ARCHIE(1) Archie (Prospero) ARCHIE(1)
26 October 1992
NAME
archie - query the Archie anonymous FTP databases using Prospero
SYNOPSIS
archie [ -cers ] [ -a ] [ -l ] [ -t ] [ -m hits ]
[ -N [ level ] ] [ -h hostname ] [ -o filename ]
[ -L ] [ -V ] [ -v ] string
DESCRIPTION
archie queries an archie anonymous FTP database looking for the
specified string using the Prospero protocol. This client is based on
Prospero version Beta.4.2 and is provided to encourage non-interactive
use of the Archie servers (and subsequently better performance on both
sides). This man page describes version 1.3 of the client.
The general method of use is of the form
% archie string
This will go to the archie server and ask it to look for all known
systems that have a file named `string' in their FTP area. archie
will wait, and print out any matches.
For example,
% archie emacs
will find all anonymous FTP sites in the archie database that have
files named emacs somewhere in their FTP area. (This particular query
would probably return a lot of directories.) If you want a list of
every filename that contains emacs anywhere in it, you'd use
% archie -c emacs
Regular expressions, such as
% archie -r '[xX][lL]isp'
may also be used for searches. (See the manual of a reasonably good
editor, like GNU Emacs or vi, for more information on using regular
expressions.)
OPTIONS
The options currently available to this archie client are:
-c Search substrings paying attention to upper & lower case.
-e Exact string match. (This is the default.)
-r Search using a regular expression.
-s Search substrings ignoring the case of the letters.
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-ofilename If specified, place the results of the search in filename.
-a Output results as Alex filenames.
-l Output results in a form suitable for parsing by programs.
-t Sort the results inverted by date.
-mhits Specifies the maximum number of hits (matches) to return
(default of 95).
-Nlevel Sets the niceness of a query; by default, it's set to 0.
Without an argument, ``-N'' defaults to 35765. If you use
-N with an argument between 0 and 35765, it'll adjust
itself accordingly. (Note: VMS users will have to put
quotes around this argument, and -L, like "-N45"; VMS will
otherwise convert it to lowercase.)
-h hostname Tells the client to query the Archie server hostname.
-L Lists the Archie servers known to the program when it was
compiled, as well as the name of the default Archie
server. For an up-to-date list, write to
``archie@archie.mcgill.ca'' (or any Archie server) with
the single command of servers.
-V With the verbose option, archie will make some comments
along the way if a search is going to take some time, to
pacify the user.
The three search-modifying arguments (``-c'', ``-r'', and ``-s'') are
all mutually exclusive; only the last one counts. If you specify -e
with any of ``-c'', ``-r'', or ``-s'', the server will first check for
an exact match, then fall back to the case-sensitive, case-
insensitive, or regular expression search. This is so if there are
matches that are particularly obvious, it will take a minimal amount
of time to satisfy your request.
If you list a single `-' by itself, any further arguments will be
taken as part of the search string. This is intended to enable
searching for strings that begin with a `-'; for example:
% archie -s - -old
will search for all filenames that contain the string `-old' in them.
RESPONSE
Archie servers are set up to respond to a number of requests in a
queued fashion. That is, smaller requests get served much more
quickly than do large requests. As a result, the more often you query
the Archie server, or the larger your requests, the longer the queue
will become, resulting in a longer waiting period for everyone's
requests. Please be frugal when possible, for your benefit as well as
for the other users.
QUERY PRIORITY
Please use the ``-N'' option whenever you don't demand immediacy, or
when you're requesting things that could generate large responses.
Even when using the nice option, you should still try to avoid big
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26 October 1992
jobs during busy periods. Here is a list of what we consider to be
nice values that accurately reflect the priority of a job to the
server.
Normal 0
Nice 500
Nicer 1000
Very Nice 5000
Extremely Nice 10000
Nicest 32765
The last priority, Nicest, would be used when a job should wait until
the queue is essentially empty before running. You should pick one of
these values to use, possibly modifying it slightly depending on where
you think your priority should land. For example, 32760 would mean
wait until the queue is empty, but jump ahead of other jobs that have
selected Nicest.
There are certain types of things that we suggest using Nicest for,
irregardless. In particular, any searches for which you would have a
hard time justifying the use of anything but extra resources. (We all
know what those searches would be for.)
ENVIRONMENT
ARCHIE_HOST
This will change the host archie will consult when making
queries. (The default value is what's been compiled in.) The
``-h'' option will override this. If you're running VMS,
create a symbol called ARCHIE_HOST.
SEE ALSO
For more information on regular expressions, see the manual pages on:
regex(3), ed(1)
Also read the file archie/doc/whatis.archie on archie.mcgill.ca for a
detailed paper on Archie as a whole.
Read the file README.ALEX distributed with this client for more
information on what Alex is and how you can take advantage of it.
AUTHORS
The archie service was conceived and implemented by Alan Emtage
(bajan@cs.mcgill.ca), Peter Deutsch (peterd@cs.mcgill.ca), and Bill
Heelan (wheelan@cs.mcgill.ca). The entire Internet is in their debt.
The Prospero system was created by Clifford Neuman (bcn@isi.edu);
write to info-prospero@isi.edu for more information on the protocol
and its use.
This stripped client was put together by Brendan Kehoe
(brendan@cygnus.com), with modifications by Clifford Neuman and George
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ARCHIE(1) Archie (Prospero) ARCHIE(1)
26 October 1992
Ferguson (ferguson@cs.rochester.edu).
BUGS
There are none; only a few unexpected features.
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