3022) How do I get pictures from USENET newsgroups?
Description
This article is from the Hong Kong FAQ, by John Ho john@jho.com with numerous contributions by others.
3022) How do I get pictures from USENET newsgroups?
New incoming pictures are also posted to the Usenet newsgroups:
alt.binaries.pictures, alt.binaries.pictures.misc
The pictures are uuencoded and posted in a number of articles (parts).
One must save and append them together in the order of part number.
Remove the "-----Cut Here-----" lines and uudecode the appended file.
i) For those running 'rn' or 'trn' in Unix:
- g <desired newsgroup>
goto the newsgroup you want
- ... use your favorite method of jumping to the message with
part #1 of the GIF file you want
- w file1
save as a file with the part no (ie. 1) attached to filename.
- ... repeat the above two procedures to save all the parts to
different files by jumping to part 2, save with filename
with 2 attached, then part 3,.... and so on until done.
- another way is to save it all in one shot with (in rn)
/<rootname>/w filename.
- ... remove all lines above and including the "-----Cut Here-----"
line near the start of the file.
- ... remove all lines below and including the "-----Cut Here-----"
line near the end of the file.
- append all the files into one file IN ORDER of part number.
- uudecode <filename>
<filename> being the big file containing all the parts in
order. This will recreate the GIF file.
ii) For those using rn and have the uuconc program:
- list all the Subjects with the "=" command
- write the postings in order to one file in append mode
(ie. {msg# of part1},...,{msg# of last part} w {filename})
- when it asks if you want full pathname, type "n"
- feed this file through uunconc (ie. "uunconc filename")
and there you have it.
iii) For those using 'nn' in Unix:
- G <desired newsgroup>
goto the desired newsgroup, in this case alt.binaries.pictures...
- press 'a' to list all the articles or 'j' to list only the unread
articles.
- select the parts which construct a picture you want.
- press 'W' to save the selected parts. When the prompt "save on"
appears, you can edit the path of the file to be written on.
The parts will be saved and appended in the order from the
uppermost selection to the bottom-most.
- remove the "-----Cut Here-----" lines and the text in-between
manually by an editor.
- uudecode <saved file>
decode the file back to binary GIF file.
iv) For those using 'news' in VMS(VAX):
- NEWS> select <desired newsgroup>
goto the desired newsgroup, in this case alt.binaries.pictures...
- find out the news parts which construct a picture you want.
- NEWS> extract <filename> <first news item no.>-<last news item no.>
e.g.: extract wan-ph02.uu 5120-5124
Where wan-ph02.uu is the file for the parts to be saved. The news
of items number 5120 to 5124 are saved in order and appended.
- remove the "-----Cut Here-----" lines and the text in-between
manually by a text editor.
- transfer the saved file back to the local machine where a viewer
software is available. (In most cases, such a machine is a PC).
You can transfer it by using the command 'kermit' in VMS.
Remember you must set the following in VMS kermit prior to the
transfer:
kermit-VMS> set block 3 /* use CRC error check */
kermit-VMS> set file type binary /* binary file transfer mode */
kermit-VMS> send <filename> /* then start the transfer */
/* then use 'receive' command/function on the PC kermit program */
You must also set the kermit program in PC (the local machine)
to the above modes. It depends on what kermit program you use.
The one which has a set of similar commands to VMS kermit is
called MS-kermit for PC. It is available in most popular ftp
sites. In addition, Telix, Telemate & Procomm also support kermit.
- uudecode the transferred file in the local machine back to binary
GIF file. Then you can view it in the local machine.
uudecode program and similar variants can be obtained from most
popular ftp sites. There is one for PC in ftp site: ifcss.org
[129.107.1.155]. The file is uudecode.exe in directory
/software/dos/utils
If you don't have access to ftp, you can use ftp mail server (see
question 3021 part ii). In this case you need to obtain the file
uudecode.bas in /pub/hongkong/hkpa/util/msdos of HKPA ftp site
asia.lcs.mit.edu instead. It is a source code written in BASIC. You
need to run it on qbasic which comes with MSDOS 5.0 at the very
first time. It then creates 2 executable files: uuencode.com &
uudecode.com. Then you can type "uudecode" at the MSDOS prompt.
Type the name of the transferred file. It'll then decode the file.
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