I include the following with my FAQ, since there are *many* people
who have contacted me about how to get it by email. Note that
I haven't verified recently if these are functioning, but I haven't
gotten any complaints, so I assume at least one of them is valid.
--- cut here ---
I. Introduction
H. I Don't Have FTP capability - can I use Email to Get FAQ articles?
by Lance ?, Relayed by Dave Aronson
If you have e-mail access to the internet, you can get access to any ftp site
via e-mail from these two 'ftp via e-mail' servers:
ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com
ftpmail@sunsite.unc.edu
Here's a help file (on teetot.acusd.edu, as
/pub/Beelzebub/FTP_via_Internet_Mail).
How To
Receive Documents
from an
FTP Archive
via Internet MAIL
---===---
I have had several requests for documents from the archive at:
etext.archive.umich.edu
from people that DO NOT have anonymous ftp access.
There is a server at:
that can accept "batch" ftp requests from you and then return the documents back
to you via internet mail.
The general way to communicate with this server is as follows:
mail ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com
Subject: <return>
<ftp command> <return>
<ftp command> <return>
<ftp command> <return>
.
.
.
<ftp command> <return>
quit <return>
<exit mail program and send mail>
To get a list of commands and some information about this service:
mail ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com
Subject: <return>
help <return>
quit <return>
<exit mail program and send mail>
Let's say that you wanted to get a list of all the files available in the JBS
directory of my archive at etext.archive.umich.edu, do this:
mail ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com
Subject: <return>
connect etext.archive.umich.edu <return>
chdir /pub/Politics/Conspiracy/LWB/JBS <return>
dir <return>
quit <return>
<exit mail program and send mail>
Suppose you wanted to get the following files from my archive at
etext.archive.umich.edu:
LWB/JBS/freedom.from.war
LWB/JBS/jbs.book.list.01
do the following:
mail ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com
Subject: <return>
connect etext.archive.umich.edu <return>
chdir /pub/Politics/Conspiracy/LWB/JBS <return>
get freedom.from.war <return>
get jbs.book.list.01 <return>
quit <return>
<exit mail program and send mail>
After a while you should get a response similar to this:
From: "ftpmail service on ftp-gw-1.pa.dec.com" <nobody@pa.dec.com>
To: lwb@cs.utexas.edu
Subject: your ftpmail request has been received
We processed the following input from your mail message:
connect etext.archive.umich.edu
chdir /pub/Politics/Conspiracy/LWB/JBS
get freedom.from.war
get jbs.book.list.01
quit
We have entered the following request into our job queue
as job number 746315939.01678:
connect etext.archive.umich.edu anonymous -
ftpmail/lwb@cs.utexas.edu
reply lwb@cs.utexas.edu
chdir /pub/Politics/Conspiracy/LWB/JBS
get freedom.from.war ascii
get jbs.book.list.01 ascii
There are 463 jobs ahead of this one in our queue.
You should expect the results to be mailed to you within a day or so.
We try to drain the request queue every 30 minutes, but sometimes it
fills up with enough junk that it takes until midnight (Pacific time)
to clear. Note, however, that since ftpmail sends its files out with
"Precedence: bulk", they receive low priority at mail relay nodes.
Note that the "reply" or "answer" command in your mailer will not work
for this message or any other mail you receive from FTPMAIL. To send
requests to FTPMAIL, send an original mail message, not a reply. As
shown in the header of this message, complaints should be sent to the
ftpmail-admin@ftp-gw-1.pa.dec.com address rather than to postmaster,
since our postmaster is not responsible for fixing ftpmail problems.
There is no way to delete this request, so be sure that it has failed
before you resubmit it or you will receive multiple copies of anything
you have requested.
There is no way to ask for only certain parts of a file to be sent. If
you receive output from ftpmail that seems to be missing some parts, it
is likely that some mailer between here and there has dropped them. You
can try your request again, but chances are fairly good that if it is
dropped once it will be dropped every time.
There is no way to specify that your request should be tried only during
certain hours of the day. If you need a file from a time-restricted FTP
server, you probably cannot get it via ftpmail.
Ftpmail was written by Paul Vixie at the DEC Western Research Laboratory
and at the DEC Network Systems Laboratory, from 1989-1993.
-- Ftpmail Submission Transcript --
<<< connect etext.archive.umich.edu
>>> Connect to etext.archive.umich.edu as anonymous with -
>>> ftpmail/lwb@cs.utexas.edu
<<< chdir /pub/Politics/Conspiracy/LWB/JBS
>>> Will chdir to </pub/Politics/Conspiracy/LWB/JBS> before I do anything
>>> else
<<< get freedom.from.war
>>> get freedom.from.war ascii
<<< get jbs.book.list.01
>>> get jbs.book.list.01 ascii
<<< quit
>>> Done - rest of message will be ignored
>>> checking security of host `etext.archive.umich.edu'
>>> host `etext.archive.umich.edu' has IP addr [141.211.164.18]
>>> host `etext.archive.umich.edu' is also known as
>>> `hellcow.css.itd.umich.edu'
>>> host `etext.archive.umich.edu' is ok
-- End of Ftpmail Transcript --
etc...
Please refer to the man pages on ftp for more information on ftp commands.
I will, from time-to-time, send/post a list of all files available on
my section of this archive.
Good Luck,
Lance
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