NOTE: 27 March 2002

This document was written for the first version of the FTP server. They may or not apply on the server which is currently being rebuilt. When the rebuild is complete this file will be updated accordingly.

------------------
README.CONVERSIONS
------------------

 This FTP implementation supports these automatic conversions:
 
      somefile          plain
      somefile.Z        Unix compress
      somefile.gz       Gnuzip
 
      somefile.tar      for directories
      somefile.tar.Z    tar+compress
      somefile.tar.gz   tar+Gnuzip
 
 Examples:
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 This file, which is compressed
      -rw-r--r--  1 bob    dp     4705 Jan 17 23:40 Knights.Z
 will be uncompressed if requested by "GET Knights" --use ASCII mode.
 
 NOTE: This is useful when you have no convenient way to decompress or
       unzip etext files.
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 This file
      -rw-r--r--  1 bob    dp     8650 Jan 17 23:40 Knights
 will be Gnuzipped if requested by "GET Knights.gz" --use BINARY mode.
 
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 Entire sub-trees can be retrieved as tar archives:
 
  drwxrwsr-x  2 etext    etext        1024 Mar 29 21:15 Z
  drwxrwsr-x  2 etext    etext        1024 Mar 29 21:15 zip
 
 "GET Z.tar" delivers an archive of everything below Z --use BINARY mode.
 
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 
About "bahai.tar"
==================
 
In most cases, this is not what you really want.  This archive is
twice as large as all the unique etext files, because they are
provided in both .zip and .Z (unix compress) format.  Consider going
to bahai/file-types and using "GET Z.tar" or "GET zip.tar" to collect
everything in one or the other format.
 
Extensive use has been made of symbolic links to provide different
views of the etext files below "bahai".  This is for the convenience
of those who are browsing, or looking for a specific work.
 
Automatic tar conversions are configured to follow symbolic links, in
other words, to archive the target file to which a symlink points.
Usually this is what is wanted --for example, "all the zip files".
 
An automatic tar archive from the top level would result in redundant
copies of the every file --one for each link. The file "bahai.tar" is
a mirror of the whole tree below "bahai" with the symlinks stored as
links.

Most files under "bahai" are already compressed, bahai.tar.Z and
bahai.tar.gz are 0 length placeholders; unix compress and gnuzip
refuse to compress bahai.tar because the result would be larger.
 
 --
 Bob Gregory
 [March 1994]
 --
For any questions about this facility please contact:
 
 Bryn Deamer
 Etext Account Manager
 etext@bwc.org.il
 
 (16 February 1997)
 (30 September 1999: REVIEWED - added name of account manager)
 --