The National Center for Supercomputing Applications 1/28/92 Anonymous FTP Server General Information This file contains information about the general structure, as well as information on how to obtain files and documentation from the FTP server. NCSA software and documentation can also be obtained through the the U.S. Mail. Instructions are included for using this method as well. Information about the Software Development Group and NCSA software can be found in the /ncsapubs directory in a file called TechResCatalog. THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS GIVES NO WARRANTY, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, FOR THE SOFTWARE AND/OR DOCUMENTATION PROVIDED, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY AND WARRANTY OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. _____________________________________________________________ FTP INSTRUCTIONS Most NCSA Software is released into the public domain. That is, for these programs, the public domain has all rights for future licensing, resale, and publication of available packages. If you are connected to Internet (NSFNET, ARPANET, MILNET, etc) you may download NCSA software and documentation and source code if it is available, at no charge from the anonymous file transfer protocol (FTP) server at NCSA where you got this file. The procedure you should follow to do so is presented below. If you have any questions regarding this procedure or whether you are connected to Internet, consult your local system administration or network expert. 1. Log on to a host at your site that is connected to the Internet and is running software supporting the FTP command. 2. Invoke FTP on most systems by entering the Internet address of the server. Type the following at the shell (usually "%") prompt: % ftp ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu 3. Log in by entering anonymous for the name. 4. Enter your local email address (login@host) for the password. 5. Enter the following at the "ftp>" prompt to copy a text file from our server to your local host: ftp> get filename where "filename" is the name of the file you want a copy of. For example, to get a copy of this file from the server enter: ftp> get README.FIRST To get a copy of our software brochure, enter: ftp> cd ncsapubs get TechResCatalog NOTE: Some of the filenames on the server are rather long to aid in identification. Some operating systems may have problems with names this long. To change the name the file will have on your local machine type the following at the "ftp>" prompt ("remoteName" is the name of the file on the server and "localName" is the name you want the file to have on your local machine): ftp> get remoteName localName Example: ftp> get TechResCatalog catalog.txt 6. For files that are not text files (almost everything else) you will need to specify that you want to transfer binary files. Do this by typing the following at the "ftp>" prompt: ftp> type binary You can now use the "get" command to download binary files. To switch back to ASCII text transfers type: ftp> type ascii 7. The "ls" and "cd" commands can be used at the "ftp>" prompt to list and change directories as in the shell. 8. Enter "quit" or "bye" to exit FTP and return to your local host. _____________________________________________________________ FTP SOFTWARE BY MAIL To obtain an order form, send your request to the following address: FTP Archive Tapes c/o Debbie Shirley 152 Computing Applications Building 605 East Springfield Avenue Champaign, IL 61820 or call: Debbie at (217) 244-4130 _____________________________________________________________ VIRUS INFORMATION The Software Development Group at NCSA is very virus-conscious. We routinely check our machines for viruses and recommend that you do so also. For the Macintoshes we use Disinfectant. You can obtain a copy of Disinfectant from the /Mac/Utilities directory. If you use Microsoft DOS or Windows you can find the latest virus scan from the anonymous site oak.oakland.edu in the /SimTel/msdos/virus directory. _____________________________________________________________ GENERAL INFORMATION DIRECTORY STRUCTURE The FTP server is organized as specified below: /Mac Macintosh software /PC IBM PC software /Unix Software for machines running UNIX or equivalent OS /Unix/SGI Software that primarily runs on Silicon Graphics machines only /Visualization Software tools for data visualization. /Web World Wide Web tools, including Mosaic, httpd, and html editors. /HDF Hierarchical Data Format applications and tools /Samples Samples that can be used with most of NCSA software tools /Documentation Currently being constructed, check each application's directory for documentation /ncsapubs Information produced by the Publications group, including Metacenter announcements, data link & access, a software listing, start-up guides, and other reference documents. /misc Miscellaneous documentation and software /incoming directory for contributions /outgoing swap directory Information for a particular application can be found in the README file, located in the same directory as the application. The README files contain information on new features, known bugs, compile information, and other important notes. All directories on the FTP server contain an INDEX file. These files outline the hierarchical structure of the directory and (recursively) all files and directories contained within it. The INDEX at the root level contains the structure of the enire server listing all files and directories on it. The INDEX file in each software directory contains additional information about each file. The letter in parenthesis after the file name indicates how the file should be downloaded: ascii (a), binary (b), or mac binary (m). The "misc" directories found in some software tool directories contain supplementary code or other information. Refer to the README file in that directory for a description of what is contained within the "misc" directory. The "contrib" directories contain contributed software. This directory usually contains NCSA source that has been modified by people outside of NCSA as well as binaries compiled on different platforms not available to the Software Development Group. If you have modified NCSA software or would like to share some code please contact the developer of the source so arrangemnts can be made to upload it to the "incoming" directory. If you are downloading software from the "contrib" directory please note that this software is not supported by NCSA and has not been checked for viruses (see statement on viruses above). NCSA may not be held responsible for anything resulting from use of the contributed software. *** RUN AT YOUR OWN RISK *** FILE NAMES All file names consist of the name of the tool, the version number, and one or more extensions. The extensions identify what type of information is contained in the file, and what format it is in. For example, here is a list of files in the /Mac/DataScope directory: DataScope2.0.1.asc.tar.Z DataScope2.0.1.src.sit.hqx DataScope2.0.1.smp.sit.hqx DataScope2.0.1.mac.sit.hqx DataScope2.0.1.msw.sit.hqx The first three character extension indicates what type of data can be found in that file (ASCII documentation, source, samples, etc.). The other extensions indicate what format the files are in. The extensions ".tar" and ".sit" indicate types of archives, and the ".Z" and ".hqx" indicate compression and encoding schemes. (See below for instructions on extracting files that have been archived and/or compressed.) Following are a list of extensions and their meanings: .sn3 Sun 3 executables .sn4 Sun 4 executables .386 Sun 386i executables .sgi Silicon Graphics Iris executables .dgl Silicon Graphics Iris using DGL executables .rs6 IBM RS6000 executables .cv2 Convex 2 executables .cv3 Convex 3 executables .cr2 Cray 2 executables .crY CrayYMP executables .d31 DEC 3100 executables .m88 Motorola 88k executables .m68 Motorola 68k executables .exe IBM PC executables .mac Macintosh executables .src source code .smp sample files .asc ASCII text documentation .msw Microsoft Word documentation .ps postscript documentation .man formatted man page .shar Bourne shell archive .sit archive created by Macintosh application, StuffIt .hqx encoded with Macintosh application, BinHex .sea Self extracting Macintosh archive .tar archive created with UNIX tar command .Z compressed with UNIX compress command The files in the PC directory are the only exception to this naming convention. In order to conform with the DOS convention of eight character file names and one, three character extension, the names for PC files are slightly different. Whenever possible the scheme outlined above is used, but the names are usually abbreviated and all but one of the dots "." have been omitted. _______________________________________________________________________________ EXTRACTING ARCHIVED FILES INSTRUCTIONS FOR MACINTOSH FILES If a file ends with the extension ".sit" it must be unstuffed with either the shareware program StuffIt or the Public Domain program UnStuffIt. Files ending with the ".hqx" must be decoded with BinHex. These programs can be found on the FTP server in the /Mac/Utilities directory. Note that the BinHex program must be downloaded with MacBinary enabled, and the StuffIt program must be decoded before it can be used. Files downloaded from the server may be both Stuffed (".sit" extension) and BinHexed (".hqx" extension). These files must be first decoded and then unstuffed. To decode a file with the ".hqx" extension (a BinHexed file): 1. Download the file to your Macintosh. 2. Start the application BinHex by double-clicking on it. 3. From the "File" menu in BinHex, choose "UpLoad -> Application". 4. Choose the ".hqx" file to be decoded and select "Open". 5. The suggested file name will appear in a dialog box. 6. Select "Save" to decode the file. To uncompress a file with the ".sit" extension (a Stuffed file): 1. Download the file to your Macintosh. 2. Start the application Stuffit by double-clicking on it. 3. From the "File" menu in Stuffit, choose "Open Archive...". 4. Choose the ".sit" file to be unstuffed and select "Open". A window with all the files contained in the stuffed file will appear. 5. Choose "Select All" in the "Edit" menu to select all of the files. 6. Click on the "Extract" box at the bottom of the window. 7. Select "Save All" in the dialog box to save all the selected files in the current directory. INSTRUCTIONS FOR PC FILES Most IBM PC files are archived and compressed using the pkzip utility. (If you do not have the pkzip utility on your PC, you may obtain it from the FTP server by anonymous ftp. The file you need is called pkz110.exe and it is located in /PC/Telnet/contributions. Set the ftp mode to binary and "get" the file pkz110.exe. Then, on your PC, run PKZ110.EXE with no arguments and several files will be self-extracted, including one called PKUNZIP.EXE. It may then be convenient to copy PKUNZIP.EXE to the directory where you have placed, or are going to place, your Telnet files.) To extract these files, first download the file with the ".zip" extension to your PC and then type the following at the DOS prompt: > pkunzip -d filename.zip where "filename" is the name of the file you want to unarchive. INSTRUCTIONS FOR UNIX FILES Most files on the FTP server will be both tarred and compressed. For more information on the "tar" and "compress" commands you can type "man tar" and "man compress" at your shell prompt to see the online manual page for these commands, or ask your system administrator for help. You should first uncompress and then unarchive files ending in ".tar.Z" with the following procedure. Files with the ".Z" extension have been compressed with the UNIX "compress" command. To uncompress these files type the following at the shell prompt: % uncompress filename.Z where "filename.Z" is the name of the file ending with the ".Z" extension that you wish to uncompress. Files with the ".tar" extension have been archived with the UNIX "tar" command. To extract the files type the following at the shell prompt: % tar xf filename.tar Some files are archived using a shell archive utility and are indicated as such with the ".shar" extension. To extract the files type the following at the shell prompt: % sh filename.shar _______________________________________________________________________________ DOCUMENTATION NCSA offers users several documentation formats for its programs including ASCII text, Microsoft Word, and postscript. If one of these formats does not fit your needs, documentaion can be obtained through the mail at the following address: Documentation Orders c/o Debbie Shirley 152 Computing Applications Building 605 East Springfield Avenue Champaign, IL 61820 or call: (217) 244-4130 Members of the Software Development Group within NCSA are currently working on videotapes that demonstrate and also offer tutorials for NCSA programs. A note will be posted here when these tapes are available for distribution. ASCII FORMAT ASCII text files are provided for all software and are indicated with the ".asc" extension. Helpful figures and diagrams obviously cannot be included in this form of documentation. We suggest you use the other forms of documentation if possible. MICROSOFT WORD FORMAT If you are a Macintosh user, please download documents with the ".msw" extension. These files should also be stuffed and BinHexed (information on extracting these files from the archive is contained earlier in this file). The documents can be previewed and printed using the Microsoft Word application. Word documents contain text, images, and formatting. POSTSCRIPT FORMAT If you are a UNIX user and/or have access to a postscript printer, please download files with the ".pos" extension. The documents can be previewed using a poscript previewer or can be printed directly to a poscript printer using a command like "lpr". _______________________________________________________________________________ BUG REPORTS AND SUPPORT The Software Development Group at NCSA is very interested in how the software tools developed here are being used. Please send any comments or suggestions you may have to the appropriate address. NOTE: This is a new kind of shareware. You share your science and successes with us, and we can get more resources to share more NCSA software with you. If you want to see more NCSA software, please send us a letter, email or US Mail, telling us what you are doing with our software. We need to know: (1) What science you are working on - an abstract of your work would be fine. (2) How NCSA software has helped you, for example, by increasing your productivity or allowing you to do things you could not do before. We encourage you to cite the use of any NCSA software you have used in your publications. A bibliography of your work would be extremely helpful. NCSA Telnet for the Macintosh: Please allow ***time*** for a response. Bug reports, questions, suggestions may be sent to the addresses below. mactelnet@ncsa.uiuc.edu (Internet) NCSA Telnet for PCs: Please allow ***time*** for a response. Bug reports, questions, suggestions may be sent to: pctelnet@ncsa.uiuc.edu (Internet) All other NCSA software: Bug reports should be emailed to the adresses below. Be sure to check the BUGS NOTES section of the README file before sending email. Please allow ***time*** for a response. bugs@ncsa.uiuc.edu (Internet) Questions regarding NCSA developed software tools may be sent to the address below. Please allow ***time*** for a response. softdev@ncsa.uiuc.edu (Internet) _______________________________________________________________________________ COPYRIGHTS AND TRADEMARKS Apple Motorola Digital Equipment Corp. Silicon Graphics Inc. International Business Machines Sun Microsystems UNIX StuffIt Microsoft