============================================================================== RED CIENTIFICA PERUANA ============================================================================== FAQ for the alt.cd-rom usenet newsgroup. This list is posted to alt.cd-rom every month. The latest version is available via anonymous ftp from cdrom.com (192.153.46.254): /pub/faq. This file is freely redistributable. Disclaimer: I have a direct financial interest in some of the companies mentioned in this posting, and indirect financial interest in several others. ============================================================================ 1. What are some good sources of CD-ROM discs? 1a. What are some good sources of CD-ROM discs in North America? 1b. What are some good sources of CD-ROM discs in Europe? 1c. What are some good sources of CD-ROM discs in Asia? 1d. What are some good sources of CD-ROM discs in Australia and New Zealand? 2. Can you recommend a good CD-ROM drive? 3. Where can I get caddies? 4. Are there any good periodicals and publications on CD-ROMs? 5. Why are CD-ROM drives so slow? 6. Is it important to have a fast CD-ROM? Does 300ms vs. 700ms really matter? 7. Is it important to buy a fully SCSI compatible drive? 8. How much does it cost to make a CD-ROM? 9. Where can I get a CD-ROM published? 10. Where can I find equipment to make my own CD-ROMs? 11. How much information will fit on a CD-ROM? 12. Why doesn't MSCDEX work with DOS 5.0? 13. Where can I get the latest version of MSCDEX? 14. I bought a used drive at a garage sale. Where can I find a driver for it? 15. What is the difference between `High Sierra' and ISO-9660? 16. Where can I get a copy of the ISO-9660 standard? 17. What is an HFS disc? 18. Can you give a short explaination of ISO-9660? 19. What the heck does `Red Book' and `Yellow Book' mean? 20. What is CD-I? 21. What is CD-ROM/XA? 22. What are the Rock Ridge extensions? 23. Is a short technical introduction to these standards available? 24. Are there any ftp sites with good stuff related to CD-ROMs? 25. How do I write an MSDOS program that can access a cdrom using MSCDEX? 26. How do I mount an ISO-9660 disc on a Sun? 27. How do I use a CD-ROM with OS/2? 28. Which CD-ROM Drives will work with MicroSoft Windows-NT? 29. How do I read an audio cd track as digital data? 30. Why do CD-ROMs cost so much? 31. Why do all the bundle deals require me to buy a drive? What if I already have a drive? 32. Are alt.cd-rom archives available anywhere? 33. What is the shelf-life of a CD-ROM? 34. How should I handle my CD-ROMs? How do I clean them? 35. Which drives will work with Kodak Photo CD? 36. What is a "Multisession" CD drive? 37. Where can I get more information about the Kodak Photo CD? 38. Where can I get maps of the US on CD-ROM? 39. How do I put a CD-ROM Drive on a Novell network? 40. ???? Please send any other questions (and answers) that should be included in this FAQ to rab@cdrom.com. ========================================================================== 1. What are some good sources of CD-ROM discs? Jim Raehl has compiled an excellent list of sources for inexpensive CD-ROMs. His list is periodically posted to alt.cd-rom, and is available via anonymous ftp from cdrom.com:/pub/faq_disc. You can get a list of about 85 CD-ROM titles by sending a blank message to CD-ROM@micromed.net.netcom.com [ Several people have had trouble getting the list, so I have made it available for anonymous ftp from cdrom.com:/pub/micro.med ] ========================================================================== 1a. What are some good sources of CD-ROM discs in North America? --------------------------------- Buckmaster Publishing Route 3, Box 56 Mineral, VA 23117 703-894-5777 or 800-282-5628 A ham radio callbook database and 5000 public domain programs: $50 --------------------------------- Bureau of Electronic Publishing 141 New Road Parsippany, NJ 07054 1 800 828-4766 Publish lots of CD-ROM titles. Call them for a catalog. ---------------------------------- CD-ROM INC 1667 Cole Blvd, Suite 400 Golden, CO 80401 1 800 821-5245 Many discs, drives and accessories. Call for free catalog. ------------------------------------ The CD-ROM Source PO Box 20158 Indianapolis, IN 46220 Phone: (317) 251-9833 ------------------------------------ CDROMS Unlimited P.O. Box 7476 Fremont, CA 94537-7476 1 510 795-4286 Call for catalog ------------------------------------ CD-ROM User's Group Post Office Box 2400 Santa Barbara, CA 93120 805-965-0265 Bundle of 10 discs for $99. ------------------------------------ Compustuff 2759 Medina Rd., Plaza 71 Medina, OH 44258 216-725-7729 ------------------------------------ Computer Man 18546 Sherman Way, Suite B Reseda, CA 91335 818-609-0556 ------------------------------------ Computers At Large 18728 Cabernet Drive Saratoga, CA 95070-3561 (408)255-1081, (408)255-2388 - FAX ------------------------------------ Crazy Bob ERM Electronic Liquidators 37 Washinton St. Melrose, Mass 02176 Order line: 800-776-5865 Sells mostly outdated or surplus discs at low prices ------------------------------------ EBSCO Subscription Services (CD-ROM Handbook) P.O.Box 325 Topsfield, MA 01983 508-887-6667 800-221-1826 508-887-3923 (Fax) ------------------------------------ EDUCORP 7434 Trade Street San Diego, CA92121-2410 1-800-843-9497 ------------------------------------ Faxon Co., Inc. (Access Faxon) 15 Southwest Park Westwood, MA 02090 617-329-3350 800-225-6055 617-461-1862 (Fax) ------------------------------------ Mail Boxes Etc. 7657 Winnetka Ave. Conoga Park, CA 91306 818-700-1800 ------------------------------------ Mr. CD Rom PO Box 1087 Winter Garden, FL 34777 800-444-mrcd 407-877-3834 FAX ------------------------------------ NASA Space Science Data Center Code 933.4 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD USA 20771 Phone (voice) 301 286 6695 CDROMs of data from Voyager, Magellan and Viking for $6 each. If you have ftp capability, you can sample images from the two currently mounted CDROMS at ames.arc.nasa.gov in the directory SPACE/CDROM. ------------------------------------ Nautilus 7001 Discovery Blvd Dublin, OH 43017-8066 1-800-637-3472 Provides a CD-ROM of the month subscription. 13 CD-ROM's for $138. ------------------------------------ Pacific HiTech, Inc. 4530 Fortuna Way Salt Lake City, UT 84124 (800) 765-8369, (801) 278-2042, FAX: (801) 278-2666 71175.3152@CompuServe.com. Info-Mac Sumex-aim Macintosh CDROM ------------------------------------ Prime Time Freeware 415-112 N. Mary Ave., Suite 50 Sunnyvale, CA 94086 (408) 738-4832, (408) 738 2050 FAX, ptf@rdm.com UNIX-related source code on CD-ROM ------------------------------------ ProComp Computer 12503 Sherman Way No. Hollywood CA 91605 ------------------------------------ Profit Press 2956 N. Campbell Ave. Tucson, AZ 85719 602-577-9624 MEGA-Rom, 600+ meg MSDOS, $79 ------------------------------------ Raynbow Software, Inc. P. O. Box 327 Rapid City, SD 57709 (605) 394-8227, louis@ce.ucsc.edu, CompuServe: 70410,413 5000 GIFs on CD-ROM with Search Engine for $55 ------------------------------------ Reed Reference Publishing Bowker Electronic Publishing 121 Chanlon Road New Providence, NJ 07974 1-800-323-3288 908-464-6800, 212-645-9700, 1-800-323-3328, info@bowker.com "Books in Print" on CD-ROM, bi-monthly subscription $1095, w/reviews $1595 ------------------------------------ ROM-BO 1300 Mohawk Blvd Springfield, OR 97477 800-536-DISK ------------------------------------ Sound Electro Flight 4545 Industrial St. 5N Simi Valley, CA 93063 800-279-4824 ------------------------------------ Stanford University Press 415-723-1593 CD-ROM with authoring system containing four books illustrating its use: $17 ------------------------------------ Sterling Software 1404 Ft. Crook Rd. South Bellevue, NE 68005-2969 800 643-NEWS, 402 291-2108, 402 291-4362, cdnews@Sterling.COM uunet!sparky!cdnews, ftp.uu.net:/vendor/sterling NetNews/CD: Usenet news on CD-ROM ------------------------------------ TechCity 17706 Chatsworth St. Granada Hills, CA 91344 ------------------------------------ TigerSoftware 800 Douglas Entrance Executive Tower, 7th FLoor Coral Gables, Florida 33134 24-hour FAX: (305) 529-2990 ------------------------------------ Updata Publications, Inc. (CD-ROM Guide) 1736 Westwood Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90024 310-474-5900 800-882-2844 310-474-4095 (Fax) ------------------------------------ Walnut Creek CDROM 1547 Palos Verdes Mall, Suite 260 Walnut Creek, CA 94596 1 800 786-9907, 1 510 947-5996, 1 510 947-1644 FAX Snapshots of major internet archives on CD-ROM ------------------------------------ Wayzata Technology Inc. P.O. Box 807 Grand Rapids MN 55744 1 800 735-7321 Call for catalog ========================================================================== 1b. What are some good sources of CD-ROM discs in Europe? ------------------------------------ Apex Software PO Box 174 Battle East Sussex TN33 9AQ International: +44-424-830025 (voice or fax), UK: 0424-830025 (voice or fax) email: vincea@cix.compulink.co.uk ------------------------------------ British Software Licensing 280 (T/L) West Princes Street Woodlands Glasgow G4 9EU United Kingdom +44-41-339-7264, Fax +44-41-334-1675, graham@gimble.demon.co.uk ------------------------------------ CD-ROM Jacob Aarstrasse 98 CH-3005 Bern Switzerland ------------------------------------ CD ROM (UK) Ltd 8 Sheep St, Highworth Swindon, Wiltshire SN6 7AA United Kingdom 44-0793-861146, 44-0793-765331 (Fax) ------------------------------------ EBSCO Subscription Services 3 Tyers Gate London SE1 3HX United Kingdom 44-71-357-7516 ------------------------------------ Faxon Europe, B.V. Postbus 197 1000 AD Amsterdam The Netherlands 31 (20) 91-05-91, 31 (20) 91-17-35 (Fax) ------------------------------------ Micro Haus Limited P.O. Box 149 Gloucester GL3 4EF United Kingdom ------------------------------------ Mountain Rose Multi Media Kikkerveen 331 3205 XC Spijkenisse The Netherlands. Phone: +31 1880 33083 / Fax: +31 1880 41551 / Email: sterbbs@sus.eur.nl ------------------------------------ STARCOM International Computer Services Limburggasse 45 A-9073 Klagenfurt-Viktring Austria +43 (463) 29 67 22, +43 (463) 29 67 24 FAX ------------------------------------ WasaWare Oy Palosaarentie 31 SF-65200 VAASA Finland Telephone & Fax: +358 61 173365, Email: hv@uwasa.fi ========================================================================== 1c. What are some good sources of CD-ROM discs in Asia? ------------------------------------ Software Studio Shop 217 Olympia Shopping Center 255 King's Road North Point Hong Kong +852 510 7470 FAX ------------------------------------ UniForce System Ltd. 903 Kin Tak Fung Comm. Bldg 467-473 Hennessy Road Hong Kong Voice: (852)838-6048 Fax: (852)572-4778 ------------------------------------ Cache Computer Shop 29, G/Fl., Golden Shopping Centre 146-152 Fuk Wah st., Shamshuipo Kowloon Hong Kong Voice: (852) 361-9975, FAX: (852) 387-9935 ========================================================================== 1d. What are some good sources of CD-ROM discs in Australia/New Zealand? ------------------------------------ The Cave MegaBBS PO Box 2009 Wellington New Zealand BBS: +64 4 5643429 V22b, +64 4 564-5307 FAX, clear@cavebbs.gen.nz ------------------------------------ CompuCD GPO Box 1624 Canberra City ACT 2601 Australia fax: +61 06 2319771 ------------------------------------ Ilb Computing 48 Nebo Drive Figtree Heights NSW 2525 Australia +61 42 28 5827 ------------------------------------ Logicware 1 Riverbank Off. Vil. Cnr 1st St. & O'Shea Ter. Katherine, N'rn Terr. 0850 Australia fax: +61 89 72 3412 ========================================================================== 2. Can you recommend a good CD-ROM drive? ------------------------------------ The NEC CD-ROM drives 336,37,73,74,83, etc. have received many favorable recommendations. NEC CD-ROM drive information can be FAX'ed to you. Call NEC Fastfacts at 800-366-0476, and then follow the directions. You will be prompted for a Catalog or Product Number. Catalog Number 2 is for CD-ROM and Product Number 730101 is for the CRD-73M and 730100 is for the CDR-73. Similarly for the CDR-37. No information was available on the CD-74. You will be prompted for your 10-digit FAX number and your local voice telephone number. If you haven't received your FAX with 30 minutes try again. For international callers, the Fastfacts FAX number is +1 708 860-9500x2621. You can get documents, and drivers, from the NEC BBS at +1 508 635-6328. ------------------------------------ DAK has a slow but reliable drive for $199. For an extra $49 you can get a bundle of discs. DAK Industries Incorporated 8200 Remmet Avenue Canoga Park, CA 91304 Orders: 818-888-8220, 800-DAK-0800 Technical information: 800-888-9818 ------------------------------------ The Pioneer DRM-600 6-disk changer drive is available for $979 from Kintronics Computer Products 3 Westchester Plaza Elmsford, NY 10523 914-347-2530 or 800-431-1658 attention Neal Allen It is also distributed by Peripheral Solution, in Santa Cruz, 408-425-8280 ------------------------------------ You can get information on Matsumi drives by calling their US HQ at (516) 752-7730. The Mitsumi office dealing with the SouthEast is in Dallas. (214) 550-7300, FAX: (214) 550-7424. In California, call (408) 970-0700. ========================================================================== 3. Where can I get caddies? Here are a few sources of caddies: --------------------------------------------------------------- CD-ROM INC 1667 Cole Blvd Suite 400 Golden, CO 80401 1 800 821-5245 Call for the latest price. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Digital Audio Disc Corp. 1800 North Fruitridge Ave. Terre Haute, IN 47804 +1 812 462-8100 Sony Caddies "Made in Japan", 1000 for $4100 ---------------------------------------------------------------- EDUCORP 7434 Trade Street San Diego, CA 92121-2410 1-800-843-9497 $55 for 10 ---------------------------------------------------------------- QB Products 1260 Karl Court Wauconda, IL 60084 +1 800 323-6856 +1 708 487-3333 Sony Caddies "Made in USA", 10 for $54, 1000 for $3900 ---------------------------------------------------------------- Walnut Creek CDROM 1547 Palos Verdes Mall Suite 260 Walnut Creek, CA 94596 +1 800 786-9907, +1 510 947-5996, +1 510 947-1644 FAX Sony caddies "Made in Japan" - $4.95 each, $450 for 100 ========================================================================== 4. Are there any good periodicals and publications on CD-ROMs? ------------------------------------------------------------ A catalog describing CD-ROM publications and a newsletter is available from Future Systems P.O. Box 26 Falls Church, VA 22040 Telephone 800-323-DISC or 703-241-1799 One of their books contains a list of about 1500 CD-ROM's. ------------------------------------------------------------ CD-ROM Professional is a bi-monthly magazine with product reviews, technical articles, industry news, etc. This is a "must read" for anyone in the CD-ROM business. $39.95/year CD-ROM Professional Magazine 462 Danbury Road Wilton, CT 06897 +1 800 248-8466 ------------------------------------------------------------ "The CD-ROM Directory" is available on either paper or CD-ROM from UniDisc 3941 Cherryvale Avenue, Soqeul, CA 95073 (408) 464-0707 ------------------------------------------------------------ "CD-ROM Collecion Builder's Toolkit, 1992 Edition" Paul T. Nicholls Eight Bit Books, Weston, CT ISBN: 0-910-96502-1 $39.95 ------------------------------------------------------------ CD-ROMS IN PRINT 1992 An International Guide to CD-ROM, CD-I, CDTV & Electronic Book Products Meckler Publishing 11 Ferry Lane West Westport, CT 06880 ------------------------------------------------------------ Newsgroups and mailing lists: On the internet, the best source of information is the newsgroup alt.cd-rom, which is linked to the BITNET list CDROM-L. You can subscribe to CDROM-L by sending the following command to LISTSERV@UCCVMA.UCOP.EDU: SUBSCRIBE CDROM-L Your full name The internet newsgroup comp.multimedia is a good source of information on multimedia topics. CDROMLAN (available on usenet as bit.listserv.cdromlan) covers the use of CD-ROM products on local area or wide area networks. You can join the list be sending the following command to LISTSERV@IDBSU.IDBSU.EDU: SUBSCRIBE CDROMLAN Your full name CD-ROMs are in heavy use in libraries and government document repositories, both for access to indexes and for distribution of government data. The relevant lists are PACS-L (bit.listserv.pacs-l) and GOVDOC-L (bit.listserv.govdoc-l). Send to LISTSERV@PSUVM.PSU.EDU: SUBSCRIBE GOVDOC-L Your full name Send to LISTSERV%UHUPVM1.BITNET@VM1.NODAK.EDU SUBSCRIBE PACS-L Your full name Discussions of music on CD can be found in rec.music.cd. ========================================================================== 5. Why are CD-ROM drives so slow? Compact discs were originally designed for music. When you are listening to "Willie Nelson's Greatest Hits", you are accessing the data sequentially and at a very regular speed. The only time you need to seek is when you decide to skip over a song, or back up and listen to "Always on my Mind" one more time. In order to fit as much music as possible onto the disc, the data is recorded at the same linear density near the outer edge of the disc as it is near the center, so there is more information in the outside tracks than in the inside tracks. In order to deliver a steady rate of data, the linear velocity of the disc moving under the head is constant, so the angular velocity of the disc changes when the head moves from the center toward the outside tracks. This is no big deal when you are playing music, but when you are trying to do random access to a CD-ROM, the need to accelerate and decelerate the disc is the biggest obstacle to making it faster. Most magnetic discs spin at a constant angular velocity, so the data density decreases toward the outside of the disk, but seeks are faster. A few other reasons that CD-ROMs are slow: Optical disc heads tend to be heavier than magnetic disk heads, so they have more inertia, and take longer to stablize onto a new track. Many CD-ROMs contain too much data to make effective use of RAM caches. As time goes by, CD-ROM drives will get a little faster, but don't expect any miracles. ========================================================================== 6. Is it important to have a fast CD-ROM? Does 300ms vs 700ms really matter? It depends on what applications you will be using. Many CD-ROMs are just big archives of stuff, and you can copy individual programs to your hard disk before using them so speed is not really very important. But if you are going to be using large ramdom-access databases, or any kind of interactive multi-media applications, then the speed difference is very noticeable. ========================================================================== 7. Is it important to buy a fully SCSI compatible drive? Several CD-ROM drives only support a sub-set of SCSI, and usually come with their own semi-SCSI controller card. Full SCSI compatible drives usually cost more, but are better if you already have a SCSI controller and want to daisy chain several devices, or if you want to be able to use the drive on different machine types. ========================================================================== 8. How much does it cost to make a CD-ROM? You can get a master made for about $1300, and then about $1.50 per disc for duplication. So to make 1000 discs, it will cost you about ($1300 + (1000 * 1.50)) = $2800. Publishers often have `first-timer' specials with steep discounts off the list price. For instance, DMI recently had a special of mastering, 50 discs, and two hours of tech support for $750. If you only want a few discs, you can have single ISO-9660 `one-offs' made for about $200 for the first disc, and $100 for additional copies. ========================================================================== 9. Where can I get a CD-ROM published? I have used both of these companies, and highly recommend either: Digital Audio Disc Corporation 1800 North Fruitridge Avenue Terre Haute, IN 47803 812-462-8100, 812-466-9125 FAX Disc Manufacturing Inc. 4905 Moores Mill Road Huntsville, AL 35810 800-433-DISC, 205-859-9042, 205-859-9932 FAX DADC is a subsidiary of Sony, and DMI is a subsidiary of Philips. A more detailed list of 25 publishers in 8 countries is available via anonymous ftp in cdrom.com:/pub/publshrs. If you only want to make one disc, or just a few copies, there are several companies that offer this service: On-Site CD Saratoga, CA (408) 867-0514 ISO-9660, Mac HFS, Call for price Optical Media International San Jose, CA (408) 376-3511 omi@applelink.apple.com ISO-9660, Mac HFS, Call for price Walnut Creek CDROM 1547 Palos Verdes Mall Suite 260 Walnut Creek, CA 94596 1-800-786-9907, +1 510 947-5996, FAX: +1 510 947-1644, rab@cdrom.com ISO-9660, $195, $95 each for additional copies Young Minds Inc. 1910 Orange Tree Lane Suite 300 Redlands, CA 92374 714 335-1350, 714 798-0488 FAX, yngmnds!ayoung@ucrmath.ucr.edu Rock Ridge (Unix), $950 ========================================================================== 10. Where can I find equipment to make my own CD-ROMs? If you want to do single copy `one-offs', or low volume CD production, there are recorders announced by JVC, Philips and Sony. JVC Personal ROM-Maker $12500 (complete system, including software) Philips CDD-521 $5500 (+ $1900 for software) Sony CDW-900E $10000 (???) You can buy the Philips drive with CDGEN software for ISO-9660 discs from DataDisc (1-800-328-2347, FAX: +1 703-347-9085) for $7895. They recommend that you use it with the Adaptec 1542 SCSI Card. Optical Media International (1-408-376-3511, omi@applelink.apple.com) has Macintosh HFS premastering software for the Philips CDD-521. The program is called "Quicktopics" and the cost is $2500. Here are some phone numbers you can call for more info: JVC Product Information: +1 714 965-2610 Philips Consumer Electronics: +1 615 475-8869 Sony Computer Peripheral Products: +1 800 352-7669 The blank discs for these drives cost about $30 each. They are not the same as a normal CD. The metal data surface is gold instead of aluminum. The recorder uses a high powered laser to burn pits in the metal film. It takes about half an hour to burn each disc. The cheapest price I have found for 74 minute (650 meg) blanks is $31 quantity ten, $29 quantity 100, and $27 quantity 500 from DataWare (1-510-942-3111, ask for Jeff Caplan). The 68 minute (600 meg) discs are usually about a buck cheaper. ========================================================================== 11. How much information will fit on a CD-ROM? It depends on the drive. Almost all CD-ROM drives will handle up to 650 megabytes with no problems. Many newer drives can read discs with over 700 megs. The CD-ROM Users Group (see above) has a diagnostic CD-ROM that will tell you how much information your drive can handle. ========================================================================== 12. Why doesn't MSCDEX work with DOS 5.0? You must use SETVER with MS-DOS 5.0, to make MSCDEX 2.20 work properly. Otherwise you will get an incorrect DOS version message. See the MS-DOS 5.0 documentation on how to use SETVER. MSCDEX 2.21 works with MS-DOS 5.0 without SETVER. ========================================================================== 13. Where can I get the latest version of MSCDEX? Call MS BBS at 206-936-4082. Choose F for file library, S UPDATES, F to list files, then D MSCDEX.ZIP to download the file. (Microsoft may have deleted this file.) You can get the latest version of MSCDEX (2.21) in a self-extracting zip archive via anonymous ftp from cdrom.com:/pub/cdext.exe. You can get the latest MSCDEX extensions by email by sending a blank message to MSCDEX@micromed.net.netcom.com. ========================================================================== 14. I bought a used drive at a garage sale. Where can I find a driver for it? NEC, Philips and Sony have BBS's where you might be able to find drivers for their drives: NEC BBS: +1 508 635-6328 Philips BBS: +1 310 532-6436 Sony BBS: +1 408 955-5107 or +1 408 372-7426 Toshiba operates a bulletin board in Compuserve. Jim Rohrer, Chief Sysop, 76702,1300@compuserve.com They promise an answer within 24 hours. ========================================================================== 15. What is the difference between `High Sierra' and ISO-9660? Not much. When the standard was first proposed, it was given the name "High Sierra'. Later it was adopted as an offical standard, with a few minor modifications, and was designated ISO-9660. Usually when someone says "High Sierra", they really mean ISO-9660. ========================================================================== 16. Where can I get a copy of the ISO-9660 standard? You can order a copy of the ISO-9660 standard from ANSI Attn: Sales 11 West 42nd Street New York, NY 10036 212-642-4900 Cost to US destinations is $50, plus $6 shipping, check or money order. ========================================================================== 17. What is an HFS disc? HFS is the Macintosh's Hierarchical Filing System. It is unrelated to High Sierra and ISO-9660 formats. Most CD-ROMs intended for the Macintosh are created in the HFS format, since HFS does support the Mac's resource and data forks and file information. There are drivers made by AsimWare (AsimCDFS) and Xetec that allows HFS discs to be read on an Amiga. There is a list of differences that the drivers contends with, such as non-standard characters and 32 character filenames (Amiga supports only 30). [ If anyone can tell me where the HFS specs can be obtained, I will include that information here. ] ========================================================================== 18. Can you give a short explaination of ISO-9660? ISO-9660 is an international standard that defines a filesystem for CD-ROMs. Almost all systems support ISO-9660. Level one ISO-9660 is similar to an MS-DOS filesystem. Filenames are limited to eight single-case characters, a dot, and a three character extension. Filenames cannot contain special characters, (no hyphens, tildes, equals, or pluses). Only single case letters, numbers, and underscores. Directory names cannot have the three digit extension, just eight single-case characters. All alphabetics are in UPPER case; some software maps this to lower case. Either the file name or the extension may be empty, but not both ("F." and ".E" are both legal file names). There is a "File Version Number" which can range from 1-32767, and is separated from the extension by a semi-colon. The file version number is ignored on many systems. Here are some examples of legal and illegal filenames: Legal Illegal Why TEST_1C.TXT TEST-1C.TXT hyphen TEST1C.TXT TEST 1C.TXT space TEST.1C TEST.1C.TXT more than 1 period README Readme not single case Subdirectories are allowed to nest up to eight levels deep. Level two ISO-9660 allows longer filenames, up to 32 characters. But many of the other restrictions still apply. Level two discs are not usable on some systems, particularly MS-DOS. ========================================================================== 19. What the heck does `Red Book', `Yellow Book', etc. mean? "Red Book" is the common name of the "Compact Disc Digital Audio Standard". When a disc conforms to the red book standard, it will usually have "digital audio" printed below the "disc" logo. Most music CDs conform to this standard. "Yellow Book" is the standard for CD-ROM. When a disc conforms to the yellow book, it will usually say "data storage" beneath the "disc" logo. "Green Book" is the CD-I (compact disc interactive) standard. "Orange Book" is the standard for write-once compact discs. "Blue Book" is the standard for LaserDisc. You can get the Red Book and Yellow Book from ANSI Attn: Sales 1430 Broadway New York, NY 10018 (212) 642-4900 Red Book: CEI IEC 908 Yellow Book: ISO 10149:1989 You can get the Green Book from American CD-I Association 11111 Santa Monica, Suite 750 Los Angeles, CA 90025 (213) 444-6619 [If anyone can tell me where the other standards are available, I will include that information here.] ========================================================================== 20. What is CD-I? CD-I means "Compact Disc Interactive". It is meant to provide a standard platform for mass consumer interactive multimedia applications. So it is more akin to CD-DA, in that it is a full specification for both the data/code _and_ standalone playback hardware: a CD-I player has a CPU, RAM, ROM, OS, and audio/video/(MPEG) decoders built into it. Portable players add an LCD screen and speakers/phonejacks. If you want information about Philips CD-I products, you can call these numbers: US: Consumer hotline: 800-845-7301 For nearest store: 800-223-7772 Developers hotline: 800-234-5484 UK: Philips CD-I hotline: 0800-885-885 ========================================================================== 21. What is CD-ROM/XA? CD-ROM/XA is an extension to the Yellow Book Standard. A track on a CD-ROM/XA disc can contain computer data, compressed audio data, and video/picture data. Many CD-ROM drives do not support CD-ROM/XA. CD-ROM/XA extends CD-ROM by adding some of the CD-I disc features (such as using Mode 2 tracks with interleaved compressed-audio and other data). Thus CD-ROM/XA (eXtended Architecture) is often called the "Bridge" format between CD-ROM and CD-I... though the relationship is mostly the sector types. CD-ROM/XA applications still require specific code for each target platform. ========================================================================== 22. What are the Rock Ridge extensions? The Rock Ridge extensions use some undefined fields in the ISO-9660 standard to allow full unix-like filenames, symbolic links, and deep directories. "Rock Ridge" is named after the town in the movie "Blazing Saddles" for no particular reason. To receive a copy of the current version of the Rock Ridge specifications, please contact Bob Niland, e-mail rjn@fc.hp.com, fax 303 229 4545. You can ftp the Rock Ridge specs from cdrom.com: /pub/rockridge. For information on Rock Ridge at Sun, try rrinfo@Eng.Sun.COM or cdgroup@fantasy.eng.sun.com. For information on Unix-based premastering software supporting the Rock Ridge extensions contact: Young Minds Inc. 1910 Orange Tree Lane Suite 300 Redlands, CA 92374 714 335-1350 714 798-0488 FAX yngmnds!ayoung@ucrmath.ucr.edu ========================================================================== 23. Is a short technical introduction to these standards available? The file ftp.apple.com(130.43.2.3): /pub/cd-rom/cd-rom.summary gives a short techie introduction to compact disc technology. ---- There is a good short general article on CD-Rom and its's many variations (CD-XA, CD-I, CDTV, PhotoCD) called MULTIMEDIA IN A MUDDLE by Barry Fox in the New Scientist (London, ISSN# 0262-4079) vol. 131 no. 1787 (Sep 21, 1991) pp.35-38 ---- There is a good brief explaination of all these standards in the paper "Compact Disc Terminology" Nancy Klocko Disc Manufacturing Inc. 1409 Foulk Road, Suite 202 Wilmington, DE 19803 1-800-433-DISC Here is some information from the paper: Standards: Red Book == CD-Audio Yellow Book == CD-ROM Mode-1 is for computer data Mode-2 is for compressed audio data and video/picture data CD-ROM/XA == an EXTENSION to Yellow Book and defines a new type of track. CD-ROM Mode 2, XA Format, is used for computer data, compressed audio data, and video/picture data. A CD-ROM / XA track may interleave Mode 2 compressed audio and Mode 2 data sectors. Additional hardware is needed to separate these when playing the disc. The hardware is programmed to separate the audio from the data, decompress the audio and play it out through the audio jacks. At the same time, the hardware passes the data to the computer. NOTE: Additional hardware is needed to play a CD-ROM / XA disc. Several vendors offer an XA interface board that will allow an existing CD-ROM drive to play CD-ROM / XA discs. Green Book == Compact Disc Interactive (CD-I) Orange Book == Recordable Compact disc Standard Part I - CD-MO (Magneto Optical) Consists of optional Pre-Mastered (READ-ONLY) area and a Recordable (re-writable) user area. Part II - CD-WO (Write Once) Orange Book Part II also defines a second type of CD-WO disk called a "Hybrid Disc". This disc consists of a Pre-recorded Area and a Recordable Area. The Pre-recorded area is a READ ONLY area where the information is manufactured into the disc. (This area is written per the Red, Yellow, and Green Book specifications, and can be played on any CD-Player.) The Recordable areas are where additional recordings can be made in one or more sessions. Only the first session on the disc is readable by todays CD-Players; additional software will be needed to read the additional sessions. A TOC (Table of Contents) is written during each recording session. Disc will have multiple TOCs, one for each recording session. Photo-CD is an example of a "Hybrid Disc". CD-Bridge Disc The CD-Bridge Disc defines a way to add additional information in a CD-ROM / XA track in order to allow the track to be played on a CD-I player. the result is a disc that can be played on both a CD-I player connected to a TV set and on a CD-ROM / XA player connected to a computer. An example of a CD-Bridge Disc is the new Photo-CD disc. The Photo-CD disc will be playable in CD-I players, Kodak's Photo CD players and in computers using CD-ROM/XA drives. Photo-CD The Photo CDs will be Mode 2 Form 1 sectors per the CD-ROM / XA specifications. The disc will be written per the Orange Book Part II "Hybrid Disc" specifications. This will allow photographs to be written to the disc in several different sessions. Additionally, the disc will use the CD-Bridge disc format to allow the disc to be readable by both CD-I and CD-ROM / XA players. The photographs written to the disc in the first session will use the ISO 9660 format. These photographs will be readable with the existing CD-ROM / XA players connected to a computer running new software written for the Photo CD picture structure. Additionally, the photographs will be displayable on CD-I Players and Photo CD Players connected to a TV set. Photographs written to disc after the first session will be displayable on CD-I Players and Photo CD players. New software and/or firmware will be needed to read these additional photographs with existing CD-ROM/XA players. ========================================================================== 24. Are there any ftp sites with good stuff related to CD-ROMs? A couple of sites with cdrom related stuff are cdrom.com (192.153.46.254): /pub [ This site is maintained by me. ] cs.uwp.edu (131.210.1.4): /pub/cdrom ========================================================================== 25. How do I write an MSDOS program that can access a cdrom using MSCDEX? The MSCDEX interface documentation is available on the Microsoft Programmer's Library CD-ROM. This also has detailed specifications for drivers that talk to MSCDEX. It even provides solutions to a number of sticky problems. The file mscdex21.zip contains Microsoft's info on how to talk to the CD-ROM extensions (MSCDEX.EXE) and a sample DOS application which is crude but effective in playing audio tracks. This file is available via anonymous ftp from ftp.cica.indiana.edu:/pub/pc/win3/uploads/mscdex21.zip or cdrom.com:/pub/mscdex21.zip. MSCDEX programming information can be found in INTER31?.ZIP. Ralf Brown's interrupt bible. The information is very complete. The interrupt list is available via anonymous ftp from Simtel20 (wsmr-simtel20.army.mil) or from the mirror site wuarchive.wustl.edu: /mirrors/msdos/info/inter31?.zip. There is a book by Ray Duncan (Microsoft Press) detailing all extensions to Dos (XMS, LIM EMS, MSCDEX etc..) which should be available in book stores. The title is "MS-DOS EXTENSIONS" ISBN 1-55615-212-4. ========================================================================== 26. How do I mount an ISO-9660 disc on a Sun? Su to root and run this command, # mount -r -t hsfs /dev/sr0 /cdrom or even better, put the following line in your /etc/fstab /dev/sr0 /cdrom hsfs ro 0 0 and then run # mount /cdrom Don Trimmer, of Delta Microsystems, has written a program that allows safe mount/umount operations without requiring super user permissions. You can get his program by anonymous ftp from cdrom.com:/pub/mount.c ========================================================================== 27. How do I use a cdrom with OS/2? What you need to do to make your cdrom drive work under os/2 is: 1) make a bootable msdos floppy disk which is configured so that you can use the cdrom after booting from this floppy. 2) copy the files fsaccess.sys and fsfilter.sys onto the floppy and then add DEVICE= statements to the CONFIG.SYS for the floppy. 3) copy the floppy disk to the os/2 hard disk using the VDISK command. 4) create an icon with the "boot from drive" option set to the name of the file created by the VDISK command. 5) Click on the icon. ----- OS/2 has builtin support for IBM drives, and for SCSI third party drives. The Sony CDU 541 works well. What you need to do if you don't have one of the supported drives, is use the OS/2 command VMDISK to create a bootable "diskette image" on your hard disk. On the diskette image file, you will copy a CONFIG.SYS file, an AUTOEXEC.BAT, and the drivers you require for your CDROM. This feature allows you use any driver with OS/2. The down side is that you can't access the device in the image box from any OS/2 window. You have to use the bootable image box to copy files back and forth between the image box and any other. If you have one of the supported drives, you can access it from any box. ------- The VMDISK technique is only needed for unsupported, mainly non-SCSI drives. Some unsupported SCSI drives, such as the NEC CDR-84, work fine with OS/2 The only thing to do in order to make some unsupported SCSI CD-ROM drives work (as a data CD-ROM, MM is another problem) is to patch the vendor ID string into \OS2\CDROM.SYS. Simply replace "TOSHIBA " by "NEC ", etc. i.e. with blank-padding to eight characters. This is known to work with NEC and SONY drives. It does not work with some Matsushita (Panasonic) drives. ========================================================================== 28. Which CD-ROM Drives will work with MicroSoft Windows-NT? The Microsoft(R) Windows NT(TM) operating system is designed to support a broad range of hardware. This is a preliminary list of hardware that we have run Windows NT on to date. This is a subset of the hardware we expect to support in the final product. The following hardware has undergone preliminary testing for this release. We have not tested every machine and/or device in all possible configurations. Microsoft makes no warranties express or implied in this document. disk controllers: 100% Register Compatible with WD1003 - ESDI, IDE, WD1003 Compaq Intelligent Drive Array SCSI(R) Adaptec AHA-1540b, AHA-1542b, AHA-1640, AHA-1740 Future Domain TMC-845, TMC-850, TMC-850M(ER), MCS-700 (7), TMC-1660 (7) TMC-1680 (7), TMC-7000EX IBM SCSI Host Adapter (10) Maynard 16 Bit SCSI Adapter (11) NCR 53C700 Olivetti ESC - 1 Adapter Built-in SCSI on MIPS ARC/R4000 systems from : Acer, MIPS and Olivetti CD-ROM devices: CD Technology CD Porta-Drive T-3301 Chinon CDX-431 Denon(R) DRD 253 Hitachi(R) CDR-1750S NEC Intersect CDR-73(M), Intersect CDR-84 Pioneer(R) DRM-600 Sony(R) CDU-541, CDU-6211, CDU-7211 Toshiba XM-3201, TXM-3301 (7) A driver that supports both Setup and File I/O for the Future Domain MCS-700, and TMC-16X0 series controllers will be posted to CompuServe in the WINNT forum, Lib 2 "Fixes and Updates". (10) Earlier versions of this controller have proven to have problems with various CD-Rom drives. The Chinon CDX-431 and NEC Intersect CDR-73 are known to work with this version of controller. (11) The Maynard SCSI Adapter can be used as a general purpose SCSI controller for all tasks but graphical setup. ========================================================================== 29. How do I read an audio cd track as digital data? Most CD-ROM drives cannot decode audio information. There are firmware and data path reasons why it doesn't work. The drive vendors could make drives that allow this feature. The only known drive with the capability to read audio tracks is the CD-ROM drive sold by Silicon Graphics for use with their Indigo workstation. The SGI drive is a modified Toshiba 3301B. It has custom firmware and custom hardware. The hardware mods were required because the data stream was split very early in the hardware, and there was no way to sync up the subcodes and the digital audio data without the hardware mods; it was also necessary to suppress the 3rd level ECC, which wasn't possible with the original hardware, to prevent the drive from doing interpolation when ECC couldn't correct the data on errors. The firmware mods were largely in the definition of new commands to do the setup and data transfer of the audio data, as well as the format in which it is returned over the SCSI bus. That was one of the more time consuming parts of the development of the capability. Both Sony and Toshiba may support reading audio (red book) CD's on their next generation drives (the dual speed ones), at least, as an option. [ There is a rumor that the Future Domain SCSI controller comes with a test utility which allows you to read raw data blocks off any type of CD. If you have any first-hand experience, please let me know. ] ========================================================================== 30. Why do CD-ROMs cost so much? Here are several answers, take your pick: A. Because too many people are willing to pay the high prices. B. They are not really very expensive when you consider how much data they contain. Even the most expensive CD-ROMs are often cheaper than the least expensive floppies when you figure the cost per byte. C. Because there isn't enough competition. The prices will come down when more people buy drives, and more CD-ROM titles are available. ========================================================================== 31. Why do all the bundle deals require me to buy a drive? What if I already have a drive? Many disc producers sell outdated or surplus discs at steep discounts to be bundled with new drives. The theory is that the new drive owner will find the discs useful, and order the latest version at full price. There are some bundle deals that do not require you to buy a new drive. For instance, the CD-ROM User's Group (see above) has a bundle of ten discs for $99. ========================================================================== 32. Are alt.cd-rom archives available anywhere? I don't know if there is an ftp site anywhere that archives alt.cd-rom, but you can retrieve old articles via email: For a list of files available, send the message INDEX CDROM-L as the first line of your e-mail message to: LISTSERV@UCCVMA.BITNET or the Internet form of address: LISTSERV@UCCVMA.UCOP.EDU To retrieve an archived message, send the e-mail message GET CDROM-L LOGyymm or SENDME CDROM-L LOGyymm as above where yymm is the year and month of the archive wanted. e.g. LOG9110 = Log of October 91 messages. ========================================================================== 33. What is the shelf-life of a CD-ROM? If a CD-ROM is not manufactured properly, the lifetime can be very short, perhaps only a few years. This can happen if the edge of the disc is not properly sealed, and oxygen reaches the metal surface. If the disc is manufactured properly, it will last a very long time. Most CD-ROMs should last for more than a human lifetime. Philips has proposed new standards for testing CD-ROMs that are expected to result in discs that will enjoy a life span of more than a thousand years. For more information see Fox, Barry "CD Makers Perform in Unison to Stop the Rot" New Scientist 134(1815) (April 4, 1992):19. The laser used in a CD-ROM drive is very low power, and does not harm the disc in any way. Reading the disc will not shorten the lifetime. ========================================================================== 34. How should I handle my CD-ROMs? How do I clean them? The following guidelines represent the current thinking for the care and handling of CD-ROM discs, by a number of CD-ROM disc and drive manufacturers. The validity and usefulness of most of these guidelines have not been substantiated by government testing and therefore are presented for information only. Wash your hands before contact with the disc. If available, wear lint-free cloth gloves, finger cots, or talc-free latex gloves. If you must wipe the disc, do so with a soft, dry, lint-free cloth in a radial motion- that is from the inner to the outer hub- not in a circular motion around the disc like you might do for a phonograph record. The most devastating scratches are those which occur along a radius of the disc which can obscure a long stream of pits. Certain cleaning agents and solvents can damage the discs. Some of these include: gasoline, paint thinners, benzine, acetone, carbon tetrachloride, chlorinated cleaning solvents, ammonia, and household detergents which contain ammonia. Do not clean with a water soaked cloth. The use of Isopropyl alcohol, the ingredient in many commercial CD cleaning products, as well as certain waxes and acrylic liquids, is still questionable. Do not clean the label side of the disc. Use of a CD-ROM caddy is highly recommended during transport and operation. Limit the amount of physical contact with the disc. Always handle the disc by the outer edge and/or the inner (hole) edge. Never touch the data surface. Discs like to "live" in the same conditions that people do; that is: They don't like to be manhandled They don't like exposure to temperature extremes They don't like exposure to excess humidity They don't like exposure to high intensity UV light Ron Kushnier, Chairman Compact Disc- Reliability & Integrity of Media Working Group of The Special Interest Group on CD-ROM Applications and Technology Code 5053 Naval Air Warfare Center Warminster, PA. 18974 (215) 441-1624 FAX (215) 441-7271 ========================================================================== 35. Which drives will work with Kodak Photo CD? According to Kodak, the following drives are compatible: Magnavox CDD461 Sony CDU-6205 CDU-535 NEC CDR-73 CDR-37 The NEC CDR-83 is probably OK, too, but there are problems with the NEC CDR-74 and CDR-84 drives. To view more than just the first recorded session, you need a multisession drive. Apparently these drives are single session only. ========================================================================== 36. What is a multisession CD drive? A CD has an "index" area which contains track details; this is what is read when you first stick an audio CD into a player. Photo-CDs have a separate index area each time they are written (because it is impossible to "update" the index area). A multisession drive is one that knows to look for multiple index areas. The full details are contained in the Philips/Sony/Kodak "Orange Book" standard for writable CDs. The issues of CD-WO and how multsessions are recorded are addressed in the European Computer Manufacture Association (ECMA) new standard ECMA 168, which became a standard in June of this year. The title of the standard is "Volume and File Structure of Read-Only and Write-Once Compact Disc Media for Information Interchange". This standard expands upon the ISO-9660 CD-ROM standard. ========================================================================== 37. Where can I get some information about the Kodak Photo CD? To learn more about Photo CD products or other KODAK desktop color imaging products, contact Eastman Kodak Company at 1-800-242-2424 Ext 51. Or send inquiries to the following address: EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY Kodak Information Center Dept. E. 343 State Street Rochester, NY 14650-0811 There is an excellent article on PhotoCD in the Sept 92 issue of Photographic Magazine. Eastman Kodak Co recently released Photo CD Access, which is designed to allow users to integrate CD images into any Windows or Macintosh Application. Requires a CD ROM XA (Extended Architecture) drive. Most popular image formats are supported, including TIFF, GIF, TARGA and PICT. Kodak sells the software directly. $39.95, 1-800-242-2424. A developer's kit is available for $695 and includes source code as well as object for PC/MAC. The maximum resolution is 3072 X 2048, 24 bit color. ========================================================================== 38. Where can I get maps of the US on CD-ROM? The USGS is producing a series of cds that contain 1:100,000 scale digital line graph (DLG) data. Presently, only Florida is available. Also, 1:2,000,000 DLG cd is available for the US. Call 1-800-USA-MAPS for more info. You can also get topo data (with AVHRR coverage) on CD-ROM for $32. This is DEM (30" elevation data) for the whole US. Contact: EROS Data Center, Sioux Falls, SD 605-594-6507, or 6511 ========================================================================== 39. How do I put a CD-ROM Drive on a Novell network? --------- 1. SCSI Express. SCSI drives only, NLM only. 2. OptiNet by OnLine in Germantown, MD. Both NLM and separate CD-Server. Any type of drive supported. Up to 128 drives per server. 3. CD-Net by Meridian in Colorado. Software only version of the Meridian CD-Server. Used to be limited to 21 drives, but may have been upgraded. Not sure if NLM version is currently available. Also, CBIS has a hardware/software solution that supports up to 21 drives per server. No NLM. All the packages run about $700 for 8 users or less. --------- Corel sell a SCSI driver package that include NLM's to put worm drives,CD-Roms etc on a 3.1+ server. The package also includes dos drivers for just about every device you would want to connect to SCSI. Only costs about $70. ========================================================================== From m2xenix!UICVM.UIC.EDU!inf.UFRGS.BR!ascv Fri Oct 30 02:24:14 1992 Return-Path: Received: by rcp.pe (/\==/\ Smail3.1.25.1 #25.1) id ; Fri, 30 Oct 92 02:24 EST Received: by m2xenix.psg.com (/\==/\ Smail3.1.25.1 #25.4) id ; Wed, 28 Oct 92 14:16 PST Received: from brfapesp.bitnet by UICVM.UIC.EDU (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 8135; Wed, 28 Oct 92 16:15:34 CST Received: from vortex.ufrgs.br by brfapesp.bitnet with PMDF#10108; Wed, 28 Oct 1992 20:07 BSC (-0300 C) Received: from IF1.UFRGS.BR by vortex.ufrgs.br (PMDF #12440) id <01GQJ7COUAPO00020T@vortex.ufrgs.br>; Thu, 29 Oct 1992 20:02 -0300 Received: from inf.ufrgs.br (caracol) by if1.ufrgs.br with PMDF#10592; Wed, 28 Oct 1992 18:55 -300 Received: from urutu.inf.ufrgs.br by inf.ufrgs.br (4.1/SMI-4.1) id AA16579; Wed, 28 Oct 92 18:22:42 EDT Received: from bugio.inf.ufrgs.br by urutu.inf.ufrgs.br (4.1/SMI-4.1) id AA13349; Wed, 28 Oct 92 18:22:39 EDT Date: Wed, 28 Oct 92 18:22:39 EDT From: ascv%inf.UFRGS.BR@UICVM.UIC.EDU (Ausberto S. Castro V. - CPGCC-UFRGS) Subject: FAQ sobre UNIX Email Software To: operador@rcp.pe, unix@rcp.pe Message-id: <9210282022.AA13349@urutu.inf.ufrgs.br> X-Envelope-to: operador@rcp.pe, unix@rcp.pe Status: RO Subject: UNIX Email Software Survey FAQ ============================== From: clewis@ferret.ocunix.on.ca (Chris Lewis) Date: 20 Oct 92 Reply-To: mailfaq@ferret.ocunix.on.ca (Mail FAQ commentary reception) Organization: Elegant Communications Inc., Ottawa, Canada Keywords: mail software survey UNIX FAQ Summary: How to set up Email on UNIX systems. Archive-name: mail-setup/part1 Last-modified: Wed Oct 7 19:40:14 EDT 1992 UNIX EMail Software - a Survey Chris Lewis clewis@ferret.ocunix.on.ca [and a host of others - thanks] Changes this issue: Mention of Smail 2.7 dropped, package stillborn. Note: this FAQ has been formatted as a digest. Many newsreaders can skip to each of the major subsections by pressing ^G. Please direct comments or questions to mailfaq@ferret.ocunix.on.ca - note Reply-to: line. -------- Subject: Introduction Configuring electronic mail systems can be quite a complicated subject. Often far more complicated than, say, setting up a USENET news feed. This is because, unlike news, email is expected to traverse multiple types of networks using their own protocol, whereas, USENET news tends to be a single protocol supported by hook or by crook on different networks. This document is intended for system administrators who need to know how to set up their UNIX systems for email communication with the outside world. It is intended for the email-naive SA who gets more than a little confused by the acronyms, RFC's and plethora of software. This is intended to be a general survey of the software available, so I won't spend too much time on some of the details. Most of the available software comes with documentation that can explain things much better than I can. Additional detail can be obtained from several sources, such as: Quarterman, John S.: "The Matrix -- Computer Networks and Conferencing Systems Worldwide", Digital Press 1990, (Order No. EY-C176E-DP), ISBN 1-55558-033-5. Adams, Rick and Frey, Donnalyn: !%@:: A Directory of Mail Addressing and Networks, 2nd Ed., O'Reilly & Associates 1990, ISBN 0-937175-15-3. Kehoe, Brendan P.: Zen and the Art of the Internet: A Beginner's Guide, Second Edition, Prentice Hall 1992, ISBN 0-13-010778-6. Edition 1 is available via FTP on cs.widener.edu in the tar file zen-1.0.tar.Z. [I think] Further, this is primarily oriented towards UNIX email systems. This is unfortunate, because it would be nice to have a general document covering email in all of its forms. However, each operating system tends to have radically different email mechanisms, so it would be difficult to do justice to any other environment. It seems more useful to cover one environment well here, and have companion documents for other environments. Speaking of which, why hasn't anybody else stepped in to do FAQs on other environments? Like DOS, Mac etc. And finally, this document is not intended to be pedantically correct. Knowledgeable readers will know that I'm glossing over a lot of detail, and absolute precision has been balanced against readability and effectiveness in helping people get going. -------- Subject: Layout This FAQ is laid out in the following sections: + An overview of how mail systems go together. + A glossary of the important terms to know. + A list of general do's and don'ts of mail systems. + Configuration Issues + Several suggested mail configurations. + General overviews of specific software. -------- Subject: Electronic mail - A General Overview of Structure Electronic mail generally consists of three basic pieces: 1) The link level transport - which could be UUCP, TCP/IP, or a host of others. We'll call this the "transport medium" (TM) 2) the "Mail Transport Agent" (MTA) which is responsible for transporting mail from source to destination, possibly transforming protocols, addresses, and routing the mail. The MTA often has several components: - Routing mechanisms - Local delivery agent (LDA) - Remote delivery agent Many MTA's have all of these components, but some do not. In other cases, it is possible to replace certain components for increased functionality. 3) The "User Agent" (UA) is the user interface - the software that the user uses to read his mail, sort things around in folders, and send mail. Sometimes called "Mail User Agent" (MUA). -------- Subject: Glossary Rather than alphabetic, this glossary tends to group terms referring to similar functionality together. Transport Medium: UUCP (Unix to Unix Copy Program): Back in the mists of time, UNIX systems communicated only over RS232 serial lines, usually over modems. UUCP is a suite of programs developed back in the early 70's to provide this communications link. All that UUCP does is transfer files from one system to another. There is an additional mechanism where one system can direct the destination system to run a file through a specific program. Electronic mail in UUCP is simply requesting the destination machine to run "mail" on a data file. UUCP communicates by means of "protocols", the most common being "g", a method for transmission of data over telephone lines and ensuring that the data is not corrupted. There are several other protocols, none universally available, and most oriented towards communication media other than telephone voice lines (such as dialup X.25, PAD X.25, or LAN connects). UUCP operates over fixed system-to-system links, so sending mail from one system to another often has to traverse other intermediate systems. TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol): TCP/IP is a protocol that allows any system on a network to talk "directly" to any other, by passing packets of information back and forth. TCP/IP (and its later relative OSI) is usually used over networks built on top of Ethernet, Token-Ring, Starlan and other LANS. SMTP: Or, "Simple Mail Transfer Protocol", is the communications protocol used most commonly over TCP/IP links in UNIX environments for mail. SMTP usually operates directly between the source and destination machines, so intermediate machines don't get involved (except for gateways, see below). SMTP is usually part of the MTA. SLIP (Serial Line Internet Protocol): SLIP is an implementation of TCP/IP designed for use over RS232 serial lines (ie: modems). The other difference is that some SLIP implementations have the ability to "dial the phone" to make a connection for a specific transfer, whereas LAN TCP/IP is physically continuously connected. You'd also need TCP/IP to run a SMTP mail connection. PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol): A successor to SLIP. X.25/X.29: X.25 is a packet switched data network which is usually half-duplex. In this context, it's really an alternative to dialup over voice telephone lines with modems. X.25 is available in several "flavours", either direct X.25 trunk connects over leased lines, through "PAD" interfaces, or by ordinary dialup modem access to X.25 "ports". To be useable in the context of mail transfers, you also have to use a file transfer protocol/mechanism of some sort on top of X.25. The most common being UUCP "f" protocol (through PADS or dialup), or "x" with direct X.25 connects. Whether you use X.25 or phones plus modems depends on a number of factors - usually the determining factor is cost. In North America, high speed modems (eg: 9600 baud and above) over telephone lines tends to be less expensive. However, Europe's really wierd phone system structure usually makes X.25 more cost-effective, and therefore, X.25 use in UNIX mail systems is much more common in Europe than North America. X.29 is the command set used to configure and establish X.25 connections when you're using asynchronous connections to a PAD. Networks: Internet: An "internet" is a network comprised of computers that talk to each other using TCP/IP, and usually SMTP for mail. The "Internet" is a vast network of hundreds of thousands of machines using SMTP protocol mail, communicating with each other over relatively high speed lines. But not all "internets" are connected to *the* Internet. The Internet grew out of a US government funded project in inter-computer communications that grew into an enormous network of systems. One of the principle characteristics of this network is that machines are addressed by domain names which identify the destination, rather than addresses that are constructed out of the route from machine-to-machine-to-machine. UUCP Network: The UUCP network is that set of machines that talk to each other via UUCP. Sending mail through this network requires that the sender know the network topology of UUCP links, and specify a path from one machine to the next. (There are, of course, ways around this. See the section on "do's and don'ts".) Mail addresses: Addresses: An email address is a method of specifying a given person on a specific machine. There are scads of conventions, usually determined by the presence of "@"'s, "!"'s and other special characters in the name. An address usually consists of two parts: a userid/name and a machine specification. A Domain address usually looks like: userid@domain-address Whereas a UUCP address usually looks like: siteA!siteB!siteC!userid Domain Addresses: Domains are a way of uniquely specifying a destination. Much like a postal address, a domain specifies a set of progressively more restrictive "domains" of the potential address space. It would perhaps be illustrative to give an example: clewis@ferret.marketing.fooinc.com You read these things right to left: "com" means the commercial domain. "fooinc" is the name of an organization within the commercial domain. "Marketing" is the name of a suborganization within fooinc, and ferret gives the name of a machine (usually). Domains can have any number of levels. The top level domain (com in the above example) has many possible values. In the United States, "com", "mil", "edu", and "gov" are fairly standard. Elsewhere, the top level domain tends to be a country code, the second level tends to be a province or state, OR a classification like "edu" or "ac" for academic (such as ac.jp, go.jp, ac.uk, edu.au, etc) and the third an organization. But, for example, there are many .com and .edu sites in Canada and other countries. FQDN A fully-qualified-domain-name (FQDN) has a entry for each level of the domain, from individual machine to top-level domain. In many cases, an organization has implemented an organizational "gateway" at a higher level of domain, so that people from outside don't have to specify FQDN's to get to a specific person. In the above example, for instance, "fooinc.com" may be sufficient to get to anyone inside fooinc, and "ferret.marketing" may not be necessary. On the other hand, people sometimes leave out the higher levels of the address, as in "ferret.marketing". This is a bad idea - because if the mail is cc'd out of the organization, chances are the external recipient cannot reply, because "ferret.marketing" is incomplete. So use addresses that are specified sufficiently for external users to use. (fooinc.com if a organizational gateway is used, the whole ferret.marketing.fooinc.com if not) NIC Internet TOP-LEVEL domains (edu, com, gov, mil) are controlled by a single organization, the NIC (nic.ddn.mil). An organization "gets a piece" of the namespace by registering with the NIC, and then they are free to administer their own namespace (everything under fooinc.com) as they choose. The same is true for foreign countries; Once they have their top-level domain (usually the two-letter ISO country code) registered with the NIC, they do the rest, and divide it as they see fit. In contrast, on UUCPnet, all machine names everywhere share a single flat namespace. So it is important to choose a name that has not been used before. (See do's and don'ts). This is why FQDN's help. We can tell the difference between ferret.fooinc.com and ferret.blah.edu by their full names. (Instead of UUCP paths which may turn out to be wrong, and autorouting will probably send the mail to the wrong machine) MX record: A non-SMTP/Internet site that wishes to register on the Internet will need to get a "nearby" Internet site to set up a MX record for them. An MX record is essentially a domain-server database record that (effectively) registers your domain name on the Internet, and indicates that the Internet site knows how to forward mail to you. Usually via some non-SMTP/Internet route, such as UUCP. You can get an MX record for one site, or a "wildcard" MX record so that you can have your own subdomains. Bang-Paths: With UUCP mail, the MTA has to specify a route to get from one machine to another. "A!B!C!userid" means go to machine A, then B, then C, then user "userid" on C. You should strive, however, for a MUA that allows you to use domain addressing, and let the MTA figure out the bang routing as appropriate. Miscellaneous: Gateways: There are several meanings of this term, only two are relevant here. The first is a mechanism for getting from one network to another network that uses different protocols. The second is a mechanism for getting from one logical (often organizational) network to another using the same protocol. Often for example, there will be a LAN in one department of an organization, and one machine in the LAN has the connection to another LAN in another department. This means that mail from one LAN to the other has to pass thru the gateway machine. Routers: There are several definitions, but the most important is that part of the TA that figures out how to send a message to a given machine. This often uses a database that provides routes from one machine to the other machines on the network. Smarthost: In many cases, your machine won't know how to get to a specific destination. You can usually set up your mail system to send mail, that it doesn't know how to deliver, to a machine that is more likely to. RFC's: A set of documents that include formal descriptions of mail formats used on the Internet, and are adhered to by many non-Internet systems. More specifically, in the "worldnet" of USENET, Internet and UUCP, the RFC's set the standards for mail exchange. RFC822, 1123 and 976 are the most important for Internet/UUCP mail. It should be pointed out, however, that there are some regions where the RFC's are not entirely respected. For example, the British academic email networks (JANET) uses domains, but they're specified backwards (they drive on the wrong side of the road too ;-). MIME: Mime is the official proposed standard format for multimedia Internet mail encapsulated inside standard Internet RFC 822 messages. Facilities include sending multiple objects in a single message, character sets other than US-Ascii, multi-font text messages, non-textual material such as images and audio fragments, and other extensions. For an overview of Mime, see ftp.uu.net:mail/metamail/MIME-overview.txt.Z. The defining document is Internet RFC 1341: N Borenstein & N Freed, ``Mime (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) mechanisms for specifying and describing the format of Internet message bodies'' (June 1992). Also see RFC 1344: N Borenstein, ``Implications of Mime for Internet mail gateways'' (June 1992). Mime covers only message bodies, not message headers; to see how to represent non-Ascii characters in message headers, see Internet RFC 1342: K Moore, ``Representation of non-Ascii text in Internet message headers'' (June 1992). X.400: A CCITT standard for email formats, more or less an alternative to RFC 822/976/1123. This format will probably start taking over from RFC 822/976/1123 mail. It is likely to (already has?) become an ISO/IEEE standard along with OSI etc. "The Maps": A set of files describing machine-to-machine links distributed over USENET in the group comp.mail.maps. These are usually posted on a monthly schedule, and can be automatically received and transformed into a routing database that describes the "optimal" route to each machine. These are operated by the "UUCP Mapping Project". See the README posted along with the maps for more details. Aliases: Aliases are a mechanism by which you can specify the destination for mail on your machine. Through the use of aliases you can redirect mail to "virtual userids". For example, you should have a mail destination on your machine called "postmaster", which is aliased to send the mail to the System Administrator (ie: you probably). Aliasing often also permits you to send mail to groups of users (not necessarily on the same machine as you) pipelines of commands or to specific files. Mailing lists: Are similar to USENET newsgroups. They are usually aliases pointing to groups of users, and allow mail to be sent to the whole group at once. Mailing lists are set up to carry certain subjects. The difference between a mailing list and a USENET newsgroup is that the messages are sent by mail, probably as a copy to each recipient, rather than broadcast. -------- Subject: Do's and Don'ts: 1) Register a domain name. Even on UUCP, where .UUCP is often used as a kludge, it is MUCH preferred that you obtain a real domain address. If you are directly connecting to the Internet, you will get one as part of your registration with the NIC. If you aren't connecting directly to the Internet, obtaining a registration will usually require you finding a nearby friendly Internet site willing to act as a mail forwarder to you from the Internet - the site that will set up a "MX record" for you. Many sites will do this for you for free, and several of the commercial email services (eg: uunet) will do it for you for a nominal charge (without requiring you buy the rest of their services). There are occasions where you can join what is called a "domain park". These are most often small regional groups of systems that have gotten one of their number properly registered as a domain, and provides forwarding services out to other systems. For example, in my address "ferret.ocunix.on.ca", "ocunix.on.ca" is a domain park made up of the Ottawa-Carleton UNIX User's Group, one of the other machines in the group provides a gateway between our systems and the Internet. 2) If your machine is going to "speak" UUCP to the outside world, choose a unique UUCP name. You can find out whether a name you want is taken by consulting the UUCP maps. Or by asking someone else who's using them. 3) Register your machine with the UUCP Mapping Project. Information on how to do this is included in the monthly maps postings in the file "README". This is usually only required when your machine talks UUCP to the outside world, or when other machines have to address you by your UUCP name. If you don't do this, somone else may choose the same name, and gross confusion will arise when smart routers won't be able to tell whether to send a piece of mail to you, or your doppelganger[s]. If you register with the UUCP Mapping Project, you have prior use, and people who choose the same name afterwards will be told to get a new one. If you're "behind" an organizational gateway, don't do this. (Your organizational gateway is the thing that needs to be registered) If you do fill in a map, please take the time to fill it in carefully, giving contact people and phone numbers. Just in case your machine goes crazy and starts doing something nasty. Note expecially the latitude and longitude. Get it right, or omit it. Brian Reid gets really annoyed with sites that are half a world away from where they really are. 3) If you're going to be setting up multiple machines, have only one or two connections to the outside world. 4) Install a mail system that understands domain addressing, even if you aren't registered. (In fact, all of the suggested configurations in this FAQ do) 5) *Never* use UUCP bang-routing with the MUA if you can possibly avoid it - each of the suggested mail configurations provide mechanisms where you, the user, do not have to specify routes to the MUA - you can specify domains, and the TA will do the routing (possibly bang-routing) for you. 6) Find a friendly neighboring SA to help. A SA who has already operating mail in your area will help smooth over the regional "gotchas" that are bound to crop-up. And advise you on the right software to use, where to obtain it, and how to install it. 7) Do NOT use "any old" Map unpacking program. Most available map unpacking programs automatically run the shell (or shar) to unpack map articles. Since it is trivially easy to forge map articles, using this type of unpacking program can easily let very destructive trojan horse or virus programs into your machine. The two specific map unpackers described in this FAQ are known to be secure from such attacks. Do not run any other unpacker unless you are aware of the issues and can inspect the code for such vulnerabilities. [If you know of other "secure" map unpackers that are generally available, please let me know] -------- Subject: Configuration Issues: What you need for email connectivity is determined by: 1 What networks you intend to connect to. The Internet (hence SMTP)? UUCP sites? X.400? Bitnet? Others? Combinations? 2 What links you have or are willing to install Internet T1? T2? UUCP? Other? [Details on how to make your connections is beyond the scope of this FAQ, but can usually be found out from the provider (other end) of the link] 3 what user interface you want to use. This is largely an independent issue, so consult the Specific Package Reviews directly. -------- Subject: Recommended MTA Configurations: These configurations are based upon my own experience, and the experience of others. Careful installation of any of these configurations will result in a solid, reliable mail system that respects the appropriate "do's and don'ts". Each configuration represents a compromise of ease of installation and maintenance versus sophistication and capabilities. One thing you should consider is what you already have on your system. You will invariably have "binmail", and will have a good chance at already having sendmail. Some systems come with smail (if 2.3, junk it) The configurations shown below are *minimal* configurations, so you should consider whether you want to use what you already have or not. Scenario 1: Only UUCP connections. Smail 2.5. If you want to set up a routing database of your own, you will also need pathalias, and unpackmaps or uuhosts. Instead, though, you can configure smail 2.5 to smart-host most destinations to a nearby friendly site who'll do your routing for you without having to run the routing software. Note further, that you can run pathalias on just a subset of the full set of maps. [Unpackmaps makes this particularly easy to do] Smail 2.5, as shipped, does not support mail-to-pipeline or mail-to-file aliasing. If you need these, at a minimum, you should obtain lmail. If you intend more than casual use of these features, it is recommended that you obtain deliver instead of lmail. Even if you have sendmail already, you can integrate smail 2.5 with it to do your UUCP routing. (though, some later versions of sendmail can do routing themselves) Scenario 2: SMTP connections (optionally, some UUCP connections too). Generally speaking, sendmail will do this for you and you have a good chance to have it already. However, for the novice, it is recommended that smail 3 be used instead [see review of sendmail below]. Smail 3 includes all of the routing software and can do mail-to-pipeline and mail-to-file, so none of the auxiliary programs mentioned in scenario 1 are necessary. Most sendmails don't include UUCP routing mechanisms, so you would need pathalias and unpackmaps or uuhosts if you wish to set up a UUCP routing database. Further, most sendmails don't know how to query a pathalias database directly, so you may have to hack your own path lookup program into the sendmail.cf (smail 2.5 can be used for this purpose provided that you will have a UUCP link to the outside world) Both MMDF and PP can also be used. Deliver or procmail are still quite useful in this configuration for extended alias facilities. Scenario 3: Connections to other networks (optionally including SMTP or UUCP), or very high loading. Your best bets are MMDF, PP or zmailer. You can implement other network interfaces with sendmail, but not only will you probably have to roll your own, but sendmail can't cope with high loading very well. Ditto smail 3. There are other configurations. See the Package Reviews to determine which packages are appropriate. -------- Subject: Package Reviews Honesty requires me to point out which software packages were reviewed by their author (including me ;-). I do so by appending a "*" to the name of the author. In some cases, the material has been cribbed from FAQ's or general information blurbs. It is worth noting, though, that most of these packages are well known, and have been in operation at many sites for periods of a year or more. These packages do their job well, and have been extensively thrashed out in the best debugging laboratory in the universe (USENET ;-) A few packages have been mentioned prior to their release. (unpackmaps 4, the occasional beta version). It is recommended that these versions be avoided by novices until they have had a chance to settle for a little while. This FAQ will note when such software seems (according to rumour *I* hear) to be stable enough for general use. Some of these packages are capable, by various bits of hackery, of doing a lot more than is claimed for them. But I refrain on telling you how to "take the covers off". Given the intended audience, that would be tantamount to trying to teach preschoolers do-it-yourself brain surgery. Please don't take this as condescending - I've been working on/in/with email systems for over 12 years and I *still* won't play with (as just one example) sendmail.cf's. Therefore, I restrict myself largely to "out-of-the-box" functionality, "fill-in-the-blank" configurability, and normal documented installation procedures. Beyond that, you're on your own. binmail binmail is usually really called "mail". On System V prior to Release 4, it is a really simple UA that does dual duty as the TA. It's pretty awful because it doesn't know how to set up headers properly, doesn't even know what a "Subject:" line is, and there's no way to do any kind of aliases. On BSD, binmail invokes sendmail to do the MTA function. On System V prior to Release 4, you really do want to replace binmail's MTA functionality with something else. However, you should not replace it in its "mail" (UA) functionality, because many system-level administration mechanisms will break. Any new UA should be installed as a different name than "mail". Beginning with System V Release 4, "binmail"'s transfer agent capabilities were considerably enhanced to have similar capabilities to Smail 3 and sendmail. There is usually no need to replace it with another mail agent. (See SVR4 mail discussion below) Binmail stores mail in "mbox" format. rmail binmail's TA functionality is implemented by linking mail to rmail. It's rmail that you'd want to replace with smail 2.5 etc. Mail The original BSD UA. It can support local profiles, aliases, folders, header previewing, out-going mail recording and all sorts of good stuff. An "okay" UA. Available from BSD "freed-sources" archives. Mail stores mail in "mbox" format. mailx AT&T's answer to BSD "Mail", from which it is descended. Some versions, such as the 3b1 one, should be avoided because of a buggy port. Not available in source form (it's proprietary but ubiquitous enough to be mentioned here). Mailx stores mail in "mbox" format. mush: author Dan Heller* The "Mail User's Shell" is a "shell" for mail users. That is, it has its own environment where you can configure not only the user interface, but the actual internal mechanisms. Internally, mush has a csh-like scripting language, altho it's not as powerful as csh. It has command-line aliases, file completion, if-else state- ments, command piping, and so on. Because you can build your own commands, you can virtually build your own library of email features. Mush has two tty-based interfaces: the standard tty-mode (ala BSD Mail or sys-v mailx) and the fullscreen/curses mode (ala vi, emacs or even Elm). You can set up key bindings that execute one or more mush commands, personalized commands or even UNIX commands. You can even emulate keyboard input with keyboard macros and mappings. Mush also has a SunView interface that is more powerful than Sun's Mailtool, yet backwards compatible with most versions. Most sunview users (if there are any left these days) prefer MushView over Mailtool. The current version of Mush is 7.2.3, last posted in comp.sources.misc volume 18 (with subsequent patches). All three interfaces are available in one runtime binary. Except for the MushView interface (which is only available on for suns), Mush is portable to everything that runs UNIX. There is also a DOS port available for PCs and can run on most 286 machines. An older version of Mush (6.5) can run on as little as 640 of RAM. (Mush-PC is typically used with UUPC.) The "next generation" of Mush is a commercial product called Z-Mail from Z-Code Software (mail argv@z-code.com for details). All aspects of Mush are retained, yet it has grown to be far more powerful. It runs under X windows with either a Motif or Open Look interface and also supports multi-media, user "functions" and a suite of new features. Third party documentation is available from O'Reilly in the book entitled "The Z-Mail Handbook" (by Hanna Nelson). This book not only covers Z-Mail, but Mush as well. Mush stores its messages in "mbox" format, or MMDF format if you're using MMDF as your MTA. The newsgroup comp.mail.mush is dedicated to it. [Note: Z-Mail is not related at all to Zmailer. Zmailer is a MTA] elm: coordinator Syd Weinstein* (cribbed from comp.mail.elm FAQ) Elm is designed to run with "sendmail" or "/bin/rmail" (according to what's on your system) and is a full replacement of programs like "/bin/mail" and "mailx". The system is more than just a single program, however, and includes programs like "frm" to list a 'table of contents' of your mail, "printmail" to quickly paginate mail files (to allow 'clean' printouts), and "autoreply", a systemwide daemon that can autoanswer mail for people while they're on vacation without having multiple copies spawned on the system. The most significant difference between Elm and most other mail systems is that Elm is screen-oriented. Upon further use, however, users will find that Elm is also quite a bit easier to use, and quite a bit more "intelligent" about sending mail and so on. Current release is Elm 2.4 PL0. Available from the archive server at DSI.COM: send mail to archive-server@DSI.COM send elm index [Ed: elm is particularly good for novices. The only drawback that I've heard is that elm is a bit less user configurable than, say, mush] MM: Contact Joseph Brennan* Columbia University in the City of New York (cribbed from MM man page.) mm is a powerful electronic mail system which allows you to send, read, edit and manage messages quickly and easily. It is designed to have the same interface as the MM program written and developed for DEC20s over a period of many years. mm was written using the CCMD package developed at Columbia. Thus, it has copious internal help, completion of partially typed commands on use of the TAB key, and help on partial commands when ? is typed. mm can read several mail-file formats. Its default is mbox, the same format used by unix mail. It also can read babyl, used by emacs rmail, and mtxt and MH. It can copy messages from one file type to another. MM is a Freeware MUA copyright by Columbia University (as is this description). MM is available by anonymous ftp from cunixf.cc.columbia.edu, directory mm. The file mm-intro.txt there is a longer description of how it was developed. [Ed: MM also appears to be a good UA for novices. From the examples in the manual page, it handholds extensively and is not screen oriented.] MH: Maintainer John Romine The big difference between MH and most other "mail user agents" is that you can use MH from a UNIX shell prompt. In MH, each command is a separate program, and the shell is used as an interpreter. So, all the power of UNIX shells (pipes, redirection, history, aliases, and so on) works with MH--you don't have to learn a new interface. other mail agents have their own command interpreter for their individual mail commands (although the mush mail agent simulates a UNIX shell). Mail messages are stored in individual files. The current version of MH is 6.7.2. MH comes standard with Ultrix 4.0 and later, and AIX 3.1 and later. via anonymous ftp: ics.uci.edu [128.195.1.1] pub/mh/mh-6.7.tar.Z 1.6MB louie.udel.edu [128.175.1.3] portal/mh-6.7.tar.Z 1.6MB A new version of MH that supports multi-part multi-media mail is currently in alpha-test. comp.mail.mh discusses MH, and contains a FAQ article. GNU Emacs Rmail: Rmail is an Emacs subsystem for reading and disposing of mail. Rmail stores mail messages in Rmail files in BABYL format (originally used under the ITS operating system), although it can incorporate new mail from MMDF and Unix format files, or mixed-format files. Reading the messages in an Rmail file is done in a special major mode, Rmail mode, which redefines most letters to run commands for managing mail. Rmail can do the standard things such as displaying, deleting, filing, or replying to messages. Replying uses another Emacs subsystem, Mail mode. Messages can be saved in either BABYL or Unix format. Rmail maintains per-message attributes and user-defined labels. Rmail can burst message digests. VM: Author Kyle Jones* VM (View Mail) is a GNU Emacs subsystem that allows UNIX mail to be read and disposed of within Emacs. Commands exist to do the normal things expected of a mail user agent, such as generating replies, saving messages to folders, deleting messages and so on. There are other more advanced commands that do tasks like bursting and creating digests, message forwarding, and organizing message presentation according to various criteria. The current version of VM is VM 4.41. FTPable from: ab20.larc.nasa.gov pub/vm/vm-4.41.tar.Z ftp.uu.net pub/vm-4.41.tar.Z archive.cis.ohio-state.edu pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/packages/vm-4.41.tar .Z VM is discussed in gnu.emacs.vm.info, or by mailing list by sending an e-mail request to info-vm-request@uunet.uu.net. MH-E: Maintainer: Stephen Gildea MH-E is an interface to MH from within GNU Emacs. It helps if MH was compiled with the MHE compiler flag. MH-E is distributed with both GNU Emacs and MH. Choose the later version. C-Client: Author Mark Crispin Software writers only: C-client is a general library useful for creating MUA's. It provides a high level logical interface for retrieving and manipulating mail messages. It supports the latest draft of MIME (proposed Internet standard for multipart, multimedia, typed electronic mail). It is driver based, and easily ported to new platforms and MTA's, already supports BSD, SysV, DOS, Macintosh and TOPS-20(!), and supports present mail and mailbox formats. Just the thing if you want to write a new MUA. Contact the author for more details. Metamail: Author N. Borenstein [Described by Paul Eggert, eggert@bi.twinsun.com] Metamail is a software implementation of Mime, designed for easy integration with traditional mail-reading interfaces -- typically, users do not invoke metamail directly. Ideally, extending the local email or news system to handle a new media format is a simple matter of adding a line to a mailcap file. Mailcap files are described in RFC 1343: N Borenstein, ``A user agent configuration mechanism for multimedia mail format information'' (June 1992). The source code for metamail can be found in ftp.uu.net:mail/metamail/mm.tar.Z. To join its mailing list, write info-metamail-request@thumper.bellcore.com. MailManager: Author Mark Crispin A MUA implemented using C-Client for NeXT computers. Pine: Authors Lundblade, Seibel, and Crispin Pine is a mailer developed by the University of Washington Office of Computing and Communications. It has been designed for ease-of-use and with the novice computer user in mind. It is based on Internet mail protocols (e.g. RFC-822, SMTP, IMAP, and MIME) and currently runs on a variety of UNIX platforms. The guiding principles for achieving ease-of-use in Pine were: careful limitation of features, one-character mnemonic commands, always-present command menus, immediate user feedback, and high tolerance for user mistakes. It is intended that Pine can be learned by exploration rather than reading manuals. A stand-alone version of Pico, Pine's message composition editor, is also included. It is a very simple and easy to use text editor with text justification and a spelling checker. Features: - Mail index showing a message summary which includes the status, sender, size, date and subject of messages. - View and process mail with the following commands: forward, reply, save, export, print, delete, capture address and search. - Address book for saving long complex addresses and personal distribution lists under a nickname. - Multiple folders and folder management screen for filing messages. - Message composer with easy-to-use editor and spelling checker. The message composer also assists entering and formatting addresses and provides direct access to the address book. - Online help specific to each screen and context. - Supports access to remote mail repositories via the IMAP2 protocol defined in RFC-1176. - Soon to support multi-part mail conforming to proposed MIME Internet standard, allowing sending of sounds, graphics such as GIF and TIFF files, and binary files such as spreadsheets. Pine, including source code, is freely available via anonymous FTP from ftp.cac.washington.edu on the Internet. Other provisions for distribution have not been made. From the Internet, you may try out Pine and leave comments by telneting to "demo.cac.washington.edu" and logging in as "pinedemo". To join the Pine mailing list for announcements send a request to "pine-info-request@cac.washington.edu". Pine is very portable and runs on a variety of UNIX machines including DECstations, NeXTs, VAX's and Suns. Pine was originally based on Elm, but it has evolved much since, ("Pine Is No-longer Elm"). For further information send e-mail to pine@cac.washington.edu. Pine is the work of Mike Siebel, Mark Crispin, and Laurence Lundblade at the University of Washington. uumail: Uumail is a very old and obsolete precursor to smail 2.5. Included here only because I know that uumail sites still exist. You should not install uumail in new configurations, and existing uumail sites should convert to something more modern. smail 2.5: author The UUCP Mapping Project Smail 2.5 is a small, simple and hard-coded rule MTA for use on UUCP networks. It understands RFC compliant headers, will generate RFC compliant Internet-style headers, can use domains, aliases, a pathalias UUCP routing database, and is very simple to install. For full functionality, you will also want pathalias and a map unpacker. The one thing it cannot do by itself is mail-to-pipe and mail-to-file aliasing. For that, you need Zeeff's lmail, deliver or procmail (see note on procmail). Smail 2.5 has the capability of coalescing addresses into single UUCP transfers, and knows how to query UUCP for the names of UUCP neighbors, and autoroute if necessary. Smail 2.5 has a few bugs that are (usually) pretty rarely seen in operation. There have been a number of patches posted for it, but it is recommended that you do not apply them - some were ill-conceived, buggy in their own right, or conflicting with others. The only patches that I feel safe in recommending is Chip Salzenberg's patches for use with Xenix MICNET - which are unnecessary unless you are in the unfortunate position of having to actually *use* MICNET. In particular, do not apply the "mail-to-pipe/file" patches that float around for smail 2.5. This is a major security hole. Smail 2.5 can also be used with sendmail as a UUCP router. Smail 2.5 was posted in comp.sources.unix in 1987, volume 18. lmail: Author Jon Zeeff When you install smail 2.5, you link the original /bin/mail (binmail above) to /bin/lmail to perform the task of actually delivering the mail to the user's mailbox (LDA). Since smail 2.5 was not capable of doing mail-to-pipe and mail-to-file aliasing, Jon Zeeff wrote a replacement lmail that implemented these (along with user mailbox delivery). Jon's program is okay for casual use, but has some pretty serious bugs. Fixed versions are available, but you're probably better off installing deliver or procmail. smail 3: Author Ronald S. Karr* and Landon Curt Noll. Smail3.1 is a domain-capable mail router and delivery program that works in the UUCP zone and on the Internet and that is capable of gatewaying between the two. It was written primarily by me (Ronald S. Karr) and Landon Curt Noll, with the blessings of the original Smail1 and Smail2 authors. Smail3 supports SMTP, UUCP mail, alias files, .forward files, mailing list directories, pathalias files, /etc/hosts files, the domain name system, and can also query uucp for neighboring sites, automatically. It also supports use of encapsulated SMTP commands for delivery over UUCP connections, which allows batching of multiple messages into a single UUCP transaction, and allows many addresses to be passed with a single message transfer, which can greatly decrease the traffic generated for large mailing lists. It is also very simple to configure with a reasonable certainty of correctness. Smail3 includes pathalias and a reliable map unpacker. Rather than using configuration files to resolve addresses based on their syntax, ala sendmail, Smail3 uses a database metaphore for resolving addresses based on their contents. The set of methods that Smail3 uses for resolving local addresses and hosts is configurable and extensible. Smail3's methods for parsing addresses are not configurable. It is the opinion of the authors that addressing on the Internet and in the UUCP zone has become sufficiently standardized that attempts to allow configurability in this area are now a hindrance to the correct working of the network. Current releases of Smail3 have some problems when operating on the Internet or on local ethernet networks. Some of the problems arrise when when the level of traffic gets too high, and result from the fact that Smail3 does not currently limit its usage of CPU resources. Additionally, Smail3 is not yet sufficiently intelligent in its management of outgoing SMTP connections. As a result, Smail3 does not make effective use of single connections, and cannot use a history of connection failures to alter its behavior. These problems are now being addressed. Questions related to Smail3 are usually discussed in comp.mail.misc. There are also two discussion mailing lists. To join the mailing lists, send mail to: smail3-users-request@cs.athabascau.ca The current release of Smail3 can be found on uunet, in the directory /usr/spool/ftp/mail. The current release file is smail-3.1.25.tar.Z. Smail 3 is covered under the GPL (if it matters) sendmail: Original author Eric Allman Sendmail is the granddaddy of all intelligent MTA's. It can do just about anything. It's main problem is that it can do just about anything. Modification of sendmail's configuration tables (which is necessary with most vendor-supplied versions) is NOT for novices. The language of the sendmail.cf is cryptic, but that isn't really the problem (and this problem can be solved by using "EASE", a sendmail.cf writing language, or the UIUC IDA kit's configuration file building tools). The problem is that it's extremely difficult to know when the rules you are implementing are the right thing-- many sendmail configurations do slightly buggy, or even extremely buggy, things (eg: some major mail gateways munge From: headers in illegal ways). (The default configurations generated by the UIUC IDA kit are, however, very good at Doing the Right Thing under most, if not all, circumstances.) Worse, every vendor's version of sendmail is different, and many of their sendmail.cf's don't work at all (HPUX is one example of where the sendmail.cf is actually pretty sane. HP is to be congratulated. On the other hand, some vendors, who shall remain nameless, can't even get their sendmail to speak SMTP on a LAN). There are several versions of sendmail extant in the world. There is no "latest" version. If you want to use sendmail, it is strongly recommended that you obtain "IDA sendmail". The IDA version is much more likely to do the right things with mail coming from, or ultimately going to, UUCP sites and is much easier to maintain. IDA sendmail can handle pathalias-style UUCP routing quite well. The impending release of BSD 4.4 includes a new version, 6.1, of sendmail. I am being a bit overly harsh on sendmail. If you obtain a good configuration (like the aforementioned HPUX version), or are willing to spend the time to learn it, sendmail will do what you want. Well. IDA sendmail is STRONGLY recommended. The latest version of IDA sendmail is 5.65c, and 5.65d is in beta test. 5.65c is available for FTP from ftp.uu.net and uxc.cso.uiuc.edu. Paul Pomes, , is controlling the IDA Sendmail releases. Sendmail is discussed in comp.mail.sendmail. EASE version 3.5 was posted in volume 25 of comp.sources.unix and is available from wuarchive.wustl.edu [128.252.135.4] (directory /usenet/comp.sources.unix/volume25/ease) and many other c.s.u archives. ZMailer: Author Rayan Zachariassen* ZMailer is intended for gateways or mail servers or other large site environments that have extreme demands on the abilities of the mailer. Code and Design features: + Strong limits on host impact. + Secure design (and hopefully implementation). + Natural fit for client/server environments. + Extremely customizable configuration mechanism. + Flexible database interface with support for: sorted files, unsorted files, dbm, ndbm, gdbm, nis (yellow pages), dns (BIND resolver), /etc/hosts file, and in-core data. + Efficient message queue management. + Fast binary-transparent SMTP server and client. + Low-technology implementation. Default configuration file features: + Default configuration will work for most sites. + Network protocol support for: smtp, uucp, bitnet, mail to news. + An easy way of overriding any external routing information. + Automatic handling of mailing lists. It is available by anonymous FTP from ftp.cs.toronto.edu:/pub/zmailer.tar.Z or ftp.cs.toronto.edu:/distrib/zmailer.tar.Z. MMDF [reviewed by I.Sparry@gdt.bath.ac.uk] MMDF is a MTA. It works on the principle that you have communications channels, both incoming and outgoing, and it arranges for messages to pass between them. Strong points include: * Ability to turn up and down debugging level on the fly * Very strong on authentication, and permission checking. * Can block mail based on who it came from, how it got there, who it is going to. It is older than sendmail, simpler than sendmail, and it is a great pity that it was not shipped as standard instead of sendmail. It has one major advantage to people in the UK, in that it knows how to handle mail addresses in our 'correct' format (Most significant part first, e.g. net.uu.uunet), as well as the thing the rest of the world uses :-) :-) The accepted wisdom is that MMDF should be replaced with PP, since PP is the descendent of MMDF. We are happy with MMDF, and for many years all the UK mail gateways used it. PP: Author University College London PP is a Message Transfer Agent, intended for high volume message switching, protocol conversion, and format conversion. It is targeted for use in an operational environment, but may also be useful for investigating Message related applications. Good management features are a major aspect of this system. PP supports the 1984 and 1988 versions of the CCITT X.400 / ISO 10021 services and protocols. Many existing RFC 822 based protocols are supported, along with RFC 1148 conversion to X.400. PP is an appropriate replacement for MMDF or Sendmail, and also supports SMTP and UUCP mail. For more information contact: support@xtel.co.uk or xtel@cs.nott.ac.uk The latest version is PP-6.0, which was posted in comp.sources.misc, volume 27. SVR4 mail: Author AT&T (description written by Tony Hansen, hansen@pegasus.att.com) The System V Release 4 mail system is a domain-capable mail router and delivery program that works in the UUCP zone and on the Internet and that is capable of gatewaying between the two. SVR4 mail supports SMTP, UUCP mail, alias files, forwarding files, mailing list directories, /etc/hosts files, the domain name system, and can also query uucp for neighboring sites, automatically. (System V Release 4.1 also allows batching of multiple messages into a single UUCP transaction, and allows many addresses to be passed with a single message transfer, which can greatly decrease the traffic generated for large mailing lists.) It is also very simple to configure with a reasonable certainty of correctness. It also supports mail-to-pipe and mail-to-file. SVR4 mail uses configuration files to resolve addresses based on their syntax, somewhat similar to sendmail, but using regular expressions and a more easily understood syntax. The set of methods that SVR4 mail uses for resolving local and remote addresses and hosts is configurable and extensible. Questions related to SVR4 mail are usually discussed in comp.mail.misc. SVR4 mail is a standard part of System V Release 4; unfortunately, some vendors have not realized that SVR4 mail is not the same mailer as the SVR3 mail system, and have replaced it with other inferior mail systems. deliver: Author Chip Salzenberg* Deliver allows any user to write a shell script that processes all incoming mail messages for that user. The system administrator may also install scripts that process all messages by installing it as the Local Delivery Agent (lmail replacement). The output of a script is a list of mail addresses, files and programs that should receive the message. It has access to each message as it is processed, so the action can be content dependent. The script may also generate automatic replies, like the "vacation" program, or pass along a modified version of the original message. Deliver can be used to construct mail-based services (e.g. automatic mailing list maintenance). It can also be used to filter mail automatically in prearranged ways (e.g. encryption and decryption, tossing junk mail, or vacation notices). Deliver was last posted in comp.sources.reviewed, volume 1. The current version is 2.1.09. procmail: Author Stephen R. van den Berg* Can be used to create mail-servers, mailing lists, sort your incoming mail into separate folders/files (real convenient when subscribing to one or more mailing lists or for prioritising your mail), preprocess your mail, start any programs upon mail arrival (e.g. to generate different chimes on your workstation for different types of mail) or selectively forward certain incoming mail automatically to someone. The accompanying formail program enables you to generate autoreplies, split up digests/mailboxes into the original messages, do some very simple header-munging/extraction, or force mail into mail-format (with leading From line). Procmail was designed to deliver the mail under the worst conditions (file system full, out of swap space, process table full, file table full, missing support files, unavailable executables; it all doesn't matter). Should (in the unlikely event) procmail be unable to deliver your mail somewhere, the mail will bounce back to the sender or reenter the mailqueue (your choice). A recent version can be picked up at various comp.sources.misc archives. The latest version (2.70) can be obtained directly from the ftp-archive at: ftp.informatik.rwth-aachen.de (137.226.112.31) as compressed tar file: pub/unix/procmail.tar.Z <128KB or in compressed shar format: pub/unix/procmail.0?.Z [Ed note: I had noted reported difficulties in integrating procmail with System V and/or smail 2.5. The 2.70 version of Procmail eliminates these difficulties.] mailagent: Author Raphael Manfredi* The mailagent is yet another mail filter, written in perl, which will let you do anything with your mail. It has all the features you may expect from a filter: mailing lists sorting, forwarding to MTA or to inews, pre-processi ng of message before saving into folder, vacation mode, etc... It was initially written as an ELM-filter replacement, but has now enough power to also supplant MMDF's .maildelivery. There is also a support for @SH mail hooks, which allows you to automatically distribute patches or software via command mails. The mailagent was designed to make mail filtering as easy as it can be. It is highly configurable and fairly complete. Rules are specified in a lex-lik e style, with the full power of perl's regular expressions. The automaton supports the notion of mode, and header selection has many magic features built-in, to ease the rule writing process. The distribution comes with a set of examples, an exhaustive test suite, and naturally a detailed manual page. It should be noted that the mailagent will work even if your system administrator forbids "| programs" hooks in the ~/.forward, provided you have access to some sort of cron daemon. The mailagent program is available via anonymous FTP thanks to Christopher Davis : Host: ftp.eff.org (192.88.144.4), Directory: /pub/net-tools File: perl-mailagent.tar.Z Recently issued patches can be obtained directly from my mailagent (see instructions in the README file). [Ed note: while feasible to use this as an LDA, the author recommends agains t it. Since it is written in Perl, it can cause rather severe performance problems on small machines, but it does try to regulate system impact. On high performance workstations, it should be a real winner.] pathalias: Author Peter Honeyman Pathalias reads the UUCP Map Project maps (they need to be extracted from the postings first) and constructs a database containing the minimum cost route to any machine in the maps. This database can then be used with any mailer that knows how to search the database (eg: smail 2.5, Zmailer?, and some versions of sendmail. Smail 3 comes bundled with pathalias). There were previous versions of this program. You must use pathalias version 10 (latest version), because some map format changes have been made and only pathalias 10 can parse them. If your pathalias doesn't give a syntax error on: echo "file {foo}" | pathalias It's the new one. There were other route-generating programs, but all (as far as I know) are very obsolete, and none run as fast as pathalias (still, which can be rather hard on machines with smallish virtual memory or RAM capacities). pathalias 10 is available from comp.sources.unix archives, volume 22. A patch was just released in comp.sources.unix (vol 25) that addresses an oddity when used with smail (not that I've ever noticed it). uuhosts: Author John Quarterman The "defacto" standard UUCP Map Project map unpacker. Includes a program to arbitrarily view individual map entries. Uuhosts implements trojan horse/virus security by running under a "chroot()" system call. Uuhosts does not appear to be actively maintained, and the last versions that I have inspected were unable to easily compress the maps (a full set of maps is >6000 blocks), had no provision for automatically running pathalias, and will not work with the newest version of cnews. Further, uuhost's header checking is so picky that the slightest change in the map format will cause uuhosts to reject map updates. Use of uuhosts now will require some minor hacking - and this hacking will stretch your knowledge of Bourne shell programming. The last edition, "uuhost4" (version 1.69) appears to have been posted in comp.sources.unix in volume 3, 1986. Do not be confused by Jan-Piet Mons "uuhost 2.0" program posted in alt.sources. This is not a map unpacker. It is just a map viewer, and is a subset of the real uuhosts. unpackmaps: Author Chris Lewis* Unpackmaps is a superset of the functionality of uuhosts. It obtains its security by doing the map unpacking with a specialized parser that knows the map article format rather than invoking a shar/shell. Compression and pathalias invocation is automatic, correctly takes into account the change date of local configuration files, and will work with the latest Cnews. The newest version of unpackmaps, version 4.0, is currently in beta test, and appeared in alt.sources and comp.mail.uucp July 12, 1992. This version is entirely written in C, is considerably faster than unpackmaps 3 or uuhosts, has considerably more features, and will work with Brian Reids PostScript net maps too. The beta version nows seems stable enough for general use. After the beta, it will be reposted in comp.sources.misc or comp.sources.unix. -- Chris Lewis; clewis@ferret.ocunix.on.ca; Phone: Canada 613 832-0541 Psroff 3.0 info: psroff-request@ferret.ocunix.on.ca Ferret list: ferret-request@ferret.ocunix.on.ca .