Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!ucla-cs!wales From: wales@valeria.cs.ucla.edu (Rich Wales) Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d Subject: Re: SIMTEL20 Keywords: SIMTEL20 Message-ID: <29372@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> Date: 21 Nov 89 06:47:00 GMT References: <127614@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> Sender: news@CS.UCLA.EDU Reply-To: wales@CS.UCLA.EDU (Rich Wales) Organization: UCLA CS Department, Los Angeles Lines: 61 In article <127614@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> stephenj@deblil.Sun.COM (Stephen Johnson) writes: Can some kind and generous soul out there please post an example SIMTEL20 session where they grab a text file, a uuencoded file, a MSDOS executable file and an archived file. First of all, "text" and "uuencoded" files are really the same (ASCII); and MSDOS executables and archives are similarly the same (binary). So there are really only two situations to worry about -- ASCII and binary. Assuming your own machine that you're running FTP on is a UNIX system, you should give the command "ascii" before retrieving ASCII files, and give the command "tenex" before retrieving binary files. If you're going to do a "dir" command, you have to be in "ascii" mode. Some versions of FTP will automatically switch into "ascii" mode, do the "dir", and then switch back into whatever mode you were in before doing the "dir" command; others will not, and in such a case you will have to switch modes by hand. Be *very* careful *NEVER* to use the "bin" (binary transfer mode) com- mand when talking to SIMTEL20. Unless your own machine happens to be a DECsystem-20 or DECsystem-10, anything you transfer from SIMTEL20 in the "bin" mode will be garbled junk once you get it. Directory (or subdirectory) names on SIMTEL20 are of the form dev: or dev: The punctuation (colon, angle brackets, and period) are crucial. Case (upper/lower) is not significant. There is no way (that I'm aware of, at least) to abbreviate these directory names when jumping between sub- directories of the same device and directory; you just have to type the entire name of the new directory in a subsequent "cd" command. So, after FTP'ing to SIMTEl20 (wsmr-simtel20.army.mil) and doing an anonymous login (user "anonymous", any password), you should use the following kinds of command sequences as appropriate: TO GET AN ASCII FILE: ascii cd pd1: get sharewre.txt TO GET A BINARY FILE: tenex cd pd1: get pkz102.exe Finally, if you're retrieving multiple files of the same type in a row, you don't need to keep repeating the "ascii" or "tenex" commands. Also, if you're retrieving multiple files from the same subdirectory, you don't need to issue identical "cd" commands in succession. All of these commands need only be given when something is changing. -- Rich Wales // UCLA Computer Science Department 3531 Boelter Hall // Los Angeles, CA 90024-1596 // +1 (213) 825-5683 "I never lie when I've got sand in my shoes, Commodore."