib-ser...@decwrl.dec.com
Graphix bibliography server; put
keywords in mail Subject (also
accessible via anonymous ftp to
gatekeeper.dec.com)
info-ser...@cl.cam.ac.uk Various random stuff, including bmx,
btoa, c-nrs, gdb, soft-gen, spad, top,
unix-niftp, ups (Unix PostScript
interpreter)
info-ser...@doc.ic.ac.uk Usenet source newsgroups, GNU, X11,
news software, other stuff
info-ser...@hp4nl.nluug.nl Macintosh, Sun, IBM-PC, Unix sources,
some documents, GNU, graphics, Usenet
archives (or lots of newsgroups), X
window system, TeX, programming
languages (lisp, icon, abc, others),
news sources, network sources, other
stuff
info-ser...@sh.cs.net Internet community calendar, E-mail
ftp server (currently unavailable),
CSNET general information documents,
CREN information, NSFNET information,
Some Internet RFCs, a small amount of
source code
libr...@cme.nist.gov Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory
(MEL) at the National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST)
archive
l...@cs.uni-sb.de AI bibliographical server; put
"lidosearch help" in mail Subject
lists...@dhdurz1.bitnet
lists...@orion.bitnet Erotica
lists...@ubvm.bitnet Russian TeX
lists...@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu Same as lists...@ubvm.bitnet
lists...@vm1.nodak.edu Lots of stuff from simtel-20; put "get
pdget help" in mail body
mail-ser...@cs.ruu.nl GIFs, Atari ST software, random
documentation, ELM sources, Usenet FAQ
postings, GNU software HP-UX software,
NN sources, SGI software, TeX software
and TeXhax and TeXmag archives, random
UNIX software, X11 software, other
stuff (also accessible via anonymous
ftp to archive.cs.ruu.nl)
mail-ser...@rusmv1.rus.uni-stuttgart.de
German TeX archives; benchmarks,
journal indices, RFCs, network info,
unix info; X, mac, pc, sun, aix, vax,
and other software (also accessible
via anonymous ftp to
rusmv1.rus.uni-stuttgart.de)
mails...@garbo.uwasa.fi Frequently asked questions in various
areas, some Usenet source archives,
some PC software archives
net...@draci.cs.uow.edu.au Australian Netlib (also accessible via
anonymous ftp to draci.cs.uow.edu.au)
net...@ornl.gov Similar to the AT&T netlib archive
net...@uunet.uu.net A large subset of what is available
from uunet via anonymous ftp or
anonymous uucp.
net...@ukc.ac.uk UK netlib server (mostly same contents
as AT&T's netlib) (some files also
accessible via anonymous ftp to
harrier.ukc.ac.uk {username "guest"})
next-arch...@cc.purdue.edu NeXT stuff (also accessible via
anonymous ftp to sonta.cc.purdue.edu
or nova.cc.purdue.edu)
nist...@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov Benchmarks, GOSIP
nptser...@cme.nist.gov NIST Cals server (also accessible via
anonymous ftp to durer.cme.nist.gov)
object-archive-ser...@decwrl.dec.com
OFF format (?) objects
ps-file-ser...@adobe.COM PostScript stuff
reduce-net...@rand.org Sources related to REDUCE (A SAM
system with emphasis on nuclear
physics)
repo...@midgard.ucsc.edu Comp.os.research tech reports (also
accessible via anonymous ftp to
midgard.ucsc.edu)
requ...@legato.com NFS benchmarking for determining if
Legato board will help your server
r...@math.princeton.edu Searchable database of MS-DOS software
(also accessible via anonymous ftp to
math.princeton.edu, in pub/rjc/csip)
sea...@genbank.bio.net FASTA program for nucleic acid
sequence
serv...@nic.ddn.mil Internet RFCs and FYIs, NIC database
registration, WHOIS database lookup
stat...@lib.stat.cmu.edu XLISP-STAT, other statistical software
(also accessible via anonymous ftp to
umnstat.stat.umn.edu)
tech-repo...@cs.columbia.edu Experimental server (?) address might
point to a human
telecom-archive-requ...@letni.lonestar.org
Comp.dcom.telecom archive
wrl-techrepo...@decwrl.dec.com
DEC WRL technical reports and
abstracts
wsc...@ecn.purdue.edu HP 48 programs; put HP-MAIL-SERVER in
mail Subject
xst...@expo.lcs.mit.edu MIT X Consortium files, mainly
patches
VII. Credits
Bill Wohler <woh...@sap-ag.de> provided many of the addresses in the
"Other mail servers" section above, and provided suggestions for
several other sections. Andrew Purshottam <an...@ibmpa.awdpa.ibm.com>
also provided many mail archive server addresses.
Tom Cunningham <t...@bouwsma.sps.mot.com>, Peter Deutsch
<pet...@opus.cs.mcgill.ca>, Edwin Kremer <ed...@cs.ruu.nl>, Jon
Whellams <mg...@cc.flinders.edu.au>, Adri Verhoef <a...@rivm39.rivm.nl>
and Ed Vielmetti <e...@ox.com> provided feedback and corrections.
Jonathan Kamens USnail:
MIT Project Athena 11 Ashford Terrace
j...@Athena.MIT.EDU Allston, MA 02134
Office: 617-253-8085 Home: 617-782-0710
Path: gmdzi!unido!fauern!ira.uka.de!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!spool.mu.edu!agate!darkstar!athena.mit.edu!jik
From: j...@athena.mit.edu (Jonathan I. Kamens)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.wanted,alt.sources.wanted
Subject: How to find sources (READ THIS BEFORE POSTING)
Message-ID: <csw_faq_682067181@athena.mit.edu>
Date: 13 Aug 91 07:15:34 GMT
Expires: 27 Aug 91 19:06:21 GMT
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[$Id: csw_faq,v 1.35 91/07/31 22:29:01 jik Exp $]
I. Table of contents
This article contains the following sections.
I. Table of contents
II. Introduction
III. How do you find sources?
IV. Things not do do
V. Searching techniques in detail
1. Usenet source newsgroups
2. The "archie" database
3. Jon Granrose's anonymous ftp directory
4. Comp.archives
5. Comp.sources.wanted
6. Prospero
VI. File retrieval techniques in detail
1. By anonymous ftp
2. By anonymous UUCP
3. By mail
a. Hrc mail archive
b. Uunet mail archive
c. BITFTP
d. DEC's ftpmail
e. AT&T's netlib archive
f. Periodic posting archives
g. Other mail servers
VII. Credits
To find a particular section, search forward for a line beginning with
the Roman numeral corresponding to the desired section. For example,
search forward for "IV." at the beginning of the line to find the
section entitled "Things not to do".
II. Introduction
This posting discusses the resources available to people who are
looking for source code. Please read it before posting source code
requests to comp.sources.wanted, alt.sources.wanted or any other
newsgroup.
Comments about, suggestions about or corrections to this posting are
welcomed.
III. How do you find sources?
The method you use for locating sources depends on exactly what you
are looking for. Here are several possible routes to follow; pick the
one that best suits your needs. The descriptions below mention
general techniques (e.g. "Check the Usenet source newsgroup indices.")
which are described in detail later in this posting. These
descriptions are listed in order from most preferred to least
preferred solution. You will notice that "Post in
comp.sources.wanted" is listed last. This is because posting
a message in comp.sources.wanted should only be used as a last resort
when you have exhausted all other alternatives.
Once you have located your source code using the instructions below,
you can retrieve it via E-mail or anonymous ftp (depending on what is
accessible to you and on where the code is archived); this is
described in detail later in this posting.
Before following *any* of the routes below, the first thing you should
do is exhaust the local resources that are available to you. Often, a
program that you are looking for will already be accessible somewhere
on your system. Since each site has different local resources, it's
impossible to give details here about the resources at any specific
site. All that can be said is, "Find someone at your site to ask."
Nearly every site has someone whose job it is to answer questions from
other users, and the sites that don't have someone doing it officially
often have someone doing it unofficially. If you cannot find what you
want after checking things out locally, or if you can't find anyone to
ask, then proceed as follows.
1. "I know the name of the program I want, but I don't know where to
get it."
a. Check the indices for the various main Usenet source newsgroups.
b. Check with archie.
c. Check Jon Granrose's anonymous ftp directory.
d. Check comp.archives.
e. Post to comp.sources.wanted.
2. "I know the name of the program I want, and I know which newsgroup
it was posted in, but either (a) I didn't get some of the parts of
it, or (b) I didn't save it when it was posted and now I find that
I need it."
DO NOT post a message to comp.sources.wanted saying, "I didn't save
all of this when it was archived, could someone please send it to
me?" If the code was posted in a source newsgroup, then it is
archived somewhere. Follow the instructions below for retrieving
code from Usenet source newsgroup archives.
3. "I am looking for source code that does <x>."
Follow the same process as (1) above, but instead of searching for
the name of the program, search for keywords in your description of
what you're looking for. For example, if you're looking for
graphical clocks that run under the X window system, you might
search for the word "clock" in the index for comp.sources.x.
4. "I am looking for source code that does <x>," where <x> is
something algorithmic or mathematical that is commonly solved with
computers.
Check AT&T's "netlib" archive (which is accessible via E-mail as
described below, or via anonymous ftp to research.att.com {username
"netlib" instead of "anonymous"}), and if that doesn't work,
proceed as in (3) above.
5. "I am looking for source code that does <x> under the X window
system."
As in (3), but after checking the Usenet source newsgroup indices
(most importantly, that of comp.sources.x), check the anonymous ftp
archive on export.lcs.mit.edu.
See also the postings entitled "Frequently Asked Questions about X
with Answers," posted monthly in comp.windows.x and various other
X-related newsgroups. Those postings discuss in detail how to get
X sources of various sorts. If these postings have expired at your
site, see the documentation below about retrieving postings from
the periodic posting archive.
6. "I'm looking for neat programs to run on my <x> machine."
Don't post questions like this. The amount of source code
available on the Usenet is incredible; you are essentially asking
for a summary of all of it. Browse through the various archives
mentioned in this posting if you want to find something like this.
7. "I'm looking for NetNews software <x>."
See the posting entitled "USENET Software: History and Sources,"
posted periodically in news.admin and news.announce.newusers. If
it has expired at your site, see the documentation below about
retrieving postings from the periodic posting archive.
8. "I'm looking for the source code for Unix."
Most implementations of Unix contain source code that is, at least
to some extent, proprietary and not freely redistributable. If you
are looking for the source code to a particular Unix utility, you
may have better luck looking for a public-domain reimplementation
of that utility, using (1) or (3) above. Furthermore, the Free
Software Foundation may distribute a freely redistributable version
of the utility, protected by the Gnu Public License (Jon Granrose's
list mentions many anonymous ftp archive sites for FSF software;
furthermore, the hrc mail server archives some FSF software).
Finally, if the utility was written by the folks who do the BSD
variant of Unix, then it might be available in the various BSD
source archives (the best one is probably gatekeeper.dec.com;
ftp.uu.net has a bsd-sources directory too, and it contains some
sources that are not in the gatekeeper archive, but the sources
there are for 4.3reno BSD and might be difficult to compile under
other types of Unix) on the net (see Jon Granrose's list to find
them).
9. "I'm looking for a dictionary," or, "I'm looking for a thesaurus."
There aren't any freely redistributable dictionary or thesaurus
databases. If you've already got the database (e.g. on a NeXT
machine), you may be able to find sources for code to manipulate
it; see (3) above. If you don't, then you probably aren't going to
get any useful answers if you ask this question.
IV. Things not to do
1. Don't post messages to source newsgroups (e.g. comp.sources.unix,
comp.sources.misc, etc.) asking for sources.
There are newsgroups specifically for source requests. If you post
a request to a moderated source newsgroup, then the moderator has
to deal with it (and he probably doesn't want to have to deal with
source requests from all over the Usenet), and if you post a
request to an unmoderated source newsgroup, then archives of that
newsgroup end up with cruft (i.e. your request) in them.
V. Searching techniques in detail
1. Usenet source newsgroups
There are many Usenet newsgroups in which source code is posted,
and most of them are archived. They include:
alt.sources
comp.sources.3b1
comp.sources.acorn
comp.sources.amiga
comp.sources.apple2
comp.sources.atari.st
comp.sources.games
comp.sources.mac
comp.sources.misc
comp.sources.sun
comp.sources.unix
comp.sources.x
vmsnet.sources
vmsnet.sources.games
If you're looking for software for a particular machine or
operating system, you should check the source archives that are
appropriate (e.g. checking "comp.sources.mac" if you're looking for
programs to run under SunOS probably wouldn't be very profitable),
as well as the general archives such as alt.sources or
comp.sources.misc.
Sites that archive Usenet source newsgroups usually provide some
method of getting an index of the files in each newsgroup's
archive. If you are accessing an anonymous ftp archive, then this
index will usually appear as a file called "index" or "Index" in
the top-level archive of the newsgroup, or in each volume of the
newsgroup's archive.
If you are accessing a mail archive, then the instructions for
using that archive should explain how to get indices of the
newsgroups that are archived.
If you are accessing an anonymous UUCP archive (see below), you are
usually told when you are given the phone number and password for
the archive how to get the top-level index for the archive, which
will tell you how to get other indices and files.
To find anonymous ftp archives of Usenet newsgroups, check Jon
Granrose's anonymous ftp directory (see below). The most
well-known Usenet newsgroup archive is probably ftp.uu.net, which
archives comp.sources.3b1, comp.sources.amiga, comp.sources.games,
comp.sources.misc, comp.sources.sun, comp.sources.unix, and
comp.sources.x, among other things. Another large Usenet archive
site is wuarchive.wustl.edu (128.252.135.4), which archives
alt.sources, comp.sources.mac, and comp.sources.apple2, in addition
to most of the newsgroups archived on ftp.uu.net. A very large
European anonymous ftp site is nic.funet.fi (128.214.6.100), which
archives Usenet newsgroups and mirrors several foreign specialized
ftp servers. Other large European archive sites are mcsun.eu.net
(192.16.202.1) and inria.inria.fr (192.93.2.1). If you are in
Europe, you should look on one of these sites for things you need
before trying sites elsewhere.
The vmsnet newsgroups are archived on black.cerritos.edu and
acfcluster.nyu.edu. See also the posting "Monthly info posting:
vmsnet.sources archive sites" in vmsnet.sources.d and comp.os.vms;
if it has expired at your site, see the documentation below about
retrieving postings from the periodic posting archive.
The mail archive server on hrc.UUCP (see below) archives
alt.sources, comp.sources.unix, comp.sources.games,
comp.sources.misc, comp.sources.x, and comp.sources.sun, among
other things.
2. The "archie" database
"Archie" is a database of anonymous ftp sites and their contents.
The software for it was written by the "Archie Group" (Peter
Deutsch, Alan Emtage, Bill Heelan, and Mike Parker) at McGill
University in Montreal, Canada, and they maintain the database as
well.
"Archie" keeps track of the entire contents of a very large number
of anonymous ftp sites, and allows you to search for files on those
sites using various different kinds of filename searches. Archie
also has a software description database (with contents similar to
the output of the "whatis" command under Unix), on which you can do
keyword searches.
If you have Internet access, then you access archie by telnet'ing
to the host quiche.cs.mcgill.ca (132.206.2.3 or 132.206.51.1) and
logging in as "archie" with no password. Type "help" at that point
for more information.
If you are in Australia or New Zealand (and please, *only* if you
are in Australia or New Zealand, you can use the archie server on
sol.deakin.oz.au (128.184.1.1), which is running the same software
as the main archive server at McGill.
If you are in Finland (or if Finland is closer to you, net-wise,
than Canada, Australia or New Zealand), you can use the archie
server on nic.funet.fi (128.214.6.100).
Archie sites will soon be available elsewhere as well.
If you do not have Internet access, then send a mail message to
arc...@quiche.cs.mcgill.ca with "help" in the body of the message
to find out how to access archie via mail. Note that the mail
interface to archie may not provide all of the functionality that
the interactive interface provides. The Australian archie can be
reached at arc...@sol.deakin.oz.au (again, please use this server
only if you are in Australia or New Zealand), and the Finnish
archie can be reached at arc...@nic.funet.fi.
If you would like more information about archie, you can write to
archi...@cs.mcgill.ca.
3. Jon Granrose's anonymous ftp directory
Jon Granrose maintains an extensive list of anonymous ftp sites and
overviews of their contents. The list is posted monthly to
comp.misc, comp.sources.wanted and alt.sources.wanted. If it has
expired at your site, see the documentation below about retrieving
postings from the periodic posting archive.
4. Comp.archives
The comp.archives newsgroup, moderated by Ed Vielmetti, contains
announcements of archive sites and their contents. If you cannot
find what you're looking for in the comp.archives postings
available at your site at any given time, then you can read the
newsgroup for a while and watch for new postings that are of
interest to you, or you can try to find an archive site that
archives the postings in comp.archives (e.g. wuarchive.wustl.edu,
cs.dal.ca).
5. Comp.sources.wanted
When you post a message to comp.sources.wanted or
alt.sources.wanted, the important thing to remember is to BE
SPECIFIC. If you're working under Unix, make sure to mention that;
possibly, mention even what type of Unix. If you're not working
under Unix, make sure to mention what operating system and machine
type you *are* working under.
Remember to choose a meaningful Subject line for your message;
something like, "Can you help me?" is very unhelpful to people who
ARE willing to help, and may just cause some of them to not bother
reading your posting. Try to summarize what you're looking for
meaningfully in your Subject line.
Also, it is usually a good idea to ask for people to send you
E-mail rather than posting responses. Say that if enough people
write to you and ask for copies of whatever responses you get, then
you'll summarize the responses in a later posting to the newsgroup,
and if that happens, then DO post the summary.
Finally, don't say, "Would someone please mail me <x>?" Say,
"Would someone please tell me where I can get <x>, or what's
available that does <x>? If you can mail it to me, please let me
know, and I'll let you know if I want you to." This avoids the
problem of several people mailing you what you requested and
overflowing your mailbox.
6. Prospero
If you are a Unix site on the Internet, you can use the Prospero
system (whose author is Clifford Neuman) to search through archives
of various sorts all over the Internet, and to retrieve files once
you have found them. Prospero uses a virtual filesystem which
allows you to transparently view directories and retrieve files.
There is some overlap between Prospero and other resources
mentioned in this document; for example, both archie and the
periodic posting archives on pit-manager.mit.edu are accessible via
Prospero.
The Prospero software is available in /pub/prospero.tar.Z on
cs.washington.edu; the user software may already be installed at
your site, and if not, you can get it and install it yourself. For
more information about Prospero, send mail to
info-prosp...@isi.edu.
VI. File retrieval techniques in detail
1. By anonymous ftp
If you are on a site that is connected to the Internet and allows
its users to ftp out to other Internet sites, then you have
anonymous ftp access. The usual procedure for using anonymous ftp
is to type the command "ftp machine-name", where "machine-name" is
the name of the machine to which you want to connect, and then to
use "anonymous" as the username and "user@host" (i.e. your E-mail
address) as the password when you are prompted for it by ftp.
Type "help" inside ftp to get a list of commands, and/or read the
man page for ftp, or any other documentation about it available at
your site for more information. If they don't answer your
question, then ask someone at your site for help.
If you don't have Internet and ftp access, then you can use an
ftp-mail server such as Princeton's BITFTP or DEC's ftpmail to
retrieve files from anonymous ftp archives. However, you should
only use an ftp-mail server when the same files are not available
from a dedicated mail archive server. See the BITFTP and ftpmail
instructions below.
2. By anonymous UUCP
There are various UUCP sites on the net that publish their modem
telephone numbers and a public username and password that can be
used to transfer files from the sites via UUCP. For more
information about doing this, see the documentation for the "uucp"
command on your system.
One place to find information about anonymous UUCP archives is the
Nixpub listing of public access Unix sites, maintained by Phil
Eschallier and posted in comp.misc and alt.bbs. If that posting
has expired at your site, you can get copies of it from the
Periodic posting archive described below.
3. By mail
a. Hrc mail archive
As mentioned above, the UUCP host "hrc" maintains an archive of
Usenet source newsgroups and other things. To find out how to use
it, send mail to "hrc!archives", or "archi...@hrc.UUCP", or
whatever format your site uses to send mail to the user "archives"
on the machine "hrc", and include the following commands in the
body of the message:
send path <address>
send help
You should replace <address> with a path from hrc to you. If you
know a prominent UUCP site that has you in its path, then your path
can start at that site, e.g. "uunet!mit-athena!jik" (PLEASE don't
use that address, or I'll get the responses to your requests!). If
you're on a site that has a name registered with the Internet name
servers, you can use "uunet!athena.mit.edu!jik".
b. Uunet mail archive
Uunet.uu.net provides E-mail access to the sources it archived (see
the discussion about ftp.uu.net above for some idea of what is
available). The address to which to send requests is
"net...@uunet.uu.net". You can send a message containing "help" in
its body for more information.
c. BITFTP
The BITFTP server, run by Princeton University, allows people on
the BITNET to retrieve via E-mail files at anonymous ftp archive
sites. To find out how to use it, send mail to
"bit...@pucc.princeton.edu" with "help" in the body. The BITFTP
server will reject requests from non-BITNET addresses, so if you're
not on the BITNET and you need to do anonymous ftp retrieval via
E-mail, you should use DEC's ftpmail (see below).
d. DEC's ftpmail
The ftpmail server, run at DEC, allows you to retrieve via E-mail
files at anonymous ftp archive sites. To find out how to use it,
send mail to "ftpm...@decwrl.dec.com" with "help" in the body. If
you're on the BITNET, please use the BITFTP server (see above)
rather than ftpmail.
NOTE: Don't do something bogus like send your requests both to
BITFTP and ftpmail, hoping that one of them will get back to you
first. Choose one server for your request, and use it.
e. AT&T's netlib archive
AT&T's "netlib" archive is the repository for a large body of
source code and other material, much of it mathematical,
algorithmic or scientific in nature.
The archive is accessible only via electronic mail. To find out
how to use it, send mail to "net...@research.att.com" with "help"
in the body of the message.
f. Periodic posting archive
As mentioned above, The machine pit-manager.mit.edu (18.72.1.58)
maintains an archive of periodic Usenet postings. You can access
it via anonymous ftp, or via mail server. To find out how to use
the mail server, send a message to
"mail-ser...@pit-manager.mit.edu" with Subject "help".
The archive on pit-manager is also accessible via WAIS. If you
don't know what that is, don't worry about it; if you do know what
it is, you can search through periodic Usenet postings by
connecting to the "usenet" WAIS database on pit-manager.mit.edu.
g. Other mail servers
There are other mail servers besides the ones listed above. If you
want to find out more about a server, send a message to it with
"help" in the body and see what it sends back.
archive-ser...@ames.arc.nasa.gov
Space archives (also accessible via
anonymous ftp to ames.arc.nasa.gov)
archive-ser...@athena-dist.mit.edu
MIT Project Athena papers and source
code (also accessible via anonymous
ftp to athena-dist.mit.edu)
archive-ser...@bcm.tmc.edu UUCP maps, source-code for BCM WHOIS
database, NFS and PC-NFS information
and source-code, Unisys U-series
information and source code, other
stuff
archive-ser...@cc.purdue.edu NeXT stuff (also accessible via
anonymous ftp to sonta.cc.purdue.edu
or nova.cc.purdue.edu)
archive-ser...@chsun1.uchicago.edu
Computer Underground Digest and
references
archive-ser...@cs.leidenuniv.nl
IPX, "patch" for MS-DOS, "sps" diffs
for SunOS 4.1
archive-ser...@dsi.com Datacomp Systems, Inc.
archive-ser...@eclectic.com Mac-security digest, information about
Eclectic, other stuff
archive-ser...@joshua.atherton.com
archive-ser...@ncsa.uiuc.edu NCSA stuff, especially telnet and tcp
for mac/pc
archive-ser...@rice.edu Sun-spots, sun-source and sun-icons,
plus other software written or
influenced by people at Rice (also
accessible via anonymous ftp to
titan.rice.edu)
archive-ser...@st.cs.uiuc.edu
Ralph Johnson's UIUC smalltalk archive
(also accessible via anonymous ftp to
st.cs.uiuc.edu)
archive-ser...@sun.soe.clarkson.edu
IBM and other good stuff (also
accessible via anonymous ftp to
sun.soe.clarkson.edu)
archive-ser...@wdl1.wdl.loral.com
WDL archive server: snfs, tsig stuff
cube...@gmuvax2.gmu.edu iPSC User's Group
doc-ser...@prl.dec.com Paris Research Lab (PRL) technical
reports, articles, and notes; bignum
package
files...@shsu.bitnet General and VMS-specific TeX/LaTeX
sources, sty files, extensions, etc.;
mailing list archives; sources for VMS
packages of various sorts
gene-ser...@bchs.uh.edu Genbank gene database server
goodies-...@cs.man.ac.uk Manchester smalltalk goodies archive
graf-bib-ser...@decwrl.dec.com
Graphix bibliography server; put
keywords in mail Subject (also
accessible via anonymous ftp to
gatekeeper.dec.com)
info-ser...@cl.cam.ac.uk Various random stuff, including bmx,
btoa, c-nrs, gdb, soft-gen, spad, top,
unix-niftp, ups (Unix PostScript
interpreter)
info-ser...@doc.ic.ac.uk Usenet source newsgroups, GNU, X11,
news software, other stuff
info-ser...@hp4nl.nluug.nl Macintosh, Sun, IBM-PC, Unix sources,
some documents, GNU, graphics, Usenet
archives (or lots of newsgroups), X
window system, TeX, programming
languages (lisp, icon, abc, others),
news sources, network sources, other
stuff
info-ser...@sh.cs.net Internet community calendar, E-mail
ftp server (currently unavailable),
CSNET general information documents,
CREN information, NSFNET information,
Some Internet RFCs, a small amount of
source code
libr...@cme.nist.gov Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory
(MEL) at the National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST)
archive
l...@cs.uni-sb.de AI bibliographical server; put
"lidosearch help" in mail Subject
lists...@dhdurz1.bitnet
lists...@orion.bitnet Erotica
lists...@ubvm.bitnet Russian TeX
lists...@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu Same as lists...@ubvm.bitnet
lists...@vm1.nodak.edu Lots of stuff from simtel-20; put "get
pdget help" in mail body
mail-ser...@cs.ruu.nl GIFs, Atari ST software, random
documentation, ELM sources, Usenet FAQ
postings, GNU software HP-UX software,
NN sources, SGI software, TeX software
and TeXhax and TeXmag archives, random
UNIX software, X11 software, other
stuff (also accessible via anonymous
ftp to archive.cs.ruu.nl)
mail-ser...@rusmv1.rus.uni-stuttgart.de
German TeX archives; benchmarks,
journal indices, RFCs, network info,
unix info; X, mac, pc, sun, aix, vax,
and other software (also accessible
via anonymous ftp to
rusmv1.rus.uni-stuttgart.de)
mails...@garbo.uwasa.fi Frequently asked questions in various
areas, some Usenet source archives,
some PC software archives
net...@draci.cs.uow.edu.au Australian Netlib (also accessible via
anonymous ftp to draci.cs.uow.edu.au)
net...@ornl.gov Similar to the AT&T netlib archive
net...@uunet.uu.net A large subset of what is available
from uunet via anonymous ftp or
anonymous uucp.
net...@ukc.ac.uk UK netlib server (mostly same contents
as AT&T's netlib) (some files also
accessible via anonymous ftp to
harrier.ukc.ac.uk {username "guest"})
next-arch...@cc.purdue.edu NeXT stuff (also accessible via
anonymous ftp to sonta.cc.purdue.edu
or nova.cc.purdue.edu)
nist...@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov Benchmarks, GOSIP
nptser...@cme.nist.gov NIST Cals server (also accessible via
anonymous ftp to durer.cme.nist.gov)
object-archive-ser...@decwrl.dec.com
OFF format (?) objects
ps-file-ser...@adobe.COM PostScript stuff
reduce-net...@rand.org Sources related to REDUCE (A SAM
system with emphasis on nuclear
physics)
repo...@midgard.ucsc.edu Comp.os.research tech reports (also
accessible via anonymous ftp to
midgard.ucsc.edu)
requ...@legato.com NFS benchmarking for determining if
Legato board will help your server
r...@math.princeton.edu Searchable database of MS-DOS software
(also accessible via anonymous ftp to
math.princeton.edu, in pub/rjc/csip)
sea...@genbank.bio.net FASTA program for nucleic acid
sequence
serv...@nic.ddn.mil Internet RFCs and FYIs, NIC database
registration, WHOIS database lookup
stat...@lib.stat.cmu.edu XLISP-STAT, other statistical software
(also accessible via anonymous ftp to
umnstat.stat.umn.edu)
tech-repo...@cs.columbia.edu Experimental server (?) address might
point to a human
telecom-archive-requ...@letni.lonestar.org
Comp.dcom.telecom archive
wrl-techrepo...@decwrl.dec.com
DEC WRL technical reports and
abstracts
wsc...@ecn.purdue.edu HP 48 programs; put HP-MAIL-SERVER in
mail Subject
xst...@expo.lcs.mit.edu MIT X Consortium files, mainly
patches
VII. Credits
Bill Wohler <woh...@sap-ag.de> provided many of the addresses in the
"Other mail servers" section above, and provided suggestions for
several other sections. Andrew Purshottam <an...@ibmpa.awdpa.ibm.com>
also provided many mail archive server addresses.
Tom Cunningham <t...@bouwsma.sps.mot.com>, Peter Deutsch
<pet...@opus.cs.mcgill.ca>, Edwin Kremer <ed...@cs.ruu.nl>, Petri
Ojala <oj...@funet.fi>, Richard S. Smith
<RSS%CALSTATE.bit...@VM.USC.EDU>, Jon Whellams
<mg...@cc.flinders.edu.au>, Adri Verhoef <a...@rivm39.rivm.nl> and Ed
Vielmetti <e...@ox.com> provided feedback and corrections.
Jonathan Kamens USnail:
MIT Project Athena 11 Ashford Terrace
j...@Athena.MIT.EDU Allston, MA 02134
Office: 617-253-8085 Home: 617-782-0710
Path: gmdzi!unido!mcsun!uunet!spool.mu.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!bloom-picayune.mit.edu!athena.mit.edu!jik
From: j...@athena.mit.edu (Jonathan I. Kamens)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.wanted,alt.sources.wanted
Subject: How to find sources (READ THIS BEFORE POSTING)
Message-ID: <csw_faq_683362808@athena.mit.edu>
Date: 28 Aug 91 07:00:19 GMT
Expires: Wed, 11 Sep 1991 19:00:08 GMT
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[$Id: csw_faq,v 1.37 91/08/14 14:16:14 jik Exp $]
I. Table of contents
This article contains the following sections.
I. Table of contents
II. Introduction
III. How do you find sources?
IV. Things not do do
V. Searching techniques in detail
1. Usenet source newsgroups
2. The "archie" database
3. Jon Granrose's anonymous ftp directory
4. Comp.archives
5. Comp.sources.wanted
6. Prospero
7. Mail server queries
VI. File retrieval techniques in detail
1. By anonymous ftp
2. By anonymous UUCP
3. By mail
a. Hrc mail archive
b. Uunet mail archive
c. BITFTP
d. DEC's ftpmail
e. AT&T's netlib archive
f. Periodic posting archives
g. Trickle mail servers
h. Other mail servers
VII. Credits
To find a particular section, search forward for a line beginning with
the Roman numeral corresponding to the desired section. For example,
search forward for "IV." at the beginning of the line to find the
section entitled "Things not to do".
II. Introduction
This posting discusses the resources available to people who are
looking for source code. Please read it before posting source code
requests to comp.sources.wanted, alt.sources.wanted or any other
newsgroup.
Comments about, suggestions about or corrections to this posting are
welcomed.
III. How do you find sources?
The method you use for locating sources depends on exactly what you
are looking for. Here are several possible routes to follow; pick the
one that best suits your needs. The descriptions below mention
general techniques (e.g. "Check the Usenet source newsgroup indices.")
which are described in detail later in this posting. These
descriptions are listed in order from most preferred to least
preferred solution. You will notice that "Post in
comp.sources.wanted" is listed last. This is because posting
a message in comp.sources.wanted should only be used as a last resort
when you have exhausted all other alternatives.
Once you have located your source code using the instructions below,
you can retrieve it via anonymous ftp or E-mail (depending on what is
accessible to you and on where the code is archived); this is
described in detail later in this posting.
Before following *any* of the routes below, the first thing you should
do is exhaust the local resources that are available to you. Often, a
program that you are looking for will already be accessible somewhere
on your system. Since each site has different local resources, it's
impossible to give details here about the resources at any specific
site. All that can be said is, "Find someone at your site to ask."
Nearly every site has someone whose job it is to answer questions from
other users, and the sites that don't have someone doing it officially
often have someone doing it unofficially. If you cannot find what you
want after checking things out locally, or if you can't find anyone to
ask, then proceed as follows.
1. "I know the name of the program I want, but I don't know where to
get it."
a. Check the indices for the various main Usenet source newsgroups.
b. Check with archie.
c. Check Jon Granrose's anonymous ftp directory.
d. Check comp.archives.
e. Post to comp.sources.wanted.
2. "I know the name of the program I want, and I know which newsgroup
it was posted in, but either (a) I didn't get some of the parts of
it, or (b) I didn't save it when it was posted and now I find that
I need it."
DO NOT post a message to comp.sources.wanted saying, "I didn't save
all of this when it was archived, could someone please send it to
me?" If the code was posted in a source newsgroup, then it is
archived somewhere. Follow the instructions below for retrieving
code from Usenet source newsgroup archives.
3. "I am looking for source code that does <x>."
Follow the same process as (1) above, but instead of searching for
the name of the program, search for keywords in your description of
what you're looking for. For example, if you're looking for
graphical clocks that run under the X window system, you might
search for the word "clock" in the index for comp.sources.x.
4. "I am looking for source code that does <x>," where <x> is
something algorithmic or mathematical that is commonly solved with
computers.
Check AT&T's "netlib" archive (which is accessible via E-mail as
described below, or via anonymous ftp to research.att.com {username
"netlib" instead of "anonymous"}), and if that doesn't work,
proceed as in (3) above.
5. "I am looking for source code that does <x> under the X window
system."
As in (3), but after checking the Usenet source newsgroup indices
(most importantly, that of comp.sources.x), check the anonymous ftp
archive on export.lcs.mit.edu.
See also the postings entitled "Frequently Asked Questions about X
with Answers," posted monthly in comp.windows.x and various other
X-related newsgroups. Those postings discuss in detail how to get
X sources of various sorts. If these postings have expired at your
site, see the documentation below about retrieving postings from
the periodic posting archive.
6. "I'm looking for neat programs to run on my <x> machine."
Don't post questions like this. The amount of source code
available on the Usenet is incredible; you are essentially asking
for a summary of all of it. Browse through the various archives
mentioned in this posting if you want to find something like this.
7. "I'm looking for NetNews software <x>."
See the posting entitled "USENET Software: History and Sources,"
posted periodically in news.admin and news.announce.newusers. If
it has expired at your site, see the documentation below about
retrieving postings from the periodic posting archive.
8. "I'm looking for the source code for Unix."
Most implementations of Unix contain source code that is, at least
to some extent, proprietary and not freely redistributable. If you
are looking for the source code to a particular Unix utility, you
may have better luck looking for a public-domain reimplementation
of that utility, using (1) or (3) above. Furthermore, the Free
Software Foundation may distribute a freely redistributable version
of the utility, protected by the GNU Public License (Jon Granrose's
list mentions many anonymous ftp archive sites for FSF software;
furthermore, the hrc mail server archives some FSF software).
Finally, if the utility was written by the folks who do the BSD
variant of Unix, then it might be available in the various BSD
source archives (the best one is probably gatekeeper.dec.com;
ftp.uu.net has a bsd-sources directory too, and it contains some
sources that are not in the gatekeeper archive, but the sources
there are for 4.3reno BSD and might be difficult to compile under
other types of Unix) on the net (see Jon Granrose's list to find
them).
9. "I'm looking for a dictionary," or, "I'm looking for a thesaurus."
There aren't any freely redistributable dictionary or thesaurus
databases. If you've already got the database (e.g. on a NeXT
machine), you may be able to find sources for code to manipulate
it; see (3) above. If you don't, then you probably aren't going to
get any useful answers if you ask this question.
IV. Things not to do
1. Don't post messages to source newsgroups (e.g. comp.sources.unix,
comp.sources.misc, etc.) asking for sources.
There are newsgroups specifically for source requests. If you post
a request to a moderated source newsgroup, then the moderator has
to deal with it (and he probably doesn't want to have to deal with
source requests from all over the Usenet), and if you post a
request to an unmoderated source newsgroup, then archives of that
newsgroup end up with cruft (i.e. your request) in them.
V. Searching techniques in detail
1. Usenet source newsgroups
There are many Usenet newsgroups in which source code is posted,
and most of them are archived. They include:
alt.sources
comp.sources.3b1
comp.sources.acorn
comp.sources.amiga
comp.sources.apple2
comp.sources.atari.st
comp.sources.games
comp.sources.mac
comp.sources.misc
comp.sources.sun
comp.sources.unix
comp.sources.x
vmsnet.sources
vmsnet.sources.games
If you're looking for software for a particular machine or
operating system, you should check the source archives that are
appropriate (e.g. checking "comp.sources.mac" if you're looking for
programs to run under SunOS probably wouldn't be very profitable),
as well as the general archives such as alt.sources or
comp.sources.misc.
Sites that archive Usenet source newsgroups usually provide some
method of getting an index of the files in each newsgroup's
archive. If you are accessing an anonymous ftp archive, then this
index will usually appear as a file called "index" or "Index" in
the top-level archive of the newsgroup, or in each volume of the
newsgroup's archive.
If you are accessing a mail archive, then the instructions for
using that archive should explain how to get indices of the
newsgroups that are archived.
If you are accessing an anonymous UUCP archive (see below), you are
usually told when you are given the phone number and password for
the archive how to get the top-level index for the archive, which
will tell you how to get other indices and files.
To find anonymous ftp archives of Usenet newsgroups, check Jon
Granrose's anonymous ftp directory (see below). The most
well-known Usenet newsgroup archive is probably ftp.uu.net, which
archives comp.sources.3b1, comp.sources.amiga, comp.sources.games,
comp.sources.misc, comp.sources.sun, comp.sources.unix, and
comp.sources.x, among other things. Another large Usenet archive
site is wuarchive.wustl.edu (128.252.135.4), which archives
alt.sources, comp.sources.mac, and comp.sources.apple2, in addition
to most of the newsgroups archived on ftp.uu.net. A very large
European anonymous ftp site is nic.funet.fi (128.214.6.100), which
archives Usenet newsgroups and mirrors several foreign specialized
ftp servers. Other large European archive sites are mcsun.eu.net
(192.16.202.1) and inria.inria.fr (192.93.2.1). If you are in
Europe, you should look on one of these sites for things you need
before trying sites elsewhere.
The vmsnet newsgroups are archived on black.cerritos.edu and
acfcluster.nyu.edu. See also the posting "Monthly info posting:
vmsnet.sources archive sites" in vmsnet.sources.d and comp.os.vms;
if it has expired at your site, see the documentation below about
retrieving postings from the periodic posting archive.
The mail archive server on hrc.UUCP (see below) archives
alt.sources, comp.sources.unix, comp.sources.games,
comp.sources.misc, comp.sources.x, and comp.sources.sun, among
other things.
2. The "archie" database
"Archie" is a database of anonymous ftp sites and their contents.
The software for it was written by the "Archie Group" (Peter
Deutsch, Alan Emtage, Bill Heelan, and Mike Parker) at McGill
University in Montreal, Canada, and they maintain the database as
well.
"Archie" keeps track of the entire contents of a very large number
of anonymous ftp sites, and allows you to search for files on those
sites using various different kinds of filename searches. Archie
also has a software description database (with contents similar to
the output of the "whatis" command under Unix), on which you can do
keyword searches.
If you have Internet access, then you access archie by telnet'ing
to the host quiche.cs.mcgill.ca (132.206.2.3 or 132.206.51.1) and
logging in as "archie" with no password. Type "help" at that point
for more information.
If you are in Australia or New Zealand (and please, *only* if you
are in Australia or New Zealand, you can use the archie server on
sol.deakin.oz.au (128.184.1.1), which is running the same software
as the main archive server at McGill.
If you are in Finland (or if Finland is closer to you, net-wise,
than Canada, Australia or New Zealand), you can use the archie
server on nic.funet.fi (128.214.6.100).
Archie sites will soon be available elsewhere as well.
If you do not have Internet access, then send a mail message to
arc...@quiche.cs.mcgill.ca with "help" in the body of the message
to find out how to access archie via mail. Note that the mail
interface to archie may not provide all of the functionality that
the interactive interface provides. The Australian archie can be
reached at arc...@sol.deakin.oz.au (again, please use this server
only if you are in Australia or New Zealand), and the Finnish
archie can be reached at arc...@nic.funet.fi.
If you would like more information about archie, you can write to
archi...@cs.mcgill.ca.
3. Jon Granrose's anonymous ftp directory
Jon Granrose maintains an extensive list of anonymous ftp sites and
overviews of their contents. The list is posted monthly to
comp.misc, comp.sources.wanted and alt.sources.wanted. If it has
expired at your site, see the documentation below about retrieving
postings from the periodic posting archive.
4. Comp.archives
The comp.archives newsgroup, moderated by Ed Vielmetti, contains
announcements of archive sites and their contents. If you cannot
find what you're looking for in the comp.archives postings
available at your site at any given time, then you can read the
newsgroup for a while and watch for new postings that are of
interest to you, or you can try to find an archive site that
archives the postings in comp.archives (e.g. wuarchive.wustl.edu,
cs.dal.ca).
5. Comp.sources.wanted
When you post a message to comp.sources.wanted or
alt.sources.wanted, the important thing to remember is to BE
SPECIFIC. If you're working under Unix, make sure to mention that;
possibly, mention even what type of Unix. If you're not working
under Unix, make sure to mention what operating system and machine
type you *are* working under.
Remember to choose a meaningful Subject line for your message;
something like, "Can you help me?" is very unhelpful to people who
ARE willing to help, and may just cause some of them to not bother
reading your posting. Try to summarize what you're looking for
meaningfully in your Subject line.
Also, it is usually a good idea to ask for people to send you
E-mail rather than posting responses. Say that if enough people
write to you and ask for copies of whatever responses you get, then
you'll summarize the responses in a later posting to the newsgroup,
and if that happens, then DO post the summary.
Finally, don't say, "Would someone please mail me <x>?" Say,
"Would someone please tell me where I can get <x>, or what's
available that does <x>? If you can mail it to me, please let me
know, and I'll let you know if I want you to." This avoids the
problem of several people mailing you what you requested and
overflowing your mailbox.
6. Prospero
If you are a Unix site on the Internet, you can use the Prospero
system (whose author is Clifford Neuman) to search through archives
of various sorts all over the Internet, and to retrieve files once
you have found them. Prospero uses a virtual filesystem which
allows you to transparently view directories and retrieve files.
There is some overlap between Prospero and other resources
mentioned in this document; for example, both archie and the
periodic posting archives on pit-manager.mit.edu are accessible via
Prospero.
The Prospero software is available in /pub/prospero.tar.Z on
cs.washington.edu; the user software may already be installed at
your site, and if not, you can get it and install it yourself. For
more information about Prospero, send mail to
info-prosp...@isi.edu.
7. Mail server queries
Anonymous ftp is most effectively used only for retrieving files
and not for searching for them, since it is a file transfer
protocol and not much more than that. However, many (if not all)
of the mail archive servers which allow file retrieval by
electronic mail provide a more functional (albeit slower) interface
than ftp which allows you to query the servers to find out what
they have available on them. Therefore, if you find it necessary
to use mail archive servers to get files, take advantage of the
indexing and search features available on the servers. The
features of individual servers can not be documented here, because
there are too many different servers running too many different
kinds of software, but the instructions below do explain how to ask
the servers for help and find out what commands they support.
VI. File retrieval techniques in detail
1. By anonymous ftp
If you are on a site that is connected to the Internet and allows
its users to ftp out to other Internet sites, then you have
anonymous ftp access. The usual procedure for using anonymous ftp
is to type the command "ftp machine-name", where "machine-name" is
the name of the machine to which you want to connect, and then to
use "anonymous" as the username and "user@host" (i.e. your E-mail
address) as the password when you are prompted for it by ftp.
Type "help" inside ftp to get a list of commands, and/or read the
man page for ftp, or any other documentation about it available at
your site for more information. If they don't answer your
question, then ask someone at your site for help.
If you don't have Internet and ftp access, then you can use an
ftp-mail server such as Princeton's BITFTP or DEC's ftpmail to
retrieve files from anonymous ftp archives. However, you should
only use an ftp-mail server when the same files are not available
from a dedicated mail archive server. See the BITFTP and ftpmail
instructions below.
2. By anonymous UUCP
There are various UUCP sites on the net that publish their modem
telephone numbers and a public username and password that can be
used to transfer files from the sites via UUCP. For more
information about doing this, see the documentation for the "uucp"
command on your system.
One place to find information about anonymous UUCP archives is the
Nixpub listing of public access Unix sites, maintained by Phil
Eschallier and posted in comp.misc and alt.bbs. If that posting
has expired at your site, you can get copies of it from the
Periodic posting archive described below.
3. By mail
a. Hrc mail archive
As mentioned above, the UUCP host "hrc" maintains an archive of
Usenet source newsgroups and other things. To find out how to use
it, send mail to "hrc!archives", or "archi...@hrc.UUCP", or
whatever format your site uses to send mail to the user "archives"
on the machine "hrc", and include the following commands in the
body of the message:
send path <address>
send help
You should replace <address> with a path from hrc to you. If you
know a prominent UUCP site that has you in its path, then your path
can start at that site, e.g. "uunet!mit-athena!jik" (PLEASE don't
use that address, or I'll get the responses to your requests!). If
you're on a site that has a name registered with the Internet name
servers, you can use "uunet!athena.mit.edu!jik".
b. Uunet mail archive
Uunet.uu.net provides E-mail access to the sources it archived (see
the discussion about ftp.uu.net above for some idea of what is
available). The address to which to send requests is
"net...@uunet.uu.net". You can send a message containing "help" in
its body for more information.
c. BITFTP
The BITFTP server, run by Princeton University, allows people on
the BITNET to retrieve via E-mail files at anonymous ftp archive
sites. To find out how to use it, send mail to
"bit...@pucc.princeton.edu" with "help" in the body. The BITFTP
server will reject requests from non-BITNET addresses, so if you're
not on the BITNET and you need to do anonymous ftp retrieval via
E-mail, you should use DEC's ftpmail (see below).
d. DEC's ftpmail
The ftpmail server, run at DEC, allows you to retrieve via E-mail
files at anonymous ftp archive sites. To find out how to use it,
send mail to "ftpm...@decwrl.dec.com" with "help" in the body. If
you're on the BITNET, please use the BITFTP server (see above)
rather than ftpmail.
NOTE: Don't do something bogus like send your requests both to
BITFTP and ftpmail, hoping that one of them will get back to you
first. Choose one server for your request, and use it.
e. AT&T's netlib archive
AT&T's "netlib" archive is the repository for a large body of
source code and other material, much of it mathematical,
algorithmic or scientific in nature.
The archive is accessible via anonymous ftp to
research.att.com, or via electronic mail. To find out how to use
the mail server, send mail to "net...@research.att.com" with "help"
in the body of the message.
f. Periodic posting archive
As mentioned above, The machine pit-manager.mit.edu (18.72.1.58)
maintains an archive of periodic Usenet postings. You can access
it via anonymous ftp, or via mail server. To find out how to use
the mail server, send a message to
"mail-ser...@pit-manager.mit.edu" with Subject "help".
The archive on pit-manager is also accessible via WAIS. If you
don't know what that is, don't worry about it; if you do know what
it is, you can search through periodic Usenet postings by
connecting to the "usenet" WAIS database on pit-manager.mit.edu.
g. Trickle mail servers
A BITnet mail server package called "Trickle" is supported at a
number of different BITnet sites all over the world:
Austria: tric...@awiwuw11.bitnet
Denmark: tric...@dktc11.bitnet
Belgium: tric...@banufs11.bitnet
Germany: tric...@dtuzdv1.bitnet
Italy: tric...@imipoli.bitnet
Netherlands: tric...@hearn.bitnet
Spain: tric...@eb0ub011.bitnet
Turkey: tric...@trearn.bitnet
Israel: tric...@taunivm.bitnet
These archives contain files of all sorts from a number of
different major anonymous ftp archive sites, including
wsmr-simtel20.army.mil, uunet.uu.net, expo.lcs.mit.edu and
sauna.hut.fi. They are a good way for people on the BITnet to get
access to archives.
To find out how to use Trickle send a mail message to the Trickle
server closest to you with "/HELP" in the body of the message and
an empty Subject: line.
h. Other mail servers
There are other mail servers besides the ones listed above. If you
want to find out more about a server, send a message to it with
"help" in the body and see what it sends back.
archive-ser...@ames.arc.nasa.gov
Space archives (also accessible via
anonymous ftp to ames.arc.nasa.gov)
archive-ser...@athena-dist.mit.edu
MIT Project Athena papers and source
code (also accessible via anonymous
ftp to athena-dist.mit.edu)
archive-ser...@bcm.tmc.edu UUCP maps, source-code for BCM WHOIS
database, NFS and PC-NFS information
and source-code, Unisys U-series
information and source code, other
stuff
archive-ser...@cc.purdue.edu NeXT stuff (also accessible via
anonymous ftp to sonta.cc.purdue.edu
or nova.cc.purdue.edu)
archive-ser...@chsun1.uchicago.edu
Computer Underground Digest and
references
archive-ser...@cs.leidenuniv.nl
IPX, "patch" for MS-DOS, "sps" diffs
for SunOS 4.1
archive-ser...@dsi.com Datacomp Systems, Inc.
archive-ser...@eclectic.com Mac-security digest, information about
Eclectic, other stuff
archive-ser...@joshua.atherton.com
archive-ser...@ncsa.uiuc.edu NCSA stuff, especially telnet and tcp
for mac/pc
archive-ser...@rice.edu Sun-spots, sun-source and sun-icons,
plus other software written or
influenced by people at Rice (also
accessible via anonymous ftp to
titan.rice.edu)
archive-ser...@st.cs.uiuc.edu
Ralph Johnson's UIUC smalltalk archive
(also accessible via anonymous ftp to
st.cs.uiuc.edu)
archive-ser...@sun.soe.clarkson.edu
IBM and other good stuff (also
accessible via anonymous ftp to
sun.soe.clarkson.edu)
archive-ser...@wdl1.wdl.loral.com
WDL archive server: snfs, tsig stuff
cube...@gmuvax2.gmu.edu iPSC User's Group
doc-ser...@prl.dec.com Paris Research Lab (PRL) technical
reports, articles, and notes; bignum
package
files...@shsu.bitnet General and VMS-specific TeX/LaTeX
sources, sty files, extensions, etc.;
mailing list archives; sources for VMS
packages of various sorts
gene-ser...@bchs.uh.edu Genbank gene database server
goodies-...@cs.man.ac.uk Manchester smalltalk goodies archive
graf-bib-ser...@decwrl.dec.com
Graphix bibliography server; put
keywords in mail Subject (also
accessible via anonymous ftp to
gatekeeper.dec.com)
info-ser...@cl.cam.ac.uk Various random stuff, including bmx,
btoa, c-nrs, gdb, soft-gen, spad, top,
unix-niftp, ups (Unix PostScript
interpreter)
info-ser...@doc.ic.ac.uk Usenet source newsgroups, GNU, X11,
news software, other stuff
info-ser...@hp4nl.nluug.nl Macintosh, Sun, IBM-PC, Unix sources,
some documents, GNU, graphics, Usenet
archives (or lots of newsgroups), X
window system, TeX, programming
languages (lisp, icon, abc, others),
news sources, network sources, other
stuff
info-ser...@sh.cs.net Internet community calendar, E-mail
ftp server (currently unavailable),
CSNET general information documents,
CREN information, NSFNET information,
Some Internet RFCs, a small amount of
source code
libr...@cme.nist.gov Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory
(MEL) at the National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST)
archive
l...@cs.uni-sb.de AI bibliographical server; put
"lidosearch help" in mail Subject
lists...@dhdurz1.bitnet
lists...@orion.bitnet Erotica
lists...@ubvm.bitnet Russian TeX
lists...@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu Same as lists...@ubvm.bitnet
lists...@vm1.nodak.edu Lots of stuff from simtel-20; put "get
pdget help" in mail body
mail-ser...@cs.ruu.nl GIFs, Atari ST software, random
documentation, ELM sources, Usenet FAQ
postings, GNU software HP-UX software,
NN sources, SGI software, TeX software
and TeXhax and TeXmag archives, random
UNIX software, X11 software, other
stuff (also accessible via anonymous
ftp to archive.cs.ruu.nl)
mail-ser...@rusmv1.rus.uni-stuttgart.de
German TeX archives; benchmarks,
journal indices, RFCs, network info,
unix info; X, mac, pc, sun, aix, vax,
and other software (also accessible
via anonymous ftp to
rusmv1.rus.uni-stuttgart.de)
mails...@garbo.uwasa.fi Frequently asked questions in various
areas, some Usenet source archives,
some PC software archives
net...@draci.cs.uow.edu.au Australian Netlib (also accessible via
anonymous ftp to draci.cs.uow.edu.au)
net...@ornl.gov Similar to the AT&T netlib archive
net...@uunet.uu.net A large subset of what is available
from uunet via anonymous ftp or
anonymous uucp.
net...@ukc.ac.uk UK netlib server (mostly same contents
as AT&T's netlib) (some files also
accessible via anonymous ftp to
harrier.ukc.ac.uk {username "guest"})
next-arch...@cc.purdue.edu NeXT stuff (also accessible via
anonymous ftp to sonta.cc.purdue.edu
or nova.cc.purdue.edu)
nist...@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov Benchmarks, GOSIP
nptser...@cme.nist.gov NIST Cals server (also accessible via
anonymous ftp to durer.cme.nist.gov)
object-archive-ser...@decwrl.dec.com
OFF format (?) objects
ps-file-ser...@adobe.COM PostScript stuff
reduce-net...@rand.org Sources related to REDUCE (A SAM
system with emphasis on nuclear
physics)
repo...@midgard.ucsc.edu Comp.os.research tech reports (also
accessible via anonymous ftp to
midgard.ucsc.edu)
requ...@legato.com NFS benchmarking for determining if
Legato board will help your server
r...@math.princeton.edu Searchable database of MS-DOS software
(also accessible via anonymous ftp to
math.princeton.edu, in pub/rjc/csip)
sea...@genbank.bio.net FASTA program for nucleic acid
sequence
serv...@nic.ddn.mil Internet RFCs and FYIs, NIC database
registration, WHOIS database lookup
stat...@lib.stat.cmu.edu XLISP-STAT, other statistical software
(also accessible via anonymous ftp to
umnstat.stat.umn.edu)
tech-repo...@cs.columbia.edu Experimental server (?) address might
point to a human
telecom-archive-requ...@letni.lonestar.org
Comp.dcom.telecom archive
wrl-techrepo...@decwrl.dec.com
DEC WRL technical reports and
abstracts
wsc...@ecn.purdue.edu HP 48 programs; put HP-MAIL-SERVER in
mail Subject
xst...@expo.lcs.mit.edu MIT X Consortium files, mainly
patches
VII. Credits
Bill Wohler <woh...@sap-ag.de> provided many of the addresses in the
"Other mail servers" section above, and provided suggestions for
several other sections. Andrew Purshottam <an...@ibmpa.awdpa.ibm.com>
also provided many mail archive server addresses. Bjorn P. Brox
<b...@dms.corena.no> provided information about Trickle.
Tom Cunningham <t...@bouwsma.sps.mot.com>, Dan Jacobson
<Dan_Jacob...@ATT.COM>, Peter Deutsch <pet...@opus.cs.mcgill.ca>,
Edwin Kremer <ed...@cs.ruu.nl>, Petri Ojala <oj...@funet.fi>, Richard
S. Smith <RSS%CALSTATE.bit...@VM.USC.EDU>, Jon Whellams
<mg...@cc.flinders.edu.au>, Adri Verhoef <a...@rivm39.rivm.nl> and Ed
Vielmetti <e...@ox.com> provided feedback and corrections.
Jonathan Kamens USnail:
MIT Project Athena 11 Ashford Terrace
j...@Athena.MIT.EDU Allston, MA 02134
Office: 617-253-8085 Home: 617-782-0710
Path: gmdzi!unido!mcsun!uunet!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!bloom-picayune.mit.edu!athena.mit.edu!jik
From: j...@athena.mit.edu (Jonathan I. Kamens)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.wanted,alt.sources.wanted
Subject: How to find sources (READ THIS BEFORE POSTING)
Message-ID: <csw_faq_684658807@athena.mit.edu>
Date: 12 Sep 91 07:00:24 GMT
Expires: Thu, 26 Sep 1991 19:00:07 GMT
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[$Id: csw_faq,v 1.41 91/09/03 21:37:11 jik Exp $]
I. Table of contents
This article contains the following sections.
I. Table of contents
II. Introduction
III. How do you find sources?
IV. Things not do do
V. Searching techniques in detail
1. Usenet source newsgroups
2. The "archie" database
3. Jon Granrose's anonymous ftp directory
4. Comp.archives
5. Comp.sources.wanted
6. Prospero
7. Mail server queries
VI. File retrieval techniques in detail
1. By anonymous ftp
2. By anonymous UUCP
3. By mail
a. Hrc mail archive
b. Uunet mail archive
c. BITFTP
d. DEC's ftpmail
e. AT&T's netlib archive
f. Periodic posting archives
g. Trickle mail servers
h. Other mail servers
VII. Credits
To find a particular section, search forward for a line beginning with
the Roman numeral corresponding to the desired section. For example,
search forward for "IV." at the beginning of the line to find the
section entitled "Things not to do".
II. Introduction
This posting discusses the resources available to people who are
looking for source code. Please read it before posting source code
requests to comp.sources.wanted, alt.sources.wanted or any other
newsgroup.
Comments about, suggestions about or corrections to this posting are
welcomed.
III. How do you find sources?
The method you use for locating sources depends on exactly what you
are looking for. Here are several possible routes to follow; pick the
one that best suits your needs. The descriptions below mention
general techniques (e.g. "Check the Usenet source newsgroup indices.")
which are described in detail later in this posting. These
descriptions are listed in order from most preferred to least
preferred solution. You will notice that "Post in
comp.sources.wanted" is listed last. This is because posting
a message in comp.sources.wanted should only be used as a last resort
when you have exhausted all other alternatives.
Once you have located your source code using the instructions below,
you can retrieve it via anonymous ftp or E-mail (depending on what is
accessible to you and on where the code is archived); this is
described in detail later in this posting.
Before following *any* of the routes below, the first thing you should
do is exhaust the local resources that are available to you. Often, a
program that you are looking for will already be accessible somewhere
on your system. Since each site has different local resources, it's
impossible to give details here about the resources at any specific
site. All that can be said is, "Find someone at your site to ask."
Nearly every site has someone whose job it is to answer questions from
other users, and the sites that don't have someone doing it officially
often have someone doing it unofficially. If you cannot find what you
want after checking things out locally, or if you can't find anyone to
ask, then proceed as follows.
1. "I know the name of the program I want, but I don't know where to
get it."
a. Check the indices for the various main Usenet source newsgroups.
b. Check with archie.
c. Check Jon Granrose's anonymous ftp directory.
d. Check comp.archives.
e. Post to comp.sources.wanted.
2. "I know the name of the program I want, and I know which newsgroup
it was posted in, but either (a) I didn't get some of the parts of
it, or (b) I didn't save it when it was posted and now I find that
I need it."
DO NOT post a message to comp.sources.wanted saying, "I didn't save
all of this when it was archived, could someone please send it to
me?" If the code was posted in a source newsgroup, then it is
archived somewhere. Follow the instructions below for retrieving
code from Usenet source newsgroup archives.
3. "I am looking for source code that does <x>."
Follow the same process as (1) above, but instead of searching for
the name of the program, search for keywords in your description of
what you're looking for. For example, if you're looking for
graphical clocks that run under the X window system, you might
search for the word "clock" in the index for comp.sources.x.
4. "I am looking for source code that does <x>," where <x> is
something algorithmic or mathematical that is commonly solved with
computers.
Check AT&T's "netlib" archive (which is accessible via E-mail as
described below, or via anonymous ftp to research.att.com {username
"netlib" instead of "anonymous"}), and if that doesn't work,
proceed as in (3) above.
5. "I am looking for source code that does <x> under the X window
system."
As in (3), but after checking the Usenet source newsgroup indices
(most importantly, that of comp.sources.x), check the anonymous ftp
archive on export.lcs.mit.edu.
See also the postings entitled "Frequently Asked Questions about X
with Answers," posted monthly in comp.windows.x and various other
X-related newsgroups. Those postings discuss in detail how to get
X sources of various sorts. If these postings have expired at your
site, see the documentation below about retrieving postings from
the periodic posting archive.
6. "I'm looking for neat programs to run on my <x> machine."
Don't post questions like this. The amount of source code
available on the Usenet is incredible; you are essentially asking
for a summary of all of it. Browse through the various archives
mentioned in this posting if you want to find something like this.
7. "I'm looking for NetNews software <x>."
See the posting entitled "USENET Software: History and Sources,"
posted periodically in news.admin and news.announce.newusers. If
it has expired at your site, see the documentation below about
retrieving postings from the periodic posting archive.
8. "I'm looking for the source code for Unix."
Most implementations of Unix contain source code that is, at least
to some extent, proprietary and not freely redistributable. If you
are looking for the source code to a particular Unix utility, you
may have better luck looking for a public-domain reimplementation
of that utility, using (1) or (3) above. Furthermore, the Free
Software Foundation may distribute a freely redistributable version
of the utility, protected by the GNU Public License (Jon Granrose's
list mentions many anonymous ftp archive sites for FSF software;
furthermore, the hrc mail server archives some FSF software).
Finally, if the utility was written by the folks who do the BSD
variant of Unix, then it might be available in the various BSD
source archives (the best one is probably gatekeeper.dec.com;
ftp.uu.net has a bsd-sources directory too, and it contains some
sources that are not in the gatekeeper archive, but the sources
there are for 4.3reno BSD and might be difficult to compile under
other types of Unix) on the net (see Jon Granrose's list to find
them).
9. "I'm looking for a dictionary," or, "I'm looking for a thesaurus."
There aren't any freely redistributable dictionary or thesaurus
databases. If you've already got the database (e.g. on a NeXT
machine), you may be able to find sources for code to manipulate
it; see (3) above. If you don't, then you probably aren't going to
get any useful answers if you ask this question.
IV. Things not to do
1. Don't post messages to source newsgroups (e.g. comp.sources.unix,
comp.sources.misc, etc.) asking for sources.
There are newsgroups specifically for source requests. If you post
a request to a moderated source newsgroup, then the moderator has
to deal with it (and he probably doesn't want to have to deal with
source requests from all over the Usenet), and if you post a
request to an unmoderated source newsgroup, then archives of that
newsgroup end up with cruft (i.e. your request) in them.
V. Searching techniques in detail
1. Usenet source newsgroups
There are many Usenet newsgroups in which source code is posted,
and most of them are archived. They include:
alt.sources
comp.sources.3b1
comp.sources.acorn
comp.sources.amiga
comp.sources.apple2
comp.sources.atari.st
comp.sources.games
comp.sources.mac
comp.sources.misc
comp.sources.sun
comp.sources.unix
comp.sources.x
vmsnet.sources
vmsnet.sources.games
If you're looking for software for a particular machine or
operating system, you should check the source archives that are
appropriate (e.g. checking "comp.sources.mac" if you're looking for
programs to run under SunOS probably wouldn't be very profitable),
as well as the general archives such as alt.sources or
comp.sources.misc.
Sites that archive Usenet source newsgroups usually provide some
method of getting an index of the files in each newsgroup's
archive. If you are accessing an anonymous ftp archive, then this
index will usually appear as a file called "index" or "Index" in
the top-level archive of the newsgroup, or in each volume of the
newsgroup's archive.
If you are accessing a mail archive, then the instructions for
using that archive should explain how to get indices of the
newsgroups that are archived.
If you are accessing an anonymous UUCP archive (see below), you are
usually told when you are given the phone number and password for
the archive how to get the top-level index for the archive, which
will tell you how to get other indices and files.
To find anonymous ftp archives of Usenet newsgroups, check Jon
Granrose's anonymous ftp directory (see below). The most
well-known Usenet newsgroup archive is probably ftp.uu.net, which
archives comp.sources.3b1, comp.sources.amiga, comp.sources.games,
comp.sources.misc, comp.sources.sun, comp.sources.unix, and
comp.sources.x, among other things. Another large Usenet archive
site is wuarchive.wustl.edu (128.252.135.4), which archives
alt.sources, comp.sources.mac, and comp.sources.apple2, in addition
to most of the newsgroups archived on ftp.uu.net. A very large
European anonymous ftp site is nic.funet.fi (128.214.6.100), which
archives Usenet newsgroups and mirrors several foreign specialized
ftp servers. Other large European archive sites are mcsun.eu.net
(192.16.202.1) and inria.inria.fr (192.93.2.1). If you are in
Europe, you should look on one of these sites for things you need
before trying sites elsewhere.
The vmsnet newsgroups are archived on black.cerritos.edu and
acfcluster.nyu.edu. See also the posting "Monthly info posting:
vmsnet.sources archive sites" in vmsnet.sources.d and comp.os.vms;
if it has expired at your site, see the documentation below about
retrieving postings from the periodic posting archive.
The mail archive server on hrc.UUCP (see below) archives
alt.sources, comp.sources.unix, comp.sources.games,
comp.sources.misc, comp.sources.x, and comp.sources.sun, among
other things.
2. The "archie" database
"Archie" is a database of anonymous ftp sites and their contents.
The software for it was written by the "Archie Group" (Peter
Deutsch, Alan Emtage, Bill Heelan, and Mike Parker) at McGill
University in Montreal, Canada, and they maintain the database as
well.
"Archie" keeps track of the entire contents of a very large number
of anonymous ftp sites, and allows you to search for files on those
sites using various different kinds of filename searches. Archie
also has a software description database (with contents similar to
the output of the "whatis" command under Unix), on which you can do
keyword searches.
If you have Internet access, then you access archie by telnet'ing
to the host archie.mcgill.ca (132.206.2.3 or 132.206.51.1) and
logging in as "archie" with no password. Type "help" at that point
for more information.
If you are in Australia or New Zealand (and please, *only* if you
are in Australia or New Zealand, you can use the archie server on
archie.au (128.184.1.1), which is running the same software as the
main archive server at McGill.
If you are in Finland (or if Finland is closer to you, net-wise,
than Canada, Australia or New Zealand), you can use the archie
server on archie.funet.fi (128.214.6.100).
Archie sites will soon be available elsewhere as well.
If you do not have Internet access, then send a mail message to
arc...@archie.mcgill.ca with "help" in the body of the message to
find out how to access archie via mail. Note that the mail
interface to archie may not provide all of the functionality that
the interactive interface provides. The Australian archie can be
reached at arc...@sol.deakin.oz.au (again, please use this server
only if you are in Australia or New Zealand), and the Finnish
archie can be reached at arc...@nic.funet.fi.
If you would like more information about archie, you can write to
archi...@cs.mcgill.ca.
3. Jon Granrose's anonymous ftp directory
Jon Granrose maintains an extensive list of anonymous ftp sites and
overviews of their contents. The list is posted monthly to
comp.misc, comp.sources.wanted and alt.sources.wanted. If it has
expired at your site, see the documentation below about retrieving
postings from the periodic posting archive.
4. Comp.archives
The comp.archives newsgroup, moderated by Ed Vielmetti, contains
announcements of archive sites and their contents. If you cannot
find what you're looking for in the comp.archives postings
available at your site at any given time, then you can read the
newsgroup for a while and watch for new postings that are of
interest to you, or you can try to find an archive site that
archives the postings in comp.archives (e.g. wuarchive.wustl.edu,
cs.dal.ca).
Furthermore, comp.archives is accessible via WAIS, in the database
named "comp.archives" on port 9000 on talon.ucs.orst.edu. If you
don't know what WAIS is, don't worry about it.
5. Comp.sources.wanted
When you post a message to comp.sources.wanted or
alt.sources.wanted, the important thing to remember is to BE
SPECIFIC. If you're working under Unix, make sure to mention that;
possibly, mention even what type of Unix. If you're not working
under Unix, make sure to mention what operating system and machine
type you *are* working under.
Remember to choose a meaningful Subject line for your message;
something like, "Can you help me?" is very unhelpful to people who
ARE willing to help, and may just cause some of them to not bother
reading your posting. Try to summarize what you're looking for
meaningfully in your Subject line.
Also, it is usually a good idea to ask for people to send you
E-mail rather than posting responses. Say that if enough people
write to you and ask for copies of whatever responses you get, then
you'll summarize the responses in a later posting to the newsgroup,
and if that happens, then DO post the summary.
Finally, don't say, "Would someone please mail me <x>?" Say,
"Would someone please tell me where I can get <x>, or what's
available that does <x>? If you can mail it to me, please let me
know, and I'll let you know if I want you to." This avoids the
problem of several people mailing you what you requested and
overflowing your mailbox.
6. Prospero
If you are a Unix site on the Internet, you can use the Prospero
system (whose author is Clifford Neuman) to search through archives
of various sorts all over the Internet, and to retrieve files once
you have found them. Prospero uses a virtual filesystem which
allows you to transparently view directories and retrieve files.
There is some overlap between Prospero and other resources
mentioned in this document; for example, both archie and the
periodic posting archives on pit-manager.mit.edu are accessible via
Prospero.
The Prospero software is available in /pub/prospero.tar.Z on
cs.washington.edu; the user software may already be installed at
your site, and if not, you can get it and install it yourself. For
more information about Prospero, send mail to
info-prosp...@isi.edu.
7. Mail server queries
Anonymous ftp is most effectively used only for retrieving files
and not for searching for them, since it is a file transfer
protocol and not much more than that. However, many (if not all)
of the mail archive servers which allow file retrieval by
electronic mail provide a more functional (albeit slower) interface
than ftp which allows you to query the servers to find out what
they have available on them. Therefore, if you find it necessary
to use mail archive servers to get files, take advantage of the
indexing and search features available on the servers. The
features of individual servers can not be documented here, because
there are too many different servers running too many different
kinds of software, but the instructions below do explain how to ask
the servers for help and find out what commands they support.
VI. File retrieval techniques in detail
1. By anonymous ftp
If you are on a site that is connected to the Internet and allows
its users to ftp out to other Internet sites, then you have
anonymous ftp access. The usual procedure for using anonymous ftp
is to type the command "ftp machine-name", where "machine-name" is
the name of the machine to which you want to connect, and then to
use "anonymous" as the username and "user@host" (i.e. your E-mail
address) as the password when you are prompted for it by ftp.
Type "help" inside ftp to get a list of commands, and/or read the
man page for ftp, or any other documentation about it available at
your site for more information. If they don't answer your
question, then ask someone at your site for help.
If you don't have Internet and ftp access, then you can use an
ftp-mail server such as Princeton's BITFTP or DEC's ftpmail to
retrieve files from anonymous ftp archives. However, you should
only use an ftp-mail server when the same files are not available
from a dedicated mail archive server. See the BITFTP and ftpmail
instructions below.
2. By anonymous UUCP
There are various UUCP sites on the net that publish their modem
telephone numbers and a public username and password that can be
used to transfer files from the sites via UUCP. For more
information about doing this, see the documentation for the "uucp"
command on your system.
One place to find information about anonymous UUCP archives is the
Nixpub listing of public access Unix sites, maintained by Phil
Eschallier and posted in comp.misc and alt.bbs. If that posting
has expired at your site, you can get copies of it from the
Periodic posting archive described below.
3. By mail
a. Hrc mail archive
As mentioned above, the UUCP host "hrc" maintains an archive of
Usenet source newsgroups and other things. To find out how to use
it, send mail to "hrc!archives", or "archi...@hrc.UUCP", or
whatever format your site uses to send mail to the user "archives"
on the machine "hrc", and include the following commands in the
body of the message:
send path <address>
send help
You should replace <address> with a path from hrc to you. If you
know a prominent UUCP site that has you in its path, then your path
can start at that site, e.g. "uunet!mit-athena!jik" (PLEASE don't
use that address, or I'll get the responses to your requests!). If
you're on a site that has a name registered with the Internet name
servers, you can use "uunet!athena.mit.edu!jik".
b. Uunet mail archive
Uunet.uu.net provides E-mail access to the sources it archived (see
the discussion about ftp.uu.net above for some idea of what is
available). The address to which to send requests is
"net...@uunet.uu.net". You can send a message containing "help" in
its body for more information.
c. BITFTP
The BITFTP server, run by Princeton University, allows people on
the BITNET to retrieve via E-mail files at anonymous ftp archive
sites. To find out how to use it, send mail to
"bit...@pucc.princeton.edu" with "help" in the body. The BITFTP
server will reject requests from non-BITNET addresses, so if you're
not on the BITNET and you need to do anonymous ftp retrieval via
E-mail, you should use DEC's ftpmail (see below).
d. DEC's ftpmail
The ftpmail server, run at DEC, allows you to retrieve via E-mail
files at anonymous ftp archive sites. To find out how to use it,
send mail to "ftpm...@decwrl.dec.com" with "help" in the body. If
you're on the BITNET, please use the BITFTP server (see above)
rather than ftpmail.
NOTE: Don't do something bogus like send your requests both to
BITFTP and ftpmail, hoping that one of them will get back to you
first. Choose one server for your request, and use it.
e. AT&T's netlib archive
AT&T's "netlib" archive is the repository for a large body of
source code and other material, much of it mathematical,
algorithmic or scientific in nature.
The archive is accessible via anonymous ftp to
research.att.com, or via electronic mail. To find out how to use
the mail server, send mail to "net...@research.att.com" with "help"
in the body of the message.
f. Periodic posting archive
As mentioned above, The machine pit-manager.mit.edu (18.72.1.58)
maintains an archive of periodic Usenet postings. You can access
it via anonymous ftp, or via mail server. To find out how to use
the mail server, send a message to
"mail-ser...@pit-manager.mit.edu" with Subject "help".
The archive on pit-manager is also accessible via WAIS. If you
don't know what that is, don't worry about it; if you do know what
it is, you can search through periodic Usenet postings by
connecting to the "usenet" WAIS database on pit-manager.mit.edu.
g. Trickle mail servers
A BITnet mail server package called "Trickle" is supported at a
number of different BITnet sites all over the world:
Austria: tric...@awiwuw11.bitnet
Denmark: tric...@dktc11.bitnet
Belgium: tric...@banufs11.bitnet
Germany: tric...@dtuzdv1.bitnet
Italy: tric...@imipoli.bitnet
Netherlands: tric...@hearn.bitnet
Spain: tric...@eb0ub011.bitnet
Turkey: tric...@trearn.bitnet
Israel: tric...@taunivm.bitnet
These archives contain files of all sorts from a number of
different major anonymous ftp archive sites, including
wsmr-simtel20.army.mil, uunet.uu.net, expo.lcs.mit.edu and
sauna.hut.fi. They are a good way for people on the BITnet to get
access to archives.
To find out how to use Trickle send a mail message to the Trickle
server closest to you with "/HELP" in the body of the message and
an empty Subject: line.
h. Other mail servers
There are other mail servers besides the ones listed above. If you
want to find out more about a server, send a message to it with
"help" in the body and see what it sends back.
archive-ser...@ames.arc.nasa.gov
Space archives (also accessible via
anonymous ftp to ames.arc.nasa.gov)
archive-ser...@athena-dist.mit.edu
MIT Project Athena papers and source
code (also accessible via anonymous
ftp to athena-dist.mit.edu)
archive-ser...@bcm.tmc.edu UUCP maps, source-code for BCM WHOIS
database, NFS and PC-NFS information
and source-code, Unisys U-series
information and source code, other
stuff
archive-ser...@cc.purdue.edu NeXT stuff (also accessible via
anonymous ftp to sonta.cc.purdue.edu
or nova.cc.purdue.edu)
archive-ser...@chsun1.uchicago.edu
Computer Underground Digest and
references
archive-ser...@cs.leidenuniv.nl
IPX, "patch" for MS-DOS, "sps" diffs
for SunOS 4.1
archive-ser...@dsi.com Datacomp Systems, Inc.
archive-ser...@eclectic.com Mac-security digest, information about
Eclectic, other stuff
archive-ser...@joshua.atherton.com
archive-ser...@ncsa.uiuc.edu NCSA stuff, especially telnet and tcp
for mac/pc
archive-ser...@rice.edu Sun-spots, sun-source and sun-icons,
plus other software written or
influenced by people at Rice (also
accessible via anonymous ftp to
titan.rice.edu)
archive-ser...@st.cs.uiuc.edu
Ralph Johnson's UIUC smalltalk archive
(also accessible via anonymous ftp to
st.cs.uiuc.edu)
archive-ser...@sun.soe.clarkson.edu
IBM and other good stuff (also
accessible via anonymous ftp to
sun.soe.clarkson.edu)
archive-ser...@wdl1.wdl.loral.com
WDL archive server: snfs, tsig stuff
cube...@gmuvax2.gmu.edu iPSC User's Group
doc-ser...@prl.dec.com Paris Research Lab (PRL) technical
reports, articles, and notes; bignum
package
files...@shsu.bitnet General and VMS-specific TeX/LaTeX
sources, sty files, extensions, etc.;
mailing list archives; sources for VMS
packages of various sorts
gene-ser...@bchs.uh.edu Genbank gene database server
goodies-...@cs.man.ac.uk Manchester smalltalk goodies archive
graf-bib-ser...@decwrl.dec.com
Graphix bibliography server; put
keywords in mail Subject (also
accessible via anonymous ftp to
gatekeeper.dec.com)
info-ser...@cl.cam.ac.uk Various random stuff, including bmx,
btoa, c-nrs, gdb, soft-gen, spad, top,
unix-niftp, ups (Unix PostScript
interpreter)
info-ser...@doc.ic.ac.uk Usenet source newsgroups, GNU, X11,
news software, other stuff
info-ser...@hp4nl.nluug.nl Macintosh, Sun, IBM-PC, Unix sources,
some documents, GNU, graphics, Usenet
archives (or lots of newsgroups), X
window system, TeX, programming
languages (lisp, icon, abc, others),
news sources, network sources, other
stuff
info-ser...@sh.cs.net Internet community calendar, E-mail
ftp server (currently unavailable),
CSNET general information documents,
CREN information, NSFNET information,
Some Internet RFCs, a small amount of
source code
libr...@cme.nist.gov Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory
(MEL) at the National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST)
archive
l...@cs.uni-sb.de AI bibliographical server; put
"lidosearch help" in mail Subject
lists...@dhdurz1.bitnet
lists...@orion.bitnet Erotica
lists...@ubvm.bitnet Russian TeX
lists...@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu Same as lists...@ubvm.bitnet
lists...@vm1.nodak.edu Lots of stuff from simtel-20; put "get
pdget help" in mail body
mail-ser...@cs.ruu.nl GIFs, Atari ST software, random
documentation, ELM sources, Usenet FAQ
postings, GNU software HP-UX software,
NN sources, SGI software, TeX software
and TeXhax and TeXmag archives, random
UNIX software, X11 software, other
stuff (also accessible via anonymous
ftp to archive.cs.ruu.nl)
mail-ser...@rusmv1.rus.uni-stuttgart.de
German TeX archives; benchmarks,
journal indices, RFCs, network info,
unix info; X, mac, pc, sun, aix, vax,
and other software (also accessible
via anonymous ftp to
rusmv1.rus.uni-stuttgart.de)
mails...@garbo.uwasa.fi Frequently asked questions in various
areas, some Usenet source archives,
some PC software archives
net...@draci.cs.uow.edu.au Australian Netlib (also accessible via
anonymous ftp to draci.cs.uow.edu.au)
net...@ornl.gov Similar to the AT&T netlib archive
net...@uunet.uu.net A large subset of what is available
from uunet via anonymous ftp or
anonymous uucp.
net...@ukc.ac.uk UK netlib server (mostly same contents
as AT&T's netlib) (some files also
accessible via anonymous ftp to
harrier.ukc.ac.uk {username "guest"})
next-arch...@cc.purdue.edu NeXT stuff (also accessible via
anonymous ftp to sonta.cc.purdue.edu
or nova.cc.purdue.edu)
nist...@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov Benchmarks, GOSIP
nptser...@cme.nist.gov NIST Cals server (also accessible via
anonymous ftp to durer.cme.nist.gov)
object-archive-ser...@decwrl.dec.com
OFF format (?) objects
ps-file-ser...@adobe.COM PostScript stuff
reduce-net...@rand.org Sources related to REDUCE (A SAM
system with emphasis on nuclear
physics)
repo...@midgard.ucsc.edu Comp.os.research tech reports (also
accessible via anonymous ftp to
midgard.ucsc.edu)
requ...@legato.com NFS benchmarking for determining if
Legato board will help your server
sea...@genbank.bio.net FASTA program for nucleic acid
sequence
serv...@nic.ddn.mil Internet RFCs and FYIs, NIC database
registration, WHOIS database lookup
stat...@lib.stat.cmu.edu XLISP-STAT, other statistical software
(also accessible via anonymous ftp to
umnstat.stat.umn.edu)
tech-repo...@cs.columbia.edu Experimental server (?) address might
point to a human
telecom-archive-requ...@letni.lonestar.org
Comp.dcom.telecom archive
wrl-techrepo...@decwrl.dec.com
DEC WRL technical reports and
abstracts
wsc...@ecn.purdue.edu HP 48 programs; put HP-MAIL-SERVER in
mail Subject
xst...@expo.lcs.mit.edu MIT X Consortium files, mainly
patches
VII. Credits
Bill Wohler <woh...@sap-ag.de> provided many of the addresses in the
"Other mail servers" section above, and provided suggestions for
several other sections. Andrew Purshottam <an...@ibmpa.awdpa.ibm.com>
also provided many mail archive server addresses. Bjorn P. Brox
<b...@dms.corena.no> provided information about Trickle.
Tom Cunningham <t...@bouwsma.sps.mot.com>, Dan Jacobson
<Dan_Jacob...@ATT.COM>, Peter Deutsch <pet...@opus.cs.mcgill.ca>,
Edwin Kremer <ed...@cs.ruu.nl>, Petri Ojala <oj...@funet.fi>, Douglas
Quist <qu...@thing1.sim.es.com>, Richard S. Smith
<RSS%CALSTATE.bit...@VM.USC.EDU>, Jon Whellams
<mg...@cc.flinders.edu.au>, Adri Verhoef <a...@rivm39.rivm.nl> and Ed
Vielmetti <e...@ox.com> provided feedback and corrections.
Jonathan Kamens USnail:
MIT Project Athena 11 Ashford Terrace
j...@Athena.MIT.EDU Allston, MA 02134
Office: 617-253-8085 Home: 617-782-0710
Path: gmdzi!unido!mcsun!uunet!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!bloom-picayune.mit.edu!athena.mit.edu!jik
From: j...@athena.mit.edu (Jonathan I. Kamens)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.wanted,alt.sources.wanted
Subject: How to find sources (READ THIS BEFORE POSTING)
Message-ID: <csw_faq_685868408@athena.mit.edu>
Date: 26 Sep 91 07:00:20 GMT
Expires: Thu, 10 Oct 1991 19:00:08 GMT
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[$Id: csw_faq,v 1.43 91/09/25 19:22:05 jik Exp $]
I. Table of contents
This article contains the following sections.
I. Table of contents
II. Introduction
III. How do you find sources?
IV. Things not do do
V. Searching techniques in detail
1. Usenet source newsgroups
2. The "archie" database
3. Jon Granrose's anonymous ftp directory
4. Comp.archives
5. Comp.sources.wanted
6. Prospero
7. Mail server queries
VI. File retrieval techniques in detail
1. By anonymous ftp
2. By anonymous UUCP
3. By mail
a. Hrc mail archive
b. Uunet mail archive
c. BITFTP
d. DEC's ftpmail
e. AT&T's netlib archive
f. Periodic posting archives
g. Trickle mail servers
h. Other mail servers
VII. Credits
To find a particular section, search forward for a line beginning with
the Roman numeral corresponding to the desired section. For example,
search forward for "IV." at the beginning of the line to find the
section entitled "Things not to do".
II. Introduction
This posting discusses the resources available to people who are
looking for source code. Please read it before posting source code
requests to comp.sources.wanted, alt.sources.wanted or any other
newsgroup.
Comments about, suggestions about or corrections to this posting are
welcomed.
III. How do you find sources?
The method you use for locating sources depends on exactly what you
are looking for. Here are several possible routes to follow; pick the
one that best suits your needs. The descriptions below mention
general techniques (e.g. "Check the Usenet source newsgroup indices.")
which are described in detail later in this posting. These
descriptions are listed in order from most preferred to least
preferred solution. You will notice that "Post in
comp.sources.wanted" is listed last. This is because posting
a message in comp.sources.wanted should only be used as a last resort
when you have exhausted all other alternatives.
Once you have located your source code using the instructions below,
you can retrieve it via anonymous ftp or E-mail (depending on what is
accessible to you and on where the code is archived); this is
described in detail later in this posting.
Before following *any* of the routes below, the first thing you should
do is exhaust the local resources that are available to you. Often, a
program that you are looking for will already be accessible somewhere
on your system. Since each site has different local resources, it's
impossible to give details here about the resources at any specific
site. All that can be said is, "Find someone at your site to ask."
Nearly every site has someone whose job it is to answer questions from
other users, and the sites that don't have someone doing it officially
often have someone doing it unofficially. If you cannot find what you
want after checking things out locally, or if you can't find anyone to
ask, then proceed as follows.
1. "I know the name of the program I want, but I don't know where to
get it."
a. Check the indices for the various main Usenet source newsgroups.
b. Check with archie.
c. Check Jon Granrose's anonymous ftp directory.
d. Check comp.archives.
e. Post to comp.sources.wanted.
2. "I know the name of the program I want, and I know which newsgroup
it was posted in, but either (a) I didn't get some of the parts of
it, or (b) I didn't save it when it was posted and now I find that
I need it."
DO NOT post a message to comp.sources.wanted saying, "I didn't save
all of this when it was archived, could someone please send it to
me?" If the code was posted in a source newsgroup, then it is
archived somewhere. Follow the instructions below for retrieving
code from Usenet source newsgroup archives.
3. "I am looking for source code that does <x>."
Follow the same process as (1) above, but instead of searching for
the name of the program, search for keywords in your description of
what you're looking for. For example, if you're looking for
graphical clocks that run under the X window system, you might
search for the word "clock" in the index for comp.sources.x.
4. "I am looking for source code that does <x>," where <x> is
something algorithmic or mathematical that is commonly solved with
computers.
Check AT&T's "netlib" archive (which is accessible via E-mail as
described below, or via anonymous ftp to research.att.com {username
"netlib" instead of "anonymous"}), and if that doesn't work,
proceed as in (3) above.
5. "I am looking for source code that does <x> under the X window
system."
As in (3), but after checking the Usenet source newsgroup indices
(most importantly, that of comp.sources.x), check the anonymous ftp
archive on export.lcs.mit.edu.
See also the postings entitled "Frequently Asked Questions about X
with Answers," posted monthly in comp.windows.x and various other
X-related newsgroups. Those postings discuss in detail how to get
X sources of various sorts. If these postings have expired at your
site, see the documentation below about retrieving postings from
the periodic posting archive.
6. "I'm looking for neat programs to run on my <x> machine."
Don't post questions like this. The amount of source code
available on the Usenet is incredible; you are essentially asking
for a summary of all of it. Browse through the various archives
mentioned in this posting if you want to find something like this.
7. "I'm looking for NetNews software <x>."
See the posting entitled "USENET Software: History and Sources,"
posted periodically in news.admin and news.announce.newusers. If
it has expired at your site, see the documentation below about
retrieving postings from the periodic posting archive.
8. "I'm looking for the source code for Unix."
Most implementations of Unix contain source code that is, at least
to some extent, proprietary and not freely redistributable. If you
are looking for the source code to a particular Unix utility, you
may have better luck looking for a public-domain reimplementation
of that utility, using (1) or (3) above. Furthermore, the Free
Software Foundation may distribute a freely redistributable version
of the utility, protected by the GNU Public License (Jon Granrose's
list mentions many anonymous ftp archive sites for FSF software;
furthermore, the hrc mail server archives some FSF software).
Finally, if the utility was written by the folks who do the BSD
variant of Unix, then it might be available in the various BSD
source archives (the best one is probably gatekeeper.dec.com;
ftp.uu.net has a bsd-sources directory too, and it contains some
sources that are not in the gatekeeper archive, but the sources
there are for 4.3reno BSD and might be difficult to compile under
other types of Unix) on the net (see Jon Granrose's list to find
them).
9. "I'm looking for a dictionary," or, "I'm looking for a thesaurus."
There aren't any freely redistributable dictionary or thesaurus
databases. If you've already got the database (e.g. on a NeXT
machine), you may be able to find sources for code to manipulate
it; see (3) above. If you don't, then you probably aren't going to
get any useful answers if you ask this question.
IV. Things not to do
1. Don't post messages to source newsgroups (e.g. comp.sources.unix,
comp.sources.misc, etc.) asking for sources.
There are newsgroups specifically for source requests. If you post
a request to a moderated source newsgroup, then the moderator has
to deal with it (and he probably doesn't want to have to deal with
source requests from all over the Usenet), and if you post a
request to an unmoderated source newsgroup, then archives of that
newsgroup end up with cruft (i.e. your request) in them.
V. Searching techniques in detail
1. Usenet source newsgroups
There are many Usenet newsgroups in which source code is posted,
and most of them are archived. They include:
alt.sources
comp.sources.3b1
comp.sources.acorn
comp.sources.amiga
comp.sources.apple2
comp.sources.atari.st
comp.sources.games
comp.sources.mac
comp.sources.misc
comp.sources.sun
comp.sources.unix
comp.sources.x
vmsnet.sources
vmsnet.sources.games
If you're looking for software for a particular machine or
operating system, you should check the source archives that are
appropriate (e.g. checking "comp.sources.mac" if you're looking for
programs to run under SunOS probably wouldn't be very profitable),
as well as the general archives such as alt.sources or
comp.sources.misc.
Sites that archive Usenet source newsgroups usually provide some
method of getting an index of the files in each newsgroup's
archive. If you are accessing an anonymous ftp archive, then this
index will usually appear as a file called "index" or "Index" in
the top-level archive of the newsgroup, or in each volume of the
newsgroup's archive.
If you are accessing a mail archive, then the instructions for
using that archive should explain how to get indices of the
newsgroups that are archived.
If you are accessing an anonymous UUCP archive (see below), you are
usually told when you are given the phone number and password for
the archive how to get the top-level index for the archive, which
will tell you how to get other indices and files.
To find anonymous ftp archives of Usenet newsgroups, check Jon
Granrose's anonymous ftp directory (see below). The most
well-known Usenet newsgroup archive is probably ftp.uu.net, which
archives comp.sources.3b1, comp.sources.amiga, comp.sources.games,
comp.sources.misc, comp.sources.sun, comp.sources.unix, and
comp.sources.x, among other things. Another large Usenet archive
site is wuarchive.wustl.edu (128.252.135.4), which archives
alt.sources, comp.sources.mac, and comp.sources.apple2, in addition
to most of the newsgroups archived on ftp.uu.net. A very large
European anonymous ftp site is nic.funet.fi (128.214.6.100), which
archives Usenet newsgroups and mirrors several foreign specialized
ftp servers. Other large European archive sites are mcsun.eu.net
(192.16.202.1) and inria.inria.fr (192.93.2.1). If you are in
Europe, you should look on one of these sites for things you need
before trying sites elsewhere.
The vmsnet newsgroups are archived on black.cerritos.edu and
acfcluster.nyu.edu. See also the posting "Monthly info posting:
vmsnet.sources archive sites" in vmsnet.sources.d and comp.os.vms;
if it has expired at your site, see the documentation below about
retrieving postings from the periodic posting archive.
The mail archive server on hrc.UUCP (see below) archives
alt.sources, comp.sources.unix, comp.sources.games,
comp.sources.misc, comp.sources.x, and comp.sources.sun, among
other things.
2. The "archie" database
"Archie" is a database of anonymous ftp sites and their contents.
The software for it was written by the "Archie Group" (Peter
Deutsch, Alan Emtage, Bill Heelan, and Mike Parker) at McGill
University in Montreal, Canada, and they maintain the database as
well.
"Archie" keeps track of the entire contents of a very large number
of anonymous ftp sites, and allows you to search for files on those
sites using various different kinds of filename searches. Archie
also has a software description database (with contents similar to
the output of the "whatis" command under Unix), on which you can do
keyword searches.
If you have Internet access, then you access archie by telnet'ing
to the host archie.mcgill.ca (132.206.2.3 or 132.206.51.1) and
logging in as "archie" with no password. Type "help" at that point
for more information.
If you are in Australia or New Zealand (and please, *only* if you
are in Australia or New Zealand, you can use the archie server on
archie.au (128.184.1.1), which is running the same software as the
main archive server at McGill.
If you are in Finland (or if Finland is closer to you, net-wise,
than Canada, Australia or New Zealand), you can use the archie
server on archie.funet.fi (128.214.6.100).
Archie sites will soon be available elsewhere as well.
If you do not have Internet access, then send a mail message to
arc...@archie.mcgill.ca with "help" in the body of the message to
find out how to access archie via mail. Note that the mail
interface to archie may not provide all of the functionality that
the interactive interface provides. The Australian archie can be
reached at arc...@sol.deakin.oz.au (again, please use this server
only if you are in Australia or New Zealand), and the Finnish
archie can be reached at arc...@nic.funet.fi.
If you would like more information about archie, you can write to
archi...@cs.mcgill.ca.
3. Jon Granrose's anonymous ftp directory
Jon Granrose maintains an extensive list of anonymous ftp sites and
overviews of their contents. The list is posted monthly to
comp.misc, comp.sources.wanted and alt.sources.wanted. If it has
expired at your site, see the documentation below about retrieving
postings from the periodic posting archive.
4. Comp.archives
The comp.archives newsgroup, moderated by Ed Vielmetti, contains
announcements of archive sites and their contents. If you cannot
find what you're looking for in the comp.archives postings
available at your site at any given time, then you can read the
newsgroup for a while and watch for new postings that are of
interest to you, or you can try to find an archive site that
archives the postings in comp.archives (e.g. wuarchive.wustl.edu,
cs.dal.ca).
Furthermore, comp.archives is accessible via WAIS, in the database
named "comp.archives" on port 9000 on talon.ucs.orst.edu. If you
don't know what WAIS is, don't worry about it.
5. Comp.sources.wanted
When you post a message to comp.sources.wanted or
alt.sources.wanted, the important thing to remember is to BE
SPECIFIC. If you're working under Unix, make sure to mention that;
possibly, mention even what type of Unix. If you're not working
under Unix, make sure to mention what operating system and machine
type you *are* working under.
Remember to choose a meaningful Subject line for your message;
something like, "Can you help me?" is very unhelpful to people who
ARE willing to help, and may just cause some of them to not bother
reading your posting. Try to summarize what you're looking for
meaningfully in your Subject line.
Also, it is usually a good idea to ask for people to send you
E-mail rather than posting responses. Say that if enough people
write to you and ask for copies of whatever responses you get, then
you'll summarize the responses in a later posting to the newsgroup,
and if that happens, then DO post the summary.
Finally, don't say, "Would someone please mail me <x>?" Say,
"Would someone please tell me where I can get <x>, or what's
available that does <x>? If you can mail it to me, please let me
know, and I'll let you know if I want you to." This avoids the
problem of several people mailing you what you requested and
overflowing your mailbox.
6. Prospero
If you are a Unix site on the Internet, you can use the Prospero
system (whose author is Clifford Neuman) to search through archives
of various sorts all over the Internet, and to retrieve files once
you have found them. Prospero uses a virtual filesystem which
allows you to transparently view directories and retrieve files.
There is some overlap between Prospero and other resources
mentioned in this document; for example, both archie and the
periodic posting archives on pit-manager.mit.edu are accessible via
Prospero.
The Prospero software is available in /pub/prospero.tar.Z on
cs.washington.edu; the user software may already be installed at
your site, and if not, you can get it and install it yourself. For
more information about Prospero, send mail to
info-prosp...@isi.edu.
7. Mail server queries
Anonymous ftp is most effectively used only for retrieving files
and not for searching for them, since it is a file transfer
protocol and not much more than that. However, many (if not all)
of the mail archive servers which allow file retrieval by
electronic mail provide a more functional (albeit slower) interface
than ftp which allows you to query the servers to find out what
they have available on them. Therefore, if you find it necessary
to use mail archive servers to get files, take advantage of the
indexing and search features available on the servers. The
features of individual servers can not be documented here, because
there are too many different servers running too many different
kinds of software, but the instructions below do explain how to ask
the servers for help and find out what commands they support.
VI. File retrieval techniques in detail
1. By anonymous ftp
If you are on a site that is connected to the Internet and allows
its users to ftp out to other Internet sites, then you have
anonymous ftp access. The usual procedure for using anonymous ftp
is to type the command "ftp machine-name", where "machine-name" is
the name of the machine to which you want to connect, and then to
use "anonymous" as the username and "user@host" (i.e. your E-mail
address) as the password when you are prompted for it by ftp.
Type "help" inside ftp to get a list of commands, and/or read the
man page for ftp, or any other documentation about it available at
your site for more information. If they don't answer your
question, then ask someone at your site for help.
If you don't have Internet and ftp access, then you can use an
ftp-mail server such as Princeton's BITFTP or DEC's ftpmail to
retrieve files from anonymous ftp archives. However, you should
only use an ftp-mail server when the same files are not available
from a dedicated mail archive server. See the BITFTP and ftpmail
instructions below.
2. By anonymous UUCP
There are various UUCP sites on the net that publish their modem
telephone numbers and a public username and password that can be
used to transfer files from the sites via UUCP. For more
information about doing this, see the documentation for the "uucp"
command on your system.
One place to find information about anonymous UUCP archives is the
Nixpub listing of public access Unix sites, maintained by Phil
Eschallier and posted in comp.misc and alt.bbs. If that posting
has expired at your site, you can get copies of it from the
Periodic posting archive described below.
3. By mail
a. Hrc mail archive
As mentioned above, the UUCP host "hrc" maintains an archive of
Usenet source newsgroups and other things. To find out how to use
it, send mail to "hrc!archives", or "archi...@hrc.UUCP", or
whatever format your site uses to send mail to the user "archives"
on the machine "hrc", and include the following commands in the
body of the message:
send path <address>
send help
You should replace <address> with a path from hrc to you. If you
know a prominent UUCP site that has you in its path, then your path
can start at that site, e.g. "uunet!mit-athena!jik" (PLEASE don't
use that address, or I'll get the responses to your requests!). If
you're on a site that has a name registered with the Internet name
servers, you can use "uunet!athena.mit.edu!jik".
b. Uunet mail archive
Uunet.uu.net provides E-mail access to the sources it archived (see
the discussion about ftp.uu.net above for some idea of what is
available). The address to which to send requests is
"net...@uunet.uu.net". You can send a message containing "help" in
its body for more information.
c. BITFTP
The BITFTP server, run by Princeton University, allows people on
the BITNET to retrieve via E-mail files at anonymous ftp archive
sites. To find out how to use it, send mail to
"bit...@pucc.princeton.edu" with "help" in the body. The BITFTP
server will reject requests from non-BITNET addresses, so if you're
not on the BITNET and you need to do anonymous ftp retrieval via
E-mail, you should use DEC's ftpmail (see below).
d. DEC's ftpmail
The ftpmail server, run at DEC, allows you to retrieve via E-mail
files at anonymous ftp archive sites. To find out how to use it,
send mail to "ftpm...@decwrl.dec.com" with "help" in the body. If
you're on the BITNET, please use the BITFTP server (see above)
rather than ftpmail.
NOTE: Don't do something bogus like send your requests both to
BITFTP and ftpmail, hoping that one of them will get back to you
first. Choose one server for your request, and use it.
e. AT&T's netlib archive
AT&T's "netlib" archive is the repository for a large body of
source code and other material, much of it mathematical,
algorithmic or scientific in nature.
The archive is accessible via anonymous ftp to
research.att.com, or via electronic mail. To find out how to use
the mail server, send mail to "net...@research.att.com" with "help"
in the body of the message.
f. Periodic posting archive
As mentioned above, The machine pit-manager.mit.edu (18.72.1.58)
maintains an archive of periodic Usenet postings. You can access
it via anonymous ftp, or via mail server. To find out how to use
the mail server, send a message to
"mail-ser...@pit-manager.mit.edu" with Subject "help".
The archive on pit-manager is also accessible via WAIS. If you
don't know what that is, don't worry about it; if you do know what
it is, you can search through periodic Usenet postings by
connecting to the "usenet" WAIS database on pit-manager.mit.edu.
g. Trickle mail servers
A BITnet mail server package called "Trickle" is supported at a
number of different BITnet sites all over the world:
Austria: tric...@awiwuw11.bitnet
Denmark: tric...@dktc11.bitnet
Belgium: tric...@banufs11.bitnet
Germany: tric...@dtuzdv1.bitnet
Italy: tric...@imipoli.bitnet
Netherlands: tric...@hearn.bitnet
Spain: tric...@eb0ub011.bitnet
Turkey: tric...@trearn.bitnet
Israel: tric...@taunivm.bitnet
These archives contain files of all sorts from a number of
different major anonymous ftp archive sites, including
wsmr-simtel20.army.mil, uunet.uu.net, expo.lcs.mit.edu and
sauna.hut.fi. They are a good way for people on the BITnet to get
access to archives.
To find out how to use Trickle send a mail message to the Trickle
server closest to you with "/HELP" in the body of the message and
an empty Subject: line.
h. Other mail servers
There are other mail servers besides the ones listed above. If you
want to find out more about a server, send a message to it with
"help" in the body and see what it sends back.
archive-ser...@ames.arc.nasa.gov
Space archives (also accessible via
anonymous ftp to ames.arc.nasa.gov)
archive-ser...@athena-dist.mit.edu
MIT Project Athena papers and source
code (also accessible via anonymous
ftp to athena-dist.mit.edu)
archive-ser...@bcm.tmc.edu UUCP maps, source-code for BCM WHOIS
database, NFS and PC-NFS information
and source-code, Unisys U-series
information and source code, other
stuff
archive-ser...@cc.purdue.edu NeXT stuff (also accessible via
anonymous ftp to sonta.cc.purdue.edu
or nova.cc.purdue.edu)
archive-ser...@chsun1.uchicago.edu
Computer Underground Digest and
references
archive-ser...@cs.leidenuniv.nl
IPX, "patch" for MS-DOS, "sps" diffs
for SunOS 4.1
archive-ser...@dsi.com Datacomp Systems, Inc.
archive-ser...@eclectic.com Mac-security digest, information about
Eclectic, other stuff
archive-ser...@joshua.atherton.com
archive-ser...@ncsa.uiuc.edu NCSA stuff, especially telnet and tcp
for mac/pc
archive-ser...@rice.edu Sun-spots, sun-source and sun-icons,
plus other software written or
influenced by people at Rice (also
accessible via anonymous ftp to
titan.rice.edu)
archive-ser...@st.cs.uiuc.edu
Ralph Johnson's UIUC smalltalk archive
(also accessible via anonymous ftp to
st.cs.uiuc.edu)
archive-ser...@sun.soe.clarkson.edu
IBM and other good stuff (also
accessible via anonymous ftp to
sun.soe.clarkson.edu)
archive-ser...@wdl1.wdl.loral.com
WDL archive server: snfs, tsig stuff
cube...@gmuvax2.gmu.edu iPSC User's Group
doc-ser...@prl.dec.com Paris Research Lab (PRL) technical
reports, articles, and notes; bignum
package
files...@shsu.bitnet General and VMS-specific TeX/LaTeX
sources, sty files, extensions, etc.;
mailing list archives; sources for VMS
packages of various sorts
gene-ser...@bchs.uh.edu Genbank gene database server
goodies-...@cs.man.ac.uk Manchester smalltalk goodies archive
graf-bib-ser...@decwrl.dec.com
Graphix bibliography server; put
keywords in mail Subject (also
accessible via anonymous ftp to
gatekeeper.dec.com)
info-ser...@cl.cam.ac.uk Various random stuff, including bmx,
btoa, c-nrs, gdb, soft-gen, spad, top,
unix-niftp, ups (Unix PostScript
interpreter)
info-ser...@doc.ic.ac.uk Usenet source newsgroups, GNU, X11,
news software, other stuff
info-ser...@hp4nl.nluug.nl Macintosh, Sun, IBM-PC, Unix sources,
some documents, GNU, graphics, Usenet
archives (or lots of newsgroups), X
window system, TeX, programming
languages (lisp, icon, abc, others),
news sources, network sources, other
stuff
info-ser...@sh.cs.net Internet community calendar, E-mail
ftp server (currently unavailable),
CSNET general information documents,
CREN information, NSFNET information,
Some Internet RFCs, a small amount of
source code
libr...@cme.nist.gov Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory
(MEL) at the National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST)
archive
l...@cs.uni-sb.de AI bibliographical server; put
"lidosearch help" in mail Subject
lists...@dhdurz1.bitnet
lists...@orion.bitnet Erotica
lists...@ubvm.bitnet Russian TeX
lists...@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu Same as lists...@ubvm.bitnet
lists...@vm1.nodak.edu Lots of stuff from simtel-20; put "get
pdget help" in mail body
mail-ser...@cs.ruu.nl GIFs, Atari ST software, random
documentation, ELM sources, Usenet FAQ
postings, GNU software HP-UX software,
NN sources, SGI software, TeX software
and TeXhax and TeXmag archives, random
UNIX software, X11 software, other
stuff (also accessible via anonymous
ftp to archive.cs.ruu.nl)
mail-ser...@rusmv1.rus.uni-stuttgart.de
German TeX archives; benchmarks,
journal indices, RFCs, network info,
unix info; X, mac, pc, sun, aix, vax,
and other software (also accessible
via anonymous ftp to
rusmv1.rus.uni-stuttgart.de)
mails...@garbo.uwasa.fi Frequently asked questions in various
areas, some Usenet source archives,
some PC software archives
net...@draci.cs.uow.edu.au Australian Netlib (also accessible via
anonymous ftp to draci.cs.uow.edu.au)
net...@ornl.gov Similar to the AT&T netlib archive
net...@uunet.uu.net A large subset of what is available
from uunet via anonymous ftp or
anonymous uucp.
net...@ukc.ac.uk UK netlib server (mostly same contents
as AT&T's netlib) (some files also
accessible via anonymous ftp to
harrier.ukc.ac.uk {username "guest"})
next-arch...@cc.purdue.edu NeXT stuff (also accessible via
anonymous ftp to sonta.cc.purdue.edu
or nova.cc.purdue.edu)
nist...@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov Benchmarks, GOSIP
nptser...@cme.nist.gov NIST Cals server (also accessible via
anonymous ftp to durer.cme.nist.gov)
object-archive-ser...@decwrl.dec.com
OFF format (?) objects
ps-file-ser...@adobe.COM PostScript stuff
reduce-net...@rand.org Sources related to REDUCE (A SAM
system with emphasis on nuclear
physics)
repo...@midgard.ucsc.edu Comp.os.research tech reports (also
accessible via anonymous ftp to
midgard.ucsc.edu)
requ...@legato.com NFS benchmarking for determining if
Legato board will help your server
sea...@genbank.bio.net FASTA program for nucleic acid
sequence
serv...@nic.ddn.mil Internet RFCs and FYIs, NIC database
registration, WHOIS database lookup
stat...@lib.stat.cmu.edu XLISP-STAT, other statistical software
(also accessible via anonymous ftp to
umnstat.stat.umn.edu)
tech-repo...@cs.columbia.edu Experimental server (?) address might
point to a human
telecom-archive-requ...@letni.lonestar.org
Comp.dcom.telecom archive
wrl-techrepo...@decwrl.dec.com
DEC WRL technical reports and
abstracts
wsc...@ecn.purdue.edu HP 48 programs; put HP-MAIL-SERVER in
mail Subject
xst...@expo.lcs.mit.edu MIT X Consortium files, mainly
patches
VII. Credits
Bill Wohler <woh...@sap-ag.de> provided many of the addresses in the
"Other mail servers" section above, and provided suggestions for
several other sections. Andrew Purshottam <an...@ibmpa.awdpa.ibm.com>
also provided many mail archive server addresses. Bjorn P. Brox
<b...@dms.corena.no> provided information about Trickle.
Tom Cunningham <t...@bouwsma.sps.mot.com>, Dan Jacobson
<Dan_Jacob...@ATT.COM>, Peter Deutsch <pet...@opus.cs.mcgill.ca>,
Edwin Kremer <ed...@cs.ruu.nl>, Petri Ojala <oj...@funet.fi>, Douglas
Quist <qu...@thing1.sim.es.com>, Richard S. Smith
<RSS%CALSTATE.bit...@VM.USC.EDU>, Jon Whellams
<mg...@cc.flinders.edu.au>, Adri Verhoef <a...@rivm39.rivm.nl> and Ed
Vielmetti <e...@ox.com> provided feedback and corrections.
Jonathan Kamens j...@MIT.Edu
MIT Information Systems/Athena Moderator, news.answers
(Send news.answers-related correspondence to news-answ...@MIT.Edu.)
("Look Ma, new signature!")
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