computer science II
c m s c 214  
f a l l   2 0 0 1  

Printing Project Descriptions

Background

[TAKEN FROM A PRIOR SEMESTERS WEBPAGE - USE AT YOUR OWN RISK] So you want to print project descriptions, but it's not in the posting account. You exclaim "I don't have a printer at home, and I surely don't want to pay 10 cents a page to print something I should have for free". The second argument admittedly is silly, since you have to pay for a book that costs $60, so a few cents to print the project should be worth any time and investment of your energy.

Printing for Free

Even so, free is free, and there is a way to do this for free.
  1. Get onto a WAM computer (or a personal computer) and start up Netscape (or Internet Explorer).
  2. Go to the webpage with description of project.
  3. Save the file. When you do so, there is a small menu. You can either save the file as "Text" or "Postscript".
  4. Look for the file in the directory you started Netscape (most likely the home directory).
  5. "ftp" this file to your class account.
  6. Print from your class account. If it's a Postscript file: 
    qpr -q csc-ps proj1.ps
    If it's a text file, and you don't mind sending it to the line printer: 
    qpr -q prl proj1.txt
  7. Go to the OIT Dispatch on campus (in AVW).
  8. Tell them your user ID, and that you sent it to the laser printer or line printer (whichever you did).
  9. Go home with your description.

FTP

But, you exclaim "No one ever taught me how to ftp!". Ah, but you should have at least told yourself "I need to learn how to ftp. I will ask a TA, and write down this information and practice". OK, so you didn't do this, and now you're wondering what to do. You don't even know what "ftp" stands for (it stands for file transfer protocol).

Here's the instructions. (You type in what's in red).

  1. Assume you are at a WAM computer in the same directory as the file you wish to transfer, and you have a UNIX prompt.
  2. Type in ftp dc.umd.edu. You will see something like 
    Connected to dc.umd.edu.
220 holmes.umd.edu FTP server (Digital UNIX Version 5.60) ready.
Name (dc.umd.edu:janplane):
  3. Type in your user name (suppose it's zz214123). 
    Connected to dc.umd.edu.
220 holmes.umd.edu FTP server (Digital UNIX Version 5.60) ready.
Name (dc.umd.edu:janplane): zz214123
331 Password required for zz214123.
Password:
  4. Then, type in your password.
  5. If you make a mistake, you will see: 
    Connected to dc.umd.edu.
220 holmes.umd.edu FTP server (Digital UNIX Version 5.60) ready.
Name (dc.umd.edu:janplane): zz214123
331 Password required for zz214123.
Password:
Login failed.
ftp>
  6. Since you are in "ftp", you will need to use a different command to tell ftp your username. Use the "user" command, as in: 
    Connected to dc.umd.edu.
220 holmes.umd.edu FTP server (Digital UNIX Version 5.60) ready.
Name (dc.umd.edu:janplane): zz214123
331 Password required for zz214123.
Password:
Login failed.
ftp> user zz214123
331 Password required for zz214123.
  7. Again, it asks you for your password. If you succeed, you will see: 
    Connected to dc.umd.edu.
220 holmes.umd.edu FTP server (Digital UNIX Version 5.60) ready.
Name (dc.umd.edu:janplane): zz214123
331 Password required for zz214123.
Password:
Login failed.
ftp> user zz214123
331 Password required for zz214123.
Password:
230 User zz214123 logged in.
ftp>
  8. At this point, you can type in SOME basic UNIX commands like "ls" and "cd". Initially, you start off in the home directory of the account you logged into. If you are in the incorrect "remote" directory (the account you just logged into), then use "cd" to get in the correct directory.
  9. Use the "mput" (which stands for multiple put) command. 
    ftp> mput proj1.ps
mput proj1.ps?
    It asks you if you want to put the file in the remote directory. Type 'y', and hit return.
  10. It tells you how many seconds it took to transfer.
  11. Once done, type "quit" and hit return. 
    ftp> mput proj1.ps
mput proj1.ps? y
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for proj1.ps (128.8.129.123,34138).
226 Transfer complete.
local: proj1.ps remote: proj1.ps
1234 bytes sent in 0.0348 seconds (3.31 Kbytes/s)
ftp> quit
221 Goodbye.
You should have your file.

"ftp" works in both directions. Suppose you are in your class account, and wish to retrieve your file from your WAM (or other account). You do the same thing as above (except you would ftp to WAM), and instead of using "mput", you would use "mget".

Using Wildcards

You can use wildcards to transfer many files at a time. For example, to transfer all files that end in .ps. 
ftp> mput *.ps
mput proj1.ps? y
Or to transfer all files in the directory. 
ftp> mput *
mput proj1.ps? y
You can use question mark to match any one character.

You will be asked if you want to send each of the file, one at a time. Type 'y' for YES, and 'n' for NO.

Remember to quit when you are done.

Using lynx

If you want to try something on your own, learn to use lynx. This is a text based browser, that can save text files. It should run on the DC cluster. That way, you don't have to FTP.

Web Accessibility