Subject: v18INF1: Introduction to comp.sources.unix Newsgroups: comp.sources.unix,comp.sources.d Approved: rsalz@uunet.UU.NET Submitted-by: Rich $alz Posting-number: Volume 18, Info 1 Archive-name: index18.1 This is the first of two introductory articles about comp.sources.unix. This one describes how to submit source to the newsgroup, where the archive sites are, and how to contact them. The companion articles lists all previously-published sources. I am always looking for suggestions on how to improve the usefulness of the newsgroup, and can be contacted as listed below. -Rich $alz -------------------- Subject: Distribution and Copyrights The Usenet newsgroup comp.sources.unix is forwarded through the Unix-Sources mailing list which is maintained by unix-sources-request@brl.mil. If you receive comp.sources.unix through in your mailbox, or any way other than by reading Usenet articles, then you shouldn't be contacting me. Copyright is a big issue on Usenet these days. I really wish it would just go away, but it won't, so I guess I have to state my intent. From the beginning, the goal of comp.sources.unix has been the widest possible distribution of source code in the hope that it is of use to the programming community, but with no guarantees that it won't trash your machine. That is generally the goal of the people who write and submit programs to me. There is no "compilation copyright" on the collection known as comp.sources.unix. It is a collective effort, the result of the sites that pass the group around, the kind souls that maintain archives, those who improve the code that I publish, and -- most importantly -- the people who write the code. If you want to try to make money off this collective body of work, I am not going to pretend that I can stop you. Please note that this notice in no way supercedes the copyright that individual posters have attached. -------------------- Subject: Submitting source for publication Items intended for posting or queries and problem notes should be sent to uunet!sources. In Australia, Robert Elz is a "sub-moderator"; people there can work with him (kre@munnari.OZ) to get postings out more easily. I am looking for someone in Canada and someone in Europe to act as similar sub-moderators. If you want verification of arrival, so say in a cover note, or at the beginning of your submission, if it is small. I try to verify that a program works, and if I can't get it to work, I may hold up posting it for a while. Please note that, except in rare cases, source without documentation and a Makefile will not be published. -------------------- Subject: The structure of comp.sources.unix articles Each posting in comp.sources.unix is called an "issue"; there are roughly 100 issues to a volume. The division is arbitrary, and has varied greatly in the past. There are two types of articles in comp.sources.unix; sources and "information postings." They can be distinguished by the subject line: Subject: v07INF8: Index for Volume 7 and other info This first word in the title identifies this as the eighth info posting of volume seven. Similarly, the subject line shown below: Subject: v07i081: Public-domain Unix kernel identifies this as the 81st source article in Volume 7. Large sources are broken up into smaller pieces, and have subject lines that look like this: Subject: v07i082: System VI Source Distribution, Part03/08 The first few lines of an article are auxiliary headers that look like this: Submitted-by: root@freeware.ATT.COM Posting-number: Volume 7, Issue 82 Archive-name: new-login The "Submitted by" is the author of the program. IF YOU HAVE COMMENTS ABOUT THE SOURCES PUBLISHED IN COMP.SOURCES.UNIX, THIS IS THE PERSON TO CONTACT. When possible, this address is in domain form, otherwise it is a UUCP bang path relative to some major site such as "uunet." The second line repeats the volume/issue information for the aide of NOTES sites and automatic archiving programs. The Archive-name is the "official" name of this source in the archive. Large postings will have names that look like this: Archive-name: patch2/Part01 Please try to use this name when requesting that sources be mailed to you. Also, note that the "part number" given in the title, and the archive name given in the auxiliary header need not be identical. -------------------- Subject: Reporting and tracking bugs and patches to postings You should probably subscribe to comp.sources.bugs. Some of the larger postings have established channels for distributing bug reports (e.g., Larry Wall posts patches in comp.sources.bugs; C News has update bulletins there and in one of the news groups, etc.). Others are sort of "catch as catch can." Sometimes, when new versions of previously-published software is available, just patches are put out, usually in the form of shar files containing input for the "patch" program, new files, etc. Sometimes complete new versions are put out. Which method is used depends on the poster and the moderator. To report bugs, contact the person listed in the Submitted-to header. Often there is a contact address in a README file, too. I do not maintain the sources I moderate, so don't send your bug reports to me. -------------------- Subject: Becoming an archive site If you collect comp.sources.unix postings and are willing and able to make your collection available to other people, please let me know. Benefits include the undying gratitude of your colleagues, and a promise from me to try to make sure you never lose an article. -------------------- Subject: Accessing the archives The complete archives are fairly large; an average volume is three to four megabytes. The French and European archives are coming along, and the one in England is getting lots of traffic. I should have good news for BITNET sites soon. When you request something before Volume 6, please make sure to be as descriptive as possible as articles before then do not have official names. Matt Caprile has done a great amount of work in cleaning up the index entries and old names, look for a notice here soon. Work on this is late, my fault. Some sites below will send tapes through the mail. For those sites, send a 1/2" mag tape WITH RETURN POSTAGE and RETURN MAILER. Tapes without postage or mailer will not be returned. No other methods (COD, etc.) are available; please don't ask. At the present time, I do not have ready access to the archives, nor the support of my employer to do this. Please don't ask me for missing issues, unless you are sure you are reporting a net-wide problem of propogation. -------------------- Subject: Contacting me My name is Rich Salz (rhymes with balls), usually spelled with a dollarsign for the S ($alz). I am not the same as Rick Adams, who is currently best known as the major force behind UUNET. I have a guest account on UUNET, which is where I do the moderating. I can be reached via electronic mail as uunet!rsalz, rsalz@uunet.uu.net. I work at BBN. This is unrelated to comp.sources.unix, except that if something really critical comes up, you can call me at the office at 617-873-3290 (direct to my desk). Try to avoid sending mail to rsalz@bbn.com, unless you really have to. -------------------- Subject: Listing of archive sites in no particular order 1. The Danish UNIX user group (DKUUG) is running a mail based archive service at diku, it is only available to EUnet users in Denmark because of accounting. It features access to the latest EUUG tape distribution which includes sources from comp.sources.unix and comp.sources.games. Also some specially collected items like GNU emacs is available. To get in contact with this archive service, do: mail diku!archive Subject: help Archive mail enjoys a 100 % surcharge compared to ordinary mail. EUUG also provides a tape based archive service of sources collected from the network and other specilally collected products like the GNU Emacs, X windows, MH and UNIX|stat. These are also known as the Conference tapes. Available media include 9 track 1/2 inch 1600 fpi 2400 ft, and some QIC formats. Contact EUUG, Owles Hall, Buntingford, Herts, SG9 9PL, England, or Frank Kuiper, CWI, Kruislaan 413, NL-1098 SJ Amsterdam, the Netherlands for further information. Frank can also be reached as frankk@cwi.nl . 2. Lee McLoughlin and Stuart McRoberts of the Department of Computing, Imperial College, London have set up an FTP and mail based server for UK sites. All volumes are online, some may be in compressed form. For information about the mail based server mail to info-server@doc.ic.ac.uk with a message body of: request catalogue topic comp.sources.unix request end They also store most of the GNU software, X windows, minix updates, uupc and most other software deemed useful by the management. Mail the info-server with a topic line of: topic index for futher details. For reasons of cost access is limited to UK users only. 3. Ron Heiby has set up an anonymous UUCP access site. If there is enough interest, I will post his full note, but for now I am just giving the summary info. The machine is "mcdch1" which has a single 1200bps modem at 1-312-576-7902. Send an initial carraige return, then log in with the name "pduucp" and password "public". This will not work from 8am to 6pm Chicago time Monday through Friday, so we can get our real work done. The first thing you will want to do is pick up the detailed instructions and a list of what is available. uucp mcdch1!~/howto.snarf !~/MYNAME/ uucp mcdch1!~/directory !~/MYNAME/ Do not use full pathnames or wildcards; they will not work. The Systems file entry for doing this looks something like: (For HoneyDanBer UUCP (BNU) users. Combine into a single line.) mcdch1 Wk1800-0730,Sa,Su ACU 1200 3125767902 "" \r\c in:--in: pduucp word: public This is not an official service of Motorola and may be discontinued at any time. The contents of the comp.sources.unix archive have been donated by the submitters of the files to the Usenet comp.sources.unix moderator for free availability throughout the community. Motorola assumes no responsibility for the contents of these files, including the suitability for their use in any application on any hardware. (Some of the material, for example is known not to run on systems sold by Motorola.) Any questions about suitability, problems with the software or documentation, or anything else related to the contents of the files should be directed to the persons who submitted the material originally (usually the authors). 4. Pyramid Technology maintains a general user-contributed-software archive, including comp.sources.unix and comp.sources.games. Source modules are arranged both topically and by volume/issue number. New UUCP connections are welcome, although sites outside Northern California will be harrassed about why they haven't yet signed up for UUNet.* Pyramid will also make tapes on a *very* limited basis for people willing to stop by during off hours and wait while the tape is written. This is being managed by Rick Preston with Carl Gutekunst kibitzing. Contact usenet@pyramid.com for more information. [ *Don't take this 100% seriously. ] 5. Bill Wisner, wisner@killer.DALLAS.TX.US, and Steven Parker, sp@killer.Dallas.TX.US, maintain an archive of comp.sources.unix, as well as several other USENET newsgroups. This archive is available via anonymous UUCP and is reachable through PC Pursuit. Two sample L.sys lines follow: killer Any ACU 2400 1-214-821-3795 in:--in: uupdsrc word: Public killer Any ACU 1200 1-214-827-2919 in:--in: uupdsrc word: Public Modify as necessary to fit local circumstances, of course. To get more information, request file killer!/bbsys4/README. 6. Robert Elz (kre@munnari.OZ) keeps sources in different ways depending on his available disk space; contact him for more info. 7. Thos Sumner at UCSF will respond to requests for material, but cannot promise an ongoing commitment. Anyone requesting material via mail should supply a path from ucbvax. Anyone requesting tape should contact him first. Contact him at thos@cca.ucsf.edu, or ucbvax!ucsfcgl!cca.UCSF!thos 8. Michael Squires maintains an archive site, sir-alan. It has the full archive for anonymous uucp using the login of "pdsrc" (no password). The Trailblazer autobauds between 300/1200/2400 baud. The number is 814 337 0894; the list of available files is in /usr/spool/pdsrc/all.subjects. 9. Rick Adams (rick@uunet.uu.net) provides archive access to those on the Internet. Access is available directly via anonymous FTP; look in ~ftp/comp.sources.unix/volumeN. I maintain the UUNET archives, and they're guaranteed to be current and official. UUNET subscribers can also UUCP missing files directly. 10. Internet sites may also retrieve archives from j.cc.purdue.edu via anonymous ftp. The archive is in the directory ~ftp/news/comp/sources/unix/volumeX. Most files are compressed; these may be recognized by the ".Z" suffix. If you don't have compress & friends, they are in ~ftp/pub/compress.shar for the taking. This is being managed by Rich Kulawiec (Wombat), rsk@j.cc.purdue.edu. They would appreciate it if you would avoid large file transfers in the middle of the day. [Rick also points out that the FTP'able archies also contain mod.amiga, a bunch of kermit sources, news 2.11, rn 4.3, nntp, and whatever else happens to be in ~ftp/pub at the moment.] 11. The CSNET CIC is now current. Send a request for "mod.sources" with the topics "help" and "index" to the Info-Server, or or contact postmaster@sh.cs.net. 12. Sharan Kalwani at the Michigan Cancer Foundation (shan@mcf.uucp) has set up a mail-based server for Michigan sites. The archive resides on mcf's machine. Comp.sources.unix and other stuff are available. Just a few issues are missing and efforts are solicited to make the archives complete. For reasons of cost access is limited to MI users only unless you want to set up direct links with mcf. Mail to "archives@mcf.uucp" and supply the text "send index" for some help on how to access the files and an index of the files currently online. For human help, mail to shan@mcf.uucp or mcf!shan@umix.cc.umich.edu. 13. Matt Caprille of Bull, S.A., in France has many sources archived and available in magnetic media. Contact echbull!mfc for info. 14. Tad Guy maintains an FTP'able archive at Old Dominion University. The archive contains the Unix, X, Games, Misc, and Amiga source groups, as well as comp.binaries.amiga. The unix sources are only kept on-line starting with Volume 10. Anonymous FTP to Xanth.cs.odu.edu.