Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!seismo!ukma!uflorida!rex!samsung!cs.utexas.edu!yale!mintaka!dcw
From: dcw@lcs.mit.edu (David C. Whitney)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: FTP's
Message-ID: <1990Sep20.124031.20046@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu>
Date: 20 Sep 90 12:40:31 GMT
References: <36896@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU>
Sender: daemon@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu (Lucifer Maleficius)
Organization: MIT Spoken Language Systems Group
Lines: 51

In article <36896@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU> v063jc9a@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu writes:
>
>	Ok, I'd like to get this straightened out for myself once and for all.
>Ok here's the questions on using FTP's:

An here's an answer (I hope):

FTP allows people to send stuff across networks (pretty much just the
internet, though - although there are facilities for getting stuff to
BITNET folks). Most of this stuff is just text or text-encoded
binaries. Some of it is just binaries.

FTP defaults to a mode for transferring TEXT (so does Kermit). If the
file you want has a suffix of ".txt" or ".bsc" or ".uu" or ".shar"
then you can transfer it using text mode. In fact, most files will go
OK in text mode.

If the filename has a suffix of ".shk" or ".Z" or ".tar" then you MUST
go into binary mode (type "binary" to the FTP or Kermit prompt) before
transferring.

".Z" files have been compressed with the unix "compress" utility. The
unix "uncompress" utility or Shrinkit GS (not regular Shrinkit!) can
uncompress such files.

".tar" is a unix tape archive. The unix utility "tar" can extract the
files stored in the archive. I *think* that tar does no encoding or
compression, so tar archives of binscii files do not need to be
untar'ed before running through binscii (someone else apparently has
done this without problems).

".shk" files are shrinkit archives which can be unpacked using
Shrinkit (regular or GS).

--

Any text file containing a line which reads "FiLeStArTfIlEsTaRt" is a
file holding BinSCII-encoded segments. Run BinSCII or the unix utility
"sciibin" on such files to extract the binary data within.

Kermit was designed to be able to send binary data over 7-bit lines.
This is pretty inefficient, so Kermit defaults to text mode. You must
type "binary" to BOTH Kermits before transferring binary data.

Hope this has been helpful...

--
Dave Whitney			| I wrote Z-Link and BinSCII. Send me bug
Computer Science MIT 1990	| reports. I need a job. Send me an offer.
dcw@goldilocks.lcs.mit.edu	| My opinions, you hear? MINE!
dcw@athena.mit.edu		| Are you sure you know what you're doing?