🚀 go-pugleaf

Hello all,

The burning question, for all of you who haven't been following the
discussion about comp.archives, is: what is it? :-)

Comp.archives is intended to be the place you go to when you want
something that you think is *somewhere* out on the network, but you
don't know where it is. I also intend to have various articles on how
to get to various kinds of archives.

Since there is no discussion group related to this one, I will accept
other kinds of postings as well. I particularly encourage people who
are having problems getting to archive sites to post; after all, what
good is this newsgroup if you can't use the info coming from it?  I
also encourage those who have answers to respond.

Also, until things are stable and there are a few archive sites that
archive comp.archives, postings asking for where things are archived
will be accepted.

Now, here is what I see as my charter:

      Comp.archives is the place to look to find out where freely
      distributable and electronically available software, databases,
      documents, or what have you, can be had.  "Freely
      distributable" means that, if you have a copy of the item, you
      can (at least) make exact copies and give them away, and you
      don't have to tell the owner of the item (if any) that you have
      done so.  "Available electronically" means, for my purposes,
      that it is obtainable through a publicly accessible network.
      Also included may be things which can be had by other means, so
      long as this does not involve paying a fee to the distributor.
      This information is provided as a free service and there is *no
      one* guaranteeing that any of it is accurate or useful.  Use it
      your own risk.

---

I intend that anyone who is sufficiently diligent can create for
himself a database of archive information from the postings that come
through comp.archives.

This database has three parts. They are:

1) The archive site directory.

   This is a database of archive sites. Each archive site that I am
   posting information for will have some kind of entry here.  If I
   were to make my site available for retrieving the current archive
   databases (something which I expect to do sooner or later), I'd
   have an entry that looked something like this:

NM twwells.UUCP
EN bill@twwells.UUCP (T. William Wells); 1988 Oct 21
AD bill@twwells.UUCP (T. William Wells)
MA 781 W. Oakland Pk Blvd #208, Ft. Lauderdale FL 33311
CO uucp:uucp::twwells Any1800-0800 ACU 2400 13059876543 in:-\r-in: arcuucp
DE This is where comp.archives gets moderated from. I maintain the
DE most up-to-date version of the databases, so if you want
DE them you have to get them directly from me.

2) The information directory.

   I believe that, in order to easily find information in the
   archives, we need to have a directory that describes the things in
   the archives. To that end, I propose a database that contains
   entries something like this faked up entry for pcomm.

NM unix-pcomm
VR version 1.1
AU egray@fthood.UUCP (Emmet P. Gray)
MA egray@fthood.UUCP (Emmet P. Gray)
EN bill@twwells.UUCP (T. William Wells); 1988 Oct 21
TT public domain version of ProComm (TM)
KW all-source,public-domain,datacomm
SY any:modem,sysv-unix:termcaps,install
DE Pcomm is a public domain telecommunication program for Unix that
DE is designed to operate similarly to the MSDOS program, ProComm.
DE ProComm (TM) is copyrighted by Datastorm Technologies, Inc.  This
DE is a completely new program and contains no ProComm source code.
DE This is not a Datastorm product.

3) The archive content directory.

   This ties the two previous ones together.  Its entries look
   something like:

unix-pcomm;version 1.1;twwells;*;pcomm.1.shar.Z;1988 Oct 21;compress;part 1
unix-pcomm;version 1.1;twwells;*;pcomm.2.shar.Z;1988 Oct 21;compress;part 2
unix-pcomm;version 1.1;twwells;*;pcomm.3.shar.Z;1988 Oct 21;compress;part 3
unix-pcomm;version 1.1;twwells;*;pcomm.4.shar.Z;1988 Oct 21;compress;part 4
unix-pcomm;version 1.1;twwells;*;pcomm.5.shar.Z;1988 Oct 21;compress;part 5
unix-pcomm;version 1.1;twwells;*;pcomm.6.shar.Z;1988 Oct 21;compress;part 6
unix-pcomm;version 1.1;twwells;*;pcomm.7.shar.Z;1988 Oct 21;compress;part 7
unix-pcomm;version 1.1;twwells;*;pcomm.8.shar.Z;1988 Oct 21;compress;part 8
unix-pcomm;version 1.1;twwells;*;pcomm.p1.shar.Z;1988 Oct 21;compress;patch 1
unix-pcomm;version 1.1;twwells;*;pcomm.p2.shar.Z;1988 Oct 21;compress;patch 2
unix-pcomm;version 1.1;twwells;*;pcomm.p3.shar.Z;1988 Oct 21;compress;patch 3

   Of course, many archive sites will make available things which do
   not have entries in the information directory. This is certainly
   going to be true at the start and will probably remain true
   indefinitely. For these, the entries would look something like:

;;twwells;*;fbackup.cpio.Z;1988 Oct 21;cpio,compress;floppy backup program

What I'll do is post messages with special subject lines that
indicate which part of the database is being updated by that message
and take special pains to verify that these messages are properly
formatted, etc.

---

There you have it: my grandiose plans for comp.archives.  However,
before I begin, I want your input. I need to know whether what I am
proposing is what you want. I need to hear from various people as to
whether they will provide the information I need to make this fly. In
particular I would like to hear from those who administer archive
sites, those who moderate newsgroups that contain information which is
archived, and those who write software that is expected to be
archived.

Following this posting is a detailed description of the proposed
comp.archives databases. General comments should be followups to this
message, comments about the specific ddatabase structure should be
followups to the next.

---

Here is some administrivia: there has been this rumor that I haven't
yet sent in the map entry for the site from which I am posting
(twwells). Well, that isn't so; here is the message I sent:

>From bill Mon Oct  3 19:25:40 1988
To: novavax!map-request,uunet!rutgers!uucpmap
Subject: map updates for proxftl and twwells

Here are updated map entries for proxftl and twwells.

#N      proxftl
#S      Sun 3/280; Sun Unix Release 3.4
#O      Proximity Technology Inc.
#C      Tom Holroyd
#E      proxftl!postmaster
#T      +1 305 566 3511
#P      3511 NE 22nd Ave., Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33308
#L      26 11 N / 80 00 W city
#R
#U      novavax twwells
#W      proxftl!tomh (Tom Holroyd); Mon Oct  3 16:58:19 EDT 1988
#
proxftl novavax(DIRECT), sunvice(DIRECT), twwells(DIRECT), uunet(EVENING)

#N      twwells
#S      Zenith 386; UNIX System V/386
#O
#C      T. William Wells
#E      twwells!postmaster
#T      +1 305 491 8027
#P      781 W Oakland Park Blvd #208, Ft. Lauderdale FL, 33311
#L      26 11 N / 80 00 W city
#R
#U      proxftl
#W      twwells!bill (T. William Wells); Mon Oct  3 16:58:19 EDT 1988
#
twwells proxftl(DIRECT)

These map entries are correct and assuming the various map people
haven't sent this thing out and that you need this info to post, you
should get them to your uucp, news, or system administrator.

Suggested paths for e-mailing me are:

      {novavax|uunet}!proxftl!twwells!bill

The address for posting is:

      {novavax|uunet}!proxftl!twwells!comp-archives

and for comp.archive related stuff that is not to be posted:

      {novavax|uunet}!proxftl!twwells!comp-archives-request

---

Finally, I'd like to thank John F. Haugh II, jfh@rpp386.dallas.tx.us
for getting this thing rolling and collecting the votes and for
miscellaneous information that has helped me get started.

Hope to hear from you soon!

---
Bill
{uunet|novavax}!proxftl!twwells!bill