A Beginner's Guide to the Internet/INTERNET.ISO/text/faqs/tsfaqn38/upload.inf

Text File | 1996-05-06 | 12.5 KB | 245 lines

How to upload to garbo.uwasa.fi MsDos archives (Sat 16-Oct-93)
----------------------------------------------

This file is garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/UPLOAD.INF

 Q: I have made some programs myself which I think might be of
general interest.  Or I have obtained this fabulous program which I
think would be of general interest.  Or I have a more recent version
of this PD or shareware program than what you have on your archives.
Would it be possible to upload them to your FTP archives?

 A1: A summary for experienced users. Check carefully before uploading!
 - Quality software solicited.
 - Use version numbers and unique, non-reserved file names.
 - Use .zip (2.04G or Info-ZIP's compatible) (also for bare text files).
 - If yours, include documentation in package, or make self-documenting.
 - FTP MsDos files to /pc/incoming (Windows files to /windows/incoming).
 - Email your *MsDos* upload announcement to [e-mail]
 - Use a descriptive subject in your email STARTING with the file name!
 - Your message will be used as such for announcing on the news.
 - Your message's right margin no further than at column 72.
 - Don't use tabs in writing to us.
 - MsDos uploads without _email_ to [e-mail] will be rejected!
 - English only (goes both for the programs and your announcement).
 - Emphasis on MsDos utilities, not all subject categories carried.
 - If made with Unix zip, still use MsDos eolns for embedded text files.
 - If not yours, check that it is distributable, ie PD or shareware.
 - No special limitations on distributability (eg no CDROM) are allowed.
 - You have to disclose your true identity. No anonymous or aka uploads.
 - Please be patient. Our queues can be quite long.
 - Please see /pc/UPTEXT.INF for your announcement outline.
 - If you are the author also see /pc/pd2/author*.zip

 A2: Yes, please.  We are certainly interested in all quality
programs.
   A proper documentation is one of the prerequisites.  The program,
and the documentation must be in English.
   If we have an old version of any program, updates are usually
particularly welcome, or even the information about the existence of
the update.
   If you are sending an update of your own program, please make the
version number a part of your package name.  For example, I use the
following format, tsutil38.zip and so on, in my own packages.
Whenever you make changes to your own package that should always be
reflected in the version number.  Please note that once a program
has been made publicly available from Garbo even the minor fixes
must somehow be reflected in the file name to avoid any confusion.
   If you are the author please do not use extremely common file
names.  For example if you have written yet another rm program for
MsDos please don't call your package rm.zip or rm10.zip.  It won't
be accepted.  Call it for example rm_xx10.zip or something the like,
where xx are your initials or whatever.  Another example.  If you
have written yet another file finder, don't call if fff10.zip.
Check at least from /pc/INDEX.ZIP that the body of your package name
does not duplicate an already reserved name.

 A3: Our required packing method is (PK)ZIP.  Preferably use version
2.04G (or Info-ZIP's compatible zip).  Other archiver methods are
not accepted any more.  They would cause us extra work because our
local routines are geared to the .zip format.
   If you have made your .zip package with Info-ZIP's Unix zip
program, please assure that the text files within your .zip come
with MsDos eolns (end of lines, ascii 13 + 10), not with Unix eolns
(ascii 10).
   Please also note that self-extracting packages are not accepted,
and if sent, they will rejected outright.  (The self-extraction is
limited to the natural exception of un/packing programs).
   If possible, avoid making subdirectories within your archive.
   Please be aware that we will plug Garbo's own .zip file header to
accepted uploads (a very common practice at BBSes).  So any
information you have there will be lost.

 A4: There are two alternatives in sending your package to us.  The
strongly preferred method is using ftp to put your package directly
to one of our incoming directories.  In the case of MsDos uploads
use /pc/incoming.  The relevant ftp commands after connecting are
e.g.
      cd /pc/incoming
      binary (since the file is supposed to be a .zip file)
      put YourFile
      (see the appendix for a full sample session).
   Immediately _after_ uploading do the following.  Email an upload
announcement to [e-mail] of your MsDos upload.  Please see
item A6 below for requirements for your upload announcement.  Also
please see /pc/UPTEXT.INF for a convenient upload announcement
format.
   These instructions are for MsDos uploads, but here is
nevertheless some additional information for the other categories.
For Windows uploads use /windows/incoming and email your announcement
to [e-mail].  For Mac uploads contact [e-mail].  For
the rare QL uploads contact [e-mail].  For Unix uploads, please
ask.  It is very important not to get these mixed!
   The second, exceptional alternative is sending the package by
uuencoded email.  If you cannot use an FTP upload, please first
contact a Garbo moderator for agreeing on this method.  Don't send
uuencoded email to us before you have our confirmation.  If we
agree, then you can email your .zip package uuencoded to the
assigned Garbo moderator.  If it is a multi-part posting it would be
very convenient (but not absolutely necessary) to use the same
begin-end system as comp.binaries.ibm.pc uses for binary postings.
If you do the encoding with a PC, use garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/decode/
uuexe522.zip.

 A5: We have many categories of programs, but as you can see from
our file lists, we are particularly interested in good MsDos utility
programs of various kinds.  One category of special interest at
Garbo is Turbo Pascal material because of Timo's personal interests.
We are also very interested in keeping the versions of the programs
up to date at Garbo.  Your help and information in this respect
would be very much appreciated.
   Please note that many categories of potential upload material are
outside the scope of our archives.  Below are the most important of
these categories.
 1) Games are accepted only in special cases.  Educational games
have been welcome, including good games of wit. Solely recreational
games, or their support programs and files are not acceptable.
 2) Demonstration versions of fully commercial programs are accepted
only in rare cases of general interest.  This is because there is no
reason why we should carry a part of the marketing costs of these
programs.
 3) Programs with partial distribution restrictions are not
acceptable, since we cannot impose such limitations on our
downloaders.  For example we do not accept shareware packages that
set a precondition which would prevent the distribution on a Garbo
CD-ROM.
 4) Recreational Gif pictures will not be accepted.  Neither will
recreational animations (often in .fli or .gl format).
 5) Religious, political, support a cause, comparable, and/or
controversial material is not welcome at all.  This absolute refusal
also applies to embedding such material within utility packages.
 6) Program cracks, trojans, programs with deliberate viruses, let
alone pirated commercial material are strictly forbidden, and a
malicious uploader of such material faces being banned for good from
Garbo by having his address being put on our system's "access
refused" list.

 A6: Take into consideration our following practice when you write
to us telling about your upload.  If we find an upload acceptable
for distribution, we will just quote the message describing the
upload, and only add to the end of your message the text "Thank you
for your contribution.  This upload is now available as
           garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/dir/whatever.zip".
 The resulting message is then posted as such in the UseNet news and
emailed to the combined SimTel & Garbo announcement list.  As you
see, the attractiveness and the conciseness of the public
announcement is entirely up to you.
   Also note that since we use this quote method of announcements,
you should _*NEVER*_ put anything in your upload message that you
wouldn't want to appear publicly in the news.  We cannot promise any
customized editing, and there is a real danger that your
confidential material will end up public.  If you have something
confidential to say to us, please do it in a separate email, and
mark it private in a very clear way.
   Please don't set your line wrap further than at column 72 in your
announcement.  We have to begin to be strict also in this respect.
   Please use a descriptive subject header in your email to us.
Most importantly do not omit the subject when you email to us.  Do
not use subjects like "Uploaded to /pc/incoming".  Put for example
"MYPROG10.ZIP directory viewer uploaded" as the subject of your
email message to [e-mail].  Start the subject with the file
name.  If your subject header is uninformative, your accouncement
will be hard to locate in our queues, which can cause further delays
in handling your upload.
   Fellow Finns please note to write your upload announcements in
English.  Not in Finnish!
   You must disclose your full, true identity.  Even if this is
called an "anonymous" FTP site this does not imply anonymity :-).
We do not accept uploads from parties using aliases, or giving no
name at all.  A related rule is that your email address must be
reachable.  We employ an automatic reply confirmation for email sent
to [e-mail] (and [e-mail]). Thus if you do not hear
from us, please contact your own system manager for a returnable
email address.

 A7: We are pleased to have become popular, but it has its problems
too.  The queue is often long and making your upload publicly
available on Garbo might take even weeks.  Please take this
potential turnaround lag into consideration, especially if you are
going to post yourself on the news that you have uploaded to us.
   Some of our gentle uploaders announce on the news by themselves
that they have uploaded a package to us.  You are most welcome to do
this, but please be aware of this delay before your upload becomes
publicly available.  Also recall (see item A3) that all submitted
material is not automatically accepted, and we will not consent to
be forced by the uploader's pre-announcement.

 A8: Timo Salmi maintains a list of MsDos PD & Shareware authors and
their email addresses (InterNet, FidoNet, Compuserve all qualify).
The list is /pc/pd2/author*.zip.  If you are an author please see
the said file for submitting your own entry to this list.  At the
end it includes a convenient fill-in format for you.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

 Q: APPENDIX A: Uploading MsDos Programs by FTP, a Sample Session
 ================================================================

> ftp garbo.uwasa.fi
Connected to garbo.uwasa.fi.
220 garbo.uwasa.fi FTP server (Version 5.77 ...) ready.
Name (garbo.uwasa.fi:ts): anonymous
331 Guest login ok, send ident as password.
Password: [your email address]
230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply.
ftp> cd /pc/incoming
250 CWD command successful.
ftp> binary
200 Type set to I.
ftp> put myprog.zip
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for myprog.zip
226 Transfer complete.
local: myprog.zip remote: myprog.zip
37775 bytes sent in .13 seconds (2.8e+02 Kbytes/s)
ftp> quit
221 Goodbye.


 Q: APPENDIX B: Uploading MsDos Programs by batchftp
 ===================================================

This advanced, but very convenient automated uploading system
presumes that you have installed
29520 Oct 31 1990 garbo.uwasa.fi:/unix/networking/ftp/batchftp102.tar.Z
You can see the following file for further information on batchftp
1670 Nov 23 1992 garbo.uwasa.fi:/unix/networking/ftp/batchftp.inf

> batchftp -di upload

where upload is an ascii file with the following kind of contents
{
open garbo.uwasa.fi
user anonymous YourId     (YourId = YourEmailAddress or local id)
verbose
binary
lcd YourLocalDirectory
cd /pc/incoming
put myfile.zip
}

..................................................................
Prof. Timo Salmi      Co-moderator of comp.archives.msdos.announce
Moderating at garbo.uwasa.fi anonymous FTP  archives  128.214.87.1
Faculty of Accounting & Industrial Management; University of Vaasa
Internet: [e-mail]  or [e-mail]; FIN-65101,  Finland