 WSARCHIE Help Index

Performing an Archie Query

Search Type

Archie Server

Hosts

Directories

Files

Aborting a query

Status Bar

WS_FTP

Menu Commands

File menu

Options menu

Help menu

Copyright Notices

Copyright


File menu commands

The File menu offers the following commands:

Retrieve	Uses the WS_FTP to retrieve the selected file. See FTP Setup also.
Exit	Exits WSARCHIE.


Options menu commands

The Window menu offers the following commands, which enable you to arrange multiple views of multiple documents in the application window:

User Preferences	Allows the user to specify default Archie server and search type.
FTP Setup	Allows the user to setup the command used to retrieve files, and also to specify his identity.


Help menu commands

The Help menu offers the following commands, which provide you assistance with this application:

Index	Offers you an index to topics on which you can get help.
Using Help	Provides general instructions on using help.
About	Displays the version number of this application.


Retrieve command (File menu)

Use this command to retrieve the selected file (note if the file is a directory then the directory will be expanded, ie a list of the files in the directory will be retrieved from the Archie server. Note also that at the moment the list of files does not have the attributes Archie Date and the host internet address).

See WS_FTP and FTP Setup for details on configuring FTP details.

Shortcuts

Double click on the file name in the list of files or the filename box.


Exit command (File menu)

Use this command to end your WSARCHIE session.  You can also use the Close command on the application Control menu.

Shortcuts

Mouse:	Double-click the application's Control menu button.

Keys:	ALT+F4


User Preferences (Options menu)

When this command is selected the following Dialog will appear:

The selections for default Archie server and default search method will be stored and used as the default startup values, next time you run WSARCHIE.

The User ID field is used in the Archie Request to identify you. This does not need to be changed from 'nobody', the default value.


FTP Setup (Options menu)

This command displays the following dialog:

The command field should be tailored to give the full path name for the FTP program, eg. "C:\FTP\WS_FTP". The following special entries in this box will be substituted when an FTP request is made.

%h	the host name

%d	the directory name

%f	the file name

%u	the user name field as entered in the user name field

%p	the password field as entered in the password field

Note the default entry will work without modification if WS_FTP.EXE is in the command path. Note also the "/" between "%d" and "%f", used to make up the full path name of the file. The ":" is specific to WS_FTP.

Note: WS_FTP does not take the username and password from the command line, but has it's own configuration details.

The Directory field should be filled in with the name of the directory that you wish files to be retrieved to. No check is made to see if the entry is valid, and if it does not exist it will not be created and you will not be able to perform FTPs, using WSARCHIE. The default value is '.' or the current directory.


Index command (Help menu)

Use this command to display the opening screen of Help.  From the opening screen, you can jump to step-by-step instructions for using WSARCHIE and various types of reference information.

Once you open Help, you can click the Contents button whenever you want to return to the opening screen.


Using Help command (Help menu)

Use this command for instructions about using Help.


About command (Help menu)

Use this command to display the following dialog:

See Copyright for fuller details on the copyright notices from the University of Southern California and the University of Washington.


Performing an Archie Query

1.	To perform a query enter a search string in the Search for box.
2.	Select an archie server from the archie server drop down list.
3.	Enter a match domain if desired, eg "uk" to restrict the search to entries for hosts end with "uk" or "src.doc.ic.ac.uk" to restrict the search to the that site.
4.	To start the query press return, Alt+E or use the mouse on the "Search button" [image]. The "Search for", "Archie Server" and "Domain" boxes are disabled along with the search type radio buttons and the "Search" button. The "Abort" [image] button is enabled.

If desired the user may abort the search at any stage by pressing Alt+B or by selecting the "Abort" button.

Whilst the query is being performed, various status indications are given in order that the progress of the query may be seen. The indications are in the status bar, and also in the title bar of the application. The following is a brief description of the stages of an archie query

1.	A name look up is done to translate the name of the archie server to numeric form.
2.	When this completes a request is put together and sent to the archie server. At this point the title bar changes and will give the name of the archie server along with the initial time out period. If no response is received, the time period is doubled and the request re-transmitted. This will be repeated up to three times before the request is deemed to have failed.
3.	If a packet is received, the archie server will send back an acknowledgment from which may contain queue position and system time. You will not be advised of any changes in either of these, as they are sent once only by the archie client. The values returned are displayed in the status bar. The time out period will also be set to a value advised by the archie client, usually 900s if it your query is not going to be performed immediately.
4.	The next packet from the archie server usually adjusts this to 180s and is a good indication that your query is now being processed.
5.	When packets start to arrive the time out is then reduced to 5s and the packets received are indicated in the status bar. When the total number of packets is known this will be displayed as "packet x of y", otherwise "packet x" is displayed.
6.	When the last packet is received, WSARCHIE will translate the results. If there are a large number of matches, this can take several seconds.
7.	The results will then be displayed in the Hosts, Directories and Files list boxes. The first host will be displayed selected. The directories on that host that contain matches are then displayed with the first directory selected. The files in that directory are then displayed with the first file selected. Further details on the selected file are displayed in the file details section.


Search Type

The type of search performed by the archie client is determined using the search type radio buttons.

The choices have the following effects:

Substring:	A simple, everyday substring search. A match occurs if the file (or directory) name in the database contains the user-given substring.
Substring (case sensitive):	As above but the case of the strings involved becomes significant.
Exact:	The fastest search method of all. The restriction is that the user string (the argument to the 'prog' command) has to exactly match (including case) the string in the database. This is provided for those of who know just what you are looking for.
Regex:	Use ed(1) regular expressions. Searches the database with the user (search) string which is given in the form of an ed(1) regular expression. NOTE: Unless specifically anchored to the beginning (with ^) or end (with $) of a line, ed(1) regular expressions have ".*" prepended and appended to them. For example, the following are equivalent .*xnlock.* and xnlock Thus the regex match becomes a simple substring match. For example: knob - matches any string containing the substring 'knob' a*splat - matches strings that contain zero or more a's followed by the string 'splat' #.*# - would match anything containing a '#' followed by zero or more occurrences of _any_ character, followed by another '#' Other special characters that may be useful are '[' and ']', which are used together. They can be used to specify either a set of characters to match or a set of characters to not match. An example of the first case is: [abcd] which matches any of one of the four letters, while an example of the second case is: [^abcd] in which the '^' in the first position means that any character not in the list will be matched. Ranges can be specified with a '-'. [a-z] matches any lower case letter and, [^a-z] matches any character other than a lower case letter. Furthermore, you can specify multiple ranges such as: [%@a-z0-9] or [^A-Za-z] meaning: match '%' or '@' or any lower case letter or digit, and match any character other than a letter, respectively. When you want to match a character which has a special meaning you should precede it by a back slash, '\'. Some final examples of REs are: [Mm]ac\.txt - match anything containing the string "Mac.txt" or "mac.txt" [^aeiou][^aeiou]* - match any string consisting entirely of non-vowels foo-v[0-9]\.tar\.Z - match "foo-v0.tar.Z" through "foo-v9.tar.Z"
Exact first	This is a check box and is means that the exact search method will be used first. If no matches are found then the method selected using the radio buttons will be used. This box is disabled if the exact search method is chosen.
Note that changing the search type selected after the search is performed will have no effect on the displayed list of matches.


Archie Server

This drop down list box contains the list of archie servers that are in the "Archies" section of the file "WSARCHIE.INI" (NB this file must be in the WSARCHIE's working directory). The default archie server is displayed in the box when the program is first started.

The list supplied is that given by archie.doc.ic.ac.uk at the time of release. '*' after the name of a server means that it uses V3 of the Archie software. This is for information purposes only and is not used in any way by WSARCHIE to perform the query.

When the search is started, the Archie Server name is truncated at the first '*' or white space (tab or space) in the name.

If you wish to add an Archie Server that is not listed, add a new line in the 'Archies' section of WSARCHIE.INI in the form 'xxxxxxx=aa.bb.cc.dd'. 'xxxxxxx' should be substituted with a name that is unique within the 'Archies' section. The position in the section will be the position that the Archie server name appears in the list, eg

my_special_archie=archie.of.my.heart   My Own Country

There does not need to be a country or area name appended, but if there is it should be seperated from the server name with at least one space or tab.


Domain

This field is used to restrict the search to a subset of hosts within a particular domain, eg ".ac.uk" will restrict the search to academic sites in the UK.


Hosts

This is used to display the list of hosts with files or directories matching the search term.

The directories on the selected host containing directories or files that match the search term are displayed in the Directories list box. Selecting a new host will cause the Directories list box to be updated.


Directories

This is used to display the list of directories for the current selection in the Hosts list containing files or directories that match the search term.

The files within the selected directory are displayed in the Files list. Selecting a new list will cause the Files list box to be updated.


Files

This is used to display the list of files for the current selection in the Directories list box that match the search term. Further details for the selected file are displayed in the file details section.

Double clicking on a file in this list will initiate the FTP command (except in the case of a directory, when the directory will be expanded. Note also that at the moment the list of files does not have the attributes Archie Date and the host internet address). See the File menu Retrieve command


Aborting a query

A query can be aborted at any stage by pressing Alt+B or selecting the "Abort" button [image].

Any information retrieved will be lost.


File details

This section of the result display contains the following fields:

File Name	This is the full name of the file. It is prefixed with "FILE: " if it is a file and "DIRECTORY: " if it is a file.
Size	This is the size of the file in bytes.
Mode	This is the access mode of the file.
Date	This is the files own date stamp.
Archie Date	This is the date that archie server last checked the files existence.
Host Address	This is the numeric internet address of the host upon which the file resides.


FTP

Files can be retrieved using a suitable FTP program. Use the FTP Setup command from the Options menu to setup a suitable command line.

This command will be executed when a filename is double clicked in the Files list, or the Retrieve command from the File menu is selected.

The default setup is to use WS_FTP.


Status Bar

The three boxes at the end of the status bar are used as follows (going from right to left):

The time that the archie server thinks it will take to process the query, when it starts the query.

The queue position when the query is recieved

The number of packets received.


Copyright

This archie client is base upon the archie client that is included as part of the Prospero V5.2a release. Prospero comes with two copyright notices as follows:

University of Southern California:

/*

  Copyright (c) 1991, 1992, 1993 by the University of Southern California

  All rights reserved.

  Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its

  documentation in source and binary forms for non-commercial purposes

  and without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright

  notice appear in all copies and that both the copyright notice and

  this permission notice appear in supporting documentation. and that

  any documentation, advertising materials, and other materials related

  to such distribution and use acknowledge that the software was

  developed by the University of Southern California, Information

  Sciences Institute.  The name of the University may not be used to

  endorse or promote products derived from this software without

  specific prior written permission.

  THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA makes no representations about

  the suitability of this software for any purpose.  THIS SOFTWARE IS

  PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES,

  INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF

  MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

  Other copyrights might apply to parts of the Prospero distribution

  and are so noted when applicable.

  Prospero was originally written by Clifford Neuman (bcn@isi.edu).

  Contributors include Steven Seger Augart (swa@isi.edu), Benjamin Britt

  (britt@isi.edu) and others identified in individual modules.

  Questions concerning this software should be directed to

  info-prospero@isi.edu.

  */

University of Washington

/*

  Copyright (c) 1989, 1990, 1991 by the University of Washington

  Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its

  documentation for non-commercial purposes and without fee is hereby

  granted, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies

  and that both the copyright notice and this permission notice appear in

  supporting documentation, and that the name of the University of

  Washington not be used in advertising or publicity pertaining to

  distribution of the software without specific, written prior

  permission.  The University of Washington makes no representations

  about the suitability of this software for any purpose.  It is

  provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.

  Prospero was written by Clifford Neuman (bcn@isi.edu).

  Questions concerning this software should be directed to

  info-prospero@isi.edu.

  */


WS_FTP

WS_FTP is a WINSOCK compliant FTP client program written by John A. Junod (junodj@css583.gordon.army.mil). It is obtainable via FTP from many sites worldwide. The latest copy is usually available on ftp.usma.edu in /pub/msdos as ws_ftp.zip