----> Introducion to the UNIX Goher Client <---- --> Rev. 3 <-- Chris Alfeld - calfeld@east.slc.k12.ut.us Legal Guck: You are free to distribute this guide unmodified in any non-profit way. If you would like to modify it, or distribute it for a profit (CD-ROM, etc..). Please ask me (address above). Archives: ftp://ftp.east.slc.k12.ut.us/calfeld/ http://www.math.utah.edu/creations/ gopher://gopher.east.slc.k12.ut.us/1/Guides/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- //////////////////// Introduction to Gopher //////////////////// // Introduction This is a guide to get people using the unix gopher browser, and to provide them with the information needed to use some of the extra features of the browser. This guide is divided into two sections: "Getting Started" describes the basic use of gopher to people who have never used it before; "Continuing" continues from Getting Started and provides information on some of the other features of gopher. This guide assumes you use a command line interface for unix. This means that you type commands at some sort of prompt. If you use a menu or other interface then you may have to adapt some of the information in here. Throughout this guide all text that will be entered on the terminal (commands, etc..) will be enclosed in single quotes ('). //////////////////// Getting Started //////////////////// // Starting gopher The simplest way to start gopher is to enter the command: 'gopher' This should end up displaying a menu of choices to you: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Internet Gopher Information Client 2.0 pl4 Root gopher server: leopard.east-slc.edu --> 1. About East High Gopher/ 2. Alternate gopher site./ 3. East High School/ 4. EastNet/ 5. Electronic Databases/ 6. FreeNets/ 7. Fun & Games/ 8. Guides/ 9. Information/ 10. Keypals wanted/ 11. Magazines/ 12. Netlink Gopher Server (Gopher, Telnet, WWW Sites)/ 13. Other Gophers/ 14. Search the Net {?}/ 15. State of Utah/ 16. Teacher Resources/ Press ? for Help, q to Quit, u to go up a menu Page: 1/1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Note: display will probably have different menu items. // Basic operation The basic operation of gopher is to select menu items. Depending on the item this may show you another menu, display a file, or do something else. There are two basic ways to select a menu item: 1) Use the arrow keys to highlight the item and press the return key. 2) Enter the number of the menu item and press the return key. // Other basic operations Going back: you can use the 'u' command to go to the previous menu. Quitting: use the 'q' command to quit gopher and return to the prompt. Getting help: The '?' command will display help. Returning to the main menu: You can return to the first menu displayed with the 'm' command. // A note on the arrow keys: Some people (myself included) prefer to operate gopher with the arrow keys. You can use the right arrow instead of the enter key when a item is highlighted. The left arrow does the same as the 'u' command. // Pages: For menus that take more than one page you can go up or down a page at a time. The following keys can be used for going a page at a time. Up Down --- ----- < > - + b space Pgup Pgdwn Note: the pgup/pgdwn combination may not work in many situations. For example: when you are connecting via a modem the Pgup/Pgdwn keys probably will not work. // Panic key: If gopher is taking to long you can use the Control-C combination to either quit gopher (answer 'y') or abort the current connection (answer 'n'). // Conclusion: I would suggest you now explore gopher some. There is a document "Digging into Gopher" floating around which I would suggest reading. //////////////////// Continuing //////////////////// // Intro to this section: This section described some of the extra gopher features, it also will give some background on how gopher works. This is not a technical description of the gopher system, it merely give some idea of how it works so that you may understand it better. // Basic concepts of gopher: Gopher works on a client/server model. A client (what you're using) connects to a server and receives some sort of data from them. The most common type of data received is a menu. The data include info that is used to display a list to you on the screen (a menu). It also contains information describing the each menu item. This tells the client whether the menu item leads to another menu, a file, or something else. It also tells the client the information it needs to process the item if you use it. Gopher does not work on a continuous connection like telnet. If the user does something that requires data gopher doesn't have (select a menu item, etc..) then gopher opens a new connection, asks for the data, receives the data and closes the connection. // Mid sub-section comment: The completes the background on gopher. The rest of this guide will describe some of the features of gopher. // Bookmarks: Gopher allows you to keep a list of favorite menu items so you can get back to them quickly. Viewing the bookmarks: To view your list of bookmarks you use the 'v' command. This can be done from any menu. Add a menu item to the bookmark list: To do this you need to select the item with the arrow keys, and then use the 'a' command. It will ask you what you wish to name the bookmark Add the current menu to the book mark list: The 'A' command will add one bookmark (not the whole menu) to the bookmark. When selected this item will take you back to the menu you are currently in. You will be asked what you what you wish to name the bookmark. Delete a bookmark: While viewing your bookmark list you can delete the currently selected bookmark with the 'd' command. // Looking at menu items: You can see what a menu item is by its suffix. Suffix Item type ------ --------- / A menu. nothing A file. A searchable database. You will be asked for search keywords. This is a type of interface for searching a database of people. A telnet connection. // Files: When you have finished reading a file you will receive a message that looks something like this: Press to continue, to mail, to , to save, or

to print: At this time you can do several things. Cmd Operation --- --------- m Mail the file to a e-mail address. s Save the file to a file on a local disk. p Print the file. D See next section. When a file is selected as a menu item you can only use the 's' and 'D' commands. // Downloading a file via a modem If you are calling in via a modem you might wish to download the file directly to your computer. You can do this via the 'D' command. You will need to know something about transferring files via a modem including which protocols your terminal program supports. The gopher client has to receive the file itself before it sends it to you so it may take a minute or two before it sends you the file. // Getting info on a menu item The '=' command will display some info on a menu item. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ # Type=1 Name=About East High Gopher Path=1/About East High Gopher Host=leopard.east-slc.edu Port=70 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ What does this mean to you? The important parts here are the "Path" and "Host" . By knowing the path and host of a menu item you can go to it at startup. This is useful for telling other people about the places you have found. See the next section on how to use this information. Command line options: The basic operation of gopher is done by merely entering the command 'gopher'. However, you can specify a host and optionally a path. Specifying a host: Every gopher host has a "main menu". If you specify a host but not a path then gopher will display the "main menu" of the host. You specify a host by simply placing it after the gopher command. Ex. gopher leopard.east-slc.edu Specifying a path: If you received a host and path from somewhere (i.e. the UDOC list). You can look at it by specifying both a host and a path in the command line. The syntax is: gopher -p where is the path to a file, and is the host. Note: if contains spaces it must be inclosed in quotes ("). For example: back in "Getting info on a menu item" we saw the host and path of a menu item. We can jump straight there with the command: gopher -p "1/About East High Gopher" leopard.east-slc.edu // Setting options The options of gopher have changed considerably over the last few version, as such I will not describe them here. However, I will say that you can change your options with the 'O' command. // Conclusion That describes most of what you will need to know to use the gopher client. There's a lot out there in gopher though. Once you feel that you're accomplished with gopher I would suggest that you look at the World Wide Web. -Chris