Xarchie Sample Session

As an example of how to use xarchie, we will demonstrate a sample session. In this session, we will find and download whatever we can find for ImageMagick.

• Invoke xarchie by typing xarchie at the Unix prompt. The application will be launched, displaying the main window.
• Under the Settings button, choose Search Type, then highlight Substr. This specifies a case-insensitive, substring search. This search takes longer, but is more flexible than the exact search, which returns files exactly matching your search term.
• Place your mouse pointer in the box to the right of the words Search Term:. You should see a cursor appear in the box. Type in imagemagick, and press return.
• Xarchie will search for matches at the Archie Host site that is specified under the Settings option, and will display the sites in the host pane of the browser.

  

• Use the grips to widen the host pane, and the scroll bar to peruse the list of sites. Find a site in the United States and click on it. This will display, in the location and file panes of the browser, the exact locations and file names of the files which match your search term.

  

• If a specific file in the file pane is not highlighted, click on one. Now click on the File button of the menu bar, and select Get.
• The browser panes will dim, and the status bar will now indicate the progress of your file transfer. It will show the various ftp commands sent to open a connection to the specified host, change directories as necessary, and perform the retrieve. During the actual data transfer, the status bar will indicate the total file size, and the number of bytes successfully transferred thus far.

  

• When the status bar indicates Ready again, the transfer is complete. If you look in the directory from where you invoked xarchie, you will see the file, in this case ImageMagick-3.0.tar.gz. You may now use zip and tar to extract the contents of this file, which often includes README files, manual pages, and source code.
• Under the File button of the menu bar, select Quit to exit the Xarchie application.