File formats and conversion

Common formats and name extensions

.gz: compressed by GNU gzip. Use gzip to uncompress, or gzcat to get an uncompressed copy.
.hqx: BinHex encoded. BinHex files can be savely transferred as text files over all usual connections.
.bin: MacBinary. Macintosh files come in triples: a usual sequential part, called the data fork; an index sequntial part, called the resource fork; and additional administrative information, called the finder information. On a Macintosh, these parts are kept together automatically. They are grouped for file transfer using the MacBinary format. Your ftp demon should be able to encode/decode MacBinary on the fly. If not, use mcvert or fcnvt for additional conversion in UNIX.
.Mod: Oberon source files. Uses a special format which may differ between variants of Oberon. Oberon source files from statlab.uni-heidelberg.de are provided as ASCII text, with line breaks encoded as CR (=0D). This seems to readable by all Oberon variants. Use binary file transfer to move .Mod files over the internet.
.ps: PostScript source file, usually stored as a text file.
.tar: archive collection built by tar. Tar files from SUN workstations may have a different format than from the rest of the world, due to different checksums.
.tgz: archive collection built by tar and compressed by gzip. Use GNU tar to decode, if available. Else use gzip to extract convert to a tar file, and then use tar.

For server administrators:

Server information may be mirrored, and mirrors may be in a cascade. A common way is to use the mirror Perl script. To avoid unnecessary duplications, please include a friendly guesture for mirroring sites. Include a file named 'mirror.me' which can be used as a mirror script for any mirroring site. The file should contain a valid mirror configuration entry.

Additional notes:

Include information about your local time.
Include information about your preferred mirroring schedule in a format usable for cron, in local time. But make sure that the hour and minute entry violate the cron format in an obvious way. Each user should take an arbitrary choice, hoping for some random variation. Include descriptions for partial mirroring. If you are providing compressed versions, add a rule to exclude_patt to avoid redundant downloads. Avoid multiple compression schemes. Provide sufficient decompressors instead. As an example, look at our utilities

As an example, here is an excerpt of the contents of mirror.me for StatLab Heidelberg:

### mirror information for StatLab Heidelberg 
package=StatLab 
# Timezone = MET 
## download = min	hour	day	month	dow	command 
# download = someminute	2-4	*	*	*	mirror -p StatLab
       comment= StatLab Heidelberg full mirror
       site=ftp.statlab.uni-heidelberg.de
       mail_prog=mailx
       remote_user=ftp
       remote_dir=/pub
       local_dir=/usr/spool/ftp/pub/mirrors/statlab
       save_dir=/usr/paranoia/mirrors/statlab
       exclude_patt = ^\lost+found* | ^\mirrors* | *.Old | *.Bak 
# exclude our local mirror archive
       exclude_patt += ^Old* 
       update_log=/usr/spool/ftp/pub/mirrors/MIRROR.LOG

package=StatLabVoyager 
# Timezone = MET 
## download = min	hour	day	month	dow	command 
# download = someminute	2-4	*	*	3	mirror -p StatLabVoyager
       comment= StatLab Heidelberg Voyager
       site=ftp.statlab.uni-heidelberg.de
       mail_prog=mailx
       remote_user=ftp
       remote_dir=/pub/hd/voyager
       local_dir=/usr/spool/ftp/pub/mirrors/statlab/voyager
       save_dir=/usr/paranoia/mirrors/statlab/voyager
       exclude_patt = ^\lost+found* | ^\mirrors* | *.Old | *.Bak 
       update_log=/usr/spool/ftp/pub/mirrors/MIRROR.LOG