Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!um-math!hyc
From: hyc@math.lsa.umich.edu (Howard Chu)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: FTP Arc Transfers
Keywords: atari st, ftp, arc
Message-ID: <512@stag.math.lsa.umich.edu>
Date: 12 Dec 88 13:29:35 GMT
References: <17540@vax5.CIT.CORNELL.EDU>
Sender: usenet@math.lsa.umich.edu
Reply-To: hyc@math.lsa.umich.edu (Howard Chu)
Organization: University of Michigan Math Dept., Ann Arbor
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In article <17540@vax5.CIT.CORNELL.EDU> yz2y@vax5.cit.cornell.edu (Steve Coco) writes:
%
%     	I'm hoping someone out there can help me with this one. Recently I
%have been attempting to obtain ARC files from ftp sources such as 
%him1.cc.umich.edu and cs.orst.edu. Now that I have finally figured out how
%to find my way to these files once I am connected, I am encountering another
%problem. Somewhere along the transfer line between the archive site and my
%ST, the format of the ARCed files becomes 'screwed up'. For when I try to
%unarc them, I consistently get the same message: "The file *******.ARC has a
%bad header." .
%	The transfer procedure I am using involves first sending the files to
%my school's mainframe system ( I have tried this on both our VAX 8530 and IBM
%7171 systems). I then use Kermit on Uniterm 2.0c to send them to my ST. I do
%have binary mode set all the way, except on Uniterm; and the actual transfer

You must set binary mode in Uniterm as well.

%process works fine. Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated.
%        A suggestion to the operators of the above-mentioned FTP sites would
%be to use Dumas UUEncode on their files. I believe this would greatly reduce
%the chance of this type of error occurring.

Uuencoding, unfortunately, is not proof against incompatibility. Take an
EBCDIC system for example. There is now Old EBCDIC, New EBCDIC, and proposed
New EBCDIC. All of these systems will have difficulty transferring a file
purporting to consist entirely of plain text. (The archives at him1 are
stored on an IBM mainframe, thus this problem is relevant...) It's much more
a sure thing to rely on binary mode in ftp and kermit than whatever strange
transmutations will occur to a file labelled as "plain text." Sad, almost
nonsensical, but true.

%	Also, while I'm on the topic. How many times do users of this newsgroup
%have to request the locations of other ST Archive Sites before they finally
%get a response?!!!!!
%
%	Thanks in Advance,
%	Steve Coco

Depends on how many other people have asked this week, and how much network
bandwidth we feel like wasting generating replies.

Perhaps we need a monthly posting of archive sites, listings of the contacts
at each site, etc... [I suspect it will only help a little bit. Many times
the often-repeated questions are asked by people who do not regularly read
the newsgroup, or don't subscribe to the mailing list, so they'll rarely
benefit from regular repostings of any information...]

Maybe better - instead of automatically forwarding mail to the Info-Atari
mailing list, check to see if the message sender is already a subscriber.
If not, return the message with a "standard info" message attached...

--
  /
 /_ , ,_.                      Howard Chu
/ /(_/(__                University of Michigan
    /           Computing Center          College of LS&A
   '              Unix Project          Information Systems