* * * *   DON'T DO THIS IF YOU ARE NOT ON BITNET   * * * *
 
             Requesting Internet ftp Files Via E-mail
                      Amer Neely 1994-03-12
 
I keep seeing requests from people on how to get files from ftp sites if
they don't have access to ftp. So rather than keep responding to
individual queries I've decided to upload an unofficial FAQ. Hope it
helps and maybe reduce traffic on the net. I'll try to re-post it once
in a while to give the odd lurkers a chance at it.
 
There is a mail server set up to handle ftp requests. Send a message to:
 
ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com
 
using commands from the following help file.
 
There is also an archie server to do the same thing but I've not tried
it, only the ftpmail one. Anyone who has tried the archie server please
add your info and experiences so we can all benefit. A help file for
that server follows the help file for ftpmail.
 
Some pointers
 
A subject heading is not required but it's helpful later on when you start
getting googols of messages back and don't know what to save them as.
Files are sent back to you as e-mail messages (ASCII text) in 64K chunks
and a large file may get broken up into a dozen or more chunks.
 
Make the first line of the actual message a `reply' command. (see
below).
 
If you requested a binary file it will be encoded using either uuencode
or btoa, whichever you specify. UUENCODE is probably more available for
DOS systems. Richard Marks is the author of the de facto standard for
DOS uuen/decode.
 
Encoding is mandatory since binary files cannot (yet) be sent through
e-mailers.
 
Here's an example request for the file FOOBAR.ZIP at
some.site.place.org. The file is in the directory /pub/Unknown/New.
 
To: ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com
Subject: foobar.zip
 
reply your.name@your.site
connect some.site.place.org
chdir pub/Unknown/New
binary
uuencode
get FOOBAR.ZIP
quit
 
That's all there is to it. But note the exact case of each part of the
requested file. Most ftp sites are Unix-based and they are
case-sensitive. It's VERY frustrating to get a reply back saying `file
not found' when all you did was put a lowercase letter instead of an
uppercase one. This applies to directory names as well.
 
You will get an acknowledgement back saying that `your ftpmail request
has been received' and let you know how many jobs there are in the queue
ahead of yours. This could be in the thousands!!! You may not get the
actual file/s if things are too clogged up. Give it about 4-5 days
before requesting the file again. This acknowledgement will also tell
you if the file was sent, how many parts were sent, and the size. Good
info to know.
 
If all goes well you well get messages back with a subject of `results
of your ftpmail request' or similar. If you included a Subject in your
original request, this will be seen in the first few lines of the header
information. It will also tell you which part it is. You can use this to
save the message to a file with a meaningful name. Then download
everything to your pc and away you go.
 
The ftpmail program automatically names every uuencoded file
"ftpmail.zip" (or whatever other extension the original file had), so
when you uudecode the file/s you end up with a file called
"ftpmail.zip". Before you run uudecode, you can edit this with an ASCII
editor in the first .uue file and put in the name of the actual file if
you like.
 
The nice thing about uuencode is that you don't have to strip out the
header information from each file -- just run the whole shebang through
uudecode and it will work. You don't even have to patch all the files
together into one big one. Just make sure that they are numbered
sequentially as in: fubar1.uue  fubar2.uue  fubar3.uue  etc.
 
If there are errors in this please let me know by leaving a message
here. Anyone who wants to add to it feel free, just make sure you give
credit where credit is due. ;-)
+-----------------------------+---------------------------+
| Amer Neely                  | Practice safe hex ...     |
| P.O. Box 1538 Stn. B        | Wear a write-protect tab! |
| London  ON  N6A 5M3  Canada | 42,59'N * 81,14'W +251 m  |
+-----------------------------+---------------------------+
 
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