🚀 go-pugleaf

   I recently uncovered a bug in the version of uudecode that I have been
using to bring images and some executables on to the SPANKY.TRIUMF.CA fractal
ftp site. Most of the executables will be okay, as they are mostly imported
with FTP and did not go through the decode process. It isn't a data corruption
problem, but a file and record attribute problem. My UUDECODE procedure was
creating binary files with variable length  stream-linefeed records. The
problem wasn't immediately apparent, as the  image viewing software I use,
running under VAX/VMS could read and display these file types and FTP
transfers to ULTRIX machines correctly transfered these files into binary
image format. If you are transfering from SPANKY to a UNIX box, you probably
never experienced any difficulty other than the hassles with the VMS directory
structure. However, if you were ftp'ing directly to a PC or through another
VAX/VMS machine and then to a PC you might have a problem with these files. I
think some PC based FTP software would miss-handle the record-type and the
image would be unviewable. The VMS-VMS ftp problem is different. They
communicate too well and the improper file type would propogate to the next
site, where other download software such as kermit and xmodem would fail to
transfer the image to a remote system in any usable format.  

I think I have fixed the problem by transfering all suspect image files to a
ultrix machine and then back to SPANKY, effectively correcting the record
format problem. If any of you had problems retrieving images from SPANKY,
particularly the [pub.fractals.images.others] directory, then you should
perhaps try it again. If you haven't had any problems, then sorry about the
non-information, but I hope you enjoyed the details anyway.


						Noel@reg.triumf.ca