This came from Scott Bigham not too recently. I hope somebody could find an interesting way to put this information to good use. Please let me know if you come up with anything interesting...... weiner ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: 3am Downloading (was Re: umich archives) Little did I know what I was getting into when I wrote in <666@news.duke.edu>: Still with me? Okay, the following assumes that you're on a Unix system with FTP access. It may also be a bit oversimplistic for some, but better to be oversimplistic than overcryptic. 1. If you haven't already done so, create in your home directory a file named .netrc with the following line: machine atari.archive.umich.edu login anonymous password or add said line to an existing .netrc. This will log you in automatically when you connect to a.a, and is thus useful in its own right. 1a. Type the command: chmod 700 .netrc This denies read and write access on the file to everyone but yourself. If you fail to do this, you'll get the error: Error -- .netrc file not in correct mode ftp is thoughtfully pointing out to you that you may have sensitive password information in a file that everyone can read. 2. Create a file (say `infile') containing the ftp commands you'd normally use to download files; for instance: binary hash cd atari/games get wizard.arc cd ../mint get mint092b.zoo [etc...] 3. Create another file (say `cmdfile') containing the single line: ftp atari.archive.umich.edu < infile > outfile 4. Type the command: at 3am cmdfile At this point you might get one of two errors. `at: Command not found' or similar means your system doesn't have an `at' command. Oh well. `at: Permission denied' or similar means that on your system, only certain users are allowed to use `at'. Talk to the local system admin about getting added to the at.allow list. If you get a cryptic number back, you've succeeded; that's the ID number of the `at' job you just created. 5. Check back tomorrow. If it worked, you should see all the files you requested, and a file named `outfile' containing a sort of "transaction log" -- most or all of what you would have seen had you been running ftp interactively. Note that the `3am' parameter can be made more elaborate -- `at 4am thursday', for instance. Type "man at" for more information. If you have questions (or if I've made mistakes), I'm just an 'r' (or an 'f') away. -sbigham -- Scott Bigham | The opinions expressed above are bigham@hercules.acpub.duke.edu | (c) 1991 Hacker Ltd. and cannot be | copied or distributed without a | Darn Good Reason(tm). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From me, Jeff Weiner: 1. 3 am is a good time if you're in North America. There's very little machine load, and things will go quite smoothly. If you're in Europe or Asia, our GMT time is -4:00. Please figure this approriately so that your request occurs when it's about 3 or 4 am HERE!! 2. There's been a report or two of people who have something similar set up for bart use. If you have it, please mail me something that describes your set up. I'm sure there are several people who could make use of it. Thanks! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From David Oakley: How to get BART to send you your download at 3am in the morning... 1. Look at the man page for 'at'. Ignoring other arguments in square brackets, it should be of the form: 'at time [+increment] script'. If it's not then you've got the weird version... Look at the end of the text to see what to do. If you haven't got a man page for 'at' then GAME OVER... Sorry! 2. Create a file called 'autobart.txt' or something like that using your favourite editor. It should contain something like: send 0new0 [I send 0new0 to myself every 3 days or so: very useful to know what's been added!] 3. Again using your editor, create a file called 'autobart.sh': mail atari@atari.archive.umich.edu < autobart.txt If you want to make the script restart itself every morning at 3am, then add a second line: mail atari@atari.archive.umich.edu < autobart.txt at 3am tommorow autobart.sh 2> autobart.log The 2>... part of the command sucks the output of at into a log file. If you leave this bit out then the current 'at' will mail you telling you of the output that the next 'at' caused! 4. Back at the UNIX prompt, execute the command at 3am tommorow autobart.sh And pray that you a number back from it. If you get 'Permission denied' then you need to get your sysadm to add you to his (or her) at.allow list. If it can't find 'at' at all, start crying. 5. Get enough coffee and biscuits so you can watch it all happen next morning! 6. IF YOU HAVE AN 'at' STATEMENT WITH THE SYNOPSIS 'at time [+increment]' WITH NO script PART, replace the 'at' commands in <3> and <4> with: at 3am tommorow < autobart.sh Any probs, mail me (argh, what have I said?) Seeya! David. /\ ASTRAsoft shareware for the Atari ST/TT/Falcon. | MSDOS 3.03 /\ \ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | C:\> DIRE /__\ \ David Oakley: dxo@cs.bham.ac.uk | True. _/_ _\_\_ Graham Harrison: u2e32@keele.ac.uk | C:\> _