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From: emv@msen.com (Edward Vielmetti)
Subject: Re: BITFTP
Message-ID: <1991Jun2.051039.6252@msen.com>
Organization: MSEN, Inc. -- Ann Arbor, MI
References: <I=EBILB@xds13.ferranti.com> <EMV.91May19170420@poe.aa.ox.com> <4755.2847ef84@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com>
Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1991 05:10:39 GMT

>>    ftpget msen wilma.cs.brown.edu:/pub/xmx.tar.Z ~/from-msen
>
>are).  Then msen can offer include by reference:
>          carefget msen <vnnnimmm>:3rd-file ~/from-msen
>and msen consults the verification at the end of article <vnnnimmm>
>and retrieves that file.  Wildcarding etc. follows.

the problems here are with bitrot -- software changes, people move and
take their code with them, grant money comes and goes :-).  the closest
thing to a unique id in each article is the Archive-Name: header; it's
something like
	Archive-name: category/subcategory/package/time-stamp
Now my sense of categorization is pretty weak, but the "package" part stays
consistent.  If you were to ask for
	getpackage msen xmx ~/from-msen
we could fetch the database entry for xmx, discover that either we have
a copy locally or we know where to get all of its pieces parts, and send
it down to you.  bitrot is your enemy here, the half life of a reference
to an ftp site location is less than a year, and keeping tabs on all nn
hundred different things is real work.

--Ed