File: issue12.html

package info (click to toggle)
lg-issue12 5-1
links: PTS
area: main
in suites: sarge
size: 1,068 kB
ctags: 157
sloc: tcl: 559; makefile: 34; sh: 34
file content (6591 lines) | stat: -rw-r--r-- 238,276 bytes
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">
 <HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE> Linux Gazette Front Page </TITLE>
</HEAD>

<BODY>
<center><H2>
<IMG SRC="../gx/banner.gif" 
ALT="Linux Gazette... making Linux just a little more fun!">
</H2>

<H5>Copyright &copy; 1996 Specialized Systems Consultants, Inc.
<A HREF="mailto:linux@ssc.com"><I>linux@ssc.com</I></A></H5>
</center>

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!--==================================================================-->

<H2>Welcome to Linux Gazette!<img src="../gx/tm.gif" alt="(tm)"></H2>

<P>
<I>Linux Gazette</I>, a member of the Linux Documentation Project, is
an on-line WWW publication that is dedicated to two simple ideas:

<UL>
<LI>Making Linux just a <I>little</I> more fun
<LI>Sharing ideas and discoveries
</UL>

<P> <HR> <P>
<!--=================================================================-->
<center><H1>Table of Contents Issue #12</H1></center>

<P> <HR> <P>
<table><tr>
<td rowspan=2>
<UL>
<LI><A HREF="../index.html">The Front Page</A> 
<LI><A HREF="./lg_mail12.html">The MailBag</A> 
<LI><A HREF="./lg_tips12.html">More 2 Cent Tips</A>
<ul>
<li><a HREF="./lg_tips12.html#dmesg">Boot Information Display</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_tips12.html#console">Console Tricks</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_tips12.html#fire">Firewalling / Masquerading with 2.0.xx</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_tips12.html#ftp">FTP and /etc/shells</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_tips12.html#adm">How to Truncate /var/adm/messages</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_tips12.html#html">HTML, Use of BODY Attributes</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_tips12.html#lowerit">lowerit Shell Script</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_tips12.html#user">Removing Users</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_tips12.html#pass">Root and Passwords</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_tips12.html#talk">Talk Daemon and Dynamic Addresses</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_tips12.html#tar">tar Tricks</a>
</ul>
<LI><A HREF="./lg_bytes12.html">News Bytes</A>  
<ul>
<li><a HREF="./lg_bytes12.html#general">News in General</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_bytes12.html#software">Software Announcements</a>
</ul>
<LI><A HREF="./redhat.html">The Adventure of Upgrading to Redhat 4.0</A>, by Randy Appleton
<LI><A HREF="./tcsh.html">Features of TCSH Shell</A>, by Jesper Kj&aelig;r Pedersen
<LI><A HREF="./feddi.howto.html">FEddi HOWTO (English version)</A>, by Manuel Soriano
<LI><A HREF="./gm.html">Graphics Muse</A>, by Michael J. Hammel
<LI><A HREF="./savage.html">InfoZIP Archive Utilities</A>, by Robert G. &quot;Doc&quot; Savage
<LI><A HREF="./slang.html">New Release Reviews</A>, by Larry Ayers
<ul>
<LI><A HREF="./slang.html">Slang Applications for Linux</A>
<LI><A HREF="./updates.html">Updates to My Previous Reviews</A>
<LI><A HREF="./yard.html">The Yard Rescue Disk Package</A>
</ul>
<LI><A HREF="./expo.html">Recent Linux Conferences</A>
<ul>
<LI><A HREF="./expo.html#expo">Unix Expo 1996</A>, by Lydia Kinata
<LI><A HREF="./expo.html#decus">DECUS in Anaheim</A>, by Phil Hughes
<LI><A HREF="./expo.html#open">Open Systems World/Fed/UNIX</A>, by Gary Moore
</ul>
<LI><A HREF="./server.html">Setting Up the Apache Web Server</A>, by Andy Kahn
<LI><A HREF="./wkndmech.html">Weekend Mechanic</A>, by John M.  Fisk
<LI><A HREF="./lg_backpage12.html">The Back Page</A> 
<ul>
<li><a HREF="./lg_backpage12.html#authors">About This Month's Authors</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_backpage12.html#notlinux">Not Linux</a>
</ul>
</UL>
 
</td>
<td align=center><a href="gm.html">
<IMG SRC="./gx/hammel/gm2small.gif" border=0 alt=""></a>
<p>
<A HREF="gm.html"><font size="+1"><i>Graphics Muse</i></font></a></td>
</tr><tr>
<td align=center><A HREF="./wkndmech.html"> 
<img src="../gx/fisk/attndant.gif" border=0 alt=""></a>
<p>
<A HREF="./wkndmech.html"><font size="+1"><i>Weekend 
Mechanic</i></font></a></td>
</tr></table> 

<P> <HR><P> 
<!--=============================================================-->
<A HREF="./issue12.txt">TWDT 1 (text)</A><BR>
<A HREF="./issue12.html">TWDT 2 (HTML)</A><BR>
are files containing the entire issue: one in text format, one in HTML. 
They are provided 
strictly as a way to save the contents as one file for later printing in
the format of your choice; 
there is no guarantee of working links in the HTML version. Our thanks
go to Tushar Teredesai for pasting together the HTML version.
 
<!--=============================================================-->
<P> <HR><P> 
Got any <I>great</I> ideas for improvements!  Send your
<A HREF="mailto:gazette@ssc.com">comments, criticisms, suggestions
and ideas.</A>

<P><hr><p>
This page written and maintained by the Editor of <I>Linux Gazette</I>,
<A HREF="mailto: gazette@ssc.com"> gazette@ssc.com</A>

<!--==================================================================-->

<!--==================================================================-->
<H4>&quot;Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>&quot;</H4>  
<HR> 
<center>
<H2><a NAME="mail"><IMG SRC="../gx/mailbox.gif" ALIGN=MIDDLE ALT=" ">
The Mailbag!</a> </H2>
Write the Gazette at <A HREF="mailto:gazette@ssc.com"> gazette@ssc.com</A>
</center>

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!--====================================================================-->
<IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
Date: Thu, 31 Oct 1996 20:11:37 -0500 (EST)<BR> 
Subject: <B> Re: Linux Gazette Issue 11 </B> <BR> 
From: Elliot Lee, sopwith@cuc.edu <BR> 
<P> 
Nice job, as always! :-)
<P> 
-- Elliot, webmaster@redhat.com
<blockquote> <I>(Thanks! --Editor)</I> </blockquote>

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!--====================================================================-->
<IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
Date: Fri, 1 Nov 1996 10:49:21 -0600 (CST)<BR> 
Subject: <B>Search Engine </B> <BR> 
From: "Dan Crowson" dcrowson@cms.cmsc.com <BR> 
Organization: CMS Communications, Inc. <BR>
<P> 
Hello:
<P> 
	what kind of search engine are you using for the Linux 
Gazette www server?  Is this a linux-based engine?
<P> 
Thanks, <BR> 
Dan 

<blockquote> <I> 
(Nope.  It just builds on Linux --Editor) </I> </blockquote>

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!--====================================================================-->
<IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
Date: Mon, 4 Nov 1996 17:24:30 -0500 <BR> 
Subject: <B> Comments on Issue #11 </B> <BR> 
From: "R. Frank Louden" flouden@fairfield.home.sweet.net <BR> 
<P> 
I am always glad to see another issue of LG. Thank you for 
taking the time to compose it. One comment I'd like to make
is the most recent issue (#11) is difficult for me to read 
on the spiral binding background. For me, the text lies over
close enough to the left edge of the page, and it is almost
hidden in some parts of the page.
<P> 
I may be one of a dying breed but I choose to use Mosaic and
wish others would consider that MS and Netscape do NOT adhere
to the HTML specs and are fragmenting the standards. I note
that NCSA is working on a new version that will provide support
that is not currently found in the version I use. I am at this
moment using an unsupported version 2.7b5 (it's kinda buggy)
but when it works it allows me to see the background you have 
used.
<P> 
While whirly-gigs and gewgaws are nice, some of us are still
not able to upgrade hardware at the whim of the industry and 
need to have some consideration from those who sponsor WWW HTML
documents. I have accessed pages that are completely illegible
(with my old Mosaic) and others (with a more up-to-date browser)
that take prohibitively long times to download. There IS something
to be said for standards.
<P> 
Thanks again for the Gazette! It is great!!!
<blockquote> <I> 
(There may be more than one problem here. First off, if you are using a
mirror site, the problem is my fault. Somehow, when building the tar
file for the mirror sites, a gif that was integral to the notebook
motif -- it moved the print away from the spiral -- was left out. I am
in the process of notifying the mirror site where the missing file can
be downloaded.
<P> 
The notebook spiral was put in using "tables" which is an HTML standard.
Here at SSC we too believe in following HTML standards. In fact the program
that we use to push things to the web checks that the HTML conforms. 
<P> 
I have worried that by adding more graphics we might be causing
problems with download times. However, we also would like to keep LG
looking good, so thought we'd add away and see what kind of comments we get.
So far it's tied. One who likes the spiral and yours against. BTW, if you
are accessing LG through a mirror site, try the main site and see if it
does better for you (http://www.ssc.com/lg).
<P> 
Glad you like LG, I certainly have fun putting it together. --Editor)
</I> </blockquote> 

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!--====================================================================-->
<IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
Date: Fri, 01 Nov 1996 13:32:44 +1100 <BR> 
Subject: http://www.redhat.com/linux-info/lg/issue11/wkndmech.html <BR>
From: Ken Yap ken@syd.dit.csiro.au <BR> 
 
Hi, Like your Linux Gazette, but some GIFs on the page are not
displaying. Path problem?
<P> 
Thanks, <BR> 
Ken
<blockquote> <I> 
(John Fisk forwarded your mail to me. In building the tar file for
the mirror sites some files got left out. I have furnished and
updated file.  Sorry about that. --Editor) </I> </blockquote> 

Date: Mon, 04 Nov 1996 12:09:22 -0700 <BR>
Subject: <B>XDM Replacement link incorrect </B> <BR> 
From: "Kevin J. Butler"  butler@byu.edu <BR> 
Organization: Novell, Inc.<BR> 
<P> 
In Issue 11 there is an incorrect link.
<P> 
On the page:
http://www.ssc.com/lg/issue11/lg_tips11.html#xdm
<P> 
The link currently is:<BR> 
http://www.ssc.com/lg/issue11/alienor.fr/~pierre/index_us.html
<P> 
But should be:<BR> 
http://alienor.fr/~pierre/index_us.html
<P> 
Thanks for a great 'zine!  :-)
<P> 
kb
<blockquote> <I> (Got it fixed. Thanks for letting me know. --Editor)
</I> </blockquote> 

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!--====================================================================-->
<IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
Date: Mon, 4 Nov 1996 22:35:04 +0200 (EET) <BR> 
Subject: Re: Linux Gazette Issue 11 <BR> 
From: Lialios Dionysios ancient@eexi.gr <BR> 
<P> 
Hello, this is Dennis from Greece.
<P> 
Well this time I managed to download the whole thing so now I have a 
full mirror. The only problem is that I didn't get (or I don't have) 
the searchbtn.gif and the htsearch.cgi that are used for the search 
engine.
<P> 
Did I make something wrong or should I have something I don't?
<P> 
Thank you in advance.<BR> 
Dennis
<blockquote> <I> 
(No, you did nothing wrong. I was so excited to have the search engine, I
forgot that the mirrors wouldn't have the proper data bases. Since these data
bases are very big and are for all of the SSC site, we have changed the
links for the data base so that it always refers back to the SSC site
rather than a relative address pointing to the mirror site. The updated
front page file is in the update tar file along with the missing files.
Let me know if it works for you. --Editor) </I> </blockquote> 

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!--====================================================================-->
<IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
Date: Tue, 5 Nov 1996 09:01:44 -0800 (PST)<BR> 
Subject: <B> Request </B> <BR> 
From: ivan.m@ieee.udistrital.edu.co (Ivan Mauricio Montenegro)<BR> 
<P> 
It's the first time I hear about Linux Gazette, I'd want to have all the
issues, but at the FTP addresses that appear on www.ssc.com have the horrible
message "Login Error".  What could I do?
<P> 
Thanks!
<P> 
Ivan Mauricio Montenegro <BR> 
IEEE Student Branch, Vice-Chairperson <BR> 
Distrital University, "Francisco Jos de Caldas", Bogota, Colombia <BR>              

<blockquote> <I> 
(Not sure why you are having a problem. I can tell that others are able
to download from that address without problem. Are you using your
browser to point to that address or logging on with anonymous ftp?
<P> 
I would suggest using a ftp mirror site that is closer to you.
Unfortunately, Linux Gazette does not have a mirror site in South
America at this time. There is one in Mexico which is somewhat closer
to you than Seattle.
<P> 
At any rate if you go to the Mirror Site page
(http://www.ssc.com/lg/mirrors.html) in Linux Gazette, and use the
links there to go to one of the ftp sites (ours or one of the
mirrors), you shouldn't be asked for a login. (I never have been and
that's why I am a little confused by the message you are getting.)
Let me know if you continue to have problems, and thanks for writing.
--Editor)
</I> </blockquote> 

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!--====================================================================-->
<IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
Date: Wed, 06 Nov 1996 21:21:59 -0500 <BR> 
Subject: <B> Great new look </B> <BR> 
From: "Alan L. Waller" alwaller@shore.intercom.net<BR> 
<P> 
Classy !!!
<P> 
Al
<blockquote> <I> (Thanks! Glad you like it. --Editor)
</I> </blockquote> 

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!--====================================================================-->
<IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
Date: Sat, 09 Nov 1996 11:03:26 -0800 <BR> 
Subject: <B> Thank you </B> <BR> 
From: Innocent Bystander innocent@dopey.4dcomm.com <BR> 
<P> 
Thank you very, very much for providing LG to people such as I, who
haven't become Unix gods yet. After reading my first issue, I am now a
dedicated reader. What can *I* do to assist LG?
<P> 
Innocent Bystander, innocent@dopey.4dcomm.com <BR> 
San Diego, CA <BR> 

<blockquote> <I> (Send us your favorite tips and tricks. We love new
contributors. Other than that tell all your friends about us and 
promote Linux where ever you are.  --Editor) </I> </blockquote> 

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!--====================================================================-->
<IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
Date: Mon, 11 Nov 1996 08:08:08 -0600 (CST) <BR> 
Subject: <B> Re: Great Writing </B> <BR> 
To: "Lowe, Jimmy, D   MSGT  LGMPD" LOWEJ@SSG.GUNTER.AF.MIL <BR> 
From: "John M. Fisk" fiskjm@ctrvax.Vanderbilt.Edu <BR> 
<P> 
Hello Jimmy!
<P> 
Thanks so much for taking the time to write!  I appreciate it.  I honestly
can't take the credit for this -- the kind folks at SSC (and the Linux
Journal) offered to take over the management of the LG when its
administrative upkeep just got to be too much.  Marjorie Richardson is its
capable new Editor.
<P> 
I've taken the liberty of cc'ing a copy of this to her -- definitely
deserves a pat on the back.
<P> 
Thanks again and Best Wishes,
<P> 
John
<P> 
---------------------------<BR> 
On Thu, 7 Nov 1996, Lowe, Jimmy, D   MSGT  LGMPD wrote: <BR> 
<P> 
> Hello John,<BR> 
><BR> 
> I just wanted to say how glad I am to see the LG is being carried on <BR>
> in such a fine manner -- during the summer I began to worry a small but <BR>
> inspiring story was coming to an end.  I think your writing is very <BR> 
> entertaining and informative!  I really appreciate your work and that of <BR> 
> all the others in the Linux community and others (e.g. FSF). <BR> 
><BR>  
>   I hope to give back to this wonderful community of dedicated <BR> 
> hobbiest/computer wizards once I get a little more up-to-speed.<BR> 
><BR>  
> Hope you and your family are well,<BR> 
><BR>  
> Jim Lowe, Montgomery AL <BR>
<blockquote> <I> 
(I think John was being a little modest on this one. Jim was obviously
glad to see John's new Weekend Mechanic column in Linux Gazette. I
certainly was. Thanks a lot John. --Editor)
</I> </blockquote> 

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!--====================================================================-->
<IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
Date: Sat, 09 Nov 1996 11:30:32 -0500 <BR> 
Subject: <B> Bravo! </B> <BR> 
From: "J.M. Paden" jmpaden@mnsinc.com <BR> 
<P> 
"TWDT" is most appreciated.  Thanks for the response to
your readers requests.  
<P> 
Regards,<BR> 
<blockquote> <I> 
(You're welcome. We do aim to please. --Editor.)
</I> </blockquote> 

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!--====================================================================-->
<IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
Date: Wed, 20 Nov 1996 13:41:36 -0800 <BR> 
Subject: <B>Link to other Linux pages </B> <BR> 
From: "J. Hunter Heinlen" dracus@third-wave.com <BR> 
<P> 
Greetings....
<P> 
I've gone through your title page for the Linux Gazette, and could not
find a link to other Linux pages.  Please put a link to page with links
to other, commonly used Linux pages just below the Mirror sites link,
and
ask those that you give links for to provide links to you.  This will
make finding information much easier.  Thank you for your time.
<P> 
<blockquote> <I> 
(I'm not sure which are the commonly used Linux pages you'd like to have a
link for on the LG front page. I have added a link to SSC's Linux Resources
page at http://www.ssc.com/linux/. Why don't you look at that page and
see if it has the links you are wanting. Let me know what you think. 
Thanks for writing. --Editor)
</I> </blockquote> 

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!--====================================================================-->
<IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
Date: Tue, 19 Nov 1996 08:59:14 -0500br 
Subject: <B>LG width </B> <BR> 
From: Gerr gerr@lag.cts.du.edu <BR> 
<P> 
Hi there. Just a suggestion about the page (which looks ... wow ...
compared to before). If you could, however, try to keep it inside of one
page wide, it would be wonderful. I find myself having to use the arrows
to see what's on the end of lines on the right hand side of the page..
-- <BR> 
gerr@weaveworld <BR> 
<blockquote> <I> 
(Thank you for writing. I didn't realize it was running over. I use a rather
large window for viewing it myself. The problem seems to be a combination of 
the spiral and the width of the
text inside the &lt;PRE&gt; tags. Not sure what can be done, but we'll
look into it.  --Editor)
</I> </blockquote> 


<!--====================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P> 
<A HREF="./index.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/indexnew.gif" ALT="[ TABLE OF 
CONTENTS ]"></A>
<A HREF="../index.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/homenew.gif" ALT="[ FRONT 
PAGE ]"></A> 
<A HREF="lg_tips12.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/fwd.gif" ALT=" Next "></A>
<P>
<h5>This page written and maintained by the Editor of <I>Linux Gazette</I>,
<A HREF="mailto: gazette@ssc.com">gazette@ssc.com</A><BR> 
Copyright &copy; 1996 Specialized Systems Consultants, Inc. </H5> 
<P> 
<!--==================================================================-->

<!--==================================================================-->
<H4>&quot;Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>
&quot;</H4>
<P> <hr> <P> 

<!-- QUICK TIPS SECTION ==================================================  -->
<center>
<H1><A NAME="tips"><IMG ALIGN=MIDDLE ALT="" SRC="../gx/twocent.gif">
More 2&#162; Tips!</A></H1> <BR>
Send Linux Tips and Tricks to <A HREF="mailto:gazette@ssc.com">
gazette@ssc.com
</A></center>

<p><hr><p>
<H3>Contents:</H3>
<ul>
<li><a HREF="./lg_tips12.html#dmesg">Boot Information Display</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_tips12.html#console">Console Tricks</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_tips12.html#fire">Firewalling / Masquerading with 2.0.xx</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_tips12.html#ftp">FTP and /etc/shells</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_tips12.html#adm">How to Truncate /var/adm/messages</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_tips12.html#html">HTML, Use of BODY Attributes</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_tips12.html#lowerit">lowerit Shell Script</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_tips12.html#user">Removing Users</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_tips12.html#pass">Root and Passwords</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_tips12.html#talk">Talk Daemon and Dynamic Addresses</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_tips12.html#tar">tar Tricks</a>
</ul>

<P> <hr> <P> 
<!--================================================================-->

<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif"><a name="dmesg">
Boot Information Display
</a></H3>
<P> 
Date: Fri, 1 Nov 1996 09:58:52 -0800 (PST)<BR> 
From: Laurie Lynne Tucker  <BR> 
<P> 
dmesg | more -- Forget (or couldn't look fast enough) at boot time?  This
	command will display your boot information (a.k.a., the "kernel
	ring buffer").  For more info, see the man page.

<P> <hr> <P> 
<!--================================================================-->

<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif"><a name="console">A 2
Cent Console Trick</a></H3>
<P> 
Date: Fri, 08 Nov 1996 03:42:27 -0800 <BR> 
From: Igor Markov  <A HREF="mailto:imarkov@math.ucla.edu">imarkov@math.ucla.edu</A><BR> 
Organization: UCLA, Department of Mathematics <BR> 
<P> 
Hi, 
<P> 
Here's my 2c console trick: <BR> 
I put the following line into my ~/.xsession file: 
<PRE> 
nxterm -ls -geometry 80x5+45+705 -rv -sb -name "System mesages" -fn 5x7
       -T "System messages" -e tail -f /var/log/messages &
</PRE> 
and this one into my .fvwm:
<PRE> 
Style "System messages" NoTitle, Sticky, WindowListSkip
</PRE> 
When I login, I have a small 5-line (but scrollable) window near
the left bottom corner (you may need to change numbers in -geometry)
where system messages appear in tiny font as soon as they are produced.
This lets me see when my dial-up script succeeds, when someone logs
into my computer via TCP/IP, when some system error happen etc.
<P> 
The .fvwm setup strips the title bar and does other useful things,
but is not necessary.
<P> 
Caveat: if you leave this window for long time, a cron job which 
trims /var/log/messages will change the inode # for the file and
tail -f  is bound to freeze. In 99% this cron job wakes up 2-3am, so
tail freeze may freeze  only overnight. Login/logout and everything
will be OK. Any other ideas?
<P> 
Igor

<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =====================================================================  -->
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif"><a name="fire">Firewalling / Masquerading
with 2.0.xx</a></H3>
<P> 
Date: Sat, 2 Nov 1996 10:57:30 -0500 (EST) <BR> 
From: Preston Brown <A HREF="mailto:pbrown@econ.yale.edu">pbrown@econ.yale.edu</A><BR> 
<P> 
Regarding the recent message about not being able to get IP masquerading
working with 2.0.xx kernels:
<P> 
First, I *believe* that IP forwarding may have to be enabled for firewall
support, but I can't say for sure.  Suffice to say that I have forwarding,
firewalling, and masquerading all compiled into my kernel.  I have a PPP
link set up to the outside world, and my local ethernet subnet
(192.168.2.x) is masquerades so it can talk to the outside world as well.  
<P> 
ipfwadm is used to set up the information (I call it from
/etc/rc.d/rc.local at boot time):
<PRE> 
# ip forwarding policies
ipfwadm -F -p deny			; default policy is to deny 
					; forwarding to  all hosts.
ipfwadm -F -a m -S 192.168.2.0/24	; add an entry for masquerading of
					; my local subnet
modprobe ip_masq_ftp			; load ftp support module
</PRE> 
a 'ipfwadm -F -l' (i.e. list all forwarding policies) yields:
<PRE> 
IP firewall forward rules, default policy: deny
type  prot source               destination          ports
acc/m all  192.168.2.0/24       anywhere             n/a
</PRE> 
Indicating that all is fine.  Your local subnet now should be set up to
talk to the outside world just fine.
<P> 
--- <BR> 
 -Preston Brown, preston.brown@yale.edu

<P> <hr> <P> 
<!--================================================================-->

<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif"><a name="ftp">FTP and /etc/shells</a></H3>
<P> 
Date: Fri, 1 Nov 1996 09:58:52 -0800 (PST)<BR> 
From: Laurie Lynne Tucker <BR> 
<P> 
A user's shell must be included in the list at /etc/shells for ftp to
work!!!!!  (by default, you get only /bin/sh and /bin/bash!)
<P> 
-- <BR> 
laurie
<P> 

<P> <hr> <P> 
<!--================================================================-->

<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif"><a name="adm">How to Truncate
/var/adm/messages</a></H3>
<P> 
Date: Fri, 1 Nov 1996 09:58:52 -0800 (PST)<BR> 
From: Alex
<P> 
In answer to the question:
<blockquote>
What is the proper way to close and reopen a new /var/adm/messages file
from a running system?
</blockquote>
Step one: rename the file. Syslog will still be writing in it after
renaming so you don't lose messages.
Step two: create a new one. After re-initializing syslogd it will be
used.
Step three: Make syslog use the new file. Do not restart it, just
re-initialize.
<ol>
<li>mv /var/adm/messages /var/adm/messages.prev
<li>touch /var/adm/messages
<li>kill -1 pid-of-syslogd
</ol>
<P> 
This should work on a decent Unix(like) system, and I know Linux is
one of them.
<P> 

<P> <hr> <P> 
<!--================================================================-->

<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif"><a name="html">
HTML, Use of BODY Attributes
</a></H3>
<P> 
Date: Thu, 14 Nov 1996 12:55:15 -0500 <BR> 
From: "Michael O'Keefe", <A HREF="mailto:michael.okeefe@lmc.ericsson.se">
michael.okeefe@lmc.ericsson.se</A><BR> 
Organization: Ericsson Research Canada <BR> 
<P> 
G'day,
<P> 
If you are going to use any of the attributes to the <BODY> tag, then
you should supply all of the attributes, even if you supply just the
default values.
<P> 
The default &lt;BODY&gt; tag for Netscape, Mosaic and MSIE is
&lt;BODY BGCOLOR=#C0C0C0 TEXT=#000000 LINK=#0000FF VLINK=#0020F0
ALINK=#FF0000&gt;
<P> 
If you wish to slip the BACKGROUND attribute in there, by all means
continue to do so, but for completeness (and good HTML designing) you
should supply the other attributes as well.
<P> 
The reason? You don't know what colors the user has set, and whether
just setting a BACKGROUND image, or just a few of the colors will
render the page viewable or not. By supplying all of the values, even
at their defaults, you ensure that everything contrasts accordingly
<PRE> 
-- 
Michael O'Keefe                      |Michael.OKeefe@lmc.ericsson.se_   
Lived on and Rode a Honda CBR1000F-H |okeefe@odyssee.net           / |  
"It can't rain all the time"         |Work:+1 514 345 7900 X5030  /  |  
 - The Crow -  R.I.P. Brandon        |Fax :+1 514 345 7980       /_p_|  
My views are MINE ALONE, blah blah,  |Home:+1 514 684 8674       \`O'|  
  yackety yack - don't come back     |Fax :+1 514 684 8674(PCon?)_/_\|_,
</PRE> 

<P> <hr> <P> 
<!--================================================================-->

<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif"><a name="lowerit">"lowerit" Shell Script</a></H3>
<P> 
Date: Fri, 1 Nov 1996 09:58:52 -0800 (PST)<BR> 
From: Phil Hughes, <A HREF="mailto:phil@ssc.com">phil@ssc.com</A><BR> 
<P> 
Here is a handy-dandy little shell script. It takes all the plain files
(not directories) in the current directory and changes their names to
lower case.  Very handy when you unzip a bunch of MS-DOS files.
If a name change would result in overwriting an existing file the script
asks you before doing the overwrite.
<PRE> 
--------------------------- cut here -----------------------------------
#!/bin/sh
# lowerit
# convert all file names in the current directory to lower case 
# only operates on plain files--does not change the name of directories
# will ask for verification before overwriting an existing file
for x in `ls`
  do
  if [ ! -f $x ]; then
    continue
    fi
  lc=`echo $x  | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`
  if [ $lc != $x ]; then
    mv -i $x $lc
  fi
  done
</PRE> 

<P> <hr> <P> 
<!--================================================================-->

<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif"><a name="user">
Removing Users
</a></H3>
<P> 
Date: 11 Nov 1996 18:54:02 GMT <BR> 
From: Geoff Short, <A HREF="mailto:grs100@york.ac.uk">grs100@york.ac.uk</A><BR> 
<P> 
To remove users do the following: 
<P> 
Simple setups:
<ul>
<li>Delete password entry for user from /etc/passwd
<li>Remove user's files using rm -r /home/user
<li>Reboot (if any processes still running)
</ul>
More complex setups:
<ul>
<li>http://kipper.york.ac.uk/rmuser.html
</ul>
	Geoff
<PRE>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ever sit and watch ants? They're always busy with          grs100@york.ac.uk
something, never stop for a moment.  I just          geoff@kipper.york.ac.uk
can't identify with that kind of work ethic.  http://kipper.york.ac.uk/~geoff
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
</PRE> 

<P> <hr> <P> 
<!--================================================================-->

<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif"><a name="pass">Root and Passwords</a></H3>
<P> 
Date: Fri, 1 Nov 1996 09:58:52 -0800 (PST)<BR> 
From: Steve Mann <A HREF="mailto:smann@ultrix.ramapo.edu">smann@ultrix.ramapo.edu</A><BR> 
Subject: Re: Root and passwords
<P> 
If you have forgotten your root password:
<ol>
<li>Use a boot disk. 
<li>Login as root. 
<li>Mount the partition with your Linux. 
<li>Edit the second field, which is the encrypted password, of /etc/passwd
to show nothing. It would look something like this:
<PRE> 
root::0:0:root,,,:/:/bin/zsh
</PRE> 
instead of something like this:
<PRE> 
wimpy:GoqTFXl3f:0:0:Steve:/root:/bin/zsh
</PRE> 
</ol>
You should then be able to login as root with no password at all. 
<P> 
Steve
<PRE> 
  ==================================================================
 /  Steve M                        Insignificant message goes here  \  
|   CCIS:      529-7500 x7922                             \|||/      |
|   Home:      722-1632                                    0 *       |
|   Beeper:    1-800-502-2775 or 201-909-1575           oo0 ^ 0oo    |
|   Email: smann@ultrix.ramapo.edu                      ~~~~~~~~~    |
|   Ramapo College Apartments (Cypress Q): 934-9357
 \                  This line left blank for no reason              /
  =================================================================
</PRE> 

<P> <hr> <P> 
<!--================================================================-->

<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif"><a name="talk">
Talk Daemon and Dynamic Addresses
</a></H3>
<P> 
Date: 11 Nov 1996 16:33:02 GMT <BR> 
From: Adam Jenkins, <A HREF="mailto:ajenkins@kalgoorlie.cs.umass.edu">
ajenkins@kalgoorlie.cs.umass.edu </A><BR> 
Organization: CMPSCI Department, UMass Amherst <BR> 
<P> 
Having problems sending a talk request to an IP-address other than your own?
<P> 
The solution is to reset
your host name to your new dynamic address. You need to figure out what dynamic
address you've been assigned. Then you can use the &quot;host&quot; command to find the
symbolic name for it, and then use the &quot;hostname&quot; command to reset your 
machine's hostname.  Like this:
<P> 
host 128.119.220.0a
<P> 
Prints out a name. Use it in:
<P> 
hostname name.domain.edu
<P> 
That's it. You need to be root to run the &quot;hostname&quot; command with an argument. If
you're using pppd to get your connection, you can put all of this into your
/etc/ppp/ip-up script -- read the pppd man page for more info -- so that it will get
done automatically when you log in.
<P> 
The reason you need to do this is because when talk sends a talk request, it also
sends along what it thinks is the return address so that the remote talk can respond.
So if your local machine has a fake address, the remote talk will get that as the
return address and you'll never see the response.
<P> 
I also saw a patched version of talk on sunsite somewhere, where he made some hack to
talk to get it to find your real address.  But I like the &quot;hostname&quot; solution better
because I've found at least one other program with the same problem, and the
&quot;hostname&quot; solution fixes it too.

<P> <hr> <P> 
<!--================================================================-->

<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif"><a name="tar">tar Tricks</a></H3>
<P> 
Date: Tue, 12 Nov 1996 15:01:58 +0000 <BR> 
From: Dominic Binks  <A HREF="mailto:dominic.binks@aethos.co.uk">dominic.binks@aethos.co.uk</A><BR> 
Organization: AEthos Communication Systems Ltd. <BR> 
<P> 
A couple of things that interested me about the article on tar.  I'm
sure that the idea is to introduce pipes, and some of the lesser known
unix utilities (tr, cut), but
<PRE> 
	tar -tfvz file.tar.gz | tr -s ' ' | cut -d ' ' -f8 | less
</PRE> 
can be written more concisely
<PRE> 
	tar tfz file.tar.gz | less
</PRE> 
Also you can use wild cards so 
<PRE> 
	tar tfz file.tar.gz *README*
</PRE> 
will list all readmes in the file.
<P> 
Finally two last pieces of useful Unix magic.
<PRE> 
	tar cfv - dir
</PRE> 
will tar the directory dir and send the output to standard output.  One
piece of magic liked by Unix gurus is
<PRE> 
	tar cfv - dir | (cd dir2; tar xf -)
</PRE> 
which copies one directory hierarchy to another location.
<P> 
Another piece of tar that might be really useful is that taring up a dos
file system and moving it somewhere else will preserve *everything*. 
This means you can move your main DOS partition around, something that
is very difficult to do with DOS.
<P> 
One final tip for all UNIX newbies: you got a file which unix will not
allow you to delete.
<PRE> 
	rm -- 'file'
</PRE> 
will get rid of it.  In general -- terminates argument processing so
that everything following is passed directly to the executable.
<P> 
Have fun
<P> 
Dominic Binks

<P> <hr> <P> 
<!--================================================================-->
<A HREF="./index.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/indexnew.gif" ALT="[ TABLE OF 
CONTENTS ]"></A> <A HREF="../index.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/homenew.gif" 
ALT="[ FRONT PAGE ]"></A> <A HREF="lg_mail12.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/back2.gif" ALT=" Back "></A>
<A HREF="lg_bytes12.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/fwd.gif" ALT=" Next "></A>

<P> <hr> <P>
<h5>This page maintained by the Editor of <I>Linux Gazette</I>,
<A HREF="mailto: gazette@ssc.com">gazette@ssc.com</A><BR> 
Copyright &copy; 1996 Specialized Systems Consultants, Inc. </H5> 
<P> 
<!--==================================================================-->

<!--==================================================================-->
<H4>&quot;Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>&quot;</H4>
<HR>
<center>
<IMG SRC="../gx/bytes.gif" border=1  ALT="News Bytes">
<H3>Contents:</H3>
<ul>
<li><a HREF="./lg_bytes12.html#general">News in General</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_bytes12.html#software">Software Announcements</a>
</ul>
</center>
<a name="general"><p></a>

<p><hr><p>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<center><H3><a name="general"> News in General </a></H3></center>

<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->

<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
Authors Wanted for <I>Linux Journal</I> 
</H3>
Are you interested in Perl, the Internet or Linux?
Would you love to see your name in print?
<P> 
Well, then today is your day! <I>Linux Journal</I> is seeking authors for our
upcoming issues. We are particularly interested in authors willing to write
about Perl, the Web and Linux.  We have some general topics we are 
soliciting articles for listed on our web site at 
<A HREF="http://www.linuxjournal.com/wanted.html">
http://www.linuxjournal.com/wanted.html</A>. Please don't let these ideas limit 
you - if you have a great article idea we'd love to hear about it.
<P> 
For additional information: <BR> 
Gary Moore, Editor <I>Linux Journal</I>, <A
HREF="mailto:ljeditor@ssc.com">ljeditor@ssc.com</A><BR> 
<A HREF="http://www.ssc.com/LJ/">http://www.ssc.com/LJ/</A>
<P> 
<B>Debian Linux </B> <BR>
SSC is also looking for an author to write a chapter on the installation
of Debian Linux for the book <I>Linux Installation and Getting Started</I> by
Matt Welsh. If you are
interested, please send e-mail to <A HREF="mailto:ligs@ssc.com">ligs@ssc.com</A>.
<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->

<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
Cease Fire!
</H3>
<P> 
Date: Wed 13 Nov 1996
<P> 
Bill Machrone, vice president of technology for Ziff-Davis
Publishing Co, recently wrote in an article about Linux that
Netscape 3.0 and Java were not yet available for Linux. He was
wrong. Such things happen. Big deal. Even magazines of the
highest quality sometimes print things that are wrong. You
tell them about it, and they print a correction in the next
issue. That's the way professionals handle things.
<P> 
That's not what some Linux people did, however. Instead, they
flamed him, in private and in public. That's stupid. They urged
others to also send flames to Machrone, which is worse.
<P> 
Things wouldn't be so bad, but now we have the Internet. The
Internet allows just a few idiots completely ruin the reputation
of Linux.
<P> 
Please, if you want to advocate Linux, be civil.
<P> 
Lars Wirzenius, Moderator, comp.os.linux.announce <BR> 
Bruce Perens, Project Leader, Debian GNU/Linux Distribution <BR> 
Alan Cox, Linux Networking Project, Linux International Technical Board <BR> 
 
<P><hr><P> 
<!-- =====================================================================  -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">Linux in the News</H3>
<P>
For the latest article about Linux by Bill Machrone, see the November 11
issue of <I>PC Week</I>, <A HREF="http://www.pcweek.com//opinion/1111/11mach.html">
&quot;Up Periscope&quot;</A>. This is a good article in which he requests
feedback from Linux users.
<P> 
&quot;The Linux Software Map&quot: Unix Review, January, 1997, discusses the need
for Linux documentation and the Linux Software Map (LSM).
<P> 
From Martin Michlmayr of Linux International we learn: <BR> 
According to a survey among a partial readership of iX, a German magazine
devoted to Unix and networking, Linux is used at work by 45% of the
readers.  Solaris 1 and 2 taken together come second with 36%, followed
by HP-UX with 27%.
56% of companies with less than 50 employees use Linux whereas it is used
by 38% of firms with more than 1,000 employees.
In addition, 60% of the readers use Linux on their computers at home.
Linux International, <A HREF="mailto:bod@li.org">bod@li.org</A> <BR> 

<P><hr><P> 
<!-- =====================================================================  -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">Linux Applications and Utilities List</H3>
<P>
Date: 30 Oct 1996 
<center><P> 
		The October 22, 1996 edition of the 
<P> 
           *****   LINUX APPLICATION AND UTILITIES LIST   *****
<P>
	   is now available at it's home site and mirrors.
</center>
<P> 
The &quot;Linux Applications and Utilities List&quot; is an organized collection of
pointers to the WWW home pages of almost 600 different Linux compatible
application programs, system administration tools, utilities, device drivers,
games, servers, programming tools, file, disk and desktop managers,
Internet applications, and more. 
<P> 
The &quot;Linux Applications and Utilities List&quot; and mirrors can be found at:
<P> 
Home Site U.S.A. (IL): <BR> 
<A HREF="URL:http://www.xnet.com/~blatura/linapps.shtml">
URL:http://www.xnet.com/~blatura/linapps.shtml</A> 

<P> 
Bill Latura  <A HREF="mailto:blatura@xnet.com">blatura@xnet.com</A><BR> 
Runtime Systems

<P><hr><P> 
<!-- =====================================================================  -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">Man Pages to HTML</H3> 
<P> 
Marc Perkel, <A HREF="mailto:marc@ctyme.com">marc@ctyme.com</A>, of
Computer Tyme Software Lab, <A HREF="http://www.ctyme.com/">http://www.ctype.com/</A>,
has written a program to convert Man pages to HTML. 
Check out this web site with fully indexed man pages:
<P> 
<A HREF="http://www.ctyme.com/linuxdoc.htm">
http://www.ctyme.com/linuxdoc.htm</A><BR> 
<P> 
This is a popular idea. There is an 
article coming out in the February issue of Linux Journal
by Michael Hamilton, another guy who did this very same type of
conversion. Michael's program is called
vh-man2html and can be seen at <A HREF="http://www.caldera.com/cgi-bin/man2html">
http://www.caldera.com/cgi-bin/man2html</A>.
And he tells us of yet another page, 
<A HREF="http://wsinwp01.win.tue.nl:1234/maninfo.html">
http://wsinwp01.win.tue.nl:1234/maninfo.html</A>, where converters can be found. 


<P><hr><P> 
<!-- =====================================================================  -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">Mission Critical Linux Project</H3> 
<P> 
The &quot;Mission Critical Linux Project&quot; was created to document
successful existing Linux systems which have a large load and 24 hour a day
use. The survey will last until February 1, 1997.
<P> 
If you could access our web site, please visit one of following:
<ul> 
<li><A HREF="http://www.linux.or.jp/~mkubo/mc-doc/">Japan</A> 
<li><A HREF="http://www.netusa.net/~dwarren/linux/mc-doc/">United States</A> 
<li><A HREF="http://www.rmnet.it/linux">Italy</A> 
<li><A HREF="http://www.bart.nl/~patrickr/mcquest">The Netherlands</A> 
<li><A HREF="http://www.agapesystems.com/mirror/linux/mc-doc/">United States</A> 
<li><A HREF="http://tcx.kappa.ro/mc-doc/">Romania</A> 
<li><A HREF="http://www.iijnet.or.jp/src/mc-doc/">Japan</A> 
</ul>
You can also see brief summary of <A
HREF="http://www.linux.or.jp/~pjotr/mc-doc/">answers</A>.
<P> 
For additional information: <BR> 
Motoharu Kubo, <A HREF="mailto:mkubo@st.rim.or.jp">mkubo@st.rim.or.jp</A><BR> 
<A HREF="http://www.st.rim.or.jp/~mkubo/">http://www.st.rim.or.jp/~mkubo/</A> 
(English page under construction)

<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->

<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
New Linux Resource Sites
</H3>
<P> 
A couple of new Linux Resources sites:
<P> 
Russ Spooner, <A HREF="mailto:russl@rmplc.co.uk">russl@rmplc.co.uk</A><BR> 
<A HREF="http://www.pssltd.co.uk/kontagx/linux/index.html">
http://www.pssltd.co.uk/kontagx/linux/index.html</A><BR>  
<P> 
Joe Hohertz, <A HREF="mailto:jhohertz@golden.net">jhohertz@golden.net</A><BR> 
<A HREF="http://www.golden.net/~jhohertz">
http://www.golden.net/~jhohertz</A><BR>

<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->

<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
Slovenian HOWTO 1.0 
</H3>
<P> 
Date: Thu, 07 Nov 1996 <BR> 
The first ever version of Slovenian HOWTO is released. The document
addresses Linux localization issues specific to Slovenian users and is
written in Slovene.
<P> 
It can be accessed either on its &quot;locus classicus&quot;: <BR> 

<A HREF="http://sizif.mf.uni-lj.si/linux/cee/Slovenian-HOWTO.html">
http://sizif.mf.uni-lj.si/linux/cee/Slovenian-HOWTO.html</A>
<P> 
or the official Linux Documentation Project Site: <BR> 

<A HREF="http://sunsite.unc.edu/mdw/HOWTO/Slovenian-HOWTO.html">
http://sunsite.unc.edu/mdw/HOWTO/Slovenian-HOWTO.html </A>
<P> 
or any of the numerous mirrors of the latter.
<P> 
For additional information: <BR> 
Primoz Peterlin, <A HREF="mailto:peterlin@biofiz.mf.uni-lj.si">
 peterlin@biofiz.mf.uni-lj.si</A><BR> 
Institut za biofiziko MF, Lipiceva 2, SLO-1105 Ljubljana, Slovenija,
<A HREF="http://sizif.mf.uni-lj.si/~peterlin/">
http://sizif.mf.uni-lj.si/~peterlin/</A> 

<a name="software"><p></a>
<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<center><H3><a name="software"> Software Announcements </A></H3></center>

<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->

<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
Amiga Development Environment
</H3>
<P> 
Date: Mon, 18 Nov 1996 <BR> 
Tempe, Arizona - Cronus has announced the release of the long
awaited Geek Gadgets CD-ROM.  Geek Gadgets contains the Amiga Developers
Environment (ADE) which is a project conceived and managed by Cronus to
produce and support Amiga ports of dozens of the most popular development
tools and utilities from the Free Software Foundation, BSD and other sources.
This CD contains all the tools necessary to get started programming on
the Amiga including advanced C, C++, Fortran and ADA compilers, assembler,
linker, EMACS editor, "make", source code control systems (rcs&cvs), text
and file utilities, GNU debugger, text formatters (groff & TEX) and more.
Geek Gadgets is the perfect companion to the AT Developers CD which contains
documentation and utilities but no development tools.  Released quarterly,
Geek Gadgets provides a quick and cost effective way to obtain the latest
ADE for those with slow and/or expensive Internet connections.  As a bonus,
all the tools can be run directly from the CD-ROM without the need to install
any files on your hard drive.
<P> 
Available from your local Amiga dealer or directly from Cronus.  SRP $ 24.95
<P> 
For additional information: <BR> 
Michelle Fish, <A HREF="mailto:mic@ninemoons.com">mic@ninemoons.com</A> 
<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->

<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
Objective-C 4.3.4 For Linux
</H3>
<P> 
Date: 30 Oct 1996  <BR> 
Release "4.3.4" of the Stepstone Objective C compiler is now available
from System Essentials Limited for Linux versions 1.2.13 and higher.
<P> 
See: <A HREF="http://www.nai.net/~lerman">http://www.nai.net/~lerman</A> 
<P> 
Both Linux and OSF/1 Objective C 4.3.4 releases include:
<ul>
<li>compiler-chain driver script (objcc)
<li>executable of the Objective C compiler (objcc.exe)
<li>source of the original Objective C runtime library
<li>sources of the ICpak101 Objective C foundation classes
<li>man pages for both objcc and objcc.exe
<li>tutorial program
</ul>
For additional information: <BR> 
Kenneth Lerman, <A HREF="mailto:Kenneth.Lerman@lerman.nai.net">
Kenneth.Lerman@lerman.nai.net</A><BR>
Systems Essentials Limited       

<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->

<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">C++ Matrix Math Library</H3>
<P> 
Date: Sun, 03 Nov 1996 <BR> 
MathTools Ltd. is pleased to announce MAT&lt;LIB&gt;, a Matlab Compatible
C++ Matrix Class Library, designed for development of advanced
scientific high-level C++ code. Evaluation version of the MAT&lt;LIB&gt; 
can be downloaded from our home page, http://www.mathtools.com.
<P> 
The library includes over 300 mathematical functions covering 
Complex math, Binary and unary operators, Powerful indexing 
capabilities, Signal processing, File I/O, Linear algebra, 
String operations and Graphics. 
<P> 
For additional information: <BR> 
MathTools Ltd., <A HREF="http://www.mathtools.com">http://www.mathtools.com</A><BR> 
<A HREF="mailto:info@mathtools.com">info@mathtools.com</A><BR> 

<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->

<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
FIDOGATE 4.1.1 - Fido-Internet Gateway
</H3>
<P> 
Date: Wed, 13 Nov 1996 04:30:07 GMT
FIDOGATE 4.1.1, an update to version 4 of the FIDOGATE package is
available.
<PRE>
			   FIDOGATE Version 4
		        -----------------------
		        * Fido-Internet Gateway
			* Fido FTN-FTN Gateway
			* Fido Mail Processor
			* Fido File Processor
			* Fido Areafix/Filefix
		        -----------------------

Internet:
- ---------
    http://www.fido.de/fidogate/
    ftp://ftp.fido.de/pub/fidogate/
    ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/Fido/

    fidogate-4.1.1.tar.gz	657 Kbyte

</PRE> 
For additional information: <BR> 
Martin Junius, <A HREF="mailto:mj@fido.de">mj@fido.de</A> 
<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->

<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
fxvolume 0.1, a simple xforms volume control.
</H3>
<P> 
Date: Wed, 13 Nov 1996 <BR> 
<P> 
Fxvolume is a simple, no frills volume control designed to sit at the side of 
your screen and not get in the way. You simply run it, and then ignore it
until you need to use it. 
<P> 
It controls the level of the master sound device under Linux, using a slider
created from the Xforms library.
<P> 
<A HREF="http://www.ee.mu.oz.au/staff/pbd/linux/fxvolume/">
http://www.ee.mu.oz.au/staff/pbd/linux/fxvolume/</A> 
<P> 
Use at your own risk - it has not been widely tested, but seems to work
well enough...   ;)
<P> 
For additional information: <BR> 
Paul Dwerryhouse, <A HREF="mailto:paul@mura.its.unimelb.edu.au">
paul@mura.its.unimelb.edu.au</A><BR> 
University of Melbourne, Australia

<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->

<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">The JAZZ midi sequencer version 2.6</H3>
<P> 
Date: Tue, 05 Nov 1996 <BR> 
Announce: The free JAZZ midi sequencer version 2.6 <BR> 
<P> 
JAZZ is a full size midi sequencer allowing record/play and many
edit functions as quantize, copy, transpose ..., multiple undo;
two main windows operating on whole tracks and single events;
graphic pitch editing, GS sound editing functions and much more ...
<P> 
JAZZ is copyright (C) by Andreas Voss and Per Sigmond, and is
distributed under the terms of the GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
(Gnu GPL). 
<P> 
Web site: <A HREF="http://rokke.grm.hia.no/per/jazz.html">
http://rokke.grm.hia.no/per/jazz.html</A>
<P> 
Linux binary distribution: <A HREF="ftp://rokke.grm.hia.no/pub/midi/jazz/linux-bin/">
ftp://rokke.grm.hia.no/pub/midi/jazz/linux-bin/</A><BR> 

Files: jazz-bin-v26b-xview.tar.gz, jazz-help-v26b-xview.tar.gz
<P> 
Source code distribution: <A HREF="ftp://rokke.grm.hia.no/pub/midi/jazz/">
ftp://rokke.grm.hia.no/pub/midi/jazz/</A><BR> 

File: jazz-src-v26b.tar.gz
<P> 
For additional information: <BR> 
Andreas Voss. <A HREF="mailto:andreas@avix.rhein-neckar.de">
andreas@avix.rhein-neckar.de</A><BR>
Per Sigmond, <A HREF="mailto:Per.Sigmond@hia.no">Per.Sigmond@hia.no</A><BR>
Ericsson AS, ETO, <A HREF="mailto:etopesi@eto.ericsson.se">
etopesi@eto.ericsson.se</A> 

<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->

<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
util-linux 2.6
</H3>
<P> 
Date: Wed, 13 Nov 1996 
util-linux-2.6.tar.gz   (source only distribution)
<P> 
    Util-linux is a suite of essential utilities for any Linux system.
It's primary audience is system integrators (like the people at
Red Hat) and DIY Linux hackers.  The rest of you will get a digested
version of util-linux installed with no risk to your sanity.
<P> 
    Util-linux is attempting to be portable, but the only platform it
has been tested much on is Linux/Intel.  There have however been
integrated several patches for Arm, m68k, and Alpha linux versions.
The present version is known to compile on at least Linux 1.2/libc
4.7.5 and Linux 2.0.22/Libc 5.3.12 (the Linux versions I run :-).
People are encouraged to make _nice_ patches to util-linux and
submit them to util-linux@math.uio.no.
<P> 
Util-Linux 2.6 is immediately available from <BR> 
<A HREF="ftp://ftp.math.uio.no/pub/linux/util-linux-2.6/">
ftp://ftp.math.uio.no/pub/linux/util-linux-2.6/</A><BR> 
<P> 
NOTE: Before installing util-linux. READ the README or risk nuking
your system.  Thank you.
<P> 
For additional information: <BR> 
Nicolai Langfeldt, <A HREF="mailto:janl@ifi.uio.no">janl@ifi.uio.no</A><BR> 
The popular front against MWM

<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->

<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
LyX-0.10.7 - LyX is a WYSIWYG
</H3>
<P> 
Date: 30 Oct 1996 <BR> 
LyX-0.10.7 has been uploaded to sunsite.  It is also available from
ftp://ftp.via.ecp.fr/pub/lyx and from my home page: 
http://www.lehigh.edu/~dlj0/LyriX.html 
<P> 
LyX is a WYSIWYG front-end to LaTeX.  It is used much like a
word-processor, but LaTeX produces the final document.  Figures, tables,
mathematical formulas, fonts, headers, etc., are all drawn on-screen
essentially as they appear on the final document.  Figures (postscript)
are placed in the document using a simple menu, as are tables.  General
text formatting is accomplished by high-level menu choices that
automatically set fonts, indentation, spacing, etc., according to
general LaTeX rules, and display (essentially) these settings on the
screen.
<P> 
None of the power of LaTeX is lost, since you can embed any LaTeX
command within a LyX document.  
<P> 
Primary-site:   sunsite.unc.edu /pub/Linux/apps/editors <BR> 
		501577 lyx-0.10.7-ELF-bin.tar.gz (binary release) <BR> 
		612839 lyx-0.10.7.tar.gz (original source)<BR> 

Copying-policy: GPL <BR> 

<P> 
For additional information: <BR> 
David L. Johnson, <A HREF="mailto:dlj0@lehigh.edu">dlj0@lehigh.edu</A><BR>  
Lehigh University, <A HREF="http://www.lehigh.edu/~dlj0/dlj0.html">
http://www.lehigh.edu/~dlj0/dlj0.html</A>

<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->

<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
MpegTV Player
</H3>
<P> 
Date: Tue, 05 Nov 1996 <BR> 
Announcing a new release of MpegTV, the real-time software MPEG Player
for Linux (x86 ELF) and FreeBSD.
<P> 
A free version of the MpegTV player can be downloaded from the MpegTV
web site at: <BR> 
<A HREF="http://www.mpegtv.com/">http://www.mpegtv.com/</A>
<P> 
Main features:
<ul>
<li>Nice GUI with slide-bars and buttons (implemented with Xforms).
<li>Plays MPEG-1 SIF bitstreams (352x240 pels) at 30 frames/sec on a
P-200.
<li>When the CPU resources are not sufficient, player skips some
  frames to achieve graceful degradation.
<li>Can be installed as a Web Browser helper application to play MPEG.
</ul>
<P> 
For additional information: <BR> 
Tristan Savatier, <A HREF="mailto:tristan@mpeg.org">tristan@mpeg.org</A><BR>
<A HREF="http://www.mpeg.org">http://www.mpeg.org </A><BR>

<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->

<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
SpellCaster ISDN4Linux ISDN Driver Beta
</H3>
<P> 
Date: Wed, 13 Nov 1996 <BR> 
This message is to announce the public Beta release of the ISDN4Linux
driver for SpellCaster ISA ISDN adapters. This beta program is open to
anyone who prefers the bleeding edge and just can't wait for MP support.
The beta driver currently supports the SpellCaster DataCommute/BRI and
TeleCommute/BRI adapters and will also include support for the
DataCommute/PRI adapter before the end of the Beta program.
<P> 
You can download the beta driver from: <BR> 
<A HREF="ftp://ftp.spellcast.com/pub/drivers/isdn4linux">
ftp://ftp.spellcast.com/pub/drivers/isdn4linux</A>
<P> 
You require kernel revision.
2.0. You will also need the isdn4k-utils package also available the above
mentioned FTP site or ftp.franken.de
<P> 
For additional information: <BR> 
Erik Petersen, <A HREF="mailto:erik@spellcast.com">erik@spellcast.com</A> 

<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->

<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
Public availability of the second beta of StarOffice 3.1 for Linux
</H3>
<P> 
Date: 30 Oct 1996 <BR> 
Star Division announces the public availability of the second beta
version of its office productivity suite, StarOffice 3.1, for
Linux/x86. 
<P> 
StarOffice 3.1 consists of:
<ul>        
<li>StarWriter 3.1 -- word processor
<li>StarCalc 3.1 -- spreadsheet
<li>StarDraw 3.1 -- drawing and presentation tool
<li>StarImage 3.1 -- image manipulation
<li>StarChart 3.1 -- bar-, pie- and other charts
<li>StarMath 3.1 -- graphical formula editor
</ul>
You will need an ELF system, X11R6 and Motif 2.0 libraries.
<P> 
This beta version expires at January, 1st, 1997. We will make newer beta
versions available by then. The final version will be free of charge
for private use. The price for commercial use is not yet decided.
<P> 
StarOffice 3.1 can be downloaded from the directory: <BR> 
<A HREF="ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/staroffice">
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/staroffice</A> 
<P> 
For additional information: <BR> 
Star Division GmbH, <A HREF="http://www.stardivision.de/">
http://www.stardivision.de/</A><BR> 
Matthias Kalle Dalheimer, <A HREF="mailto:mda@stardivision.da">
mda@stardivision.de</A><BR> 
Marc Sewtz, <A HREF="mailto:mse@stardivision.de">mse@stardivision.de</A>

<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->

<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
Wget, a Web Mirroring Tool
</H3>
<P> 
Date: Wed, 13 Nov 1996 <BR> 
Wget 1.4.0 [formerly known as Geturl] is an extensive rewrite of
Geturl. Wget should now be easier to debug, maintain and
most importantly, use.
<P> 
Wget is a freely available network utility to download files from the
World Wide Web using HTTP and FTP.  It works non-interactively, thus
enabling work in the background, after having logged off.
<P> 
Wget works under almost all modern Unix variants and, unlike many
other similar utilities, is written entirely in C, thus requiring no
additional software (like Perl). As Wget uses the GNU Autoconf, it is
easily built on and ported to other Unix's. Installation procedure is
described in the INSTALL file.
<P> 
You can get the latest version of wget at: <BR> 
<A HREF="ftp://gnjilux.cc.fer.hr/pub/unix/util/wget/wget.tar.gz">
ftp://gnjilux.cc.fer.hr/pub/unix/util/wget/wget.tar.gz</A>
<P> 
For additional information: <BR> 
Hrvoje Niksic, <A HREF="mailto:hniksic@srce.hrw">hniksic@srce.hr</A><BR> 
SRCE Zagreb, Croatia

<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->

<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
Woven Goods for LINUX Version 1.0
</H3>
<P> 
Date: Tue, 05 Nov 1996 <BR> 
Woven Goods for LINUX Version 1.0
<P> 
Version 1.0 of Woven Goods for LINUX is a collection of
World-Wide Web (WWW) Applications and Hypertext-based Information about
LINUX. It is ready configured for the Slackware Distribution and
currently
tested with Version 3.1 (ELF). The Power Linux LST Distribution contains
this collection as an integral part with some changes.
<P> 
The five Parts of Woven Goods for LINUX are:
<ul>
<li>Part 1 -- World-wide Web Browser from Netscape for X11 and Lynx for ASCII
     terminals.

<li>Part 2 -- LINUX Documents

<li>Part 3 -- Apache World-wide Web Server and documentation,
     Glimpse Search Engine and more.

<li>Part 4 -- Hypertext Markup Language Editor asWedit

<li>Part 5 -- External Viewers
</ul>
<P> 
Woven Goods for LINUX is available via anonymous FTP from: <BR> 

<A HREF="ftp://ftp.fokus.gmd.de/pub/Linux/woven">
ftp://ftp.fokus.gmd.de/pub/Linux/woven</A><BR> 

<P> 
The HTML Pages of Woven Goods for LINUX are snap shots of the LINUX
Pages at FOKUS - Research Institute of Open Communication Systems
and are available from:

    http://www.fokus.gmd.de/linux

For additional information: <BR> 
Lutz Henckel, <A HREF="mailto:lutz.henckel@fokus.gmd.de">lutz.henckel@fokus.gmd.de</A><BR>
GMD FOKUS, <A HREF="http://www.fokus.gmd.de/usr/hel/">
http://www.fokus.gmd.de/usr/hel/</A> 

<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->

<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
xldlas v0.30 now available
</H3>
<P> 
Date: 30 Oct 1996  <BR> 
Announcing xldlas v0.40 in sunsite's incoming directory: <BR> 

<A HREF="ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/incoming/xldlas-0.40-srcbin.tgz">
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/incoming/xldlas-0.40-srcbin.tgz </A>
<P> 
Soon to be moved to: <BR> 

<A HREF="ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/math/xldlas-0.40-srcbin.tgz">
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/math/xldlas-0.40-srcbin.tgz </A> 
<P> 
xldlas is for doing statistics.
<ul>
<li>Based on the xforms library (i.e. looks pretty slick)

<li>Point and click interface to statistical summaries, OLS
regression, plotting, correlation analysis, etc.

<li>Experimental curve fitting routine that uses genetic algorithms
with some nice visual feedback.

<li>Very handy automatic generating of .tex format log files,
including tables and plots.

<li>Online help
</ul>

For additional information: <BR> 
Thor Sigvaldason, <A HREF="mailto:thor@netcom.ca">thor@netcom.ca</A><BR>  
<A HREF="http://www.a42.com/~thor/xldlas/">http://www.a42.com/~thor/xldlas/</A><BR>
<A HREF="http://sunsite.math.klte.hu/mirrors/xldlas/">
http://sunsite.math.klte.hu/mirrors/xldlas/ </A> 

<P> <HR> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<A HREF="./index.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/indexnew.gif" ALT="[ TABLE OF 
CONTENTS ]"></A>
<A HREF="../index.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/homenew.gif" ALT="[ FRONT 
PAGE ]"></A> 
<A HREF="lg_tips12.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/back2.gif" ALT=" Back "></A>
<A HREF="redhat.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/fwd.gif" ALT=" Next "></A>

<P><HR><P>
<h5>This page written and maintained by the Editor of <I>Linux Gazette</I>,
<A HREF="mailto: gazette@ssc.com">gazette@ssc.com</A><BR> 
Copyright &copy; 1996 Specialized Systems Consultants, Inc. </H5> 
<P> 
<!--==================================================================-->

<!--==================================================================-->
<H4>
&quot;Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>
&quot;</H4>

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!--=================================================================-->

<H1 ALIGN=CENTER>The Adventure of Upgrading to Redhat 4.0</H1>

<H1 ALIGN=CENTER>(with advice for others)</H1>

<center><H4>By Randy Appleton, <A HREF="mailto:randy@EUCLID.ACS.nmu.edu">
randy@EUCLID.ACS.nmu.edu</A> </H4></center>

<P> <HR> <P> 

<P>Here at <A HREF="http://www.nmu.edu">Northern Michigan University,</A>
we run a Linux lab with 14 workstations. Upgrading from Redhat 3.0 to Redhat
4.0 has been quite an adventure. This article describes the upgrading of
one workstation.</P>

<H1>Time</H1>

<P>The first thing to do when upgrading is to free up a significant block
of time. We used a day and a night to upgrade one machine. That included
downloading the software, making floppy disks, and fixing our errors along
the way. In fact, if you're a busy person, and Redhat 3.0 is working fine
for you, then you might choose to delay the upgrade, or even avoid it.
However, at the <A HREF="http://euclid.nmu.edu">Linux Lab at Northern Michigan</A>,
we try and stay near the cutting edge, so the upgrade was a must for us.</P>

<H1>Method</H1>

<P>The next step is to decide your upgrade method. The choices are the
same ones from Redhat 3.0:</P>

<UL>
<LI>Upgrade from an NFS mounted directory of files.</LI>

<LI>Upgrade from a CD-ROM disk.</LI>

<LI>Upgrade from a spare partition containing the needed files.</LI>

<LI>Upgrade directly from an FTP site.</LI>
</UL>

<P>The quickest and easiest way is to use the CD-ROM drive. This is the
only way if you don't have a direct Internet connection, since you cannot
download the necessary amount of data through a modem in any reasonable
amount of time Since our workstations don't have CD-ROM drives, and do
have an excellent Internet connection, we chose to do an FTP install.</P>

<H1>Download Boot Disks</H1>

<P>Before an FTP&nbsp;install can begin, two disks named <A HREF="ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/current/i386/images/boot.img">boot.img</A>
and <A HREF="ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/current/i386/images/supp.img">supp.img</A>
must be downloaded from <A HREF="ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/current/i386/images/">ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/current/i386/images/</A>
. They can be written to the floppy disks with the commands</P>

<PRE>dd if=boot.img of=/dev/fd0 <B>(switch disks)
</B>dd if=supp.img of=/dev/fd0</PRE>

<P>The second disk is only needed for an FTP install. Redhat 3.0 required
three disks for all install types, so this change makes a significant savings
in user effort. However, we had used the Redhat 3.0 disks as emergency
boot disks to correct problems like forgetting the root password (yes,
this does happen). The Redhat 4.0 boot disks are missing several important
utilities (i.e. tar and vi) so cannot be used for this purpose. </P>

<P>Also, notice that these two disks work for any supported hardware configuration.
The older Redhat 3.0 required that the user search through a list of boot
disks for the correct choice based on his hardware. This search often took
more time than the download itself. Redhat 4.0 is much improved in this
regard (our favorite new feature).</P>

<H1>Bootup and Hardware Configuration</H1>

<P>The first thing you'll see after inserting the boot.img disk and rebooting
the computer is a LILO prompt. Just the words:</P>

<PRE>boot:</PRE>

<P>We would have liked more explanation of our choices here. Redhat 3.0
offered a very nice menu of help text that explained the possible parameters
and their effects. However, if you just wait in a perplexed fashion long
enough, the system will become impatient and boot Linux for you.</P>

<P>The first difference you'll notice is that Redhat 4.0 prompts you to
describe your hardware. It asks about SCSI controllers and network adapters,
showing you a list of possible choices. Behind the scenes the Redhat 4.0
install script loads kernel modules to access your hardware. </P>

<P>While this is happening is a good time to switch to virtual console
#3 (press &lt;ALT&gt;F3). This console shows what's happening in more technical
detail, describing things like the mounting and unmounting of file systems,
and the downloading of files. The older Redhat 3.0 did not have this feature,
which we often use to debug problems. You can switch back to the main action
by pressing &lt;ALT&gt;F1.</P>

<P>The install scripts also query the user for network information. You
should know your IP number, netmask, gateway, hostname, domain name, and
name server before starting the install. We notice that Redhat 4.0 creates
a default gateway and name server entry based upon your IP number and netmask,
but that these defaults are rarely right. Better in our opinion would be
to have no default at all than a misleading one.</P>

<H1>Choosing your Software</H1>

<P>Redhat 4.0 will show you a menu of possible software upgrades and additions.
This list is essentially the same as Redhat 3.0, except that most packages
have increased in version number.</P>

<P>The biggest problem we had involved the remote login software (rlogin,
in.rlogind, in.rshd and in.telnetd). These have been upgraded to use the
P.A.M. library and kerberos. However, we often login into our Linux workstations
from older Sun Sparcs that do not run this software suite. For some unexplained
reason, the SunOS clients could not access the Linux servers. We solved
the problem by simply re-installing the older software. </P>

<P>In general, we suggest letting Redhat upgrade everything you might ever
use. You should avoid downloading any software you are sure you will not
need. Avoiding unneeded software will decreases the total time needed and
the probability of network errors during the download.</P>

<H1>The Long Long Download</H1>

<P>Step one of the download process is to pick an FTP site. There are many
listed <A HREF="ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/MIRRORS.html">here</A>. We started
by choosing a site with a fast 'ping time' from us, since ping time is
a reasonable approximation of FTP&nbsp;throughput and is quite quick to
gather. To find out the ping tome to a site like www.redhat.com, just type:</P>

<PRE>ping www.redhat.com</PRE>

<P>After ping runs for several packets, kill it with &lt;CNTL&gt;C. The
average ping time will be shown at the bottom. We saw ping times from 80
- 300 milliseconds. Downloads are four times faster from the best site
compared to the worst. It is well worth your time to explore sing ping
before picking a site at random. The fastest was the aptly named <A HREF="ftp://ftp.real-time.com/pub/redhat">ftp://ftp.real-time.com/pub/redhat</A>
. Unfortunately, they were not accepting FTP&nbsp;connections, so we used
<A HREF="ftp://uicarhive.cso.uiuc.edu/pub/systems/linux/distributions/redhat">ftp://uicarhive.cso.uiuc.edu/pub/systems/linux/distributions/redhat</A>
. We could FTP to that site, but the download failed. It seems that the
download scripts also want to know the version and architecture of the packages
you are trying to download. Therefore, the correct URL&nbsp;is <A HREF="ftp://uicarhive.cso.uiuc.edu/pub/systems/linux/distributions/redhat">ftp://uicarhive.cso.uiuc.edu/pub/systems/linux/distributions/redhat/current/i386.</A>
That was not obvious from the directions. We suggest that the Redhat folks
either change their script to add these subdirectories or make their directions
more clear.</P>

<P>For us, upgrading required downloading over 300 megabytes. I must say
the status screen during the download is quite nice. The biggest problem
with it is that it does not show the progress of downloading each package.
Since the download was so long, we left it running overnight. Unfortunately,
it failed on the download of <B>LILO.</B> The download script then waited
for us to press a key acknowledging the error, which meant it stopped downloading
some time during the night. Better would be to continue downloading while
informing the user of this error.</P>

<P>Once the download is finished, and you answer a few simple questions,
you get to reboot your computer into Redhat 4.0 (yea!!). </P>

<H1>The Upgraded System</H1>

<P>The first thing we noticed is that the kernel has been upgraded to Linux
2.0.19. Some problems we had before, like our tape drive not working, were
fixed with this upgrade. Also, our Adaptec 2740 SCSI controller was accessible
for the first time. Java support is included in the upgraded kernel.</P>

<P>We discovered the auto-mounter daemon (amd) was running, and had created
a directory named <B>/proc. </B>Inside <B>/proc</B> is every computer mountable
by your workstation. For example, <B>/proc/foo</B> is the root directory
of the host foo, assuming foo will allow outside access. Nice feature!!</P>

<P>The <B>ps</B> command has been changed. Formerly, we used '<B>ps -augx</B>'
to see all processes on our system. That command will no longer work. The
new equivalent is '<B>ps -ax</B>'.</P>

<P>The <B>passwd</B> command has been changed. In fact, my former password
is now considered ill advised, and I've had to pick a new password.</P>

<P>The window manager <B>fvwm95</B> has been included in the upgraded Redhat.
Surprisingly, <B>workman</B>, the musical CD player, was not. See <A HREF="http://www.redhat.com/linux-info/pkglist/rh40_i386/all-packages.html">http://www.redhat.com/linux-info/pkglist/rh40_i386/all-packages.html</A>
for the complete list.</P>

<P>Happily, the Redhat 4.0 upgrade left much of our custom configuration
intact. For example, we run a custom X server that Redhat left in place,
and our NFS mounts as described in <B>/etc/fstab</B> were retained, even
though the upgrade did change <B>/etc/fstab</B> to add other entries (like
the <B>/net </B>file system). We did have to re-edit <B>/etc/rc.d/rc.local</B>
to set our NIS domain.</P>

<H1>The Errata and Other Upgrades</H1>

<P>The errata can be found at <A HREF="http://www.redhat.com/support/docs/rhl/rh40-errata-general.html">http://www.redhat.com/support/docs/rhl/rh40-errata-general.html</A>
. It is actually quite long. Basically, the errata is a list of package
upgrades to Redhat 4.0, along with a description of applicability. We counted
up to 40 packages to download and install, depending on your configuration.
That just too many!! Why does not Redhat make these improved packages a
part of the latest redhat release, possibly called Redhat 4.0.1?</P>

<P>Luckily, the process is quite mechanical, and requires little thought.
Just download the needed files, and run <B>rpm -U </B>on them.</P>

<P>Netscape has upgraded since we did our original install. Unfortunately,
Redhat does not include Netscape, so Netscape must be updated separately.
Perhaps there are legal reasons Redhat does not include Netscape, but Redhat
does include other non-free software, such as <B>xv</B>.</P>

<P>During the upgrade, the install scripts creates backup copies of certain
files in <B>/etc/rc.d/rc*.d</B> with the extension &quot;.rpmsave&quot;.
Once everything is set up correctly, you can delete any files in <B>/etc/rc.d/rc*.d/*.rpmsave</B>.</P>

<H1>The Finished Product</H1>

<P>Overall, the Redhat package is well done. The installation is easier
for Redhat than any other Unix we know of. Redhat 4.0 is a collection of
small upgrades of many packages from Redhat 3.0. There are only a few new
packages (i.e.: <B>fvwm95</B>, <B>TheNextLevel)</B>. Overall, our system
is much as it was before, but with many small improvements. Unless you
have some need to upgrade, or just feel like messing around with your system,
we suggest the results may not be worth the effort. Even so, we like Redhat
4.0 very much.</P>

<P> <HR> <P>

<H3 ALIGN=CENTER>Hot Links</H3>

<UL>
<LI><A HREF="http://www.redhat.com">The Redhat home page</A><BR>
<LI><A HREF="http://euclid.nmu.edu/~randy">The author</A><BR>
</UL>

<P> <HR> <P>

<P>If you have comments or suggestions, email me at <I><A HREF="mailto:randy@euclid.nmu.edu">randy@euclid.nmu.edu</A></I>
</P>

<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P> 
<center><H5>Copyright &copy; 1996, Randy Appleton <BR> 
Published in Issue 12 of the Linux Gazette</H5></center>

<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P> 
<A HREF="./index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/indexnew.gif" 
ALT="[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ]"></A>
<A HREF="../index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/homenew.gif"
ALT="[ FRONT PAGE ]"></A>
<A HREF="./lg_bytes12.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/back2.gif"
ALT=" Back "></A>
<A HREF="tcsh.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/fwd.gif" ALT=" Next "></A>
<P> <hr> <P> 
<!--==================================================================-->

<!--==================================================================-->
<H4>
&quot;Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>
&quot;</H4>

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!--===================================================================-->

<center>
<H2>Features of the TCSH Shell</H2>
<H4>By Jesper Kj&aelig;r Pedersen, 
<a href="mailto:blackie@imada.ou.dk">blackie@imada.ou.dk</a></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>  

<BLOCKQUOTE>
<CENTER><H2>Abstract</H2></CENTER>

<P>
In this article, I will describe some of the main features of TCSH, which I
believe makes it worth using as the primary login shell. This article is
not meant to persuade bash users to change! I've never used bash, and by
that reason I know very little about it.<p>

As some of you surely know, I've created a configuration tool called <a
href="http://www.imada.ou.dk/~blackie/dotfile/">The Dotfile Generator</a>,
which can configure TCSH. I believe that this tool is very handy when one
wants to get the most out of TCSH (without reading the manual page a couple of
times.) Because of that I'll refer to this tool several times throughout
this article to show how it can be used to set up TCSH.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<HR>







<center><h2>Why is the shell so important?</h2></center>
The shell is your interface to executing program, managing files and
directories etc. Though very few people are aware of it, one uses the shell
very much in the daily work. E.g. completing file names, using history
substitution and aliases. The TCSH shell offers all of
these features and a few more, which the average user very seldom takes
advantages of.<p>

With a high knowledge of your shell's power, you may decrease the time you
need to spend in the shell, and increase the time spent on the original tasks









<hr><center><h2><a name="tcsh-completion">Command line completions</a></h2></center>
An important feature that is used by almost all users of a shell is the
<i>command line completion</i>. With this feature you don't need to type
all the letters of a filename, but only the ambiguous ones. This means that
if you wish to edit a file called <tt>file.txt</tt>, you may only need to
type <tt>fi</tt> and hit the TAB key, then the shell will type the rest of
the filename for you.<p>


Basically one can complete on files and directories. This means that you
can not complete on host names, process id's, options for a given program
etc.  Another thing you can not do with this type of completion is to
complete on directory names only, when typing the argument for the command
<tt>cd</tt><p>

In TCSH, the completion mechanism is enhanced so that it is possible to
tell TCSH which list to complete from for each command. This means that
you can tell TCSH to complete from a list of host names when completing
on the commands <tt>rlogin</tt> and <tt>ping</tt>. An alternative is to tell
it to complete only on directories when the command is <tt>cd</tt>.<p>


To configure user defined completion with The Dotfile Generator (from now
on called TDG) go to the page <tt>completion</tt> -> <tt>userdefined</tt>,
this will bring up a page which looks like this:<p>

<center> <IMG SRC="./gx/blackie/userdef.gif"></center><p>

As the command name, you tell TDG which command you wish to define a
completion for. In this example it is <tt>rm</tt>.

Next you have to tell TDG which arguments to the command, this completion
should apply to.  To do this, press the button labeled <tt>Position
definition</tt>. This will bring up a page, which is split in two parts:<p>


<table cols=2 width=100%>
<tr>
<td valign=top><IMG SRC="./gx/blackie/posdef.gif">
<td valign=top>
In the first part, you tell TDG, that the position definition, should be
defined from the index of the argument, which is trying to be completed
(the one, where the tab key is pressed.) Here you can tell it that you
wish to complete on the first argument, all the arguments except the first
one etc.<p>
<tr><td valign=top> <IMG SRC="./gx/blackie/pattern2.gif">
<td valign=top>
The alternative to <i>position dependent completion</i> is <i>pattern dependent
completion</i>. This means that you can tell TDG, that this completion
should only apply if the current word, the previous word or the word before
the previous word conform with a given pattern.
</table>

Now you have to tell the TDG which list to complete from. To do this press
the button labeled <tt>List</tt>. This will bring up a page, where you can
select from a lot of different lists. E.g. aliases, user names, or
directories.

<h3>Files and Directories</h3>
Four of the lists you can select from are <tt>Commands, Directories, File
names</tt> and <tt>Text files</tt>. If you give the optional directory to any
of these, only elements from this directory is used.

<h3>Predefined Lists</h3> There are two ways to let completion be from a
predefined list. One is to mark the option <tt>predefined list</tt>, and
type all the options in this list.<p>

This solution is a  bad idea if the list is used several places (e.g. a list
of host names) in that case, one should select the list to be located in a
variable, and then set this variable in the <tt>.tcshrc</tt> file.

<h3>Output from command</h3>
In many cases the list should be <i>calculated</i> when the completion
takes place. This could e.g. be a list of users located at a given host, or
targets in a makefile.<p>

To set up such a completion, first develop the command, which return the
list to complete from. The command must return the completion list on
standard output as a space separated list. When this is done, insert this
command in the entry saying <tt>Output From Command</tt>.<p>

Here's a little Perl command, which find the targets in a makefile:<br>
<pre>perl -ne 'if (/^([^.#][^:]+):/) {print "$1 "}' Makefile</pre>

If this is inserted in the Entry, one can complete on targets from the file
called Makefile, in the current working directory.<p>

If someone should think that its only to promote TDG, that I describe TCSH
through it, (s)he should take a look at the following line, which is the 
generated code for the <i>make</i> completion:
<pre>
complete make  'p@*@`perl -ne '"'"'if (/^([^.#][^:]+):/) {print "$1"}'"'"'Makefile`@'
</pre>


<h3>Restrict to pattern</h3>
With user defined completion, you can restrict the files, which are
matched, for each command. Here are some very useful examples:
<dl>
  <dt> Restrict latex to *.{tex,dtx,ins}
  <dd> The latex command will only complete on files ending in
       <tt>.tex</tt>, <tt>.dtx</tt> or <tt>.ins</tt>
  <dt> Restrict rm to ^*.{tex,html,c,h}<br>
  <dd> This means that you can not complete rm to a <tt>.tex</tt>,
       <tt>.html</tt>, <tt>.c</tt> or <tt>.h</tt> file!<br>
       I've done that a few times, when I e.g. wanted to delete a file
       called important.c~. Since the file important.c existed tcsh only
       completed to that name, and.. I deleted the wrong file, because I
       was to quick :-(
       
</dl>

<h3>Additional examples</h3> Additional examples can be obtained from TDG,
if you load the export file distributed with TDG. Please note that if you
wish to keep the other pages, you have to tell TDG only to import the page
<tt>completion/userdefined</tt>. This is done on the <tt>Details</tt> page,
which is accessible from the reload page.









<hr><center><h2>Configuring the prompt</h2></center>
Configuring the prompt is very easy with TDG. Just enter the menu called
<tt>prompt</tt>. On this page you can configure three prompts:
<dl>
  <dt> prompt
  <dd> This is the usual prompt, which you see on the command line,
       where you are about to enter a command.
  <dt> prompt2
  <dd> This prompt is used in <tt>foreach</tt>, and <tt>while</tt> loops,
       and at lines continuing lines ended with a slash.
  <dt> prompt3
  <dd> This prompt is used when TCSH tries to help you, when it meet
       commands it doesn't know (called spell checking.)
</dl>

The prompts are mixed with tokens and ordinary text. The tokens are
inserted by clicking on them in the menu below the scrollbar, and the
ordinary text is simply typed in. When a token is inserted an indication will
be shown in the entry. Here's an example of how this may look:<p>

<center><img src="./gx/blackie/prompt.gif"></center><p>


<table cols=2 width=100%>
<tr>
<td valign=top><img src="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
<td valign=top>As has been <a
href="../issue01to08/lg_issue6.html#xterm_title">discussed</a> in issue6 of the Gazette,
some of the prompt may be located in the xterm title bar instead of on the
command line. To do this, choose <tt>font change</tt> and select
<tt>Xterm</tt>.
<tr></table>














<hr><center><h2>History</h2></center>
The history mechanism of the shell is a valuable thing, which makes it
easier to type similar commands after each other.<p>

To see a list of the previously executed commands, type <tt>history</tt>.<p>

The following table lists the <i>event specifiers</i>:<p>

<table border=all  CELLSPACING=1 CELLPADDING=4 cols=2><tr>
<td>!n<td>This refers to the history event, with index <tt>n</tt><tr>
<td>!-n<td>This refers to the history event, which was executed, <tt>n</tt>
times ago: <tt>!-1</tt> for the previous command, <tt>!-2</tt> for the one
before the previous command etc.<tr>
<td>!!<td>This refers to the previous command<tr>
<td>!#<td>This refers to the current command<tr>
<td>!s<td>This refers to the most recent command, whose first word begins
with the string <tt>s</tt><tr>
<td>!?s?<td>This refers to the most recent command, which contain the sting
<tt>s</tt><tr>
</table><p>


With these commands, you can re-execute a command.
E.g. just type <tt>!!</tt>, to re-execute the previous command.
This is however often not what you want to do. What you really wants is to
re-execute some part of a previous command, with some new elements added. To
do this, you can use one of the following <i>word designators</i>, which is
appended to the event specifier, with a colon.<p>


<table border=all  CELLSPACING=1 CELLPADDING=4 cols=2><tr>
<td>0<td>The first word (i.e. the command name)<tr>
<td>n<td>The <tt>n</tt>th word<tr>
<td>$<td>The last argument<tr>
<td>%<td>The word matched by an <tt>?s?</tt> search<tr>
<td>x-y<td>Argument range from x to y<tr>
<td>*<td>All the arguments to the command (equal to ^-$)<tr>
</table><p>

Now it's possible to get the last argument from the previous command, by
typing <tt>!!:$</tt>. You'll however often see that you very often refer to
the previous command, so if no event specifier is given, the previous
command is used. This means that instead of writing <tt>!!:$</tt>, you
may only write <tt>!$</tt>.<p>

More words designators exists, and it's even possible to edit the words with
different commands. For more information about this and for more examples,
please take a look into the <a
href="http://www.imada.ou.dk/Technical/Manpages/tcsh/History_substitution.html">tcsh manual</a><p>


<table cols=2 width=100%>
<tr>
<td valign=top><img src="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
<td valign=top>It is possible to expand the history
references on the command line before you evaluate them by pressing
<tt>ESC-SPC</tt> or <tt>ESC-!</tt> (This is: first the escape key, and
next the space key or the <tt>!</tt> key). On some keyboards you may use the
meta key instead of the escape key. I.e.<tt> M-SPC</tt> (One keystroke!)
<tr></table><p>







<hr><center><h2>Patterns</h2></center>
Many operations in the shell often works on many files, e.g. all files
ending with <tt>.tex</tt> or starting with <tt>test-</tt>. Tcsh has the
opportunity to <i>type</i> all these files for you, with file patterns. The
following list shows which possibilities there exists:<p>

<table border=all  CELLSPACING=1 CELLPADDING=4 cols=2><tr>
<td valign=top>*<td valign=top>Match any number of characters<tr>
<td valign=top>?<td valign=top>Match a single character<tr>
<td valign=top>[...]<td valign=top>Match any single character in the list<tr>
<td valign=top>[x-y]<td valign=top>Match any character within the range of
characters from x to y<tr>
<td valign=top>[^...]<td valign=top>Match elements, which does not match
the list<tr>
<td valign=top>{...}<td valign=top>This expands to all the words
listed. There's no need that they match.<tr>
<td valign=top>^...<td valign=top><tt>^ </tt> in the beginning of a pattern
negates the pattern.<tr>
</table><p>

<h3>Examples</h3>
<dl>
  <dt> match all files ending with .tex
  <dd> *.tex
  <dt> match all files which does not end with .tex
  <dd> ^*.tex
  <dt> match xxxabyy xxxcdeyy and xxxhifjyy
  <dd> xxx{ab,cde,hifj}yy
  <dt> match all .c and .h files
  <dd> *.[ch] or *.{c,h}
</dl>

<h3>The shell expand patterns</h3>
An important thing to be aware of is that it is the shell, which expand the
patterns, and <b>not</b> the programs, which is executed with the pattern.<p>

An example of this is the program <tt>mcopy</tt> which copy files from
disk. To copy all files, you may wish to use a star as in: <tt>mcopy a:*
/tmp</tt>. This does however not work since the shell will try to
expand the star, and since it can not find any files, which starts with
<tt>a:</tt>, it will signal an error. So if you wish to send a star to the
program, you have to escape the star: <tt>mcopy a:\* .</tt><p>


<table cols=2 width=100%>
<tr>
<img align=left src="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
There exists two very useful key bindings, which can be
used with patterns: The first is <tt>C-xg</tt>, which list all the files
matching the pattern, without executing the command. The other is
<tt>C-x*</tt>, which expand the star on the command line. This is
especially useful if you e.g. wishes to delete all files ending in .c except
<tt>important.c</tt>, <tt>stable.c</tt> and <tt>another.c</tt>. To create a
pattern for this, might be very hard, so just use the pattern
<tt>*.c</tt>. Then type <tt>C-x*</tt>, which will expand <tt>*.c</tt> to
all you .c files. Now it's easy to remove the three files from the list












<hr><center><h2>Aliases</h2></center>
When using the shell one will soon recognize that certain commands are
typed again and again. The one at top ten is surly <tt>ls -la</tt>, which
list all files in a directory in long form.<p>

TCSH has a mechanism to create aliases for commands. This means that you can
create an alias for <tt>ls -la</tt> just called <tt>la</tt>.<p>

Aliases may refer to the arguments of the command line. This means that you
can create a command called pack, which take a directory name and pack the
directory with tar and gz. etc.

Aliases can often be a bit hard to create since one often wants
history/variable references expanded at time of use, and not at the
definition time. This has been done easier with TDG, so go to the page
<tt>aliases</tt>, to define aliases. If you end up with an alias you can
not define on this page, but in tcsh, please <a
href="mailto:blackie@imada.ou.dk">send me an email.</a> For more information about
aliases, see the <a href="http://www.imada.ou.dk/Technical/Manpages/tcsh/Alias_substitution.html">tcsh manual</a>









<hr><center><h2>Timing programs</h2></center>
Have you ever needed to know how long a program took to run, how much CPU
it used etc?. If so, you may recognize the output from the tcsh built-in time command:
<pre>
0.020u 0.040s 0:00.11 54.5%     0+0k 0+0io 21pf+0w
</pre>
Informative? Yes but... The gnu time command is a bit more understandable:
<pre>
0.01user 0.08system 0:00.32elapsed 28%CPU (0avgtext+0avgdata 0maxresident)k
0inputs+0outputs (0major+0minor)pagefaults 0swaps
</pre>
But still...<p>

In TDG you can configure the output from the time command on the page
called jobs. It looks like this:<p>

<center><img src = "./gx/blackie/time.gif"></center><p>

As for the prompt, here's an entry once again for mixed tokens and and
ordinary text. Remember, if there is something in TDG that you do not
understand, help is available by pressing the right mouse button over the
given widget.









<hr><center><h2>References</h2></center>
As you may have guessed, TDG and this article will help you a lot of the
way to use TCSH, BUT you may need to read a bit more to get more out
of TCSH, here's a few references:

<ul>
  <li> The <a href="http://www.imada.ou.dk/Technical/Manpages/tcsh/top.html">Tcsh manual page</a>
  <li> The <a href="http://www.primate.wisc.edu/software/csh-tcsh-book/">O'Reilly book</a> on tcsh
  <li> The <a href="mailto:tcsh@mx.gw.com">Tcsh mailing list</a> (send
mail to <a href="mailto:listserv@mx.gw.com">listserv@mx.gw.com</a> with body text <tt>SUBscribe TCSH <i>your name</i></tt>)
</ul>
<hr>
<a href="http://www.imada.ou.dk/~blackie/">Jesper Kj&aelig;r Pedersen</a> &lt;<a
href="mailto:blackie@imada.ou.dk">blackie@imada.ou.dk</a>&gt;

<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P> 
<center><H5>Copyright &copy; 1996, Jesper Kj&aelig;r Pedersen <BR> 
Published in Issue 12 of the Linux Gazette</H5></center>

<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P> 
<A HREF="./index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/indexnew.gif" 
ALT="[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ]"></A>
<A HREF="../index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/homenew.gif"
ALT="[ FRONT PAGE ]"></A>
<A HREF="./redhat.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/back2.gif"
ALT=" Back "></A>
<A HREF="feddi.howto.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/fwd.gif" ALT=" Next "></A>
<P> <hr> <P> 
<!--==================================================================-->

<!--===================================================================-->
<H4>
&quot;Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>
&quot;</H4>

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!--===================================================================-->

Previous
<A HREF="feddi.howto-1.html">Next</A>
Table of Contents
<HR>
<H1>FEddi-COMO</H1>

<H2>Manuel Soriano 
<A HREF="mailto:manu@ctv.es">manu@ctv.es</A></H2>June 29, 1996  v0.5
<P><HR><EM>The present document derives from the famous <CODE>feddi.como</CODE> which
comes with the FEddi+bt packages; this paper is based upon version 0.5.</EM><HR></P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="toc1">1.</A> <A HREF="feddi.howto-1.html">Credits</A></H2>

<P>
<H2><A NAME="toc2">2.</A> <A HREF="feddi.howto-2.html">Introduction</A></H2>

<P>
<H2><A NAME="toc3">3.</A> <A HREF="feddi.howto-3.html">Installing FEddi</A></H2>
<UL>
<LI><A HREF="feddi.howto-3.html#ss3.1">3.1 User installation <CODE>fido</CODE>.</A>
<LI><A HREF="feddi.howto-3.html#ss3.2">3.2 Necessary packages</A>
<LI><A HREF="feddi.howto-3.html#ss3.3">3.3 <I>mailer</I> installation/configuration.</A>
<LI><A HREF="feddi.howto-3.html#ss3.4">3.4 Check and usage.</A>
</UL>

<P>
<H2><A NAME="toc4">4.</A> <A HREF="feddi.howto-4.html">Installation of Binkley.</A></H2>
<UL>
<LI><A HREF="feddi.howto-4.html#ss4.1">4.1 Configuration/Installation of the <EM>caller</EM></A>
<LI><A HREF="feddi.howto-4.html#ss4.2">4.2 Problems</A>
<LI><A HREF="feddi.howto-4.html#ss4.3">4.3 ``Templates''.</A>
</UL>

<P>
<H2><A NAME="toc5">5.</A> <A HREF="feddi.howto-5.html">Messages, collaborations, tricks</A></H2>
<UL>
<LI><A HREF="feddi.howto-5.html#ss5.1">5.1 <CODE>futility</CODE></A>
<LI><A HREF="feddi.howto-5.html#ss5.2">5.2 File request (<I>FREQ</I>).</A>
<LI><A HREF="feddi.howto-5.html#ss5.3">5.3 Frequent addresses.</A>
<LI><A HREF="feddi.howto-5.html#ss5.4">5.4 Scripts and tools.</A>
<LI><A HREF="feddi.howto-5.html#ss5.5">5.5 Automation: The personal area.</A>
<LI><A HREF="feddi.howto-5.html#ss5.6">5.6 A few `tricks' for those that don't agree with RTFM.</A>
<LI><A HREF="feddi.howto-5.html#ss5.7">5.7 Grouping by tens Binkley's appearance:</A>
</UL>

<P>
<H2><A NAME="toc6">6.</A> <A HREF="feddi.howto-6.html">Good bye and conclusion.</A></H2>


<HR>
Previous
<A HREF="feddi.howto-1.html">Next</A>
Table of Contents

<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P> 
<center><H5>Copyright &copy; 1996, Manuel Soriano <BR> 
Published in Issue 12 of the Linux Gazette</H5></center>

<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P> 
<A HREF="./index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/indexnew.gif" 
ALT="[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ]"></A>
<A HREF="../index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/homenew.gif"
ALT="[ FRONT PAGE ]"></A>
<A HREF="./tcsh.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/back2.gif"
ALT=" Back "></A>
<A HREF="gm.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/fwd.gif" ALT=" Next "></A>
<P> <hr> <P> 

<!--===================================================================-->
Previous
<A HREF="feddi.howto-2.html">Next</A>
<A HREF="feddi.howto.html#toc1">Table of Contents</A>
<HR>
<H2><A NAME="s1">1. Credits</A></H2>

<P>The original author of the packages <I>FEddi</I> is Oliver Graf, 2:2454/130.69,
the original port to <I>bt</I> a *nix is copyright (c) 1992, 1993 by Ben Stuyts,
the adaptation to LINUX is copyright (c) 1993 Louis Lagendijk, and the
person who made both versions <I>usable</I> is Manuel Soriano,
<A HREF="mailto:manu@ctv.es">manu@ctv.es</A>.</P>


<HR>
Previous
<A HREF="feddi.howto-2.html">Next</A>
<A HREF="feddi.howto.html#toc1">Table of Contents</A>

<!--===================================================================-->
<A HREF="feddi.howto-1.html">Previous</A>
<A HREF="feddi.howto-3.html">Next</A>
<A HREF="feddi.howto.html#toc2">Table of Contents</A>
<HR>
<H2><A NAME="s2">2. Introduction</A></H2>

<P>Welcome as a future fellow of feddi and bt :-)</P>
<P>Congratulations for your decision to install this package. It's not too
complicated, the only troubles you may run in are some permissions. The
sources included in this package have already been patched to grant a
smoother working.</P>
<P>As well <CODE>fmbedit</CODE> as <CODE>bt</CODE> show some minor problems, so don't flame
as much and think that you didn't pay anything for it. You may contribute
correcting bugs. Don't hold them for yourself, share them. Send me patches
and will make this software improve. A hint: don't run it under <CODE>X</CODE>,
the terminal data base doesn't work smoothly, I'm up to fix this. Surely,
some day I'll be able to path this :-) (I used to say this would be the
next :-DDDDDDDDDDD)</P>
<P>I'm in due with:</P>
<P>
<UL>
<LI>Alfonso Belloso : 2:344/17.2 (if I remember well)</LI>
<LI>Jose Luis Sanchez : 2:346/207.17 (for sure)</LI>
<LI>Pablo Gomez : 2:341/43.12 (fixes for this file and the scripts for the
automation of the personal area)</LI>
<LI>Javier Ruberte : 2:346/401.50</LI>
<LI>Jose Carlos Gutierrez : 2:341/45.17 (scripts to compile the nodelist)</LI>
<LI>Carlos Terron : 2:345/402.23 (patch so <CODE>ftoss</CODE> recognizes upper/lower</LI>
<LI>Francisco Jose Montilla : 2:345/402.22 
<A HREF="mailto:pacopepe@nova.es">pacopepe@nova.es</A>(sgml format)</LI>
<LI>CICCIO C. Simon : 
<A HREF="mailto:ciccio@arrakis.es">ciccio@arrakis.es</A> (english version)</LI>
</UL>
</P>
<P>At the end of this file you'll find messages with hints, all sent by feddi</P>

<HR>
<A HREF="feddi.howto-1.html">Previous</A>
<A HREF="feddi.howto-3.html">Next</A>
<A HREF="feddi.howto.html#toc2">Table of Contents</A>

<!--===================================================================-->
<A HREF="feddi.howto-2.html">Previous</A>
<A HREF="feddi.howto-4.html">Next</A>
<A HREF="feddi.howto.html#toc3">Table of Contents</A>
<HR>
<H2><A NAME="s3">3. Installing FEddi</A></H2>



<H2><A NAME="ss3.1">3.1 User installation <CODE>fido</CODE>.</A></H2>


<P>We'll install <CODE>fido</CODE> as a mail user, but you can give it another name.</P>
<P>If you see <CODE>~/</CODE> in this document, we refer to the user's <CODE>home</CODE>
directory.</P>
<P>
<UL>
<LI>file <CODE>/etc/passwd</CODE>

Include the following line:

<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
fido::2004:300::/home/fido:/bin/bash
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>

</LI>
<LI>file <CODE>/etc/group</CODE>

Include the following line:

<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
fido::300:uucp,fido,root
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>

</LI>
</UL>
</P>


<H2><A NAME="ss3.2">3.2 Necessary packages</A></H2>


<P>You'll need:</P>
<P>
<UL>
<LI><I>perl</I>, do

<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
ls /usr/bin/perl
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>


If not found, install it from disk-set D (Slackware)
</LI>
<LI><I>ncurses</I>, do

<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
ls /usr/lib/libncurses.a
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>


If not found, install it from disk-set D (Slackware)</LI>
</UL>
</P>


<H2><A NAME="ss3.3">3.3 <I>mailer</I> installation/configuration.</A></H2>


<P>Change to the directory <CODE>/FEddi-0.9pl5</CODE> </P>
<P>
<OL>
<LI>Edit the file <CODE>Makefile</CODE>, put for variable <CODE>SRCDIR</CODE> your
fonts' path, e.g.:

<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
SRCDIR=/root/trabajo/mailer/FEddi-dev
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>

</LI>
<LI>Add to the beginning of the line <CODE>NODEPRG =</CODE>: <CODE>nlfunct.o</CODE> else
it won't compile.
</LI>
<LI><CODE>make</CODE></LI>
<LI>If you get the following error:

<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
ncurses.h: No such file or directory
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>


Do:

<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
ln -s /usr/include/ncurses/curses.h /usr/include/ncurses/ncurses.h
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>

</LI>
<LI>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
su root
make install
exit
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>

</LI>
<LI>It seems that the install utility doesn't copy all of the utilities;
do the following:

<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
cp utils/* ~/fnet/utility
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>

</LI>
<LI>A few files need modification:

<UL>
<LI>File <CODE>printmsg</CODE>

<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>

#!/bin/sh
cat | $HOME/fnet/utility/formatmsg | lpr
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>

</LI>
<LI>File <CODE>exportmsg</CODE>

<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>

#!/bin/sh
if test $1 = &quot;new&quot;
  then
        cat | $HOME/fnet/utility/formatmsg &gt; &quot;$2&quot;
  else
        cat | $HOME/fnet/utility/formatmsg &gt;&gt; &quot;$2&quot;
fi
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>

</LI>
</UL>

</LI>
<LI>The fnet directory has the following contents:

<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
./outbound
./msgbase
./copy
./log
./inbound
./utility
./nodelist
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>


Create these directories and do the following:

<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
chown -R fido.fido fnet
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>

</LI>
<LI>Configuration file <CODE>~/.feddirc</CODE>:

<UL>
<LI>Permissions <CODE>644</CODE></LI>
<LI>User/group <CODE>fido.uucp</CODE></LI>
</UL>



<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
;
; This .feddirc was automatically created with config.user
;
; Profile Section
;
PROFILE Manuel Soriano
2:346/207.punto net_name the_passwd outbound 2:*
25:946/100.punto other_net_name the_passwd outbound 25:*
93:346/101.punto other_net_name the_passwd outbound 93:*
END
; The first line is your main address, the following are subnets, the routing
; fro 25: to 93: is done by means of 2:
;
;
;
; Paths
;
MsgBasePath  ~/fnet/msgbase/
InboundPath  ~/fnet/inbound/
OutboundPath ~/fnet/
UtilityPath  ~/fnet/utility
Log          ~/fnet/log/feddi.log 200
CopyPath     ~/fnet/copy/
NodelistPath ~/fnet/nodelist/
;
; Misc
;
Packer       /usr/bin/zip -q -m -k -j %s %s
; Editor       /usr/bin/vi %s
Beep         Yes
AutoDelEmpty Yes
KeepPKT      No
KeepNL       Yes
KeepBackups  No
ShowAllAddr  Yes
MaxMsgLength 64k
QuoteLength 70
ReplySubject No
AskForOrigName Yes
AutoNextFolder Yes
;
; End of .feddirc
;
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>


You may base your configuration on this file, as it works for me without
troubles.

</LI>
<LI>File <CODE>~/fnet/nodelist/fnlcrc</CODE>

<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
dial    34-6-   3
dial    34-6    
dial    *       

pointlist       ptlstr34
pointlist       eu_point

nodelist        region34
nodelist        eu_nodes
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>


<CODE>dial</CODE> : According to your zone 34-6 (Valencia), 34-1 (Madrid),
34-3 (Barcelona), etc...

As <CODE>pointlist</CODE>, the different lists of points, you may use the point lists
that come from the <I>bbs</I>, without modification.

As <CODE>nodelist</CODE>, the different lists of nodes, you may use the node lists
that come from the <I>bbs</I>, without modification.

That's it.

</LI>
<LI>Compiling the nodelist/pointlist

I'm using the following scripts. They are simple and work.

<UL>
<LI>file <CODE>~/fnet/nodelist/compila0</CODE>
permissions <CODE>777</CODE>

<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
#!/bin/bash
unzip lista.zip
mv EU_NODOS* eu_nodos
mv EU_PUNTO* eu_punto
mv PTLSTR34* ptlstr34
mv REGION34* region34
mv SNETLIST* snetlist
mv SUBPTLST* subptlst
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>


</LI>
<LI>file <CODE>~/fnet/nodelist/compila1</CODE>
permissions <CODE>777</CODE>

<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
#!/bin/bash
rm fnlc.*
fnlc
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
</LI>
</UL>


This will compile the lists. If you run into troubles, certainly it's about
permissions. Check four files, normally the binaries go to <CODE>/usr/bin</CODE></LI>
</OL>
</P>


<H2><A NAME="ss3.4">3.4 Check and usage.</A></H2>


<P>Check your mail. Look for a mail package you might have for MS/DOS. Put it
into the directory <CODE>~/fnet/inbound</CODE> and do</P>
<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
ftoss ; futility pack ; futility link
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
</P>
<P>This will always be the way to handle your incoming mail. <CODE>ftoss</CODE> will
create automatically the <I>folder</I> according to your areas.</P>
<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
fmbedit
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
</P>
<P>If everything went well you'll see the mail of that package on your screen :-)</P>
<P>The editor is quite simple and well documented. It looks somewhat like the
<I>fmail</I>'s editor.</P>
<P>Create a message in an area or two and do the following:</P>
<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
fscan
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
</P>
<P>This will always be the way to handle your outgoing mail.</P>


<HR>
<A HREF="feddi.howto-2.html">Previous</A>
<A HREF="feddi.howto-4.html">Next</A>
<A HREF="feddi.howto.html#toc3">Table of Contents</A>

<!--===================================================================-->
<A HREF="feddi.howto-3.html">Previous</A>
<A HREF="feddi.howto-5.html">Next</A>
<A HREF="feddi.howto.html#toc4">Table of Contents</A>
<HR>
<H2><A NAME="s4">4. Installation of Binkley.</A></H2>



<H2><A NAME="ss4.1">4.1 Configuration/Installation of the <EM>caller</EM></A></H2>


<P>
<OL>
<LI>The first thing to do is:

change directory to <CODE>/bt</CODE>

do

<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
make
su root
make install
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>


you should get in <CODE>/usr/bin</CODE>:

<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     fido       238983 Sep 15 18:04 /usr/bin/bt
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>


and in <CODE>/usr/lib/binkley</CODE>:

<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root          742 Sep 16 10:04 binkley.cfg
-rw-r--r--   1 uucp     root          108 Sep 16 10:10 binkley.day
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root        12332 Sep 15 16:20 binkley.lng
-rw-r--r--   1 uucp     root          124 Mar 20  2029 binkley.scd
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root        14423 Sep 15 16:20 btctl
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root        13813 Sep 15 16:20 btlng
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root        15649 Sep 15 16:20 english.txt
-rwsr-xr-x   1 uucp     fido         1603 Sep 15 16:20 fido-toconv
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>


</LI>
<LI>File <CODE>/usr/lib/binkley/binkley.cfg</CODE>

<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
FEddiNodelist
(1)Port 2
(2)baud     38400
LockBaud 38400
(3)Init ATZ0|~AT&amp;K6|~
(4)Prefix ATDP
PreDial ~
PreInit |v``^``
LogLevel 5
LineUpdate
Gong
AutoBaud
PollTries 10
PollDelay 600
Unattended
BoxType 0
NiceOutBound  
ReadHoldTime 1
(5)System seudonimo_fido
(6)Sysop tu_nombre
StatusLog    /home/fido/fnet/log/binkley.log  200
Downloads    /home/fido/fnet/inbound/
CaptureFile  /home/fido/fnet/log/session.log
NetFile      /home/fido/fnet/inbound/
Hold         /home/fido/fnet/outbound/
Nodelist     /home/fido/fnet/nodelist/
(7)Address 2:346/207.XX@FidoNet.org 5207 tel_del_boss
(8)Key !the_passwd 2:346/207
(9)Domain FidoNet.org outbound
Address 25:946/100.XX@EuroNet.org
Key !the_passwd 25:946/100
Domain EuroNet.org outbound
Address 93:346/101.XX@SubNet.org
Key !the_passwd 93:346/101
Domain SubNet.org outbound
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>


You may start with this file. Just change what you need and take away the
numbers in parenthesis.

<UL>
<LI>(1), serial port you're going to use 1 COM1, 2 COM2, etc... (*)</LI>
<LI>(2), port speed, 19200 if it's a 16450</LI>
<LI>(3), the modem's initialization string</LI>
<LI>(4), the prefix for your bbs, e.g.: ATDP (pulses) o ATDT (tones)</LI>
<LI>(5), your nickname as it appears on the pointlist, w/o the _</LI>
<LI>(6), your name as it appears on the pointlist, w/o the _</LI>
<LI>(7), your main fido address fakenet bbs_telefone_number</LI>
<LI>(8), your password and the boss, don't forget to put an ``!'' as a prefix
to your password.</LI>
<LI>(9), Subdomains, if you have some, handle them following the same rules
as your main domain.</LI>
<LI>(*)  You may use 5, which will open <CODE>/dev/modem</CODE>. 
Normally <CODE>/dev/modem</CODE> is a <I>symlink</I> to 
<CODE>/dev/cua0</CODE> or <CODE>/dev/cua1</CODE>,
(<CODE>ln -s /dev/cua1 /dev/modem</CODE>). At least I have it this way...</LI>
</UL>


</LI>
<LI>Include the following line in your <CODE>~/.profile</CODE>

<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
export BINKLEY=/usr/lib/binkley
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>


do

<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
. ~/.profile
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>


(you need to do this just now. The next time you enter as <CODE>fido</CODE> you'll
already have <CODE>BINKLEY</CODE> initialized)

</LI>
<LI>Execute 

<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
bt
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>

</LI>
</OL>
</P>


<H2><A NAME="ss4.2">4.2 Problems</A></H2>

<P>If you run into troubles, for sure it's about permissions or a badly defined
path. Check them out.</P>
<P>
<OL>
<LI>The most common error is: 

<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
cannot re-open logfile
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>


The owner is usually: <CODE>usuario.uucp</CODE>.

The permissions: <CODE>664</CODE>

</LI>
<LI>Another rather common error:

Here it might be that the assigned tty doesn't have the appropriate
permissions. Specially if this had been used by <CODE>getty</CODE>, normally it should
get permissions to read and write for everybody. 

The message was: 

<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
tty port can not be initialized
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>


Solution:

<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
chmod 666 /dev/ttyS0  
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>


or ttyS1; (COM1: or COM2:).

</LI>
<LI>For <EM>RedHat</EM> users:

<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
ln -s /var/spool /usr
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>

</LI>
</OL>
</P>
<P>If you get a screen similar to <I>frodo</I> you could do the following:</P>
<P><CODE>ALT-Y</CODE>, call your bbs, it'll leave your mail there and fetch what you
got. Then you just need to execute the commands mentioned for mail handling.</P>
<P>If it appears to have fallen asleep during the <EM>FIRST</EM> file transmission,
hit the <CODE>ESC</CODE> key to wake it up.</P>


<H2><A NAME="ss4.3">4.3 ``Templates''.</A></H2>


<P>This is my templates file <CODE>$FNET/msgbase/template</CODE>:</P>
<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
#if to (AreaMgr|FileScan)
#;
#; ********** Handling of AreaMgr- and FileScan-Mails **********
#;
#else
#if group (--InterNet--)
#;
#; ********** Handling of  Internet-Mails **********
#;
How are you #1E!

#if mode (reply)
In &lt;#a&gt; #f wrote:
#.
#quote
#else
#.
#endif

Greetings,
  Manu

#|insertfortune
#else
#;
#; ********** Handling of other Mails **********
#;
Hi #1E!

#if mode (reply|forward)
#if mode (netreply)
That happy day #d, #f said to #e
in #a concerning &quot;#s&quot;:
#.
#quote
#endif
#if mode (^reply)
On #d, #f would write to #e
concerning &quot;#s&quot;:
#.
#quote
#endif
#if mode (forward)

Even if it doesn't look like, it's a forward
 * Message from #f to #e
 *         on #d to #t
 *         concerning &quot;#s&quot;
 *         in #a
                                      ,,,
                                     (o o)
---------------------------------oOO--(_)--OOo------------------------------

#text

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
#endif
#else
#.
#endif

#if group (--Intern--|^$)
#if from Manuel Soriano
Bye,
  Manu

#|insertfortune
#else
Bye,
  #1F
#endif
#else
Bye,
  #1F
#endif
#endif
#endif

                \|/         
                0-0         dpsys10@dapsys.ch
    *****---oOo-(_)-oOo---**********************************************
    * Manuel Soriano             * El Perello/Valencia/Spain *
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
</P>
<P>Once created your area directories, you can create an <CODE>origin</CODE> file in
each of them, and insert one or several lines (but not more than 70 chars) 
referring to your message's origin.</P>


<HR>
<A HREF="feddi.howto-3.html">Previous</A>
<A HREF="feddi.howto-5.html">Next</A>
<A HREF="feddi.howto.html#toc4">Table of Contents</A>

<!--===================================================================-->
<A HREF="feddi.howto-4.html">Previous</A>
<A HREF="feddi.howto-6.html">Next</A>
<A HREF="feddi.howto.html#toc5">Table of Contents</A>
<HR>
<H2><A NAME="s5">5. Messages, collaborations, tricks</A></H2>


<P>>From here on I'll state things I received from fido users.</P>

<H2><A NAME="ss5.1">5.1 <CODE>futility</CODE></A></H2>


<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Message Number 1 from area R34.LINUX
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jesus Gambero (2:345/201.3)
From: All
Subj: FEddi
Send: 25 Nov 95  15:43:57
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi.

For now, FEddi hasn't got too much documentation, so after a couple of
tests, finally I'm able to maintain the message base.

        futility tool delete &quot;age+15&amp;&amp;protect-&amp;&amp;new-&quot; R34.LINUX
        futility pack

This will delete the messages older than 15 days which are not protected
and which have been read.

If you don't specify the area name, it'll refer to all. It happens that
I leave some areas more days than others, so I have to specify a line for
each area, but my customize it at will.

Bye.

--- FEddi 0.9pl5 via BinkleyTerm
 * Origin: Message written and send by Linux, of course!!
(2:345/201.3)
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
</P>





<H2><A NAME="ss5.2">5.2 File request (<I>FREQ</I>).</A></H2>


<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Message Number 4 from area R34.LINUX
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Javier Hernandez (2:346/207.48)
From: ALL
Subj: FILE REQUEST
Send: 07 Dec 95  06:15:45
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi!

I have been trying to find out how to do the RE: with the Linux software,
and I already fetched my first file. I'll explain how I did it, just if
anybody is interested, or knows about a more correct manner.

First I write a Net, usually to my sysop. After finishing I exit with
(Alt+x). Having the message activated, I hit (Alt+g) to open a small
window which displays some data. Once seeing it, I pulse `Inc' and type
the name of the file I wish to download. Finally I push `Esc'.

This should be enough. Next time you call you'll receive the file. At
least this is how it worked for me.

Any comments?

Bye,
  Javier

                    fjherna@ibm.net                    _\|/_
    ***********************************************-----(O)---****
    * Javi(Canary)                              * Valencia/Spain *

--- FEddi 0.9pl5 via BinkleyTerm
 * Origin: RAMERA: persona que comercia con su RAM. (2:346/207.48)
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
</P>


<H2><A NAME="ss5.3">5.3 Frequent addresses.</A></H2>


<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Message Number 6 from area R34.LINUX
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Javier Hernandez (2:346/207.48)
From: Manuel Soriano
Subj: Testing send.
Send: 11 Dec 95  23:58:55
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi Manuel!

As of 07 Dec 95, Manuel Soriano wrote to Javier Hernandez
concerning &quot;Testing send.&quot;:

 MS&gt; I've received it correctly, in the write area, just tell us how you
 MS&gt; did it. Hope you'll write us a feddi.howto :-)

See, I put a file called &quot;names&quot; into /home/fido/fnet/msgbase which might
be similar for you. The file's contents:
-------------------------start here-------------------------------------
*fj,Javier Hernandez,2:346/207.48
*fm,Francisco Moreno,2:346/207.1
*ap,Alfonso Perez-Almazan,2:346/207.2
*vk,Viktor Martinez,2:346/207.4
*sz,Salvador Zarzo,2:346/207.6
*el,Eduardo Lluna Gil,2:346/207.8
*bs,Bernardino Soldan,2:346/207.10
*ms,Manuel Soriano,2:346/207.14
*js,Jose Luis Sanchez,2:346/207.17
*jv,Jose Villanueva,2:346/207.28
*am,Alberto Mendoza,2:346/207.44
*pe,pepsales@portables.com,2:342/3
*am,areamgr,2:346/207
*rt,rtorres@gimn.upv.es,2:342/3
----------------------------stop here-----------------------------------
This causes that, inserting a net instead of writing a To:, push PgUp or
PgDown, you can see the different names. As you see, I've even added some
Internet addresses which I'm using sometimes. The first field, I think, is
some kind of short keys to make a call directly to this line. I don't remember
right now how is this done, but it's easy and you'll find it in the man page
for feddi.

I don't know if I missed something. If you agree, just add it to feddi.como.
Let me know if you think there is missing something, I'll send it to you.

See ya.

Bye,
  Javier

             fjherna@ibm.net
             fj.chicha@p48.europa3.encomix.com         _\|/_
    ***********************************************-----(O)---****
    * Javi(Canary)                              * Valencia/Spain *

--- FEddi 0.9pl5 via BinkleyTerm
 * Origin: RAMERA: person dealing with his RAM. (2:346/207.48)
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
</P>


<H2><A NAME="ss5.4">5.4 Scripts and tools.</A></H2>


<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Message Number 11 from area R34.LINUX
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jose Carlos Gutierrez (2:341/45.17)
From: all
Subj: Feddi-como, Scripts
Send: 26 Dec 95  11:42:31
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi

These are the files I'm using to automate mail.

file /usr/local/bin/fido
#!/bin/bash
pushd ~/fnet/inbound
.minusculas
if [ -f snetlist.a* ] ||
   [ -f subptlst.a* ] || [ -f region34.l* ] || [ -f ptlstr34.l* ]; then
      ~/fnet/nodelist/compilar
fi
ftoss
futility link
fmbedit
fscan
futility pack
popd

 |------------|
file ~/fnet/inbound/.minusculas
(the dot is to avoid that it converts itself to lower case)

#!/usr/bin/perl
while ($nombre = &lt;*&gt;) {
   $nuevo_nombre = $nombre;
   $nuevo_nombre=~ tr/A-Z,/a-z,/;
   print &quot;$nombre -&gt; $nuevo_nombre \n&quot;;
   rename($nombre,&quot;$nuevo_nombre&quot;); }
 |------------|
file ~/fnet/nodelist/compilar

#!/bin/bash
# file to compile the nodelist
pushd ~/fnet/nodelist
if [ -f ~/fnet/inbound/ptlstr34.l* ]; then
        rm ptlstr34*
        unpack ~/fnet/inbound/ptlstr34.l*
fi
if [ -f ~/fnet/inbound/region34.l* ]; then
        rm region34*
        unpack ~/fnet/inbound/region34.l*
fi
if [ -f ~/fnet/inbound/snetlist.a* ]; then
        rm snetlist*
        unpack ~/fnet/inbound/snetlist.a*
fi
if [ -f ~/fnet/inbound/subptlst.a* ]; then
        rm subptlst*
        unpack ~/fnet/inbound/subptlst.a*
fi
# what I'm doing here is insert the line of my Boss for him to call the bt
# with ctrl + y (this is probably the most difficult way to do it, by I know
# of no other).
grep -i -B 4000  'Boss,2:341/45' ptlstr34.* &gt; /tmp/file1
grep -i -A 4000  'Boss,2:341/45' ptlstr34.* &gt; /tmp/file2
grep -v 'Boss,2:341/45' /tmp/file2 &gt; /tmp/file3
rm ptlstr34.*
cat /tmp/file1 &gt; ptlstr34
# you'll have to adapt this line to your system
echo &quot;,0,Ma~ana_Remoto,Madrid,Rafa,34-1-6463023,9600,CM,V34,VFC&quot; &gt;&gt; ptlstr34
cat /tmp/file3 &gt;&gt; ptlstr34
rm /tmp/file1
rm /tmp/file2
rm /tmp/file3
#
rm -f ~/fnet/inbound/ptlstr34*
rm -f ~/fnet/inbound/region34*
rm -f ~/fnet/inbound/snetlist*
rm -f ~/fnet/inbound/subptlst*
rm fnlc.*
fnlc
popd



Bye,
                Guti.

--- FEddi 0.9pl5 via BinkleyTerm
 * Origin: THE GANG TM (2:341/45.17)
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
</P>


<H2><A NAME="ss5.5">5.5 Automation: The personal area.</A></H2>


<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Message Number 1358 from area R34.LINUX
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Pablo Gomez (2:341/43.40)
From: All
Subj: The personal area in FEDDI, a fine(ally) version ;-)
Send: 24 Jun 96  00:35:31
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi!

Will since some time we have been trying to find out a possibility to provide
in FEDDI a personal area allowing the reception of mail directed to us
from any area, and, over all, (as the former isn't difficult) reply them
in a comfortable way, sending them back to the original areas.

The following scripts at least allowed Francisco Jose Montilla and the author
of this message to do the trick.

The first step is creating an area which will later serve as PERSONAL.
We can do it like:

(As user fido)

$ cd ~/msgbase
$ mkdir +PERSONAL
$ cp +R34.LINUX/* +PERSONAL/

(PERSONAL is the name you want to give the personal area) Check if the
permissions and the owner of this new directory are the same as those
you have in other areas. If not, correct them.

Next, to clean the messages, do:

$ futility &quot;+delete&quot; &quot;all+&quot; PERSONAL
$ futility pack PERSONAL

If you invoke fmbedit again, you'll the the new area, called PERSONAL!
:-) magic? :-)

Now we've got the base. Next part: Copy the new messages that are arriving
to the system to our name. This is done (almost) automatically.

If we create a file like:

                                      ,,,
                                     (o o)  File: ~/msgbase/tosspath
---*reiss*------*schnippel*------oOO--(_)--OOo-------*knabber*-----*fetz*---

copy    t&quot;Pablo Gomez&quot; PERSONAL

---*reiss*------*schnippel*--------------------------*knabber*-----*fetz*---

that's it. Obviously you'll have to replace my name (Pable Gomez) with yours,
and PERSONAL with the name of your personal area. Each time we run ftoss,
this will copy to the personal area the messages directed to us.

This point deserves a comment. In fact, this will copy also the messages
directed to us and received in NETMAIL. In my opinion, this is somewhat
brain-dead, as the NETMAIL area is already our personal area. I don't know
of no modification to avoid this copy. So a little later we'll have to
make a certain adjustment.

This is a piece (the important one ;-)) of the script I run to receive the
mail.
                                      ,,,
                                     (o o)  File: ~/bin/mimport
---*reiss*------*schnippel*------oOO--(_)--OOo-------*knabber*-----*fetz*---
#!/bin/sh

# To manage the personal area
PERSAREA=PERSONAL

# Mail import
ftoss

#
# Feeding personal area
# We just have delivered the messages, generating the necessary duplicates in
# PERSONAL. But we'd liked to delete the messages which we just copied to
# the PERSONAL area, and which come from the NETMAIL area
#
futility tool &quot;+delete&quot; \
  &quot;new+&amp;&amp;text+\*\*\* ftoss: copied from NETMAIL&quot; $PERSAREA


# reconstruct threads
futility pack
futility link

#[...]
---*reiss*------*schnippel*--------------------------*knabber*-----*fetz*---

Be careful: the lines `futility tool ...' and `new ...&quot; are just one. The
aim is to delete this redundant messages from NETMAIL.


Going on with message handling. The messages in the PERSONAL area contain
lines like:

*** ftoss: copied from R34.LINUX

(for instance) :-)

I reply (just in the PERSONAL area) the message, and don't care for anything,
_EXCEPT_ to not delete this line, which will serve later as a `witness' to
allow the message be replied in the correct area.

Then, exporting the mail, I run the following script:
                                      ,,,
                                     (o o)  File: ~/bin/mexport
---*reiss*------*schnippel*------oOO--(_)--OOo-------*knabber*-----*fetz*---
#!/bin/sh

USER_BIN_DIR=/home/fido/bin
LOCAL_BIN_DIR=/usr/local/bin
# Name of personal area
PERSAREA=PERSONAL

# user name
USERNOM=&quot;Pablo Gomez&quot;

# temp output file name
OUTFILE=/tmp/persanswr




# Extraction of the messages in the personal area which are due for process
# and which will then be marked as `sent'
#
futility tool &quot;display&quot; &quot;attribute-se&amp;&amp;from+Pablo Gomez&quot; $PERSAREA &gt; $OUTFILE
futility tool &quot;+se&quot; &quot;attribute-se&amp;&amp;from+Pablo Gomez&quot; $PERSAREA

# distribution to the new areas...
awk -f $USER_BIN_DIR/persreply.awk &lt; $OUTFILE

# scan the message base
#
$LOCAL_BIN_DIR/fscan
---*reiss*------*schnippel*--------------------------*knabber*-----*fetz*---

And the `awk' line included in the file persreply.awk reads:

                                      ,,,
                                     (o o)  File: ~/bin/persreply.awk
---*reiss*------*schnippel*------oOO--(_)--OOo-------*knabber*-----*fetz*---

BEGIN   {
#
# Touch this if necessary
# ATTENTION: Watch also for instruction blocks marked with &quot;####&quot;:
# these too will need adjustment.
#
        outputfile=&quot;/tmp/tmpreply&quot;
#
#
# down here I suppose only the blocks marked with `###' my need changes
#
        borracmd=sprintf(&quot;rm -f %s&quot;, outputfile)
        replyarea=&quot;&quot;
        estado=1
        system(borracmd)
        }

# It's only valid the first time found in each message.
# Avoid copying, so it won't reach another system which is using the same
# system
/\*\*\* ftoss: copied from /{
        if (estado==1) {
                viejoestado=2
                estado=3
                replyarea=$NF
### Modify:

        print &quot;*** pers_area: Copiado desde area PERSONAL&quot; &gt;&gt; &quot;/tmp/tmpreply&quot;
        }
        }

/^#To: / {
        user=&quot;&quot;
        for (n=2; n &lt;= NF; n++)  {
                user=sprintf(&quot;%s %s &quot;,user,$n)
        }
        }
# Avoid writing the following lines:
/^#Area: / {
        viejoestado=estado
        estado=3
        }

/^#@To: / {
        viejoestado=estado
        estado=3
        }



# always but in the before mentioned cases...
estado != 3{
#####
#
# ATTENTION!: Modify as above.
#  Sorry for the hack, but I couldn't make it work otherwise.
#
        print $0 &gt;&gt; &quot;/tmp/tmpreply&quot;
        }
# Restore the previous state
estado==3 { estado=viejoestado }


/^###MESSAGE_END###/{
        if (estado==2) {
                close (outputfile)
                comando=sprintf(&quot;cat %s | futility addmsg %s&quot;,outputfile,
replyarea)
                system(comando)
                system(borracmd)
                estado=1
                replyarea=&quot;&quot;
        }
        }

END     {
        system(borracmd)
        }
---*reiss*------*schnippel*--------------------------*knabber*-----*fetz*---

Be careful: there are cut off lines (visibly), and there is a double hack
which I wasn't able to resolve better. Instead of defining all of the above
variables, there is one, `outputfile' which I had to redefine half way of
the script as a constant, because I didn't know how to do it better. I tried
to pass the variable quoted in different styles, but I couldn't achieve it.
Maybe one of you could give me a hint.

This was tested with several simultaneous messages, but I think I never
failed to destroy the line with ***ftoss...

Regards until the next time. I hope you'll find it useful. I'll be pleased
to get comments, improvements, etc.


Bye,
Pablo GOMEZ
pgomez@p12.laereas.encomix.com

--- FEddi 0.9pl5 via BinkleyTerm
 * Origin: Puntomatico Remoto. Linux en Hoyo de Manzanares (2:341/43.40)
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
</P>


<H2><A NAME="ss5.6">5.6 A few `tricks' for those that don't agree with RTFM.</A></H2>



<H3>Replying mail.</H3>


<P>
<UL>
<LI>To reply -in the normal way- the <I>From:</I> in the same area, <CODE>Alt+r</CODE></LI>
<LI>To reply the <I>To:</I> in the same area as the message: <CODE>Ctrl+r</CODE>.</LI>
<LI>To reply -via <I>net</I>- the message's <I>From</I>: <CODE>Alt+n</CODE></LI>
<LI>To reply -via <I>net</I>- the message's <I>To</I>: <CODE>Ctrl+n</CODE> <BR>

To be able to do the latter, the addressee must be in the <CODE>pointlist</CODE>,
otherwise just nothing happens.</LI>
</UL>
</P>

<H3>``Navigating'' around the message base.</H3>


<P>
<UL>
<LI>To get a list of the areas messages, pulse <CODE>Alt+l</CODE>; using then the
cursor right key, you'll be changing to the list of areas. </LI>
<LI>To follow the conversation's <I>thread</I> upon it's <I>Re:</I>, you'll need
to hit the <CODE>Tab</CODE> key, and see a list similar to that which appears
in the previous item. If you continue using this key you'll change the
references to the linked messages. <BR>

You will know that there multiple linked messages (this is what <CODE>futility
link</CODE> does) by one and the same <I>Re:</I> and by some yellow codes which
appear in the right upper corner of the screen, in the zone dedicated to
the message's header.</LI>
</UL>
</P>

<H3>File operations</H3>


<P>
<UL>
<LI>To do a <I>File Attach</I>, or sending a file ``attached'' to a message,
<I>netmail</I>, -once the addressee has been typed- push <CODE>Alt+y</CODE>, followed
by <CODE>f</CODE>; then <CODE>Alt+j</CODE> and finally <CODE>Tab</CODE>; you'll be able to ``navigate''
up to the file. <BR>

The latter <CODE>Tab</CODE> applies to all operations related to files(insert file,
export message to file, etc...)</LI>
</UL>
</P>


<H2><A NAME="ss5.7">5.7 Grouping by tens Binkley's appearance:</A></H2>


<P>
<UL>
<LI>Create the following file and execute it in place of the <CODE>bt</CODE>: <BR>

File <CODE>/usr/bin/bbs</CODE>

<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
echo -e &quot;\033(U&quot;
/usr/bin/bt
echo -e &quot;\033(B&quot;
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>

</LI>
<LI>Type the command:
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
chmod 755 /usr/bin/bbs
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>

</LI>
<LI>Edit <CODE>/usr/lib/binkley/binkley.cfg</CODE> changing the value of the
line <CODE>BoxType</CODE> to <CODE>3</CODE>:

<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
[...]
BoxType 3
[...]
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>

</LI>
</UL>
</P>


<HR>
<A HREF="feddi.howto-4.html">Previous</A>
<A HREF="feddi.howto-6.html">Next</A>
<A HREF="feddi.howto.html#toc5">Table of Contents</A>

<!--===================================================================-->
<A HREF="feddi.howto-5.html">Previous</A>
Next
<A HREF="feddi.howto.html#toc6">Table of Contents</A>
<HR>
<H2><A NAME="s6">6. Good bye and conclusion.</A></H2>


<P>Well, that's all, have fun, and we'll read about us via fido.</P>
<P>Don't forget:</P>
<P>Send me comments, modifications you have to this soft, but send flames to
<CODE>/dev/null</CODE> :-)</P>

<P>Bye,</P>
<P>Manu</P>

<HR>
<A HREF="feddi.howto-5.html">Previous</A>
Next
<A HREF="feddi.howto.html#toc6">Table of Contents</A>

<!--===================================================================-->
<!--===================================================================-->
<H4>
&quot;Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>
&quot;</H4>

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!-- =============================================================
		This Page Designed by Michael J. Hammel.
		Permission to use all graphics and other content for private,
		non-commercial use is granted provided you give me (or the 
		original authors/artists) credit for the work.

		CD-ROM distributors and commercial ventures interested in 
		providing the Graphics Muse for a fee must contact me,
		Michael J. Hammel (mjhammel@csn.net), for permission.
     ============================================================= !-->

<!--  The Button box as a client side imagemap -->
<MAP NAME="nav-main">
<AREA SHAPE="rect" HREF="#mews" coords="3,10 158,56">
<AREA SHAPE="rect" HREF="#musings" coords="5,85 142,116">
<AREA SHAPE="rect" HREF="#resources" coords="5,152 177,182">
</MAP>


<TABLE width=640>
<tr>
	<td width=441 valign="top" align=left cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0>

		<!-- The title graphics -->
		<IMG SRC=./gx/hammel/gm2.gif ALT="Welcome to the Graphics Muse"
				ALIGN="left" WIDTH="441" HEIGHT="216" border="0"></td>

	<td width=199 align=right valign="bottom">
		<table>
		<tr>
			<td align=center>
				<FONT size=2>
				Set your browser to the width of the line below for best viewing.
				</FONT>
				<!-- The Copyright -->
				<BR><FONT size=1>
				Copyright &copy 1996 by
				<A HREF="mailto:mjhammel@csn.net">mjh</A>
				</FONT></td>
			</tr>
		</table></td>

<tr>
	<!-- Provide a measure for readers to adjust their browsers to -->
	<td cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 valign=bottom align=center colspan=2>
		<HR>
		</td>
</table>

<TABLE width=640>
<tr>
	<td width=177 align=left valign=top>
		<IMG SRC=./gx/hammel/buttons2.gif ALT="Button Bar"
				ALIGN="left" WIDTH="177" HEIGHT="185" 
				USEMAP="#nav-main" border="0"></td>


	<td width=463 align=left valign=top>
		<!-- What is a Graphics Muse? -->
		<FONT size=4><B>muse:</B></FONT>
		<OL>
			<LI><I>v;</I> to become absorbed in thought
			<LI><I>n;</I> [ fr. Any of the nine sister goddesses of learning and the
				arts in Greek Mythology ]: a source of inspiration
		</OL>
		<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/w.gif ALT="W" ALIGN="left" 
			HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="36" HEIGHT="28">elcome 
		to the Graphics Muse!  Why a "muse"?  
		Well, except for the sisters aspect, the above definitions are
		pretty much the way I'd describe my own interest in computer graphics:  
		it keeps me deep in thought and it is a daily source of inspiration.

		<!-- Text based navigation -->
		<P>
		<CENTER>
		<FONT size=2>
		[<A HREF="#mews">Graphics Mews</A>]
		[<A HREF="#musings">Musings</A>]
		[<A HREF="#resources">Resources</A>]
		</FONT>
		<CENTER></td>


<tr>
	<td align=center colspan=2>
		<!-- HR -->
		</td>
</table>

<TABLE width=640>
<tr>
	<td width=640>
	<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
		HSPACE="8" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1">
	<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/t.gif ALT="T" ALIGN="left" 
		HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="26" HEIGHT="28">his 
	column is dedicated to the use, creation, distribution, and discussion of 
	computer graphics tools for Linux systems.  My first column, in
	the November issue of Linux Gazette, left something to be desired in
	both content and graphics.  As one reader pointed out, I didn't even
	follow my own guideline for making background images.  Well, it looked good
	on my system at home.  The problem was one of poor time
	management on my part.  I finished up the chapters of a web server book I'm 
	co-authoring at the end of September, so I had more time to work on
	this months column.  Hopefully the format is cleaner and the content more
	informative.
	<P>
	<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
	HSPACE="8" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1">
	And, in the future, I'll try to follow my own guidelines.
	<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="vertical space" ALIGN="left" 
	VSPACE="10" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1">
	</td>
</table>


<!-- Netscape has a bug when applying a Name tag to an image, so we have to
     stick the image in a table so the image will be the top item on the
     page.
  -->
<A NAME="mews">
<table width=640>
<tr>
<td align=left>
<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/mews.gif ALT="Graphics Mews" ALIGN="left" 
	HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="242" HEIGHT="53">
</td>
</table>
</A>

<BR clear=both>
<TABLE width=640 border=0>
<tr>
	<td colspan=4>
		Disclaimer:
		Before I get too far into this I should note that any of the news items I
		post in this section are just that - news.  Either I happened to run across
		them via some mailing list I was on, via some Usenet newsgroup, or via
		email from someone.  I'm not necessarily endorsing these products (some of
		which may be commercial), I'm just letting you know I'd heard about them in
		the past month.
		<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
			VSPACE="10" HSPACE="10" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1"></td>
<tr>
	<td width="50%">
		<H4>New version of Pro MovieStudio driver available 
				on Sunsite archives</H4>
		<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
			HSPACE="8" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1">Wolfgang 
		Koehler has released the 3.0 version of his PMS-grabber
		package to the sunsite archives.  This package provides a driver
		and X application for grabbing frames from the Pro MovieStudio
		(aka PMS) adapter by Mediavision.  Depending on when it
		is migrated to its final resting place, the package can be obtained
		either from 
		<A HREF="ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/incoming">
		ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/incoming</A>
		or
		<A HREF="ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/video">
		ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/video</A>.</td>

	<td bgcolor="#000000" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
		<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
			HSPACE="0" WIDTH="0" HEIGHT="0"></td>
	<td bgcolor="#ffffff" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
		<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
			WIDTH="0" HEIGHT="0"></td>

	<td width="49%" valign=top>
		<H4>ImageMagick Library updated</H4>
		<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
			HSPACE="8" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1">A New revision of the 
			<A HREF="http://www.wizards.dupont.com/cristy/ImageMagick.html">
			ImageMagick Library</A>, version 3.7.7,
			was released this past month.</td>

<tr>
	<td colspan=4 bgcolor="#000000" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
		<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
			HSPACE="0" WIDTH="0" HEIGHT="0"></td>

<tr>
	<td width="50%">
		<H4>Netscape Tcl Plugin released</H4>
		<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
			HSPACE="8" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1">The 
			<A HREF="http://www.sunlabs.com/tcl/plugin">
			Tcl Plugin 1.0</A>
			was also released this past month.  This is a Netscape plugin
			that allows web page authors to write Tcl based applets for 
			your web pages.</td>

	<td bgcolor="#000000" cellpadding=1 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
		<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
			HSPACE="0" WIDTH="0" HEIGHT="0"></td>
	<td bgcolor="#ffffff" cellpadding=1 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
		<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
			WIDTH="0" HEIGHT="0"></td>

	<td width="49%" valign=top>
		<H4>Digigami looking for testers for MovieScreamer tool
		</H4>
		<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
			HSPACE="8" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1">There 
			is now a conversion tool for creating Quicktime videos.
			Digigami is looking for Unix Webmasters to be Beta testers for its
			<A HREF="http://www.digigami.com/MovieScreamer-info.html">
			MovieScreamer</A> multi-platform, 'Fast-Start' publishing
			and conversion tool for QuickTime(tm) movies.
			'Fast-Start' QuickTime movies are standard 'flattened' movie 
			files that have been 're-organized' for playback over the 
			Internet (or corporate Intranets).</td>
  
<tr>
	<td colspan=4 bgcolor="#ffffff" cellpadding=1 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
	<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
		VSPACE="5" HSPACE="10" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1"></td>
<tr>
	<td colspan=4 bgcolor="#000000" cellpadding=1 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
		<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
			HSPACE="0" WIDTH="0" HEIGHT="0"></td>
<tr>
	<td colspan=4 bgcolor="#ffffff" cellpadding=1 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
	<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
		VSPACE="5" HSPACE="10" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1"></td>

<tr>
	<td colspan=4>
		<H4>Did you know?</H4>
		</A>
		<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
			HSPACE="8" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1">
		<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
			HSPACE="8" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1">There 
		is a font archive, complete with sample renderings of the
		fonts, available at 
		<A HREF="http://www.ora.com/homepages/comp.fonts/ifa/os2cdrom/index.htm">
		http://www.ora.com/homepages/comp.fonts/ifa/os2cdrom/index.htm</A>?
		The ftp site for the fonts is at
		<A HREF="ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/os2/fonts/">
		ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/os2/fonts/</A>.
		<P>
		<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
			HSPACE="8" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1">A 
		large list of general graphics information is available at
		<A HREF="ftp://x2ftp.oulu.fi/pub/msdos/programming/">
		ftp://x2ftp.oulu.fi/pub/msdos/programming/</A>.
		Look under /theory, /math, /faq and a host of other subdirectories.
		There is a lot to wade through, but just about all of it has some
		value, including information on shading and object sorting.
		<P>
		<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
			HSPACE="8" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1">
		<A HREF="http://werbach.com/barebones/">The Bare Bones Guide to HTML</A>
		is a useful resource for people who need to find the correct
		HTML syntax for HTML 3.0 or Netscape based web pages.</td>


<tr>
	<td colspan=4 bgcolor="#ffffff" cellpadding=1 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
	<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
		VSPACE="5" HSPACE="10" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1"></td>
<tr>
	<td colspan=4 bgcolor="#000000" cellpadding=1 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
		<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
			HSPACE="0" WIDTH="0" HEIGHT="0"></td>
<tr>
	<td colspan=4 bgcolor="#ffffff" cellpadding=1 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
	<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
		VSPACE="5" HSPACE="10" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1"></td>
</table>



<P>
<A NAME="musings">
<table>
<tr>
<td>
<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/musings.gif ALT="Musings" ALIGN="left" 
	HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="247" HEIGHT="52">
</td>
</table>
</A>
<BR clear=both>

<TABLE width=640>
<tr>
	<td valign=top width="44%">
		<A NAME="lmg">
		<H4>O'Reilly releases <I>The Linux Multimedia Guide</I>.</H4>
		</A>
		<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
			HSPACE="8" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1">
		<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/i.gif ALT="I" ALIGN="left" 
			HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="13" HEIGHT="34">
		recently picked up my copy of <I>The Linux Multimedia Guide</I> 
		by Jeff Tranter.  This text covers a wide range of material related
		to the creation and use of multimedia files with respect to the
		Linux operating system.  The text is approximately 350 pages, 
		including source code listings for a number of sample multimedia
		applications which are discussed in one chapter of the book.
		As usual, O'Reilly provides copies of the source from their ftp site.
		<BR>
		<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
			HSPACE="8" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1">
		When I first found out about this book I thought "Rats, Jeff beat
		me too it."  Much of what Jeff covers is listed in my own Linux
		Graphics mini-Howto.  However, there are quite a number of items
		not covered by the LGH (as I call it), such as audio, a bit more 
		detail about video formats and tools, and programming considerations
		for various hardware (CD-ROMs, joysticks, and sound devices), which
		make the Linux Multimedia Guide a good addition to the O'Reilly
		family of Unix books.
		<BR>
		<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
			HSPACE="8" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1">
		The text is divided into 5 sections:
		<OL>
			<LI>Introduction to Multimedia
			<LI>User's Guide
			<LI>A Survey of Multimedia Applications
			<LI>Multimedia Programmer's Guide
			<LI>Appendices
		</OL>
		The first section introduces
		the reader to the various concepts involved with multimedia such as the
		CD-ROMs, image file formats, and sound files.  The chapters here are
		generally brief but the one on audio is quite informative.  There is
		a discussion on audio file formats as well as a comparison of a few
		of the popular sound cards available for Linux.
		<BR>
		<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
			HSPACE="8" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1">
		Section two opens with a discussion on hardware requirements for
		doing multimedia on Linux systems.  Most of this section centers on either
		the CD-ROM driver or the Linux Sound Driver (now known as OSS).
		There is also a short chapter on the joystick driver.
		<BR>
		<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
			HSPACE="8" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1">
		The second longest section, A Survey of Multimedia Applications, 
		covers applications for the
		various forms of multimedia.  There are chapters on sound and music
		applications, graphics and animations applications, hypermedia
		applications, and games.  The last chapter, on games, seems a bit out of
		place.  There are games implemented as network applications using Java,
		JavaScript and the new Tcl/Tk plug-in for Netscape but this chapter 
		doesn't cover these.  This section is very similar to the LGH in that the
		chapters provide the program names and URLs associated with them (if any).
		The number of items covered is less than the LGH, but there are better
		descriptions of the applications in the book.
		<BR>
		<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
			HSPACE="8" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1">
		Chapter fourteen opens the fourth section, the Multimedia
		Programmer's Guide.  This section is the longest in the book and
		covers all the devices discussed earlier.  Other chapters in this section
		cover some of the available toolkits available to multimedia developers.
		There is one chapter which contains three sample applications.
		<BR>
		<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
			HSPACE="8" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1">
		In general I find the <I>Linux Multimedia Guide</I> a good reference
		text with a moderate degree of developer tutorials.  Unlike many of the
		books available for Linux this text provides detailed explanation on the
		various programming interfaces, a useful tool beyond the simple "what
		is this and where do I get it" that many of the Howto's provide.  The
		only drawback that I can see is that, like most of other Linux texts, this
		text does not provide a users perspective on any of the tools listed.  If
		Linux is to ever go beyond a developer's-only platform there will need to be
		detailed users guides for the various well known applications.
		</td>

	<td bgcolor="#ffffff" cellpadding=1 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
		<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
			WIDTH="0" HEIGHT="0"></td>
	<td bgcolor="#000000" cellpadding=1 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
		<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
			HSPACE="0" WIDTH="0" HEIGHT="0"></td>
	<td bgcolor="#ffffff" cellpadding=1 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
		<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
			WIDTH="0" HEIGHT="0"></td>


	<td valign=top width="53%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0>
	<table>
	<tr>
		<td valign=top cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0>
			<UL>
				<LH>
					<A HREF="more-musings.html">
					<B>More Musings...</B>
					</A>
					</LH>
				<LI>Creating GIF Animations
			</UL>
			<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
				VSPACE="5" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1">
		</td>

	<tr>
		<td bgcolor="#000000" cellpadding=1 cellspacing=0 valign=top>
		<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
			WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1"></td>

	<tr>
		<td valign=top cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0>
		<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
			VSPACE=5 WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1"><BR CLEAR="both">
		<H4>Textural Creations</H4>
		<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
			HSPACE="8" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1">
		<IMG SRC=./gx/hammel/n.gif ALT="N" ALIGN="left" 
			HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="24" HEIGHT="27">ot
		long ago I got email from a reader of my Unix Graphics Utilities
		page asking this:
		<BLOCKQUOTE>
			I am just getting into the graphics scene and I have POV-Ray (for linux)
			and a few other programs.  I know how to create an image with a 
			modeller but how do apply texture and color to it?
		</BLOCKQUOTE>

		My answer was simple enough: It depends on what modeller you use 
		and what renderer you use.  POV-Ray for
		Linux doesn't have a modeller.  You have to feed it a text file which
		contains both shapes and textures and POV-Ray will render (draw) it.  There
		are 4 modellers that I know of for Linux: AC3D, AMAPI, SCED, and Midnight
		Modeller.  SCED allows you to preview your image using various renderers.
		AC3D has a built in renderer, as does AMAPI.  All three will output files
		that can be used by a number of renderers (such as POV-Ray, Radiance,
		PolyRay, RIB formats, etc).  Modellers create shapes that are
		independent of the tools used to render the image.
		<BR>
		<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
			HSPACE="8" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1">
		Modellers are great for creating shapes, but the textures applied to those
		shapes depend on what renderer you use.  POV-Ray has its own set of
		commands that it uses for determining how a texture will look on an object
		in a scene.  Commands for creating textures are different for other
		systems, like the procedural language (an actual programming language) 
		used by BMRT (which conforms to the Renderman
		specification - i.e. the formats used by Pixar and their tools).
		<BR>
		<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
			HSPACE="8" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1">
		So, the answer to the question is:  it depends on what renderer you use.
		For POV-Ray you need to learn the command syntax for describing textures.
		If you can find a copy, pick up "Ray Tracing Creations" 2nd edition by
		Chris Young and Drew Wells.  It may be out of print.  This text has a good
		reference for the 2.2 version of POV-Ray.  Although the texture commands
		were expanded for the 3.0 version, you can still create 2.2 based textures
		by providing the "#version 2.2" command in your POV-Ray source file.
		In this way you have a handy reference for learning how to create textures
		in POV-Ray.  You still have to do this by hand, though.  I've heard rumors
		that there may be a 3.0 text eventually, but I don't have any word if that
		is true or not.
		<BR>
		<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
			HSPACE="8" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1">
		As far as setting the textures from within the modeller, well, I don't
		think any of the modellers do that for you.  You still have to manually set
		the textures (SCED allows you to do so from within the modeller, but I'm
		not sure the others do) using the command language of the particular
		renderer you're using.  The reason for this goes
		back to what I said earlier:  the format of the texture commands depends 
		on what renderer you use.
		<BR>
		<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
			HSPACE="8" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1">
		Its best to think of modelling and rendering as two separate tasks.  If you
		want to preview your models you still need to run the renderers separately
		(except for SCED which will launch the renderer for you, but its still a
		separate program - the renderer is not part of the modeller).
		<BR>
		<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
			HSPACE="8" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1">
		I know this is confusing.  It was for me too.  In fact, I gave up on
		modellers and now create my images by hand (I use vi to edit
		the .pov and .inc input files for POV-Ray).  I've only recently started 
		to look seriously again at modellers.
		</td>
	</table>
	</td>



</table>


<P>
<A NAME="resources">
<table>
<tr>
<td>
<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/resources.gif ALT="Resources" ALIGN="left" 
	HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="246" HEIGHT="57">
</td>
</table>
</A>

<BR clear=both>
The following links are just starting points for finding more information
about computer graphics and multimedia in general for Linux systems.  If
you have some application specific information for me, I'll add them to my
other pages or you can contact the maintainer of some other web site.  I'll
consider adding other general references here, but application or site
specific information needs to go into one of the following general 
references and not listed here.

<BR clear=both>
<P>

<A HREF="http://www.csn.net/~mjhammel/linux-graphics-howto.html">
Linux Graphics mini-Howto
</A>

<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.csn.net/~mjhammel/povray/povray.html">
Unix Graphics Utilities
</A>  

<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.digiserve.com/ar/linux-snd/">
Linux Multimedia Page
</A>  

<br>


<P>
<A NAME="future">
<H2>Future Directions</H2>
</A>
Next month:
<UL>
	<LI>What I use the Gimp for - a users story
	<LI>The IRTC - A raytracing competition for the fun of it
	<LI>Review:  The AC3D Modeller
	<LI>Book Review:  Jim Blinn's Corner - A Trip Down the Graphics Pipeline
	<LI>...and lots more!
</UL>
<BR>
<A HREF="mailto:mjhammel@csn.net">
Let me know what you'd like to hear about!</A>


<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P> 
<center><H5>Copyright &copy; 1996, Michael J. Hammel <BR> 
Published in Issue 12 of the Linux Gazette</H5></center>

<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P> 
<A HREF="./index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/indexnew.gif" 
ALT="[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ]"></A>
<A HREF="../index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/homenew.gif"
ALT="[ FRONT PAGE ]"></A>
<A HREF="./feddi.howto.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/back2.gif"
ALT=" Back "></A>
<A HREF="savage.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/fwd.gif" ALT=" Next "></A>
<P> <hr> <P> 
<!--===================================================================-->

<!-- =============================================================
		This Page Designed by Michael J. Hammel.
		Permission to use all graphics and other content for private,
		non-commercial use is granted provided you give me (or the 
		original authors/artists) credit for the work.

		CD-ROM distributors and commercial ventures interested in 
		providing the Graphics Muse for a fee must contact me,
		Michael J. Hammel (mjhammel@csn.net), for permission.
     ============================================================= !-->

<A NAME="musings">
<table>
<tr>
<td>
<H2>More...</H2>
<BR clear=both>
<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/musings.gif ALT="Musings" ALIGN="left" 
	HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="247" HEIGHT="52">
</td>
</table>
</A>
<BR clear=both>

<table>
<tr><td>
<UL>
	<LI><A HREF="#gif-animations">Creating GIF Animations</A>
</UL></td>
</table>

<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
	VSPACE="35" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1">
<BR clear=both>

<P>

<A NAME="gif-animations">
<H4>Creating GIF Animations</H4>
</A>
<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
	HSPACE="5" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1">
Recently, while working on a text on Unix web servers, I was tasked with 
writing about multimedia applications.  During my research on this subject
I discovered a little known fact about the GIF image file format:  it supports
multiple images in a single file which can be used to create animations.
Creating GIF images is fairly simple.  There a number of tools available
for Linux systems that can either create new GIF images or convert image
files in other formats to the GIF format.   Tools such as the <I>Gimp</I> or 
<I>XPaint</I>
can be used to create images while <I>xv</I> or the <I>NetPBM</I> 
tools can be used to convert images from other formats. 
<BR>
<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
	HSPACE="5" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1">
In order to create a GIF animation you must first create a series of GIF
images.  These images make up the frames of the animation, much like cell
animations make up a cartoon (although there is no reason why your GIF
files can't be converted from 3D images such as those created with POV-Ray or 
BMRT).  The animation only plays as fast the the host machines ability to
read, decode and display the individual frames.  On older 486 systems this
might be a problem so its wise to keep your images small.  For GIF images
this means keeping the dimensions (height and width) of the animation small.
You should also consider how jumpy you want the animation to be.  Small
amounts of movement of objects from frame to frame will reduce the
jumpiness of the overall animation, but it also can significantly increase
the overall size of the GIF file.  Since Netscape (the only browser that
I know of that currently supports this type of animation) tries to load the
entire GIF file before it begins playing the animation it would be wise to
consider keeping the file size small.
<BR>
<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
	HSPACE="5" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1">
Once you have the individual frames created, you'll need to put them all
into a single GIF file.  You can use a nifty little tool called
<A HREF="http://www.msg.net/utility/whirlgif/">
WhirlGIF</A>
to do this.  WhirlGIF is a command line tool (no GUI) that concatenates the
series of GIF images into a single GIF image and configures the GIF header
so that Netscape will know how to play the animation.  The GIF header
allows for a number of options, including some that are Netscape specific
(Netscape didn't create their own format - the GIF format allows for
application specific extensions).  You can provide the number of times to
loop the animation and the delay time to use between frames (which can be
used to slow down and animation if so desired).
<BR>
<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
	HSPACE="5" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1">
There is a terrific page devoted to GIF animations at
<A HREF="http://members.aol.com/royalef/gifanim.htm">
http://members.aol.com/royalef/gifanim.htm</A>.  This page is not Linux (or
Unix) specific, but it does include pointers to WhirlGIF and the
information in a number of the pages there are very applicable to creating
GIF animations on Linux systems.

<BR>
<IMG SRC=../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif ALT="indent" ALIGN="left" 
	VSPACE="35" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1">
<BR clear=both>


<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P> 
<center><H5>Copyright &copy; 1996, Michael J. Hammel </H5></center>
<center> <H5>Published in Issue 12 of the Linux Gazette</H5></center>
<P> <hr> <P> 
<!--===================================================================-->

<!--==================================================================-->
<H4>
&quot;Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>
&quot;</H4>

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!--===================================================================-->

<center>
<H2>InfoZIP Archive Utilities</H2>
<H4>By Robert G. &quot;Doc&quot; Savage,
<a href="mailto:dsavage@accessus.net">dsavage@accessus.net</a></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>  

I'm a big fan of utilities.  When I saw that CND/RHS were distributed
with older versions of the InfoZIP zip/unzip suite of archive utilities,
I made upgrading them my first Linux project.  It turned out to be a
little bit more complicated than I thought it would be.
<P> 
I especially wanted to add in the DES encryption modules to zip/unzip so
they would be 100% file compatible with PKWare's archivers for MS-DOS. 
U.S. State Department rules make it difficult to implement this as an
RPM, so I decided to do it as a classic shell script.  The end user will
have to ftp the source code (especially the DES code module) from the
site specified in the script.
<P> 
<P> <HR> <P> 
Script #1:
<PRE> 
#!/bin/sh
#
# undatezip reverses updatezip and restores a Caldera Network Desktop v1.0 or
# Red Hat Software v2.1/v3.0.3 InfoZIP suite installation to its original zip
# v2.01 and unzip v5.12 configuration.  This should only be necessary if you
# need to upgrade from a pristine as-installed configuration.
#
#	original versions	>>updatezip >>>	new versions
#	without encryption	<<< undatezip <<<	with encryption
#
# Copyright (C) 1996 by Robert G. "Doc" Savage.  Permission is granted to
# distribute this document by electronic means and on CDs provided that it
# is kept entirely in its original format.  Permission is also granted to
# print and execute this document for personal use.  The republishing of
# this document in part or in whole without the permission of the copyright
# holder by any means other than as noted above is prohibited.
#
# First, the executables
#
cd /usr/bin
rm -f *.encrypt
rm -f funzip unzip unzipsfx zip zipcloak zipgrep zipinfo zipnote zipsplit
mv funzip383.export funzip
mv unzip512.export unzip
mv unzipsfx512.export unzipsfx
mv zip201.export zip
mv zipcloak201.export zipcloak
mv zipinfo202.export zipinfo
mv zipnote201.export zipnote
mv zipsplit201.export zipsplit
#
cd /usr/man/man1
rm -f funzip.1 funzip39.1 unzip.1 unzip52.1 unzipsfx.1 unzipsfx52.1 zip.1 \
 zip21.1 zipinfo.1 zipinfo21.1 zipgrep.1 zipgrep21.1 zipcloak.1 zipnote.1 \
 zipsplit.1
mv funzip383.1 funzip.1
mv unzip512.1 unzip.1
mv unzipsfx512.1 unzipsfx.1
mv zip201.1 zip.1
mv zipinfo202.1 zipinfo.1
#
cd
hash -r
#
# That's it...
</PRE> 
<P> <HR> <P> 
Script #2:
<PRE> 
#!/bin/sh
#
# updatezip is a shell script for Caldera Network Desktop v1.0 or Red Hat
# Software's v2.1/v3.0.3 distributions to upgrade the InfoZIP utilities unzip
# from v5.12 to v5.2, and zip from v2.01 to v2.1.  It also adds the zcrypt DES
# encryption module not provided in the RHS (or any other) distribution.
#
# To undo this upgrade and restore a CND v1.0 or RHS v2.1/v3.0.3 installation
# to its original zip/unzip configuration, run the companion file undatezip.
#
# 	original versions	>>updatezip >>>	new versions
# 	without encryption	<<< undatezip <<<	with encryption
#
# Copyright (C) 1996 by Robert G. "Doc" Savage.  Permission is granted to
# distribute this document by electronic means and on CDs provided that it
# is kept entirely in its original format.  Permission is also granted to
# print and execute this document for personal use.  The republishing of
# this document in part or in whole without the permission of the copyright
# holder by any means other than as noted above is prohibited.
#
# It is divided into four sections:
#
#   Section 1 create the working directory.
#   Section 2 compile the unzip and zip executables.
#   Section 3 replace the existing versions of the zip/unzip suite.
#   Section 4 clean up.
#
# Instructions
# ==========================================================
#
# Download these files from <http://www.leo.org/pub/comp/os/os2/archiver>:
#
#   unzip52.zip
#   zcrypt26.zip
#   zip21.zip
#
# Copy them and updatezip to a safe directory (suggest root's home directory
# /root).  Use 'chmod 700 updatezip' to make it executable, then run it.
# Execution time is slightly over four minutes on a DX4/100 system with 28M
# of RAM, a 32-bit EISA host adapter, and an older SCSI-1(CCS) hard drive.
#
# IMPORTANT
# ---------
# Caldera Network Desktop 1.0, when first installed, is missing an important
# file required to compile certain programs.  The following lines create (or
# recreate) this missing file.  This script will fail without it.
#
cd /usr/src/linux
make include/linux/version.h
cd
#
# Section 1.  Create the working directory and extract all required files.
#
mkdir /scratch
cp unzip52.zip /scratch
cp zcrypt26.zip /scratch
cp zip21.zip /scratch
cd /scratch
#
# Section 2. Compile unzip first, then zip
#
unzip unzip52
unzip -o zcrypt26             # -o forces overwrite of stub files
cp -f ./unix/Makefile .
make generic
rm -f *.o                     # clean-up before next compile round
unzip -o zip21
unzip -o zcrypt26
cp -f ./unix/Makefile .
make generic_gcc
#
# Section 3. Install new versions of the zip/unzip suite.  Preserve the
# existing executables and man files first.  Use soft links to point
# to the new versions.
#
cd /usr/bin
mv funzip funzip383.export
mv unzip unzip512.export
mv unzipsfx unzipsfx512.export
mv zip zip201.export
mv zipcloak zipcloak201.export
mv zipinfo zipinfo202.export
mv zipnote zipnote201.export
mv zipsplit zipsplit201.export
#
cd /usr/man/man1
mv funzip.1 funzip383.1
mv unzip.1 unzip512.1
mv unzipsfx.1 unzipsfx512.1
mv zip.1 zip201.1
# note there is no zipgrep.1 in this distribution
mv zipinfo.1 zipinfo202.1
#
cd /usr/bin
mv /scratch/funzip funzip39.encrypt
mv /scratch/unzip unzip52.encrypt
mv /scratch/unzipsfx unzipsfx52.encrypt
mv /scratch/zip zip21.encrypt
mv /scratch/zipcloak zipcloak21.encrypt
mv /scratch/unix/zipgrep zipgrep21.encrypt
mv /scratch/zipnote zipnote21.encrypt
mv /scratch/zipsplit zipsplit21.encrypt
#
cd /usr/man/man1
mv /scratch/unix/funzip.1 funzip39.1
mv /scratch/unix/unzip.1 unzip52.1
mv /scratch/unix/unzipsfx.1 unzipsfx52.1
mv /scratch/man/zip.1 zip21.1
mv /scratch/man/zipgrep.1 zipgrep21.1
mv /scratch/unix/zipinfo.1 zipinfo21.1
#
# Now establish the soft links
#
ln -s funzip39.1 funzip.1
ln -s unzip52.1 unzip.1
ln -s unzipsfx52.1 unzipsfx.1
ln -s zip21.1 zip.1
ln -s zip.1 zipcloak.1        # remember, zip.1 is
ln -s zipgrep21.1 zipgrep.1
ln -s zipinfo21.1 zipinfo.1
ln -s zip.1  zipnote.1        # already soft-linked
ln -s zip.1 zipsplit.1        # to zip21.1
#
cd /usr/bin
ln -s funzip39.encrypt funzip
ln -s unzip52.encrypt unzip
ln -s unzipsfx52.encrypt unzipsfx
ln -s zip21.encrypt zip
ln -s zipcloak21.encrypt zipcloak
ln -s zipgrep21.encrypt zipgrep
ln -s unzip52.encrypt zipinfo # a special link
ln -s zipnote21.encrypt zipnote
ln -s zipsplit21.encrypt zipsplit
#
# Section 4. Clean up the leftovers.
#
cd                            # go to your home directory
rm -rf /scratch               # nothing worth saving in the scratch directory
hash -r                       # re-sync the paths
#
# That's it...
</PRE> 
<P> <HR> <P> 
--Doc Savage, Sr. Network Engineer, I-NET, Inc.

<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P> 
<center><H5>Copyright &copy; 1996, Robert G. Savage <BR> 
Published in Issue 12 of the Linux Gazette</H5></center>

<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P> 
<A HREF="./index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/indexnew.gif" 
ALT="[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ]"></A>
<A HREF="../index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/homenew.gif"
ALT="[ FRONT PAGE ]"></A>
<A HREF="./gm.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/back2.gif"
ALT=" Back "></A>
<A HREF="slang.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/fwd.gif" ALT=" Next "></A>
<P> <hr> <P> 
<!--==================================================================-->

<!--==================================================================-->
<H4>
&quot;Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>
&quot;</H4>

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!--===================================================================-->

<center><h1>Slang Applications for Linux</h1></center>

<center><h4><a href="mailto: layers@vax2.rainis.net">by Larry
Ayers</a></h4></center>

<center>Copyright (c) 1996</center><BR>

<center><H5>Published in Issue 12 of the Linux Gazette</H5></center>

<hr>
<center><h3>Introduction</h3></center>

<p>John E. Davis of the Center for Space Research at MIT has written an
interpreted programming language called Slang, which has a C-like syntax. He
has written several programs using this language, including the slrn
newsreader and the emacs-like Jed editor.  Lately a few other programmers have
begun to make use of Slang; one reason for this is that Slang allows the use
of color in a text-mode program which will display equally well in an rxvt
window under X.

<p>Applications which are linked with the Slang library always seem to be
text-mode programs.  Typically Linux text-mode applications use the ncurses
library to handle screen display.  Ncurses enables the use of menus, a certain
amount of color, and a more complex screen layout.  These traits don't always
translate well into an X-Windows environment; i.e. running in an xterm or rxvt
window. If an application is linked with the Slang library instead its
behavior is more consistent between the console and X sessions, especially
when started from an rxvt window.

<hr>

<center><h3>An Aside Concerning Rxvt and Xterm</h3></center>

<p>I get the impression that the xterm terminal emulator is used more commonly
than rxvt, though this may be due more to tradition than innate
superiority. Rxvt has been revised several times recently and in its current
form (version 2.19) has much to recommend it. One feature which I appreciate
is that it's memory usage is much lower than that of xterm.  Rxvt handles
color requests well, both background/foreground specifications and
extension-specific colorization such as "color-ls".  The most recent version
even allows the use of Xpm images as background, similar to a web-page, though
as with a web-page a background image would have to be carefully chosen so as
not to obscure the text.

<p>Some xterm variants make use of color, but some don't.  I find the
plenitude of xterms and color-xterms rather confusing; it's hard to tell just
which ones you have, and they vary from distribution to distribution.  Then
there is xterm's Tektronix compatibility, which I've never seen a use for.
Reading the xterm man page I get the impression that xterm was developed for
older mainframe-and-terminal systems.

<hr>

<center><h3>Applications Which Use Slang</h3></center>

<ol>
  <li><b>Slrn</b> is a fast, high quality news-reader which supports threading of
      messages, decoding of MIME attachments, and has the ability to tell a
      web-browser to load a URL contained within a message.  It has many
      other features and options; it is one of John Davis's programs and he
      actively supports it in the newsgroup <i>news.software.readers</i>.
  <li><b>Lynx</b>, the text-mode web-browser, looks less archaic when compiled with
      Slang support. If you can't see the images on a page, at least the text
      elements and background can be nicely colored!
  <li><b>Jed</b>, John Davis's emacs-like editor, is surprisingly capable considering
      it is a fraction of the size of any real emacs. If you've ever hesitated
      to start up Gnu Emacs or Xemacs just to read an info page, try Jed; it
      reads them just as well and is quicker to invoke. Jed has
      syntax-highlighting for a variety of file types.
  <li><b>The Midnight Commander</b>, the exemplary text-mode file-manager, now
      includes enough of the Slang files in its source distribution to compile
      with Slang screen management without Slang libraries on your
      system. Slang is the default in recent versions of MC and the two are
      well-matched.
  <li><b>Minicom</b> is available in a binary, Slang-enabled version at
      ftp://sunsite.unc.edu.  Color really makes this classic comm program
      more usable, especially in an rxvt window. 
  <li>The <b>Mutt</b> mail program is an interesting offshoot of Elm development
      which is well on its way toward becoming an alternative to Pine and Elm.
      Slang is listed as an alternative to ncurses in the pre-compilation
      configure script options, but I can't say how well it works as it will
      only successfully compile with ncurses on my system.
  <li><b>Dosemu</b>, though still dubbed an alpha version by the development
      team, is remarkably stable and useful.  Recently I compiled the latest
      version (I had been using an old RPM version) and was surprised to see
      that the configure script looks for the Slang library.  After the
      compilation I ran <i>ldd</i> against the <i>dos</i> binary and found
      that it is dynamically linked with the Slang library.  Interesting!  I
      looked through the source code and docs to see if there was any
      information on Dosemu's use of Slang, but finally gave up.  You could
      spend days wandering around the Byzantine directory hierarchy of Dosemu!
      
</ol>

<hr>

<p>I'm sure as the benefits of Slang become more widely known we shall see
more text-mode applications with Slang support included.  There very well be
others than the above-listed out there; these are just the ones I've run
across.

<hr>

<center><h3>Availability</h3></center>

<p>Precompiled binaries for slrn, lynx, and the Jed editor (with Slang
statically linked, I assume) are available at ftp://sunsite.unc.edu and its
mirrors .  I used these for some time, but recently I obtained the source for
Slang and compiled a shared library.  The advantage of this approach is that
you can compile binaries which dynamically link the Slang library at runtime.
Your executables will be smaller, and one shared library can service any
number of Slang-using applications. Another advantage to obtaining the source
distributions is that you'll end up with more documentation. 

<p>John E. Davis's creations (slrn, Jed, and the Slang sources) are available
at <a href="ftp://space.mit.edu/pub/davis/">their MIT home site</a>. The most
recent versions, as well as beta versions, can be found there.

<p><a href="ftp://ftp.nuclecu.unam.mx/linux/local/">This Mexican site</a> is
the source for the most recent versions of the Midnight Commander, as well as
rxvt.

<p>Beta versions (which seem stable to me) of Michael Elkins' Mutt mail
program are available from <a href="ftp://cs.hnc.edu/pub/me">this FTP
site.</a> Maybe <i>you</i> can get it to compile with Slang!

<p>Lynx binaries with Slang support can be found at sunsite and its mirrors.

<p>The source for the latest and greatest of the Dosemu releases can be found
at the <a href="ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/ALPHA/dosemu">tsx-11</a> FTP
site. (Version 0.64.1 was released in November).

<hr>

<p>If you're like me and work at the console often, you'll find it's nice to
have applications available which work well (and look good!) in an X session
too. I think you will be pleased with the high quality and low memory
usage of the above-listed apps.

<hr>

<address><a href="http://vax2.rain.gen.mo.us/~layers/">Larry Ayers&lt;layers@vax2.rain.gen.mo.us&gt;</a></address>
<!-- hhmts start -->
Last modified: Thu Nov 21 13:43:51 CST 1996
<!-- hhmts end -->

<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P> 
<A HREF="./index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/indexnew.gif" 
ALT="[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ]"></A>
<A HREF="../index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/homenew.gif"
ALT="[ FRONT PAGE ]"></A>
<A HREF="./savage.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/back2.gif"
ALT=" Back "></A>
<A HREF="updates.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/fwd.gif" ALT=" Next "></A>
<P> <hr> <P> 
</body> </html>
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML//EN">
<html> <head>
<title>Updates</title>
</head>

<body BGCOLOR="#ffefd5" TEXT="#483d8b">
<H4>
&quot;Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>
&quot;</H4>

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!--===================================================================-->

<center><h1>Updates to My Past Reviews</h1></center>

<center><h4><a href="mailto: layers@vax2.rainis.net">by Larry
Ayers</a></h4></center>

<center>Copyright (c) 1996</center><BR>

<center><H5>Published in Issue 12 of the Linux Gazette</H5></center>

<p>I've been writing these short reviews and other articles for the Gazette
since issue number seven. Even with the short lead time inherent in a
WWW-based publication it seems like new releases and URL changes often happen
right after I submit an article. The status of several of the programs has
changed since I wrote of them, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to list
some of these changes.

<p>By the way, I appreciate all of the email I've received in response to my
articles; feel free to write if you have any comments or criticism.

<ul>

  <li><b>Moxfm</b> hasn't been updated since version 1.00 was released
      several months ago, but it's working well in the current version.  I've
      included it here because I've received several e-mail messages stating
      that the URL in the article wasn't working.  The current URL of the
      Moxfm home page is
      <a href="http://sugra.desy.de/user/mai/moxfm">http://sugra.desy.de/user/mai/moxfm</a>. 
      The source and binaries are in uuencoded form; just let them display on
      the screen of a web-browser, save them to a file, then run "uudecode
      filename.uue". 

  <li><b>TkDesk</b> has been through several versions since I wrote of it;
      the current one is 1.0b3, released on Sept.25, 1996.  There are many
      new features; one which I use often is a file pop-up menu-item which
      hands the file over to a running Xemacs on another desktop.  There is a
      similar capability involving HTML files and Netscape (or another
      browser).  Check out the
      <a href="http://sun1.rrzn-user.uni-hannover.de/~zzhibol/tkdesk">TkDesk
      web-page</a> for the latest news. 

  <li><b>FileRunner</b> has been developing rapidly in the past few months. 
      It's current version is 2.1.1, and many refinements have been made. 
      It's FTP capabilities have been greatly improved; FTP downloads can now
      run as a background process, and directories can be displayed
      date-ordered.  Remote FTP directories can be saved as bookmarks
      (accessible from a menu).  Many configuration options have been added
      as well.  The built-in shell windows which follow you from directory to
      directory are very handy.  They allow you to see the output of
      non-interactive commands (such as compilation) and can be dismissed
      when not needed.  There is a
      <a href="http://www.cd.chalmers.se/~hch/filerunner.html">FileRunner
      web-page</a> from which the source can be obtained, as well as from
      <a href="ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/X11/xutils/managers/">the Sunsite
      archive.</a>. 

  <li><b>Elvis</b> has finally made it to a major release; version 2.00 was
      announced recently. It's available from its
      <a href="ftp://ftp.cs.pdx.edu/pub/elvis/">official site</a>. Elvis is
      remarkable for the small size of the compiled binary, considering how
      powerful an editor it is.  Elvis's ability to display HTML in a readable
      form meshes well with the HTML format of the extensive help files.

  <li><b>Vile</b> has a new official maintainer; Paul Fox has handed over the
      reins to another of the primary Vile developers, Thomas Dickey.  Version
      6.2 was released recently.  For some reason Vile doesn't seem to be as
      popular as Vim and Elvis (judging by news-group postings).  I urge
      anyone who favors vi-style editors to give it a try; it really grows on
      you. Vile's new official release site is
      <a href="ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/vile/">ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/vile</a> 

  <li><b>XaoS</b> in its current release (1.2) has a new feature which increases
      its usability for those running X with more than 256 colors: it'll run!
      Previous releases only worked on 8-bit displays.

  <li><b>Yodl</b> version 1.08 has been released; it's mainly a
      "small-bug-fix" release, i.e. if a previous version does what you want,
      you probably don't need it.  It's at sunsite.

  <li><b>Procmeter</b> has been updated to version 2.2; changes include a
      choice of solid or bar-type graphing, and refinement of network packet
      transfer display.

  <li><b>Xmosaic</b> development has slowed since my review.  The
      powers-that-be at the University of Illinois have decided that Xmosaic
      will be the second, rather than the first, GTK (Graphics ToolKit)
      client to be developed.The GTK is a programming toolkit which will take
      the place of Motif in Xmosaic.  Scott Powers, Xmosaic's project leader,
      stated in a message to the mailing list that development will resume in
      a couple of months.  The up side to this news is that the GTK is the
      "hard part", so that once work resumes on Xmosaic development progress
      should be rapid.  </ul>

<hr>

<address><a
href="http://vax2.rain.gen.mo.us/~layers/">Larry
Ayers&lt;layers@vax2.rain.gen.mo.us&gt;</a></address> <!-- hhmts start -->
Last modified: Wed Nov 20 17:41:22 CST 1996
<!-- hhmts end --> 

<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P> 
<A HREF="./index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/indexnew.gif" 
ALT="[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ]"></A>
<A HREF="../index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/homenew.gif"
ALT="[ FRONT PAGE ]"></A>
<A HREF="./slang.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/back2.gif"
ALT=" Back "></A>
<A HREF="yard.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/fwd.gif" ALT=" Next "></A>
<P> <hr> <P> 
</body> </html>
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML//EN">
<html> <head>
<title>Yet Another Rescue Disk</title>
</head>

<body BGCOLOR="#ffefd5" TEXT="#483d8b">
<H4>
&quot;Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>
&quot;</H4>

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!--===================================================================-->

<center><h1>The YARD Rescue Disk Package</h1></center>

<center><h4><a href="mailto: layers@vax2.rainis.net">by Larry
Ayers</a></h4></center>

<center>Copyright (c) 1996</center><BR>

<center><H5>Published in Issue 12 of the Linux Gazette</H5></center>

<hr>

<center><h3>Introduction</h3></center>

<p>It is a common practice to use the rescue/boot disks supplied with a Linux
distribution if filesystem problems occur and you need to boot from a floppy.
Typically these disks consist of a bootable compressed kernel on disk 1, with
the second disk containing basic maintenance tools such as fsck.

<p>On the few occasions I've had to boot from such disks the transition from
my familiar Linux environment to the bare-essentials, limited boot-disk system
(constrained by the size of a floppy disk) has been disconcerting, to say the
least.  Typically if an editor is available it's a small one with which I've
never worked, and many of the tools I'm used to having around aren't there.

<p>Recently <a href="mailto: fawcett@nynexst.com">Tom Fawcett</a> has been
refining a suite of customizable Perl scripts which make the creation of
boot-disks from scratch easier.  YARD (for Yet Another Rescue Disk) makes use
of (and requires) the optional Linux kernel compressed ramdisk option, which
allows you to load a compressed disk image into memory at boot-up.  Paul
Gortmaker has written a lucid explanation of the new ramdisk options in the
file "ramdisk.txt", which is in the Documentation subdirectory of recent
kernel source releases.

<center><h3>Installation and Usage</h3></center>

<p>The Yard distribution contains two files which need to be edited as a first
step. <i>Config.pl</i> is a Perl script which sets such preferences as the
type of floppy you're using and whether you are making a single boot-disk or a
double.  The <i>Bootdisk_Contents</i> file contains a list of all of the files
and utilities you would like on your disk(s).  This file needs to be edited
heavily, as it includes much more than will fit on even two disks.  Anything
you like can be included in this file.

<p>The next step is to run the Perl script <i>make_root_fs</i>.  This script
gathers up all of the files you've specified (as well as all libraries upon
which they depend) and constructs a root filesystem upon whichever device was
specified in the <i>Config.pl</i> script.  A ramdisk works well.  The new
filesystem is then compressed with gzip into a single file in your /tmp
directory.  Once this process is complete yet another Perl script,
<i>check_root_fs</i> is run, which makes sure that all needed
libraries,etc. are present.

<p>After all of this preparation you're ready to actually write the rescue
disks; here's where you find out if you've attempted to cram too much into
them. The <i>write_rescue_disk</i> script first copies your compressed kernel
(vmlinuz) onto the disk (the first disk if it's a two-disk set) and then
copies the compressed filesystem image you've constructed onto whatever is
left.  It took me several tries to pare down what I wanted Initially on the
disks to what would actually fit.  The virtue of the Yard system is that all
you need to do to try again is re-edit the <i>Bootdisk_Contents</i> file and
re-make the filesystem. Yard also writes log-files which can be helpful in
diagnosing problems.
 
<p>Modular kernels are great, but if you boot a kernel image and a capability
you need is a demand-loaded module you're out of luck.  Yard sidesteps this
potential problem by including your modules directory in the compressed
filesystem, as well as making sure that the kernel-daemon /sbin/kerneld is
started at boot-up.

<p>The result of this process is a customized miniature Linux system. It's a
nice feeling to know that if your filesystem is in shambles due to a power
outage or a beta program run amuck that you at least have familiar tools
available.

<p>Once you've managed to edit a set of Yard configuration files which will
successfully write working rescue disks, consider saving copies of these files
in case the disks become corrupted.  I just replaced the supplied files with
my edited copies, then tarred and gzipped the Yard distribution and saved it
to floppy.

<center><h3>Caveats</h3></center>

<p>Yard gives you the option of using or not using Lilo to boot your disks. I
first tried Yard with Lilo, as Lilo has always worked well for me.  It
wouldn't work with my Yard disks, so I disabled that option.  I'm using an old
version of Lilo, left over from my original Slackware 3.00 Linux installation,
which may explain this failure.  Yard works fine without it.  Lilo might be
necessary if you need to include parameters in order to boot your system, such
as those required for some SCSI hard disks.

<center><h3>Availability</h3></center>

<p>Yard is available from <a href="http://www.cs.umass.edu/~fawcett/">the Yard
home-page</a>, as well as from the sunsite archive and its mirrors.  It's well
worth trying if you want the ultimate in control over just what is included on
your rescue disks.



<hr>
<address><a href="http://vax2.rain.gen.mo.us/~layers/">Larry Ayers&lt;layers@vax2.rain.gen.mo.us&gt;</a></address>
<!-- hhmts start -->
Last modified: Wed Nov 20 09:21:50 CST 1996
<!-- hhmts end -->

<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P> 
<A HREF="./index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/indexnew.gif" 
ALT="[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ]"></A>
<A HREF="../index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/homenew.gif"
ALT="[ FRONT PAGE ]"></A>
<A HREF="./updates.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/back2.gif"
ALT=" Back "></A>
<A HREF="expo.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/fwd.gif" ALT=" Next "></A>
<P> <hr> <P> 
<!--==================================================================-->

<!--==================================================================-->

<H4>
&quot;Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>
&quot;</H4>

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!--===================================================================-->
<center> <H1> Recent Linux Conferences </H1> </center>

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!--===================================================================-->
<H3>Contents:</H3>
<ul>
<li><a HREF="./expo.html#expo">Unix Expo 1996</a>, by Lydia Kinata
<li><a HREF="./expo.html#decus">DECUS in Anaheim</a>, by Phil Hughes
<li><a HREF="./expo.html#open">Open Systems World/FedUNIX</a>, by Gary Moore
</ul>

<P> <HR>
<!--===================================================================-->

<a name="expo"><p></a>
<table>
<center>
<H2>Unix Expo 1996, October 8-10 in New York</H2>
<H4>By <a href="mailto:linux@ssc.com">Lydia Kinata</a></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>  

This show was actually billed as Unix Expo Plus I^2--a nod to the
increasing interest in all things NT and Internet. In fact, in
1997 the show will no longer be called Unix Expo at all, it
will be billed as <I>IT Forum 97</I>, Internet and Technology Forum.</P>
<P>
Despite a preponderance of Internet and NT related vendors and
seminars, (and the ubiquitous presence of Bill Gates), the show
went very well for <I>Linux Journal</I> and SSC. Various
disasters struck, notably the loss of half of our booth display
by UPS, but all in all it was quite successful. With the 
exception of Caldera, all of us Linux-types were stuck off
in the corner of the show room, but we were still
swamped by happy Linux and Unix users who had specifically
made the trek in support of their favorite OS. The show in general 
had a lower attendance than was expected by show management, 
but the Linux contingent were doing quite nicely anyway.</P>
<P>
2,500 <I>Linux Journal</I> and 1,600 <I>WEBsmith</I> magazines
were given away. Many people subscribed right there at the show,
many others went away clutching their SSC Unix References or books
with dazed-but-happy expressions. Those of us working the booth
made lots of contacts, and I must say it was a great experience
meeting subscribers and customers who share such enthusiasm
for Unix and Linux. Those NT developers should take note: 
Unix users are a dedicated bunch.</P>
<P>
New York was a blast, although I had to laugh when the locals
got panicky when a 'Nor-Easter' blew through. I had to say,
"Come on, guys. It's just raining." They should come to Seattle
some time.</P>

--Lydia Kinata, SSC Products Specialist

<P> <hr> <P> 
<!--===================================================================-->
<center><H5>Copyright &copy; 1996, Lydia Kinata <BR>
Published in Issue 12 of the Linux Gazette</H5></center>

<P> <HR>
<!--===================================================================-->
<a name="decus"><p></a>
<center>
<H1>DECUS in Anaheim</H1>
<H4> by Phil Hughes, 
<a href="mailto:phil@ssc.com">phil@ssc.com</a></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>  

On November 11 through 13, Carlie Fairchild and I attended the
DECUS show in Anaheim, California. While DECUS has generally been a
good show for SSC, this show was small and we were the only Linux
vendor attending. The best guess why is with UseLinux coming up in
the same place in January, it was an easy show for people--vendors as
well as Linux-heads--to skip.
<P> 
There was a series of talks on Linux presented by Jon
&quot;maddog&quot; Hall and myself. Attendance was between 20 and
50, and I think we managed to make some converts.
<P> 
Carlie had also arranged for to speak to the local Linux user's
group on Wednesday night. About 25 attended (including
&quot;maddog&quot;). I presented a talk called <I>Looking at
Linux.</I> Much of this talk focused on the commercial viability of
Linux, which was an issue many of the group's members had been
attempting to address on their own. In the talk I stressed four
criteria for commercial viability: 
<ul>
<li>reliability, 
<li>interoperability,
<li>support 
<li>and capabilities.
</ul>
The talk was well received and the meeting turned into a informal
discussion of Linux in general. I look forward to talking with these
people again during the UseLinux show.
<P> 
--Phil Hughes, Publisher <I>Linux Journal</I> 

<P> <hr> <P> 
<!--===================================================================-->
<center><H5>Copyright &copy; 1996, Phil Hughes <BR> 
Published in Issue 12 of the Linux Gazette</H5></center>

<P> <HR>
<!--===================================================================-->

<a name="open"><p></a>
<center>
<H1>Open Systems World/FedUNIX</H1> 
<H4> by Gary Moore, 
<a href="mailto:ljeditor@ssc.com">ljeditor@ssc.com</a></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>  

The first week of November, I went to Washington, D.C. to attend Open
Systems World/FedUNIX. While several dedicated Linux fans came by the
booth, most of the people I talked to knew very little about Linux. Some
were just cruising the booths, collecting whatever anyone was giving away,
but we don't mind--the literature they picked up may spark some real
interest later on. (One show attendee, in addition to taking a few of
whatever we had also took the neat twirly thing we'd acquired from another
exhibitor's booth.)

<P>Linux vendors in attendance were Yggdrasil Computing, InfoMagic,
and Red Hat Software, giving me a chance to meet Adam Richter of
Yggdrasil, Bob Young and Lisa Sullivan of Red Hat, and Henry Pierce
and Greg Deeds of InfoMagic. 

<P>Adding credence to Linux's worth in the minds of those with no free
software experience was Digital Equipment's display of a DEC Alpha
running Linux and Maddog's enthusiasm for the operating system. (By
the time I got over to actually see the machine, someone was
demonstrating Quake on it. I sat down and showed him a couple things I
remembered from playing Doom--it was kind of surreal to be
sitting amidst all the professional frumpery of the show while
virtually running around swinging a very large and lethal axe.)

<P>Jeff Leyland of Wolfram Research, the makers of Mathematica, spoke
about Wolfram switching to Linux as their development platform. There
were other speakers I should have made time to hear, but I got caught up
talking to people coming by our booth and asking about Linux. I know
that after a few talks, the Linux booths would get flooded with people
excited to check it out.

<P>I also heard Ernst & Young--well known for their accounting
services among other things--apparently use Red Hat Linux
in-house and asked IBM, with whom they contract for computer services,
to support their Linux machines. (If you're from Ernst & Young,
please send me some mail. We'd like to hear about how you're
using Linux.)

<P>Adam Richter predicted a new version of Yggdrasil's Plug-and-Play
Linux in the first quarter of 1997. At OSW they had pressings of their
new 8-CD Internet Archives set, which includes several distributions,
including a couple I hadn't heard of before.

<P>I would've felt cutoff from the world (yes, even in D.C. on
election night) if it hadn't been for David Lescher, who set me up
with some dial-in PPP access for my laptop, and David Niemi, who made
some necessary tweaks to my chat script. I'm also grateful to Mark
Komarinski, who put together a Linux talk on very short notice when I
found I was dangerously close to having no time whatsoever to prepare
one myself.

<P>The Santa Cruz Operation was there giving away copies of their Free
SCO OpenServer. Someone who'd just acquired one of those gems asked me
why she'd be interested in Linux if she had OpenServer; I noted its
limitations and handed her a copy of Linux Journal, hoping to plant a
seed. Some attendees were being less subtle, affixing prominently to
their big blue IBM literature boxes the Linux bumper stickers we were
giving away.
<P> 
--Gary Moore, Editor of <I>Linux Journal</I> 

<P> <hr> <P> 
<!--===================================================================-->
<center><H5>Copyright &copy; 1996, Gary Moore <BR> 
Published in Issue 12 of the Linux Gazette</H5></center>

<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P> 
<A HREF="./index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/indexnew.gif" 
ALT="[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ]"></A>
<A HREF="../index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/homenew.gif"
ALT="[ FRONT PAGE ]"></A>
<A HREF="./savage.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/back2.gif"
ALT=" Back "></A>
<A HREF="server.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/fwd.gif" ALT=" Next "></A>
<P> <hr> <P> 
<!--==================================================================-->

<!--==================================================================-->
<H4>
&quot;Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>
&quot;</H4>

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!--===================================================================-->
<h1 align=center>Setting Up the Apache Web Server Under Linux </h1>

<center><H4>by Andy Kahn, 
<a href="mailto:kahn@cs.ucla.edu"> kahn@cs.ucla.edu </a>
</center>

<p>
<hr></p>

<p>This article is basically a summary of my experiences of setting up
a web server under Linux. I will start with where/how to obtain Apache,
then move on to installation, configuration, and finally how to get things
running. This article is written from the point of view of my system, which
is a Red Hat 4.0 system with v2.0.25 of the kernel. However, a &quot;generic&quot;
installation or a similar setup should apply as well. </p>

<ul>
	<li><a href="#WHERE">Where To Get Apache</li></a>
	<li><a href="#INSTALL">Installation</li></a>
	<li><a href="#CONFIG">Configuration</li></a>
	<li><a href="#START">Starting/Running the Web Server</li></a>
	<li><a href="#FUTURE">What's Next</li></a>
	<li><a href="#AUTHOR">About the Author</li></a>
</ul>

<p>
<hr></p>

<h3><a name="WHERE">Where To Get Apache </h3></a>

<p>The obvious place to get the latest version of Apache is off of the
Apache web site: <a href="http://www.apache.org">http://www.apache.org</a>.
The source distribution file is <i><a href="http://www.apache.org/dist/apache_1.1.1.tar.gz">apache_1.1.1.tar.gz</a></i>
while the Linux ELF binaries is <i><a href="http://www.apache.org/dist/binaries/linux/apache_1.1-linux-ELF.tar.gz">apache_1.1-linux-ELF.tar.gz</a></i>.
Grab what you find is necessary... </p>

<p>If you are running Red Hat Linux 4.0 like I am, during the installation
process you are allowed to select whether or not you want to install a
web server. If you do, Red Hat 4.0 includes the latest Apache and installs
everything automatically with a default configuration. This default configuration
even <b>RUNS</b> correctly without any modifications! However, even in
this case, please read my notes and preferences regarding installation
in the next section. </p>

<p>Typically, unless you need to add special modules or features, the binary
distribution or the default Red Hat installation should be fine. However,
let's say you wanted to run Apache as a proxy server. In this case, you
would need the source so you can compile the proxy module as part of the
binary. </p>

<p>(Note: I have heard rumors that the binary included with Red Hat 4.0
has some bugs. I have yet to encounter any myself, so take that rumor with
a <b>big</b> grain of salt.) </p>

<p>
<hr></p>

<h3><a name="INSTALL">Installation </h3></a>

<p>I'm not going to cover compiling Apache since it's actually a fairly
painless process and pretty well documented. Given that, let's move on
to actual installation... </p>

<p>Personally, I like to group all the web server files together in a centralized
location. If you are installing this manually, then this is something you
can do from the outset, and I highly suggest doing this since it will reduce
administration headaches. </p>

<p>If you had Apache installed automatically as part of the Red Hat installation
procedure, then things will NOT be centralized! In fact, I thought the
file placement scheme was one of the most confusing I've ever encountered.
Here's what the Red Hat installation does: </p>

<table border>
<tr>
<td valign="top">web server binaries </td>

<td>/usr/sbin/httpd<br>
/usr/sbin/httpd_monitor </td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>config files </td>

<td>/etc/httpd/conf/* </td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>log files </td>

<td>/etc/httpd/logs/* </td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td valign="top">web server root<br>
(contains cgi, icons/images, and html files) </td>

<td valign="top">/home/httpd/* </td>
</tr>
</table>

<p>I found this to be really disorganized, so I ended up putting mostly
everything under one directory (I left the binaries in /usr/sbin): </p>

<pre>    mkdir /httpd
    mv /etc/httpd/conf /etc/httpd/logs /home/httpd/* /httpd
    rmdir /home/httpd
</pre>

<p>You should end up with: </p>

<pre>    /httpd/
          /cgi-bin
          /cgi-src
          /conf
          /html
          /icons
          /logs
</pre>

<p>And then to preserve the original Redhat file locations: </p>

<pre>    ln -s /httpd /home/httpd
    ln -s /httpd/conf /etc/httpd/conf
    ln -s /httpd/logs /etc/httpd/logs
</pre>

<p>Finally, I added this link since I felt that it made more sense: </p>

<pre>    ln -s /httpd/logs /var/log/httpd
</pre>

<p>If you are installing and compiling Apache manually, you may want to
have the original source files also located under /httpd (or whichever
directory you have). </p>

<p>
<hr></p>

<h3><a name="CONFIG">Configuration </h3></a>

<p>Apache has three main configuration files: <b><i>access.conf</i></b>,
<b><i>httpd.conf</i></b>, and <b><i>srm.conf</i></b>. If you are running
Red Hat 4.0, these files will already be set with the correct directory
paths. If you centralized the locations of all these files, but made those
symbolic links as I mentioned above, things will still be fine since the
symbolic links preserves where Red Hat installed everything. </p>

<p>If you are doing a &quot;generic&quot; installation or have some other
setup, then you will need to do the following: </p>

<p>In <b><i>access.conf</i></b>, change/update these directory entries:
</p>

<pre>    &lt;Directory /httpd/html&gt;
    &lt;Directory /httpd/cgi-bin&gt;
</pre>

<p>In <b><i>httpd.conf</i></b>: </p>

<pre>    ServerRoot /httpd
</pre>

<p>In <b><i>srm.conf</i></b>: </p>

<pre>    DocumentRoot /httpd/html
    Alias /icons/ /httpd/icons/
    ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /httpd/cgi-bin/
</pre>

<p>Essentially, these are the necessary directives in the config files that
need to be updated with the new &quot;centralized&quot; organization. </p>

<p>For further configuration options, I will have to give the standard
statement, &quot;Please refer to the docs.&quot; :) </p>

<p>
<hr></p>

<h3><a name="START">Starting/Running the Web Server </h3></a>

<p>To make a long story short, you simply to need to execute the binary
&quot;httpd&quot;. Typically, this is done when the system starts up, in
one of the rc files. </p>

<p>In Red Hat 4.0, it has more of a System V'ish startup style. In 
<b><i>/etc/rc.d/init.d</i></b>
resides <b><i>httpd.init</i></b>, which is the script used
to start and stop httpd.
You can also execute this by hand if you find the need. </p>

<p>For other systems (or a manual install), I suggest starting httpd after
most other services have started (i.e.: put it in <b><i>rc.local</i></b>).
A simple line such as </p>

<pre>    /usr/sbin/httpd &amp;
</pre>

<p>will suffice. </p>

<p>Obviously, it must start after tcp/ip networking has been started. :)
</p>

<hr>

<h3><a name="FUTURE">What's Next</h3></a>

<p>
Needless to say, I didn't cover actual configuration options
and how to manage your web server.  The configuration options
I leave to the Apache manual.  Managing the web server itself
depends on what kind of web site you want to run.  My own system
does not run a "real" web site; in other words, I don't advertise
it for anything because it serves no real purpose other than for
my own experimentation.  However, you are more than welcome to
take a look at it since it does have a bunch of Linux related
links to it.  The URL can be found at the end of this article.
</p>
<p>
Other than that, I would love to hear any comments and/or
criticisms you may have about what I wrote.  Originally, my
plan was to write a monthly article about running/managing a
web server under Linux.  However, short of actually writing a
manual on configuring Apache (which the Apache documentation
is good enough as a reference), I don't know what else to
write about since there may not be all that much to write
about.
</p>
<p>
However, one idea for a monthly thing that might be good is
to collect hints, tricks, and other useful information related
to running a web server under Linux.  Think of it more as a
&quot;2 cent tips for a linux web server.&quot; If anyone is interested
in this, please drop me a note!
</p>

<ul>
<li>Email: <a href="mailto:kahn@cs.ucla.edu">kahn@cs.ucla.edu</a>
<li>Home page: <a href="http://www.cs.ucla.edu/~kahn">
	http://www.cs.ucla.edu/~kahn</a>
<li>His machine: <a href="http://vivian.cs.ucla.edu">
	http://vivian.cs.ucla.edu</a>
</ul>
</p>

<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P> 
<center><H5>Copyright &copy; 1996, Andy Kahn <BR> 
Published in Issue 12 of the Linux Gazette</H5></center>

<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P> 
<A HREF="./index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/indexnew.gif" 
ALT="[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ]"></A>
<A HREF="../index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/homenew.gif"
ALT="[ FRONT PAGE ]"></A>
<A HREF="./expo.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/back2.gif"
ALT=" Back "></A>
<A HREF="wkndmech.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/fwd.gif" ALT=" Next "></A>
<P> <hr> <P> 
<!--==================================================================-->

<!--==================================================================-->
<H4>
&quot;Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>
&quot;</H4>

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!--===================================================================-->
<CENTER>
<IMG SRC="../gx/fisk/wkndMech.gif" ALIGN=BOTTOM WIDTH=397 HEIGHT=150>
<H1>Welcome to The Linux Weekend Mechanic!</H1>
<H2>Published in the December 1996 Edition of the Linux Gazette</H2>
<FONT SIZE="2"><B>
Copyright (c) 1996 John M. Fisk &lt;fiskjm@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu&gt;<BR>
The Linux Gazette is Copyright(c) 1996 <A HREF="http://www.ssc.com/">
Specialized Systems Consultants Inc.</A>
</B></FONT>
</CENTER>

<P><HR>

<H2>Time To Become... <I>The Linux Weekend Mechanic!</I></H2>
<TABLE>
<TR>
    <TD ALIGN=TOP>
    <IMG SRC="../gx/fisk/mechanic.gif" ALIGN=BOTTOM WIDTH=147 HEIGHT=66>

    <TD ALIGN=LEFT VALIGN=TOP>
    You've made it to the weekend and things have finally slowed down.  You
    crawl outa bed, bag the shave 'n shower 'cause it's Saturday, grab that
    much needed cup of caffeine (your favorite alkaloid), and shuffle down
    the hall to the den.  It's time to fire up the Linux box, break out the
    trusty 'ol Snap-On's, pop the hood, jack 'er up, and do a bit of
    overhauling!
</TABLE>

<P><HR><P>

<!-- TABLE OF CONTENTS ================================================ -->
<H2>Table of Contents</H2>

<UL>
    <LI><A HREF="#welcome">Welcome to the December Weekend Mechanic!</A>
    <LI><A HREF="#mail">The Mailbox</A>
    <LI><A HREF="#tclvu">A Tcl/Tk Tar Viewer</A>
    <LI><A HREF="#tclvu-src">(Tcl/Tk Tar Viewer Source)</A>
    <LI><A HREF="#closing">Closing Up Shop...</A>
</UL>
<!-- END TABLE OF CONTENTS ============================================ -->

<P><HR><P>

<!-- WELCOME SECTION ================================================== -->
<H2><A NAME="welcome"><IMG SRC="../gx/fisk/attndant.gif" WIDTH=129 HEIGHT=99>
Welcome to the December Weekend Mechanic!</A></H2>

<P>
Well, I'm afraid that the 'ol Weekend Mechanic is going to be a short one this
month.  I've got six classes this fall and have finally reached the point in
the semester where I guess they think we're smart enough to start actually
<EM>doing things!</EM>  And so, we're all doing things... LOTS of things, as a
matter of fact.  That hallowed barometer of academic industriousness,
<B>Euclid's Little Known &quot;Shave-To-Face&quot; Ratio</B>, is falling
predictably and the No-Doze blood titers are reaching therapeutic levels.
As they say in Tennessee, we're all starting to look like a bunch of rugs...

<BLOCKQUOTE>
    <P>
    &quot;...walked all over, drug outside, and beat with a stick!&quot;
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<P>
Anyway, we're all surviving.  All of you out there in <B>Academia Land</B>
know what I'm talking about; all of you who've run the gauntlet already and
have achieved &quot;A Real Life&quot; will smile knowingly.  (And will smile
to yourselves, knowing that there is no such thing as &quot;A Real Life&quot;)

<P>
I've been eating a generous portion of <B>Humble Pie</B> here recently after
last month's Tar Tricks and Find <I>faux pas</I>.  I sincerely apologize for
any mis-information and want to gratefully thank all of you who took the time
to drop a note and provide more accurate information.  I've gotten permission
from a number of writers to include their letters which can be read below.
They add a good deal more light to the subject!

<P>
Thanks guys!

<P>
Also, I did manage to eke out a bit of &quot;recreational programming&quot;
time and hacked together a prototype <B>tar archive viewer</B>.  This is still
pretty alpha stuff, but it appears to be relatively stable and I've actually
been using it.  Any of you who are interested in <B>Tcl/Tk</B> might enjoy
hacking away at this.  I'll continue to tinker around with this and, by
January or so, just might have a reasonably working version for all of you to
play around with.  If you're interested, have a look at it below.

<P>
Anyway, hope you enjoy!

<P>
John<BR>
Saturday, 23 November 1996

<!-- END WELCOME SECTION ============================================== -->

<P><HR><P>

<!-- MAIL BOX  ======================================================== -->
<H2><A NAME="mail"><IMG SRC="../gx/mail.gif" WIDTH=64 HEIGHT=64
ALIGN=BOTTOM>The Mailbox</A></H2>

<P>
As I mentioned above, I've been eating a good deal of Humble Pie in the past
couple weeks after last month's articles on using tar and find.  Actually,
everyone who wrote was very gracious AND took the time to provide more
accurate information.  I was impressed by the spirit in which this was done:
no one was vindictive, no one was demeaning (although there were a few
&quot;raised eyebrow&quot; type letters :-).

<P>
Anyway, I owe a great debt to all of you who took the time to write.  I REALLY
appreciate it.  And to the school teacher from Des Moines, I'm <I>almost</I>
done...

<BLOCKQUOTE>
    <P>
    I will <I>always</I> RTFM<BR>
    I will <I>always</I> RTFM<BR>
    I will <I>always</I> RTFM<BR>
    I will <I>always</I> RTFM<BR>
    I will <I>always</I> RTFM<BR>
    I will <I>always</I> RTFM...<BR>
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<P>
Thanks folks.  Here's the letters...

<P><HR><P>

<B>
Date: Fri, 01 Nov 1996 15:32:09 +1100<BR>
From: Paul Russell &lt;prussell@sydney.trl.telstra.com.au&gt;<BR>
To: fiskjm@ctrvax.Vanderbilt.Edu<BR>
Subject: Linux Weekend Mechanic: November Edition of the Linux Gazette (#11)<BR>
</B>

<P>
Hi John,

<P>
Just reading Linux gazette for the first time, and stumbled
upon your Weekend Mechanic page.  I'm sure you're going to get more
mail about this, but I read with some astonishment your &quot;More tar
tricks&quot; section.

<P>
My Linux box is currently about 1000kms away, but I believe that
the &quot;tar -tvzf file.tar.gz |tr -s ' ' |cut -d ' ' -f8 |less&quot; can be
replaced with &quot;tar tzf file.tar.gz |less&quot;.

<P>
I liked it though.  If you want a useful pipes example, how about a
&quot;Oops! I untarred in the wrong place and I want to clean up!&quot;
example:

<PRE>
tar tzf file.tar.gz | xargs rm -f 2&gt;/dev/null
tar tzf file.tar.gz | sed 's:[^/]*$::' | sort -ru | xargs rmdir 2&gt;/dev/null
</PRE>

<P>
Analysis and improvement is left as an exercise for the reader. 8-)

<P>
Enjoy,<BR>
Paul.<BR>
--<BR>

<PRE>
Paul.Russell@RustCorp.com.au                  &quot;Engineer? So you drive trains?&quot;
Lies, damned lies, and out-of-date documentation.
Currently contracted to Telstra, Sydney.
</PRE>

<P><HR><P>

<B>
Date: Tue, 05 Nov 1996 11:19:09 -0500<BR>
From: &quot;James V. Di Toro III&quot; &lt;karrde@gats.hampton.va.us&gt;<BR>
To: fiskjm@ctrvax.Vanderbilt.Edu<BR>
Subject: LG #11 Weekend Mech.<BR>
</B>

<P>
Just a few nits on a couple of the things in this piece.

<P>
tar ...<BR>
	Well it sure showed off some neat features of some utilities, but what
you did with that first line can be solved by omitting one character from
the tar options.

<PRE>
	tar -tzf | less  == tar -tvzf |tr -s ' ' |cut -d ' ' -f8 |less
</PRE>

<P>
which vs. type ...<BR>

<P>
which will also give you similar results on aliases and built-ins:

<PRE>
which ls
ls:      aliased to /bin/ls $LS_OPTIONS
which complete
complete: shell built-in command.
</PRE>

<P>
This is with tcsh 6.05, YMMV.

<PRE>
-- 
================================================================  /| |\
James V. Di Toro III		| &quot;I've got a bad feeling	 / |_| \/\
System Administrator, GATS, Inc.|     about This&quot;		|()\ /  ||
karrde@gats.hampton.va.us 	|      				|---0---_|
W: (757) 865 - 7491		|        -various		 \ / \ /
								  ^:::^
</PRE>

<P>
(Just a quick note about this:  James is right, 'which' works as he wrote
above if you're using tcsh [because it is a shell built-in??].  Those of you
running BASH and using the 'which' executable will find that the executable
does not return information on aliases, shell functions, and shell built-in's.
I wrote James back after trying this and he concurred.)

<P><HR><P>

<B>
Date: Wed, 06 Nov 1996 11:14:51 +1100<BR>
From: Keith Owens &lt;kaos@edison.dialix.com.au&gt;<BR>
To: fiskjm@ctrvax.Vanderbilt.Edu<BR>
Subject: More on locate and update<BR>
</B>

<P>
Saw your note on locate/find in LJ #11.  According to my manual page,
&quot;locate lynx&quot; is equivalent to &quot;locate '*lynx*'&quot;, locate does automatic
insertion of leading and trailing '*' if the pattern contains no
metacharacters.  &quot;locate 'lynx*'&quot; will only find files that start with
lynx (i.e. no leading directory or /).

<P>
I find the locate command and its associated updatedb command to be very
useful for indexing ftp lists and cdroms.  Most sites and cdroms have a
list of the files in one form or another but they are not easily
searched.  Some are in find format (directory included in file name),
others in ls -lR (directory is separate).  I created updatedb.gen (from
updatedb) to read a file list and build a locate style database,
locate.gen then searches that database.

<P>
For example, go to sunsite, /pub/Linux, download 00-find.Linux.gz, then
run

<PRE>
updatedb.gen sunsite 00-find.Linux.gz
</PRE>

<P>
which builds /var/spool/locate/locatedb.sunsite.  &quot;locate.gen sunsite
file&quot; does an instant search of sunsite for the file, obviously you have
to fetch a fresh copy of the listing occasionally.

<P>
Instead of searching several InfoMagic cdroms for a file, mount the
first one and 

<PRE>
updatedb.gen im /cdrom/00-find
</PRE>

<P>
&quot;locate.gen im file&quot; then does a very fast search of the entire set of
InfoMagic cdroms and can be done without mounting any cdroms.

<P>
updatedb.gen and locate.gen are attached.  updatedb.gen works out which
format the input file is in and selects the field(s) containing the
filename.

<PRE>
-- 
*** O . C. Software -- Consulting Services for Storage Management, ***
*** Disaster Recovery, Security, TCP/IP, Intranets and Internet    ***
*** for mainframes (IBM, Fujitsu, Hitachi) and Unix.               ***
</PRE>

<P>
(The idea of using 'locate' on a CD collection sounds like a GREAT idea.  I've
not yet had the time to try it, but plan to give this little gem a whirl!)

<P><HR><P>

<B>
Date: Fri, 08 Nov 1996 09:21:52 -0600 (CST)<BR>
From: John Benavides &lt;benavide@mailhost.rsn.hp.com&gt;<BR>
To: fiskjm@ctrvax.Vanderbilt.Edu<BR>
Subject: How to use &quot;-name&quot; option on find command<BR>
</B>

<P>
In your column, Weekend Mechanic, in the &quot;Linux Gazette&quot; (Oct
1996 issue) on your Web page at:

<A HREF="../issue11/wkndmech.html">../issue11/wkndmech.html</A>

<P>
You say:

<P>
&gt;  The way that it should work is that you give locate a filename pattern<BR>
&gt;  which it searches for. Such as: <BR>
&gt; <BR>
&gt;         locate lynx*<BR>
&gt; <BR>
&gt;  However, when I tried this on my system, it simply returned nothing.<BR>
&gt;  Using locate lynx worked like a charm. <BR>
&gt;<BR>
&gt;  Got me.<BR>

<P>
Whenever you use any command with arguments that need to contain wild
card characters, don't forget to quote those wild card characters from the
shell.  I teach this to my students in my introductory UNIX class.
Remember the shell gets first crack at the wild card.  So the
shell will try to match &quot;lynx*&quot; with any file names in your local
directory.  

<P>
Use the echo command to see what the shell expands your command line to for the buggy command:

<PRE>
	echo locate lynx*
</PRE>

<P>
This will give you an idea of what the &quot;locate&quot; command is really
searching for.

<P>
Any one of the three commands below will prevent the shell
from processing your wild card pattern.

<PRE>
	locate &quot;lynx*&quot;
	locate 'lynx*'
	locate lynx\*
</PRE>

<P>
The same is true for your other example with find:

<PRE>
	find / -name &quot;lynx*&quot; -print
	find / -name 'lynx*' -print
	find / -name lynx\* -print
</PRE>

<P>
Regards,<BR>
John

<PRE>
-- 
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ John Benavides               | Hewlett Packard -  CxD 	    +
+ 3000 Waterview Parkway       | e-mail:benavide@rsn.hp.com         +
+ Richardson, TX  75080        | (972) 497-4771 Fax: (972) 497-4245 +
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
</PRE>

<P><HR><P>

<B>
Date: Fri, 08 Nov 1996 16:34:23 +0100<BR>
From: Robert Budzynski &lt;Robert.Budzynski@fuw.edu.pl&gt;<BR>
To: fiskjm@ctrvax.Vanderbilt.Edu<BR>
Subject: why locate didn't work as expected...<BR>
</B>

<P>
Hi John,

<P>
Why didn't 'locate lynx*' work for you ?  Well, here's what happens when
you issue that command: first, bash (or any standard shell) attempts to
match the pattern 'lynx*' against names of files present in the
_current_ directory. If it finds any that match, they are _all_
substituted into the command line and passed on as arguments to locate.
This sure isn't what you want...  If (as was apparently the case) none
are found, the pattern is left unexpanded... so why didn't it work?
Well, to quote the man page:

<BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
       If a pattern is a plain string -- it contains no metachar-
       acters  --  locate displays all file names in the database
       that contain that string anywhere.  If a pattern does con-
       tain  metacharacters, locate only displays file names that
       match the pattern exactly.  As  a  result,  patterns  that
       contain  metacharacters  should  usually begin with a `*',
       and will most often end with one as well.  The  exceptions
       are  patterns  that  are  intended to explicitly match the
       beginning or end of a file name.
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<P>
So, there's your answer! 'Match the pattern exactly' means here that
the fully qualified pathname (starting with a /) must match.
The other lesson here may be summarized with another quote from 
the locate(1) man page:

<BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
			 Patterns  that   contain   metacharacters
       should  be  quoted  to  protect them from expansion by the
       shell.
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<P>
This applies as well to patterns passed to 'find', i.e.

<PRE>
	$ find /usr/local -name 'lynx*' -print
</PRE>

<P>
is the 'politically correct' command line to use.

<P>
Merry Linuxing!

<PRE>
-- 
######################################################################

Robert J. Budzynski
Institute of Theoretical Physics
Warsaw University
Warsaw, Poland

######################################################################
</PRE>

<P><HR><P>

<B>
Date: Sat, 09 Nov 1996 02:11:00 +0000<BR>
From: Phil Bevan &lt;philb@innotts.co.uk&gt;<BR>
To: fiskjm@ctrvax.Vanderbilt.Edu<BR>
Subject: LG issue 11 - find<BR>
</B>

<P>
Hello John,

<P>
Glad to see you've not abandoned the Gazette totally. One thing though
on your article about 'find'. I've noticed in the past when using the
find command, it has not found all the files when using wild card
characters such as '*' (as in your example find /usr/local -name lynx*
-print). I discovered from one of the linux newsgroups, that the shell
tries to expand lynx* first, and it is possible that find will not
search all the directories. To stop bash from expanding the filename
enclose it in single quotes, as below:

<PRE>
     find /usr/local -name 'lynx*' -print
</PRE>

<P>
Bet you I'm not the first to point his out :)

<P>
Regards<BR>
Phil<BR>
-- <BR>
This Sig intentionally left blank<BR>

<P><HR><P>

Again, thanks to EVERYONE that took the time to write!  I know that y'all are
busy and I appreciate corrections, clarifications, and suggestions.

<P>
John

<!-- END MAIL BOX  ==================================================== -->

<P><HR><P>

<!--  TAR ARTICLE ====================================================== -->
<H2><A NAME="tclvu"><IMG SRC="../gx/fisk/toolchest.gif" WIDTH=122 HEIGHT=97
ALIGN=BOTTOM>A Tcl/Tk Tar Viewer</A></H2>

<P>
I'm going to apologize at the outset -- it's Saturday and I've still got a
small mountain of work to do for the upcoming week and so I just don't have
the time to write an awful lot about this.  I'll try to summarize the
highlights of what I was attempting to do and what actually worked.

<P>
To recap from last month, I'd been trying to find a way to get a simple
listing of all the files in a tar archive.  As was pointed out, this can be
done using:

<PRE>
    tar -tf file.tar
    tar -tzf file.tar.gz
</PRE>

depending on whether the file is a tar or tar+gzip file.  (I'm assuming that
you're using GNU tar, BTW, not all implementations of tar support the '-z'
option which uses 'gzip' to either compress or uncompress an archive.)

<P>
The purpose for doing this was to allow you to get a tar listing and then use
this as an argument to tar to print that file to standard output.  For
example, if your tar archive looked like:

<PRE>
xtoolwait-1.0/
xtoolwait-1.0/xtoolwait.c
xtoolwait-1.0/Imakefile
xtoolwait-1.0/COPYING-2.0
xtoolwait-1.0/xtoolplaces.diff
xtoolwait-1.0/CHANGES
xtoolwait-1.0/README
xtoolwait-1.0/xtoolwait.man
xtoolwait-1.0/xtoolwait-1.0.lsm
</PRE>

<P>
then using a command like:

<PRE>
    tar -tzOf xtoolwait-1.0.tar.gz xtoolwait-1.0/README |less
                                   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
</PRE>

<P>
would allow you to view the file 'README' by piping it to 'less'.  That was
the reason for needing to get a listing of just the filenames in the archive
-- to be able to invoke tar with the '-O' option so that it would output the
results to standard output.

<P>
Now, the thing is that tcl/tk will allow you to capture the output of a file
using 'open'.  Coupled with 'fileevent', this allows you to direct the output
of a command to a text widget for viewing and editing.  So this was the
direction I was going.

<P>
I've actually got this working now.  It's definitely NOT a showpiece of tcl/tk
coding:  this 'ol thing wouldn't win any programming contests.  Still, as a
quick prototype (I hacked it out in two days...), it gave me some ideas about
how to put together something a bit more sturdy.  Basically, as it stand right
now, its features include:

<UL>
    <LI>a <B>directory browser</B> that allows you to select files and navigate
        around your file system easily
    <LI>a <B>tar archive viewer</B> which lists the files contained within the
        archive
    <LI>a <B>File Viewer</B> which can be invoked by double-clicking on a
        file;  it allows you to edit, save, and print the file
    <LI>a <B>Save As</B> dialog box which allows you to save (or append) a
        file in the tar archive to disk
    <LI>a small <B>Print Dialog</B> which prompts you to input a file print
        command (defaults to 'lpr') and print the file
</UL>

<P>
As I said, it is actually working right now and I've used it several times
over the past couple weeks.

<P>
Parenthetically, I've been using <B>Tcl 7.5 and Tk 4.1</B> for development.  I
don't know if any of you have tried compiling this from sources.  Using the
supplied makefile, I was unable to get the shared libraries to compile.  It's
been a while since I did this but, if memory serves me correctly, it fails on
some system test and thus refuses to compile the shared libs.  I did find,
however, that by adding '-fPIC' to the CFLAGS, copying the *.o files to a
separate directory, and then using something like:

<PRE>
    gcc -shared -Wl,-soname,libtcl.so.0.7 -o libtcl.so.0.7.5 *.o
</PRE>

that I was able to compile a working shared library.  I'd be interested in
hearing from anyone else who's tried to compile tcl or tk from sources.  I'll
quickly admit that I'm still a neophyte when it come to C and UNIX/Linux
programming.  The above works, but if it is &quot;Not The Right Way&quot; then
please drop a note.

<P>
That said, let's take the penny tour...

<P>
<IMG SRC="./gx/fisk/tarvu-DirBrowser.gif" ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="Directory Browser"
WIDTH=693 HEIGHT=359>

<P>
To begin, when you start the <B>tarvu</B> program, it displays this directory
browser.  The path is displayed at the top along with the name of the file (if
any) which has been selected.  You navigate to a new directory by either:

<UL>
    <LI>clicking on the 'Up..' button to go to the parent directory
    <LI>double clicking on a directory within the listbox
    <LI>entering a valid directory name in the 'Path:' entry box
</UL>

<P>
If you single click on a file, then its name is displayed after the 'File:'
label.  Single clicking on a directory has no effect.  If you click on a tar
or tar+gzip file, then you can use the 'View/Edit...' button to view a listing
of the contents of the file.  Double clicking on the file has the same effect.

<P>
<IMG SRC="./gx/fisk/tarvu-TarBrowser.gif" ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="Tar Listing
Browser" WIDTH=693 HEIGHT=359>

<P>
After a tar or tar+gzip file has been selected, the 'Tar Browser' allows you
view the contents of the tar archive.  Now, you can use the full set of
operation buttons to either view/edit, save, or print a specific file within
the tar archive.  Single click on a file within the listing and then click on
any of the operation buttons.  If you double-click on a file, then it defaults
to the file viewer:

<P>
<IMG SRC="./gx/fisk/tarvu-TarView.gif" ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="Directory Browser"
WIDTH=771 HEIGHT=485>

<P>
The viewer allows you to view, edit, save, or print the contents of a file
within the archive.  The name of the file is displayed in the upper left hand
corner.  To either widen or lengthen the edit window, click on 'Widen Window'
or 'Lengthen Window'.  Now, you can manually resize the window, but doing so
does not automatically resize the text widget.  I've not been successful in
figuring out how to do this, although I suspect that it can be done.  Until
then, use the buttons... :-)

<P>
If you edit the file and want to save it to disk (NOT back to the archive),
then click on the 'Save As...' button.  This brings up a directory browser
which allows you to save the contents of the editing buffer:

<P>
<IMG SRC="./gx/fisk/tarvu-SaveBuf.gif" ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="Directory Browser"
WIDTH=690 HEIGHT=398>

<P>
This allows you to save or append the contents of the editing buffer to a
file.  The directory browser features work in a fashion similar to what was
previously described.  Because this was a quick hack, I simply coded another
proc to provide the save/append feature for a FILE within the archive.  So, if
you go back to the tar archive list, select a file, and then click on the
'Save...' button, you'll see a directory browser which looks similar to the
one above.

<P>
Finally, if you click on the 'Print...' button, a small dialog box is
displayed:

<P>
<IMG SRC="./gx/fisk/tarvu-printdlg.gif" ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="Directory Browser"
WIDTH=338 HEIGHT=120>

<P>
You simply input the command to print to your printer and click on the 'Print'
button.

<P>
Pretty simple, eh?

<P>
As I mentioned before, this is no paragon of programming brilliance.  This was
a rather quick hack, but it does show what can be VERY EASILY done with even
the basic tools of Tcl/Tk.  If anyone is interested in this, you can get the
tcl script here:

<A NAME="tclvu-src">
<H3><A HREF="./misc/tclvu.tcl">Tcl Tar Archive Viewer Source</A></H3>

<P>
For those of you using Netscape, hold down the Shift button and single click
with the left mouse button on this link to save the file to disk.  Call it
whatever you'd like, and then set the permissions to something like:

<PRE>
    % chmod 755 tclvu.tcl
</PRE>

<P>
I've got mine symlinked to 'tclvu' to make it easier to remember.

<P>
In all honesty, there are LOTS of things that could be done to make this more
useful or efficient.  Just a couple TODO's that come to mind include:

<UL>
    <LI>Allow viewing of regular files in a directory
    <LI>Allow unarchiving a tar archive to a selected directory
    <LI>Allow archiving of selected files to an archive
    <LI>Add online help
</UL>

<P>
The thing is, there are all kinds of fun things that can be done.  This simple
tcl/tk wrapper for tar just lets you view, edit, and print files at the
moment.  The tar manual page can give you further ideas about what could be
done.

<P>
For those of you needing a &quot;real&quot; tar utility, I'd strongly suggest
using <B>Miguel de Icaza's</B> GREAT program <B>Midnight Commander</B>.  You
can pick up the sources at any ftp site which mirrors the GNU utilities such
as:

<H3><A HREF="ftp://ftp.cc.gatech.edu/pub/gnu/">GA Tech's FTP server</A></H3>

<P>
Also, there's a program called <B>xtar</B> which is found at the
<B>ftp.x.org</B> ftp site.  I've honestly not seen this mentioned anywhere and
yet it's a VERY handy little program that allows you to browse and view the
contents of a tar archive.  You'll need the Motif development libraries to
compile this, however.

<P>
Well, as I said, this was a pretty quick tour.  Please feel free to hack away
at this and enjoy it.  I tried to comment the code, so you should have some
idea about my mental state when the thing was written.

<P>
Hope you enjoy!

<P>
John<BR>
Saturday  23 November 1996

<!-- END TAR ARTICLE ================================================== -->

<P><HR><P>

<!-- CLOSING UP SHOP =================================================== -->
<H2><A NAME="closing"><IMG SRC="../gx/fisk/desklamp.gif" WIDTH=79 HEIGHT=99
ALIGN=BOTTOM>Closing Up Shop...</A></H2>

<P>
Well, I'd hoped to include a lot more stuff in this month's WM column, but
time has completely gotten away from me and it's already almost dinner time
(and no homework done yet... :-).  I must admit that I enjoy doing this a LOT
more than Linear Algebra (...sorry Dr. Powell, it's still a GREAT course :-)

<P>
So, what are the rest of you guys working on <I>out there...?</I>

<P>
I upgraded my home system over this past summer to a Cyrix P-166+ machine with
a Triton II MB, 32 MB EDO RAM, Diamond Stealth Video VRAM graphics card,
Toshiba 8X CDROM, and CTX 1765GME monitor.  I dropped in the old Maxtor 1.6
Gig drive from my previous machine and have just gotten a second Maxtor 2.0
drive (so Linux can finally have its own drive!).  I'll be installing this and
reinstalling much of the system over Christmas Break.  If this sounds like a
brewing &quot;mail brown-out&quot;, you're probably right... :-)

<P>
I've also gotten pretty enamoured with Tcl/Tk as you might have noticed.  This
is a seriously fun programming environment.  Now, I know that this isn't for
everyone and there are folks who've tried tcl that just frankly didn't like
the language.  Still, there are a growing number of truly impressive add on's
including <B>tclX, BLT, Tix, and [incr tcl]</B> that add a lot of nice
features.  I'd especially commend to the <B>Tix</B> extension.  It provides a
set of <I>meta-widgets</I> such as directory browsers, tabbed windows, and the
like.  It precludes your having to code these types of windows and gives you
a higher level widget to work with.  If you're interested in this, then
definitely run the demo program as it give you a IMPRESSIVE tour of the widget
set.

<P>
Finally, I've just gotten a microphone for my sound card (SB Vibra 16 PnP) and
have been messing around with creating sound files.

<P>
Pretty cool :-)

<P>
I'm still not completely facile with all the basics, but I've gotten a few
snippets recorded, including a &quot;Happy Birthday&quot; rendition (my wife
and me) to our sister-in-law.  It'd curl 'ol Lawrence Welk's toes, I suspect,
but it was fun to send this rascal out via email.  You know... &quot;reach out
and touch someone...&quot;

<P>
Well, here's wishing you Happy Linux'ing!

<P>
Since I didn't have time this month do to a &quot;Christmas Shopping
List&quot; of Linux goodies, I'll try to get this in next month so that after
you return all those bottles of aftershave and the argyle socks, you'll know
what to do with the money... :-)

<P>
From our household to yours,

<CENTER>
<P><I>Wishing you a Merry and Joyous Christmas Season!</I>
</CENTER>

<P>
John<BR>
Saturday 23 November 1996

<!-- END CLOSING UP SHOP  ============================================== -->

<P><HR><P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/fisk/mailme.gif" ALIGN=MIDDLE WIDTH=38 HEIGHT=30> If you'd like, 
drop me a note at: 
<ADDRESS> John M. Fisk 
<A HREF="mailto: fiskjm@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu">
&lt;fiskjm@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu&gt;</A>
</ADDRESS>

<P>
Version Information:<BR><B>
$Id: issue12.html,v 1.2 2002/10/09 22:24:17 lg Exp $
</B>

<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P> 
<A HREF="./index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/indexnew.gif" 
ALT="[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ]"></A>
<A HREF="../index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/homenew.gif"
ALT="[ FRONT PAGE ]"></A>
<A HREF="./server.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/back2.gif"
ALT=" Back "></A>
<A HREF="lg_backpage12.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/fwd.gif" ALT=" Next "></A>
<P> <hr> <P> 
<!--==================================================================-->

<!--==================================================================-->
<center>
<H1><IMG SRC="../gx/backpage.gif" alt="Linux Gazette Back Page"></H1>

<H5>Copyright &copy; 1996 Specialized Systems Consultants, Inc.<br>
For information regarding copying and distribution of this material see the
<A HREF="../copying.html">Copying License</A>.</H5>
</center>

<P> <hr> <P> 

<H3>Contents:</H3>
<ul>
<li><a HREF="./lg_backpage12.html#authors">About This Month's Authors</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_backpage12.html#notlinux">Not Linux</a>
</ul>

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!--======================================================================-->

<center><H3><A name="authors"> About This Month's Authors </A></H3></center>

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!--======================================================================-->

<P> 
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Randy Appleton</a></H4>
Randy Appleton is a professor of Computer Science at Northern Michigan
University. Randy got his Ph.D. at the University of Kentucky. He has
been involved with Linux since before version 0.9. Current research
includes high performance pre-fetching file systems, with a coming port to
the 2.X version of Linux. Other interests include airplanes, especially
home-built ones.

<P> 
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Larry Ayers</H4>
Larry Ayers lives on a small farm
in northern Missouri, where he is currently engaged in building a
timber-frame house for his family. He operates a portable band-saw mill,
does general woodworking, plays the fiddle and searches for rare
prairie plants, as well as growing shiitake mushrooms. He is also
struggling with configuring a Usenet news server for his local ISP.

<P> 
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">John M. Fisk</H4>
John Fisk is most noteworthy as the former editor of the <I>Linux Gazette</I>.
After three years as a General Surgery resident and
Research Fellow at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center,
John decided to &quot:hang up the stethoscope&quot:, and pursue a
career in Medical Information Management. He's currently a full
time student at the Middle Tennessee State University and hopes
to complete a graduate degree in Computer Science before
entering a Medical Informatics Fellowship. In his dwindling
free time he and his wife Faith enjoy hiking and camping in
Tennessee's beautiful Great Smoky Mountains. He has been an avid Linux fan,
since his first Slackware 2.0.0 installation a year and a half
ago.

<P> 
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Michael J. Hammel</H4>
Michael J. Hammel,
is a transient software engineer with a background in
everything from data communications to GUI development to Interactive Cable
systems--all based in Unix. His interests outside of computers
include 5K/10K races, skiing, Thai food and gardening. He suggests if you
have any serious interest in finding out more about him, you visit his home
pages at http://www.csn.net/~mjhammel. You'll find out more
there than you really wanted to know. 

<P> 
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Andy Kahn</H4>
Andy Kahn is currently a graduate student in Computer Science at
UCLA, praying to finish his Masters degree sometime in the foreseeable
near future.  His primary research area is in parallel I/O.  On
the side, Andy also does Unix System Administration at Activision,
a well-known computer games company.  He also has had previous jobs,
including system administration and programming by masquerading
as a Software Engineer.  Andy has been an on and off Linux
enthusiast since his first SLS v1.02 installation over 3 years ago.

<P> 
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Jesper Pedersen</a></H4>
Jesper Pedersen lives in Odense, Denmark, where he has studied computer science
at Odense University since 1990. He expects to obtain his degree in a year and
a half. He has a great job as a system manager at the
university, and also teaches computer science two hours a week. He is very 
proud of his &quot;child,&quot; The Dotfile Generator, which he wrote as part of his
job at the university. The idea for it came a year and a half ago, when he had
to learn how to configure Emacs by reading about 700 pages of the lisp manual.
It started small, but as time went by, it expanded into a huge project.
In his spare time, he does Yiu-Yitsu, listens to music, drinks beer and has fun with
his girl friend. He loves pets, and has a 200 litre aquarium and two very cute
rabbits.

<P> 
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Robert G. Savage</a></H4>
Robert G. "Doc" Savage received his BSE(EE) at Arizona State University in
1974 and is now a senior networking engineer working for a
telecommunications consulting firm near St. Louis. An Internet veteran
since the earliest days of the Arpanet, he has designed, engineered,
installed, administered and consulted for a wide range of UNIX, Novell and
Microsoft network systems. He enjoys listening to Garrison Keelor's radio
broadcasts, reading Tom Clancy's books, acting in community theater,
cruising in his 300ZX twin turbo, tinkering with a tower server in his
living room (the hood is always up), and relaxing at the end of the day
with his two Siamese cats and a pint of Guinness.

<P> 
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Manuel Soriano</a></H4>
Manual Soriano lives in El Perello, Valencia, Spain. He works for a Swiss
based company called Dapsys S. A. that provides the Information Retrieval
Imaging System called IRIS. His job calls for quite of bit of traveling. He's
been in Swizterland, France, and most recently, Prince George, Canada. 
His FEddi-HOWTO article is the English translation of his article
FEddi-COMO that appeared in the October issue.

<P> <hr> <P> 
<!--====================================================================-->

<center><H3><A name="notlinux"> Not Linux </A></H3></center>

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!--======================================================================-->
<P>
Thanks to all our authors, not just the ones above, but also those who wrote
giving us their tips and tricks and making suggestions. Thanks also to our
new mirror sites. 
<P> 
Major "Not Linux" projects on my plate these days are the repair of a quilt
and Thanksgiving. 
<P> 
The "Sunbonnet Sue" quilt was
made for my sister Gaynell when she about 5, and is turning into more work than
I expected. But when I am finished, it will be beautiful again and
will make a good Christmas present for her. 
<P> 
Thanksgiving feels like an even
bigger project than the quilt repair--I get to host this year, which means
I do the major part of the cooking. I will be serving traditional Southern
fare, since I was raised in Texas. I feel like I should already be cooking
to be ready on time. At any rate, I am looking forward to visiting with
family, and eating too much. :-) I am also looking forward to the long
weekend--four days off from work feels like a vacation!
<P> 
Have fun!

<P> <hr> <P> 
<A HREF="http://www.ssc.com/ssc/Employees/Margie/margie.html">
Marjorie L. Richardson</a><br>
Editor, <i>Linux Gazette</i> <A HREF="mailto:gazette@ssc.com">gazette@ssc.com</a>

<P> <HR> <P>
<!--====================================================================-->
<A HREF="./index.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/indexnew.gif" ALT="[ TABLE OF 
CONTENTS ]"></A>
<A HREF="../index.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/homenew.gif" ALT="[ FRONT 
PAGE ]"></A> 
<A HREF="./wkndmech.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/back2.gif" ALT=" Back "></A>
<p><hr><p>
<I>Linux Gazette</I>, http://www.ssc.com/lg/<BR> 
This page written and maintained by the Editor of <I>Linux Gazette</I>,
<A HREF="mailto: gazette@ssc.com"> gazette@ssc.com</A>
<P> 

</BODY>
</HTML>