Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!dali.cs.montana.edu!milton!sumax!polari!6sigma2
From: 6sigma2@polari.UUCP (Brian Matthews)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp
Subject: Re: BITFTP grief
Message-ID: <4131@polari.UUCP>
Date: 18 May 91 17:07:19 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Seattle Online Public Unix (206) 328-4944
Lines: 40

lyndon@cs.athabascau.ca (Lyndon Nerenberg) writes:
|> There are enough machines out there providing anonymous UUCP access 
|> to software archives that use of BITFTP from UUCP sites is no longer
|> justifiable. If you want the software, you can bloody well pay your own
|> phone line charges to pick it up. Maybe you didn't want that software so 
|> badly after all ...

There are a lot of sites, but most of the source I really want (like
source for non-UNIX machines, beta stuff, scientific reports, etc.) isn't
available for anon UUCP.  I do use anon UUCP for stuff that's available,
but there's only so many times you can use a comp.sources.unix archive.

What some kind site needs to do, is set up a mail->ftp->anon uucp
service.  It would work something like:

1.  I mail a request to the server, like the old bitftp request
    (the machine name, what files I want, getting directory listings,
    etc.)

2.  The server does the ftp request, grabbing the requested files to
    the machine the server runs on.  If the files were already on
    the requested machine, it doesn't request them, just touches them.

3.  The server then replies to my original mail with the transcript of
    the ftp session (so I get my directory listings, and know whether
    or not the file requests succeeded.)  The mail includes where the
    files were dropped on the servers machine.

4.  The server machine provides anon UUCP, so I call up and UUCP the
    files I requested.

5.  After two weeks (or so) after the last time the files were
    requested, they are removed.

With this scheme, I can access anything on the Internet, and the only
machines affected are mine and the server machine.  The server then
doesn't have to try to archive the known universe, but frequently
requested files will tend to hang around, not even requiring an ftp.

Comments?