As per Relevance of the word available, we have this rfc below:
Network Working Group J. Foster,
Request for Comments: 1689 University of Newcastle upon
RARE Technical Report: 13 August 1994
FYI: 25
Category:
A Status
Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and
Produced as a collaborative effort by the Joint IETF/RARE/
Networked Information Retrieval - Working Group (NIR-WG
Status of this
This memo provides information for the Internet community. This
does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution
this memo is unlimited
The purpose of this report is to increase the awareness of
Information Retrieval by bringing together in one place
about the various networked information retrieval tools,
developers, interested organisations, and other activities
relate to the production, dissemination, and support of NIR tools
NIR Tools covered include Archie, WAIS, gopher and World Wide Web
Table of
1. Introduction .............................................. 2
2. How the information was collected ......................... 3
3. What is covered? .......................................... 3
4. Updating information ...................................... 5
5. Overview of the types of NIR Tool ......................... 5
6. NIR Tools ................................................. 9
7. NIR Groups ................................................ 123
8. Security Considerations ................................... 180
9. Acknowledgements .......................................... 180
10. Author's Address .......................................... 180
11. Appendix A: NIR Tool Template ............................. 181
12. Appendix B: NIR Group Template ............................ 188
13. Appendix C: Email Lists and Newsgroups .................... 192
14. Appendix D: Coming Attractions ............................ 207
15. Appendix E: Extinct Critters (Tools) ...................... 222
16. Appendix F: Extinct Critters (Groups) ..................... 222
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RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994
1.
As the network has grown, along with it there has been an increase
the number of software tools and applications to navigate the
and make use of the many, varied resources which are part of
network. Within the past two and a half years we have seen
widespread adoption of tools such as the archie servers, the
Area Information Servers (WAIS), the Internet gopher, and
Worldwide Web (WWW). In addition to the acceptance of these
there are also diverse efforts to enhance and customise these
to meet the needs of particular network communities
There are many organisations and associations that are focusing
the proliferating resources and tools for networked
retrieval (NIR). The Networked Information Retrieval Group is
cooperative effort of three major players in the field of NIR:
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Association of
Research Networks (RARE) and the Coalition for Networked
(CNI), specifically tasked to collect and disseminate
about the tools and to discuss and encourage cooperative
of current and future tools
The purpose of this report is to increase the awareness of NIR
bringing together in one place information about the
networked information retrieval tools, their developers,
organisations, and other activities that relate to the production
dissemination, and support of NIR tools. The intention is to
this a "living document". It will be held on-line so that
section may be updated separately as appropriate. In addition, it
intended that the full document will be updated once a year so
it provides a "snapshot" report on activities in this area
Whilst the NIR tools in this report are being used on a wide
of information sources including files and databases there
much that is currently not accessible by these means. On the
hand, the majority of the NIR Tools described here are
available to the networked Research and Education community.
for accessing specialised datasets are often only available at
cost
It should be noted that in many ways networked information
is in its infancy compared with traditional information
systems. Thesaurus construction, boolean searching
classification control are issues which are under discussion for
popular NIR Tools but as yet are not in widespread use. However
should be said that, with the vast amount of effort that is
going into the NIR field, rapid progress is being made. Much work
currently being done on expanding some of the NIR tools to
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handling of multimedia information services. Progress has also
made in the discussions on classifying and cataloguing
information resources
2. How the information was
The information contained in this report was collected over
network from the contacts for each NIR Tool or Group using
templates
- the NIR Tool Template, included in Appendix A
- the NIR Group Template, included in Appendix B
The contents of these templates were discussed by the NIR WG
Boston (July, 1992) and subsequently on the email list. (See
Section on the NIR-WG for details of how to join this mailing list.)
The initial draft report was discussed at the NIR Working Group
Washington (November, 1992) and updated and added to at subsequent
meetings. Before the final submission as an RFC the
templates were reviewed by independent reviewers from around
world. Their efforts are acknowledged in Section 9.
The NIR Tool template was used to collect the information
to identify and track the development of networked
retrieval tools. This template asked for information such as how
where to get the software for each NIR Tool, documentation
demonstration sites, etc. The main part of the template has
completed by the main individual responsible for the tool.
of the template (e.g., on clients) may have required completion
others
The NIR Group template requested information on the aim and
of the group, the current tasks being undertaken, mailing lists
document archives, etc
3. What is covered
In the current report you will find information on the following
tools
WAIS (including freeWAIS
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World Wide Web (including MOSAIC
X.500 White
Appendix D covers "Forthcoming Attractions":
Hyper-
Soft
WHOIS++
and the following NIR Groups
CNI Coalition for Networked Information (CNI
Architectures and
Directories and Resource Information
TopNode for Networked Information Resources
Services and
CNIDR Clearinghouse for Networked Information
and
IETF Integrated Directory Services (IDS
Integration of Internet Information Resources (IIIR
Networked Information Retrieval (NIR
joint IETF/RARE
Network Information Services Infrastructure (NISI
OSI-Directory Service (OSI-DS
Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI
Whois and Network Information Lookup Service (WNILS
IRTF Internet Research Task Force Research Group
Resource Discovery and Directory Service (IRTF-RD
NISO Z39.50 Implementors
RARE Information Services and User Support Working
(ISUS
USMARC/OCLC USMARC Advisory Group; OCLC Internet
Cataloging Experiment (USMARC/OCLC
Appendix C contains a list of the relevant email lists and Appendix
contains information on "Coming Attractions" which are NIR tools
yet in widespread use
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4. Updating
Updates on and additions to the information contained in this
are welcome. CNIDR have agreed to host the report and to
updates to individual templates from the template maintainers.
updates using the appropriate template (from Appendix A or Appendix
of this report) to
nir-updates@cnidr.
The current templates and this report may be retrieved from the
Mailbase Server
Via anonymous ftp (use your email address as the password):
URL: ftp://mailbase.ac.uk/pub/lists/nir/files/tool.
URL: ftp://mailbase.ac.uk/pub/lists/nir/files/group.
URL: ftp://mailbase.ac.uk/pub/lists/nir/files/nir.status.
or via gopher or World Wide Web to mailbase.ac.
or via email
Mail to: mailbase@mailbase.ac.
Text of the message
send nir tool.
send nir group.
send nir nir.status.
5. Overview of the types of NIR
The following is an overview of major networked information
(NIR) tools available on the Internet. There are many
books which discuss the Internet and NIR Tools in detail. Such
include "The Whole Internet User's Guide and Catalog" by Ed Krol
published by O'Reilly and Associates, Inc and "The Internet Guide
New Users" by Daniel Dearn and published by Meckler
The number of these NIR tools is large and growing quickly.
techniques reappear regularly and seemingly different tools
perform similar tasks, allowing a simple classification of
encompassing most of the existing tools and services
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The classification presented here is only one possible ordering.
goal is to define in broad outlines what can be done with
tools, realizing that users will always find novel unanticipated
of applying them
Interactive Information Delivery Services (Gopher, World Wide Web
Basic Internet services such as electronic mail and anonymous
can be used to share information across the Internet, but
allows simple browsing and neither is particularly easy for
newcomer to learn to use. Gopher and the World Wide Web (W3)
two recent developments that attempt to make it easier
distribute information over the Internet. Both allow the user
browse information across the network without the necessity
logging in or knowing in advance where to look for information
The Gopher project was first developed at the University
Minnesota to provide a simple campus-wide on-line
system. Gopher represents information as a simple hierarchy
menus and files. It has limited capability to recognize
types of files, allowing, for example, the display of
types of image files. Gateways to other services are
(usually in a manner that is transparent to the user).
underlying Gopher protocol is simple, and has facilitated
creation of freely available clients for use on a variety
hardware platforms and operating systems. The more recent Gopher
protocol adds the ability to provide documents in alternate
(PDF, PostScript, RTF, Word). These features and the ease
installing and administering gopher servers has led to
explosive growth of gopher sites since its initial deployment.
of November 1993, there were over 2200 known servers
World Wide Web relies on hypertext; formatted documents
displayed, and hypertext links within the document can be
to travel from the current document to another. W3 allows a
to annotate documents (using hypertext links), provides
to other services, and has multimedia support (for example,
appropriate hardware platforms it can intermix text and images
a displayed document). There is a range of free W3 clients
supporting many environments. World Wide Web was
developed at CERN for the High Energy Physics Community
Gopher and WWW share a maintenance problem in that there is
automated way to update links to other documents when
documents are moved or removed
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Directory Services (WHOIS, X.500)
Directory Service tools are intended to provide a lookup
for locating information about users (often referred to as
Pages), or services and service providers (Yellow Pages).
example, a White Pages service might be used to locate
electronic mail address, given a name and organization, while
Yellow Pages service could be used to locate an online
catalog or file archive site
One of the first directory services deployed on the Internet
WHOIS, a simple White Pages service created to track key
contacts for the early DARPA-sponsored incarnation of
Internet. A number of sites currently operate WHOIS servers
based on a range of extensions and enhancements to the
model. WHOIS enjoys the advantages of simplicity and the
of WHOIS client software on a preponderance of Internet-
hosts. Work is underway on a more powerful protocol, known
WHOIS++, which is backwards-compatible with WHOIS
The X.500 Directory Service is a much more ambitious
project that has been under development for a number of
under the aegis of ISO/OSI. Implementations, concerned
with White pages services, are available in the public domain
from commercial sources. There are LDAP based X.500
available for most major platforms, as well as a LDAP based
gateway to X.500.
Despite years of effort, there is still no single White
Directory Service for the entire Internet; Yellow Pages
remain even less well developed and deployed. The cost of
up the service is one obstacle; maintaining the required
is even more daunting
Indexing Services (archie, Veronica, online library catalogs
There are several Internet-based projects that build
catalogs of information to facilitate searching and retrieval
The first such services provided network access to library
catalogs, with more recent projects indexing network-
information
archie
The archie service began as a simple project to catalog
contents of hundreds of ftp-accessible online file archives.
archie service gathers location information, name, and
details describing such files and creates an index database
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Users can contact an archie server and search this database
files they require
The archie service is accessible through a range of
methods, including telnet, stand-alone client programs running
a user's own machine, gopher, WWW, or via electronic mail.
initial implementation of archie tracks over 2,100,000
on over 1,200 sites around the world (as of November 1993).
are about 30 (geographically distributed) archie servers.
commercial and freely available versions of the archie
software are available
Work continues on extending the archie service to
additional types of information. The latest version is being
to provide a prototype Yellow Pages service and directories
online library catalogs and electronic mailing lists
Veronica
Veronica arose as an attempt to do for the world of Gopher
archie did for the world of ftp. A central server
scans the complete menu hierarchies of Gopher servers appearing
an ever-expanding list (over 2000 sites as of November 1993).
resulting index is provided by a veronica server and can
accessed by any gopher client
Online library catalogs
A large number of libraries make their computerized
catalogs available over the Internet. Most are available
telnet sessions in which the user connects to a specific
and logs in using a specific login name. Some are also
through other tools, such as Gopher
Text-based Indexing Services (WAIS
WAIS
Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS) is a system for indexing
serving information in a network-based environment. It
distinct from indexing tools such as archie and veronica in
it is used to index text-based target documents on a server,
well as descriptions of the contents of a server
A WAIS server allows the administrator to set up an index of
documents (or resources) to be published. The user employs a
client to attach to a particular WAIS server, and specifies
search pattern which is matched against the server's index.
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early WAIS clients, searches are specified as simple natural
language queries; common ("stop") words are removed, and
"ORs" are implicitly added between the remaining list of words
Matching documents are rank-ordered according to a
statistical weighting scheme which attempts to indicate
relevance. The user may choose to view selected documents,
further refine the search. The results of one search may be
to successively refine future searches ("relevance feedback").
Gopher clients can also access WAIS servers via a
gateway
Both freely available and commercial versions of WAIS servers
clients are available. Current work is attempting to add
expressions and proximity and field specifications to queries
There are currently (as of November 1993) some 500 registered
databases with an estimated 2000 additional databases that are
yet registered. There are approximately another 100
WAIS databases
6. NIR
This section contains detailed information about the various
Tools. It is ordered alphabetically
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Date template updated or checked: 19th March, 1994
By: Name: Vincent
Email address: vac@cs.cmu.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
NIR Tool Name:
Brief Description of Tool
OVERVIEW
The Alex filesystem provides users and applications
read access to files in anonymous FTP sites on the Internet
Today there are thousands of anonymous FTP sites with a total of
few millions of files and roughly a terabyte of data.
standard approach to accessing these files involves logging in
the remote machine. This means that an application can not
remote files like local files. This also means that users do
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have any of their aliases or local tools available. Users
want to use an application on a remote file first have to
make a local copy of the file. There is no mechanism
automatically updating this local copy when the remote
changes. The users must keep track of where they get their
from and check to see if there are updates, and then fetch these
In this approach many different users at the same site may
made copies of the same remote file each using up disk space
the same data
Alex addresses the problems with the existing approach
remaining within the existing FTP protocol so that the
collection of currently available files can be used. To
reasonable performance long term file caching is used.
consistency is an issue. Traditional solutions to the
consistency problem do not work in the Internet FTP domain
callbacks are not an option as the FTP protocol has no
for this and polling over the Internet is slow. Therefore,
relaxes file cache consistency semantics, on a per file basis,
uses special caching algorithms that take into account
properties of the files and of the network to allow a
stateless filesystem to scale to the size of the Internet
USER'S VIEW
To a user or application, Alex is just a normal filesystem.
command that works on local files will work on Alex files.
Alex is a real filesystem, nothing needs to be recompiled and
libraries are changed. Thus, users can apply all of
existing skills and tools for using files
The user sees a filesystem with a hierarchical name space. At
top level (/alex) there are top-level Internet domains like "edu",
"com", "uk", and "jp". Each component of the hostname becomes
directory name. Then the remote path is added at the end. If
user does a "ls /alex/edu/berkeley" he sees some machine
such as "ucbvax" and "sprite" and some directories
berkeley.edu. From the "ls" it is not clear what is where.
user may or may not be aware of host boundaries
INFORMATION PROVIDER'S VIEW
Alex is implemented as a user level NFS server. NFS was
because it makes it easy to add Alex to a wide range of machines
Most machines can simply use the mount command
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The model of usage is that there is one Alex server running
each institution (though this is not required in any way).
mount the local server which caches files for users at that site
Any information put into any anonymous FTP site becomes
via Alex
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s):
Name: Vincent
Email address: vac@cs.cmu.
Postal Address: School of Computer
5000 Forbes Ave
Pittsburgh PA, 15213
Telephone: +1-412-268-3077
Fax: +1-412-681-1998
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Help Line
At this time Alex is a one person project (Vince).
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Related Working Groups
Maybe the FTP working group
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sponsoring Organization / Funding source
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Information Science
Technology Office, under the title "Research on Parallel Computing,"
ARPA Order No. 7330. Work furnished in connection with this
is provided under prime contract MDA972-90-C-0035 issued by DARPA/
to Carnegie Mellon University. Vincent Cate is supported by an "
foundation graduate fellowship".
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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Mailing Lists
Address: alex-servers@cs.cmu.
Administration: alex-servers-request@cs.cmu.
Description: alex-servers is for people setting up an
fileserver
Archive: alex.sp.cs.cmu.edu (128.2.209.13)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
News groups
None
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Protocols
What is supported: Any machine that can NFS mount a fileserver
What it runs over: Unix machine and
Other NIR tools this interworks with
Uses FTP sites
WAIS can be used to index files in
(this was done for ftpable-readmes and cs-techreports WAIS servers
New versions of archie can output Alex paths
Future plans: Graduate from CMU
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Servers
Date completed or updated: 19 March 1994
By: Name: Vincent
Platform:
Primary Contact
Name: Vincent
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Email address: vac@cs.cmu.
Telephone: +1-412-268-3077
Server software available from: alex.sp.cs.cmu.
Location of more information
No other place to go to
Latest version number
New versions all the time
Brief Scope and Characteristics
This software is known to still contain bugs
Approximate number of such servers in use
200.
General comments
You can use lpr, make, grep, more, etc. on files around the world
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Clients
You just do an NFS mount of the server. No client
is needed
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Demonstration sites
Site name: alex.sp.cs.cmu.
Access details - do the following as root
mkdir /
mount -o timeo=30,retrans=300,soft,intr alex.sp.cs.cmu.edu:/ /
Example use
ln -s /alex/edu/cs/cmu/sp/alex/links
cd
cd cs-
cd
cd
lpr TR758.
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If you like Alex and want to use it regularly please find, or set up
an Alex fileserver at/near your site
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Documentation
ftp://alex.sp.cs.cmu.edu/www/alex.
ftp://alex.sp.cs.cmu.edu/doc/intro.
ftp://alex.sp.cs.cmu.edu/doc/NIR.
ftp://alex.sp.cs.cmu.edu/doc/alex.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography
@InProceedings{cate:alex
author = "Vincent Cate",
title = "Alex - a Global Filesystem",
booktitle = "Proceedings of the Usenix File Systems Workshop",
year = 1992,
pages = "1--11",
month = may
place = "Ann Arbor, MI",
keyword = "distributed file system, wide-area file system
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Information
FTP to alex.sp.cs.cmu.edu and "cd to doc". Get the "README"
anything else there. A current version of this document may be
and called "NIR.Tool". In Alex this file is
"/alex/edu/cmu/cs/sp/alex/doc/NIR.Tool".
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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Date template updated or checked: 1 March, 1994
By: Name: Peter
Email address: peterd@bunyip.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
NIR Tool Name:
Brief Description of Tool
The archie system is a tool for gathering, indexing and
information from around the Internet. The current version serves
collection of filenames found at anonymous FTP sites, as well as
smaller collection of text descriptions for software, data and
information found at anonymous FTP archives. Additional
are under development
User's View
Users run a client program to connect to an archie server
issue search commands to find information in an archie database
In the case of an anonymous FTP filename, this information
then be used to fetch the file directly from the archive
using the `ftp' command. To the user, archie could be seen as
`secondary source' of information which, because of the high
of locating and serving, would not otherwise be available
The user searches the archie databases through either a
session to a machine running an archie server, or by using
stand-alone client program (which uses the Prospero protocol
sending and receiving requests). There is also an email
which allows users to send and receive search requests
electronic mail
Freely available archie clients exist for most operating
and can be fetched using anonymous FTP from most of the
archie servers. There are also gateways to the archie system
many other NIR tools, including Gopher, WAIS and WWW. An X.500
interface to archie is currently under development
Information Provider's View
There are two types of information providers who would
interested in archie. Primary information providers
interested in having a summary of the information provided
their service tracked by an archie server. Secondary
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providers, or those sites wishing to provide a "value-added
service for the Internet can elect to run an archie server
their site to provide a useful service to users, to raise
profile of their institution on the Internet, or to provide
differentiation (for commercial service providers).
The archie system is of particular utility serving
where there are many sites to be searched and/or where the cost
searching each site is high
For example, there are currently over 1,200 anonymous FTP sites
the Internet, and the number continues to grow. Searching for
specific filename at a single site may involve scanning hundreds
or even thousands of filenames. Thus, most operators of
FTP archives welcome the fact that archie indexes and serves
names of all files available from each site tracked
Information Types Supported
The archie system allows the gathering and serving of
information types, although the current system serves
freeform text and a dedicated text format for filename listings
Internally, the archie system now supports a WAIS search
and frontends for Gopher, WWW and WHOIS++ for accessing
information through Gopher clients is now being tested
Additional collections of information to be served by the
software will be announced
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s):
Name: Archie Group, Bunyip Information Systems Inc
Email address: info@bunyip.
Postal Address: Bunyip Information Systems Inc.,
310 St-Catherine St. West, suite 202,
Montreal,
CANADA H2X 2A
Telephone: +1-514-875-8611
Fax: +1-514-875-8134
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Help Line: for archie server system and telnet
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Name: Archie Group, Bunyip Information Systems Inc
Email address: info@bunyip.
Telephone: +1-514-875-8611
Level of support offered
o commercial support for
(primarily for systems maintainers
o voluntary helpdesk support for freeware
o volunteer helpdesk support for Internet
gathering tools in
Hours available: - server system
email: 24 hour
phone support: 9-5
- helpdesk consultation: as time
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Related Working Groups
IETF, IIIR, WNILS, URI
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source
Bunyip Information Systems Inc
Funded by licensing of archie software and development contracts
sponsors. Additional information services based upon this
are now being tested
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists
Address: archie-people@bunyip.
Administration: archie-people-request@bunyip.
Description
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This mailing list is for people interested in the archie project
its future developments. Announcements of upgrades, new services
etc. are made to this list
Archive:
-------------------
Address: archie-maint@bunyip.
Administration: archie-maint-request@bunyip.
Description
This mailing list is for people who operate and maintain
servers. Announcements of bug fixes, new releases and discussion
new features are carried out on this list
Archive
"archives.cc.mcgill.ca:/pub/mailing-lists/archie-maint
-------------------
Address: iafa@bunyip.
Administration: iafa-request@bunyip.
Description
This mailing list is for people who are involved in the
Anonymous FTP Archives Working Group of the IETF. This group
involved in standardizing the encoding of information at
FTP archives and thus is of interest to operators and users of
archie system. It came to completion in November, 1992 and
two documents which have been presented to the IETF as
RFCs
Archive: "archives.cc.mcgill.ca:/pub/mailing-lists/iafa
----------------------------------------------------------------------
News groups
Name: comp.archives.
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Description
This newsgroup is for operators and maintainers of Internet archives
Announcements and discussions of issues related to archie
presented here, as well as discussions of more general
relating to archiving and Internet services
Archive: not
-------------------
Name: alt.internet.
Description
This newsgroup is for people interested in Internet-related services
with a focus at the user level. Announcements and discussions
issues related to archie are presented here, as well as
of more general issues relating to Internet services
Archive: not
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Protocols
What is supported
The current archie system clients use the Prospero protocol
communication with the search engine on the archie server.
available clients are available which include source to
this communication for those wishing to implement
clients
The archie server is capable of building arbitrary databases
using arbitrary search and access engines and the current
ships with the public domain implementation of WAIS. We
future archie servers to serve information using this protocol
The current server system assumes the TCP/IP protocol suite
available, and in particular the ftp protocol for data gathering
The archie system can be accessed through systems operating
Gopher, WAIS and WWW (HDDL) protocols. A gateway from the X.500
system is under development
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What it runs over
The Prospero protocol implementation runs over its
implementation of a reliable datagram protocol based upon UDP
Data gathering runs over the TCP/IP protocol suite
Other NIR tools this interworks with
Prospero, Gopher, WAIS, WWW
Future plans
The archie system became a commercial product in October, 1992,
marketed by Bunyip Information Systems Inc. The company plans
market additional data gathering modules to allow the server
to build additional types of databases. Work is also underway
integrate extensions to WHOIS to allow the building
maintaining of White Pages (names) directories. The company
also working on other Internet information tools that will
with the archie system
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Servers
Date completed or updated: 1 November, 1993
By: Name: Peter
Email address: peterd@bunyip.
Platform: Sun SPARC running SunOS 4.1 or later
IBM RS6000 running AIX version 3.2 or later
for additional UNIX platforms,
Bunyip Information Systems details
Primary Contact
Name: Alan
Email address: bajan@bunyip.
Telephone: +1-514-398-8611
Server software available from
Bunyip Information Systems Inc
email: info@bunyip.
Location of more information
Additional information on the archie product line is available
the anonymous ftp archives on the various archie server sites.
"archie.ans.net", "archie.sura.net", "archie.au", etc
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Latest version number: archie 3.1
Brief Scope and Characteristics
This is the commercial inmplementation of the archie system
replacing a version done as a Masters project at McGill
during the period 1990-1992. It comes with an archie telnet
that offers a number of minor improvements over earlier versions
Additional releases, with a number of additional improvements,
planned in the coming months
Approximate number of such servers in use
Currently about 27 (not all are publicly available
General comments
Most users access archie through a freeware or public domain
program. These are available from most archie servers via
FTP. Check out the archie directory on any of the publicly
archie servers or the banner message when logging into any of
archie telnet clients for more details
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Clients
Date completed or updated: 1 November, 1993
By: Name: Peter
Email address: peterd@bunyip.
Platform: command line shell, written in C.
with both UNIX and MSDOS/OS2 shells
Primary Contact
Name: Brendan
Email address: brendan@cygnus.
Telephone: not
Client software available from: most archie server hosts and
Internet archives. Look for
"c-archie-1.3.2.tar.Z".
Location of more information: Packaged with software
Latest version number: 1.3.2
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RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994
Brief Scope and Characteristics
This program provides a simple command line interface to the
server system, using the Prospero protocol. Written in C, it
been ported to MSDOS and OS2.
General comments
This program should not be confused with the archie system
interface, which is a program that runs on the archie server itself
Future plans: Not
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 1 November, 1993
By: Name: Peter
Email address: peterd@bunyip.
Platform: command line shell, written in Perl
Works with both UNIX and MSDOS/OS
shells
Primary Contact
Name: Khun Yee
Email address: clipper@csd.uwo.
Telephone: not
Client software available from: most archie server hosts and
Internet archives. Look for
"perl-archie-3.8.tar.Z".
Location of more information: Packaged with software
Latest version number: 3.8
Brief Scope and Characteristics
This program provides a simple command line interface to the
server system, using the Prospero protocol. Written in Perl
General comments
This program should not be confused with the archie system
interface, which is a program that runs on the archie server itself
Future plans: Not
Foster [Page 22]
RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 1 November, 1993
By: Name: Peter
Email address: peterd@bunyip.
Platform: archie client program for VMS systems
Primary Contact
Name: Brendan
Email address: brendan@cygnus.
Telephone: not
Client software available from: most archie server hosts and
Internet archives. Look for
"archie-vms.com".
Location of more information: Packaged with software
Latest version number: not known
Brief Scope and Characteristics
This program provides a simple command line interface to the
server system for users of VMS
General comments
This program should not be confused with the archie system
interface, which is a program that runs on the archie server itself
Future plans: Not
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 1 November, 1993
By: Name: Peter
Email address: peterd@bunyip.
Platform: Xwindows client (X11R4)
Primary Contact
Name: George
Email address: ferguson@cs.rochester.
Telephone: not
Client software available from: cs.rochester.edu, most archie
hosts and major Internet archives
Foster [Page 23]
RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994
Look for file "xarchie-1.3.tar.Z".
Location of more information: Packaged with software
Latest version number: xarchie-1.3
Brief Scope and Characteristics
This program provides an Xwindows client that allows users to
the archie anonymous FTP database. Also included is the capability
fetching files (using ftp).
General comments: none
Future plans: Not
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 1 November, 1993
By: Name: Peter
Email address: peterd@bunyip.
Platform: NeXTStep client
Primary Contact
Name: Scott
Email address: me@superc.che.udel.
Telephone: not
Client software available from: most archie server hosts and
Internet archives. Look for
"NeXTArchie.tar.Z".
Location of more information: Packaged with software
Latest version number
Brief Scope and Characteristics
This program provides a NeXTStep client that allows users to
the archie anonymous FTP database. Also included is the
of fetching files (using ftp).
General comments: none
Future plans: Not
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994
Demonstration sites
Site name: any one of
archie.rutgers.edu 128.6.18.15 (Rutgers University
archie.unl.edu 129.93.1.14 (University of Nebraska
Lincoln
archie.sura.net 128.167.254.179 (SURAnet archie server
archie.ans.net 147.225.1.2 (ANS archie server
archie.au 139.130.4.6 (Australian server
archie.funet.fi 128.214.6.100 (European server in Finland
archie.doc.ic.ac.uk 146.169.11.3 (UK/England server
archie.cs.huji.ac.il 132.65.6.15 (Israel server
archie.wide.ad.jp 133.4.3.6 (Japanese server
Client software should be supported at all of these sites
Additional sites are available. Use the "sites" command in the
telnet interface at any of the above sites for a more complete lists
Access details
- telnet to any of the above
- login as user `archie' (no password is required
- type `help' at the prompt to get started
Note: Some people forget and use ftp in place of telnet. This
not work. The hint that this is being done is that they
that a password is needed, not that the site can't be found
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Documentation
Document Title: What is
Location details: anonymous FTP from archie.ans.
Site: archie.ans.
Full file name: "pub/archie/doc/whatis.archie
Description: Brief overview of the archie system
Document Title: archie man
Location details: anonymous FTP from archie.ans.
Site: archie.ans.
Full file name: "pub/archie/doc/archie.man.*"
Description: Manual pages for the archie system
interface in various formats (raw ASCII
nroff, compressed, etc.). This document
explains the various search options and
features, so is of use to users of the
archie client programs
Foster [Page 25]
RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994
Document Title: What's New in 3.0
Location details: anonymous FTP from archie.ans.
Site: archie.ans.
Full file name: "pub/archie/doc/whats.new
Description: Description of the changes to archie for
first commercial
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Information:
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Foster [Page 26]
RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994
Date template updated or checked: 14 March 1994
By: Name: Mark P.
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
NIR Tool Name: Internet
Brief Description of Tool
The Internet Gopher protocol is a client/distributed-server
search and retrieval protocol originally developed at the
of Minnesota. Gopher was originally created as a fast, simple
distributed, campus-wide information search and retrieval system
ease of use and implementation has made Gopher increasingly
on the Internet. Since its original release, many folks on
Internet have contributed to its growth, submitting patches, servers
clients, and linking their local servers into the worldwide
of Gopher servers. Gateways exist to seamlessly access a variety
non-Gopher services such as ftp, WAIS, USENET news, Archie, Z39.50
(1992 rev), X.500 directories, Sybase and Oracle SQL servers, etc
In addition, an "archie for gopherspace" called Veronica (very
rodent-oriented net-wide index to computerized archives) has
developed at the University of Nevada. Veronica makes it easy
search for items in gopherspace by title
The gopher protocol is often described as "fiercely simple"; it
connectionless (stateless), and uses TCP reliable streams. A
connects to a server using TCP, and sends a one-line text "
string". The server responds by returning the item (a file,
directory listing, or a link to some other service) corresponding
the selector string and immediately closing the connection. Items
directory listings are returned as a series of lines terminated
carriage-return line-feed. Each item (line) is defined by a one
character tag to specify the item type, a display string or item-
that the client should display to the user, and a number of
delimited fields to specify the selector string, host domain name
port number. Because of its simple and connectionless nature,
servers make very minimal demands on their host machines and
clients are extremely easy to implement
The users view the Gopher world as a series of networked
directories much like a familiar filesystem. However, the
define a graph rather than a simple rooted tree. Links in the
graph may define services other than simple files or directories
these include cso (qi) servers, telnet sessions, links to
Foster [Page 27]
RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994
gopher servers, and links to gateway servers
The information provider's simplest view is that files
directories below a certain root directory on their machine are
visible and available for retrieval by gopher clients. More
like long names, item types, links, and gateway services
available to the more sophisticated information provider
Servers and clients run on most popular hardware, including Macs
UNIX boxes, PC-DOS boxes. The Internet Gopher name is copyright (c
1991-1992 by the University of Minnesota. The Internet
protocol is described in an informational RFC (1436) available
better RFC archives everywhere. Extensions to the base
protocol allow for associating meta-information with gopher items
alternate views of documents (i.e., text, postscript, rtf, etc.)
electronic forms. Collectively, these extensions are referred to
Gopher+. Gopher+ is upward compatible with the orginal
protocol. The gopher software may be retrieved from numerous
or FTP archive sites, including the University of Minnesota
server, the Info-Mac Archive Gopher server, and by anonymous FTP
boombox.micro.umn.edu and sumex-aim.stanford.edu. As of
1993, about 1/3 of the approximately 4800 Gopher servers on
internet support Gopher+.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s):
Name: The Internet Gopher Development
Email address: gopher@boombox.micro.umn.
Postal Address: Microcomputer & Workstation Networks
152 Shepherd
100 Union Street SE
University of
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Telephone: +1-612-625-1300
Fax: +1-612-625-6817
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Help Line
Name: Microcomputer HelpLine
ask for The Internet Gopher Development
Foster [Page 28]
RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994
Email address: gopher@boombox.micro.umn.
Telephone: USA: 612 MA MICRO (+1-612-626-4276)
Helpline is for general support at the U of M
Level of support offered: all
Hours available: Phone Helpline 9-4 weekdays
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Related Working Groups
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists
Address: gopher-news@boombox.micro.umn.
Administration: gopher-news-request@boombox.micro.umn.
Description: News and views of all things gopher. Tends
be a high volume mailing list and
oriented
Archive: Via Gopher: University of Minnesota
Information About
Address: gopher-announce@boombox.micro.umn.
Administration: gopher-announce-request@boombox.micro.umn.
Description: A low-volume mailing list of announcements
new software and servers
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
News groups
Name: comp.infosystems.
Description: Discussion of all things gopher
Foster [Page 29]
RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994
Archive: Available via gopher client; connect to
gopher server at gopher.tc.umn.edu port 70,
look in the "Information About Gopher" section
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Protocols
What is supported: Internet
What it runs over: Anything you can run TCP/IP over
Other NIR tools this interworks with
Z39.50 WAIS variant via WAIS
FTP via FTP
archie/Prospero via an archie
veronica (an archie for gopherspace
NNTP via NNTP
Finger (subset of gopher
X.500 via X.500
Z39.50 1992 revision variant via Z39.50
Oracle and Sybase SQL servers via SQL
CSO (Ph/Qi) online phone
Future plans: New user interace metaphor on PowerPC
Pentium-based clients
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Servers
Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994
By: Name: Mark
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.
Platform: UNIX
Primary Contact
Name: The Internet Gopher Development
Email address: gopher@micro.umn.
Telephone: +1-612-625-1300
Server software available from
Via Gopher: U of M
Information About
Gopher Software
Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.
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RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994
/pub/gopher
Location of more information
As above
Latest version number: (things change fast
please check software distribution
Brief Scope and Characteristics
Server, index server for WAIS based indices and for
native indexing, tools, gateway code. Supports Gopher+.
Approximate number of such servers in use
Over 3000.
General comments
The defacto standard workhorse Gopher server
Paul Lindner is the architect and keeper of this server
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994
By: Name: Mark
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.
Platform: Macintosh
Primary Contact
Name: The Internet Gopher Development
Email address: gopher@micro.umn.
Telephone: +1-612-625-1300
Server software available from
Via Gopher: U of M
Information About
Gopher Software
Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.
/pub/gopher
Location of more information
As above
Latest version number: (please check software distribution
Brief Scope and Characteristics
Macintosh Gopher Server and tools
supports Gopher+.
Foster [Page 31]
RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994
Approximate number of such servers in use
Current estimates between 300 and 400.
General comments
Runs on any Macintosh with 1MB memory or more
Requires MacTCP. Can be configured to use Apple Computer's
full-text search software as a Gopher-accessible search engine
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994
By: Name: Mark
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.
Platform: PC-DOS
Primary Contact
Name: The Internet Gopher Development
Email address: gopher@micro.umn.
Telephone: +1-612-625-1300
Additional contacts
Name: Dennis
Email address: Dennis_Sherman@unc.
Name: Foteos
Email address: macrides@sci.wfeb.
Server software available from
Via Gopher: U of M
Information About
Gopher Software
Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.
/pub/gopher
Location of more information
As above
Latest version number: 0.91
Brief Scope and Characteristics
Basic Gopher server for PC-DOS boxes
Approximate number of such servers in use
Current estimates between 25 and 75.
Foster [Page 32]
RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994
General comments
Written by Chris McNeil , based on Phil Karns
package. The U of M Gopher team forwards difficult problems
Chris
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994
By: Name: Mark
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.
Platform:
Primary Contact
Name: J. Lance
Email address: jlw@psulias.psu.
Telephone: +1-814-865-1818
Server software available from
Via Gopher: U of M
Information About
Gopher Software
Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.
/pub/gopher/VMS
Location of more information
As above
Latest version number: 1.2 VMS-0
Brief Scope and Characteristics
Basic VMS Server, shares some code with UNIX server
Approximate number of such servers in use
35-40 servers in use
General comments
The VMS server was written and is maintained by J. Lance Wilkinson
Foteos Macrides, Bruce Tanner and others on
VMSGopher-L@trln.lib.unc.edu mailing list
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994
By: Name: Mark
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.
Platform: VM/
Foster [Page 33]
RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994
Primary Contact
Name: Rick
Email address: TROTH@RICEVM1.RICE.
Telephone
Server software available from
Via Gopher: U of M
Information About
Gopher Software
Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu:/pub/gopher
Brazos.IS.Rice.EDU:/pub/vmcms
Location of more information
As above
Latest version number: 2.4
Brief Scope and Characteristics
Gopher server for IBM VM/CMS installations
Approximate number of such servers in use
Unknown
General comments
This server was written and is maintained by Rick Troth
This server is commonly referred to as the Rice VM/CMS server
There is also another VM/CMS server: the Vienna VM/CMS server
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994
By: Name: Mark
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.
Platform: VM/CMS
Primary Contact
Name: Gerhard
Email address: Gerhard.Gonter@WU-Wien.ac.
Telephone
Server software available from
Via Gopher: U of M
Information About
Gopher Software
Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu:/pub/gopher
Foster [Page 34]
RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994
Location of more information
As above
Latest version number: 2.00.00
Brief Scope and Characteristics
Gopher server for IBM VM/CMS installations
Approximate number of such servers in use
Unknown
General comments
This server was written and is maintained by Gerhard Gonter
This server is commonly referred to as the Vienna VM/CMS server
There is also another VM/CMS server: the Rice VM/CMS server
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994
By: Name: Mark
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.
Platform:
Primary Contact
Name: Steve
Email address: seb@draper.
Telephone
Server software available from
Via Gopher: U of M
Information About
Gopher Software
Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu:/pub/gopher
Location of more information
As above
Latest version number: 2.1
Brief Scope and Characteristics
Gopher server for IBM MVS installations
Approximate number of such servers in use
Unknown
General comments
This server was written and is maintained by Steve Bacher
Foster [Page 35]
RFC 1689 Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994
By: Name: Mark
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.
Platform: Unix veronica
Primary Contact
Name: Steve
Email address: gophadm@futique.scs.unr.
Telephone
Server software available from
Via FTP: veronica.scs.unr.edu:/
Location of more information
As above
Latest version number: (please check software distribution
Brief Scope and Characteristics
veronica server
Approximate number of such servers in use
Unknown
General comments
Written and maintained by Steve Foster at
University of Nevada
Future plans: Additional support for searching on Gopher+
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Clients
Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994
By: Name: Mark
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.
Platform:
Primary
Name: The Internet Gopher Development
Email address: gopher@micro.umn.
Telephone: +1-612-625-1300
Foster [Page 36]
RFC 1689 Networked Information 