Be FTP Site Uploading Guidelines

As a service to our developers, Be offers a ftp archive in the US with mirrors stationed around the world. We have storage space for quite a lot of stuff, and want to act as a central repository so that everyone knows where to get things centrally.

The normal process for uploading to these sites has been loosely defined in the past. This document sets the guidelines for how to use this service in the future.

First, all transactions with the ftp servers is done with a user login of anonymous; use your email address as the password.

All incoming files should be placed in the incoming directory

All files should be accompanied by a <filename>.txt file. This file should contain some standard useful information and be formatted accordingly:

=====================
         File:
       Author:
      Release:
Compatibility:
     Location:
  Description:
        Notes:


=====================

DESCRIPTION

File: This is the name of the actual file that you have uploaded. A few standard formats have become popular for uploaded files.

• Compressed tar file - That is, if you have multiple files, first a tar file is created, then this file is compressed with gzip. By convention, the file either stays as filename.tar.gz, or is truncated to filename.tgz.

• Zip - Another popular format is the .zip file. These are created with the zip and unzip utilities. This format is popular because the zip tool will preserve the type and creator information on your files. Note that the unzip utility is not part of the system though, so you might include instructions on where to get this utility.

• PackageBuilder - Package Builder from StarCode Software can be used to install packages that need files placed in particular directories. This is a particularly nice choice for those packages which have shared libraries that need to go into the /system/lib directory.

Author: We want to be able to give credit where it is due, so put your name and email address here if appropriate. This also gives us someone to contact if there is something wrong with the archive.

Release: This is the release date of the package. This information gives people a chance to see if there is a newer version of a package than what they may already have. You should put a version and release date on it.

Compatibility: If your package works on a particular release of the OS, this should be stated. Most applications will typically run on a single release of the OS, until we support binary compatibility.

Location: Where should the file be placed within our hierarchy. All files will be placed into the /pub directory tree, so you can leave this part off, and just name the specific directory in which it should live.

Description: A one-line description of the program, no more than 50 characters long. The text after a new file on the What's New on the Be FTP Site page is generated from this Description line. It only uses the first 50 characters.

Notes: Any additional information you might have as to special instructions, originator information, or any further description (or readme) of the package should go in here. In this section you should include any special instructions about removing older versions of your files that may be laying around.

Here is a sample:

         File: ftp.tgz
       Author: Network Hairy (hairy@foo.com)
      Release: 2.0 (Dec. 25th, 1996)
Compatibility: DR8
     Location: contrib/network
  Description: This is the source for an ftp server for the BeOS
        Notes: I spent a lot of time on reworking ftp so that it would
               work perfectly on satellite links to Mars.  Here are the
               fruits of my labors.

The intention is to provide us with enough information to be able to understand what the file is, and where it should go in our directory structure. We would like to be able to automate the process of moving files around as much as possible, so please stick to the specified format, it will make things easier (and your file will be posted sooner).

WHAT IS THE PROCESS

1. Create a .txt file for your package.
   

   Example: Where the actual package is ftp.tar.gz, you should create a file - ftp.txt, and it should be in the standard .txt format as previously specified.

2. Send a message to ftparchive@be.com. This message should contain a subject line of:

   [NEW FTP] package.txt

   where package.txt is the name of your package that you are uploading. This will alert us to the fact that there is something new to take a look at and transfer.

3. Make or update a Beware entry indicating the existence of your package.

You should try to download your files once they've been moved into the /pub directory, just as a check of whether your upload was successful.

If you are transferring files to our ftp.beeurope.com site, the same instructions apply. These files will be transferred to the primary ftp.be.com site on a nightly basis.

Thanks for your help in following this format,
The Be Developer Support Team