|Anonymous FTP | |Mark H. Solsman |Documentation Training and Publications, Center for Academic Computing |mhs108@psu.edu 9/25/93 I What is Anonymous FTP? Anonymous FTP is the procedure for copying files from hundreds of public file archives on the Internet. The procedure for using anonymous FTP is the same as for regular FTP except that you do not have to have a userid on the remote computer system. Through anonymous FTP you may obtain copies of text files, programs, graphic image files or sound files for various types of computers. What do I need? To use anonymous FTP from PSUVM you need (1) a PSUVM account and, (2) the Internet address of the public file archive you wish to access. If you seek a particular file you may also need to know the name of the file and the subdirectory on which the file resides. Establishing an Anonymous FTP Connection The FTP connection with the remote computer is made by entering the command ftp followed by the Internet address of the remote computer. For example, to connect to otc1.psu.edu the command would be: ftp otc1.psu.edu The remote computer will then ask you for a user ID. For anonymous FTP you should enter: anonymous You will next be asked to enter a password. Your password for anonymous FTP should be your userid on PSUVM. For example, if your userid is JED123 you would enter: jed123@psuvm.psu.edu You have now established an anonymous FTP connection to otc1.psu.edu. Getting a file If you already know the name and subdirectory for the file you want you may proceed to retrieve it. You will need to know if the file is pure text or if it contains any non-text (i.e., binary) information so that you can set FTP for the proper type of file transfer. Sometimes the file name will contain a clue as to file type, although in many cases there will be no clue. If you are unsure of the file type, but believe that it is pure text, you can try the transfer in ASCII mode. If you cannot read the retrieved file with XEDIT you will have to retrieve it a second time in BINARY mode. The first step is to use the cd command to change the current subdirectory to the one containing the desired file. If you know, for example, that the desired file is on subdirectory /pub/otcdoc you may enter the following command: cd /pub/otcdoc If you wish to retrieve the file resguide.txt, which you know is a pure text file, you may use the get command in ASCII mode. The commands would be: ascii get resguide.txt You may also want (or need) to specify the name that you want this file to have once it has been copied to your PSUVM account. For example, to get the file resguide.txt and give it the name resource guide on your A minidisk you would use the following command: ascii get resguide.txt resource.guide.a If you wish to retrieve a file that is not pure text you may use the get command in BINARY mode. For example, to retrieve the file dsmeet.gif from subdirectory /pub/graphics you could use the following commands: cd /pub/graphics binary get dsmeet.gif dsmeet.gif.a It is important to note that many times the remote computer is running the unix operating system and therefore the character case of the file names you provide will be significant. For example, on a unix system the file Fred.doc is different from fred.doc. Because of this the safest way to proceed is to always respect character case when specifying a file or subdirectory name. Getting a Directory Listing The FTP dir command will return a directory listing of the files on the current subdirectory. An example directory listing might look like the following: d--x--s--x 2 0 0 512 Aug 29 1989 bin d--x--s--x 2 0 0 512 Aug 27 1989 pub -rw-r--r-- 1 101 10 1162 Feb 13 1989 Readme.txt If the first character on the line is the letter d you know that this is a subdirectory. The name at the end of each line is either the subdirectory name or the file name (if this is not a subdirectory). Again, please remember that the character case is important for subdirectory and file name and must be entered exactly as displayed on the DIR listing. How to find files? If you do not know the subdirectory and file names of the files you want to retrieve you will have to use the cd and dir commands to do a bit of exploring. In the dir listing given above there is a subdirectory named pub. Many computers permitting anonymous FTP access will have a pub subdirectory that contains all of the subdirectories and files available for anonymous FTP retrieval. Online help for FTP on PSUVM There are two ways to get online information on FTP. The PSUVM command HELP FTP will present you with a menu of information on VM/FTP (the version running on PSUVM). When running FTP you can enter a ? at the command prompt and get a short list of available FTP commands. Other sources of help When using anonymous FTP there are many levels where you may require assistance. If help is needed with (1) the use of your local microcomputer/terminal to access PSUVM, or (2) with the use of the FTP program on PSUVM you may get assistance by calling: CAC Help Desk, 12 Willard Building, (814) 863-1035 email: HELPDESK If, however, you require assistance with locating a file on the remote system or with using a file or program retrieved from a remote system your options are quite limited. You might try contacting the administrator or maintainer of that remote system via electronic mail. How do I find out what is available? The ARCHIE system provides users with an online database of anonymous FTP sites and their contents. To use ARCHIE you should TELNET to the ARCHIE server at Rutgers with the following command: telnet archie.rutgers.edu Login as ARCHIE and issue the command HELP to find out more about using ARCHIE database services. Hardcopy Info? An excellent document titled _Zen and the Art of the Internet_ is available to serve as an introduction to anonymous FTP and other aspects of the Internet. This document is available via two routes. (1) It may be purchased at Gnomon Copy or Kinko's. (2) It is available in Postscript form from the PSUVM file server PCLIB. It may be downloaded from PCLIB and copied to any Postscript printer for printing. It is located in PCLIB under the "PCINFO" library and the "Hints and Miscellaneous Text" subdirectory.