			xmftp FAQ - Updated Thu July 18 1997

1. General
----------

1.1	What is xmftp?
1.2	Why should I use xmftp?
1.3	Do I really need Motif to run xmftp?
1.4	What sort of features does xmftp have?
1.5	What the hell is RTM mode anyways?
1.6	Is there a mailing list for notification of xmftp updates?

2. Appearance
-------------

2.1	How can I change xmftp's default color scheme? It is ugly!
2.2	How can I use my own icons instead of the default ones?
2.3	I need more control over fonts besides 'Large' and 'Small'! How?

3. Troubleshooting
------------------

3.1	xmftp is extremely buggy. Why?
3.2	Help! I cannot connect to any host!
3.3	What does 'make bad_gethostbyname' do?
3.4	I really dislike xmftp


				  1. General
				  ----------

1.1	What is xmftp?
----------------------

	xmftp is a X/Motif FTP client designed to give FTP a nice interface
	and also offer features that I think are nice to have in an FTP
	client. It was programmed as a class project that I thought would
	be useful to some people. Be forewarned, I am not an expert X
	programmer, rather I wrote this to get some practice and a good
	grade. It is a very simple program and still has bugs and missing
	features (see the file BUGS).

	xmftp is written and maintained by Viraj Alankar 
	(valankar@bigfoot.com).

	Please send any comments/suggestions to this address.

	The FTP routines are based on a modification of FTP Library Routines
	Release 2 by Thomas Pfau (pfau@cnj.digex.net).

1.2	Why should I use xmftp?
-------------------------------

	Well if you don't like it, you really shouldn't. But at least give it
	a try :). My main goal was to make xmftp something that I myself
	would enjoy and continue using, utilizing the features that I found
	necessary for my own needs, as well as doing away with features that
	are not that important (or features that I was too lazy to code hehe).

1.3	Do I really need Motif to run xmftp?
--------------------------------------------

	To compile xmftp you really do need Motif. However, you may use the
	statically linked binaries of xmftp also available if you do not
	have Motif. The only drawback is that these binaries are bulky.

1.4	What sort of features does xmftp have?
----------------------------------------------

	- Extensive transfer information when downloading/uploading
		- Current file AND total transfer information (when 
		transferring multiple files) given in real-time including:
			- status bar
			- textual file/total position indicators
			- file AND total ETA (estimated time of arrival)
			- speed/throughput of transfer information

	I always found the need of downloading multiple files, yet every
	FTP client I've used only gave me information on the current transfer
	rather than the transfer as a whole. I found this unacceptable.
	xmftp gives total transfer information as well.

	- Provides easy retrieval of directories 
		- Just select a directory and select download; directories
		are processed recursively
		- Can select the './' directory to download everything in
		the current directory.

	- Automatic resuming of downloads

	If you're like me, you usually just want to download a directory
	or a couple of directories with no hassles. Say you were downloading
	a directory and cancelled for some reason. When you download that 
	directory again, you probably would want it to skip files you 
	already have as well as resume ones you didn't finish. This is what
	xmftp will do.

	There are other cool things like the Site manager and the toolbar.

1.5	What the hell is RTM mode anyways?
------------------------------------------

	Have you ever been ftp'ing some file only to have your PPP connection
lost? Well I have... many times, usually by the result of line noise. Whats
worse is this may be in the middle of the night during a long download, so I'm
not there to restart it. Anyhow, I wished for an ftp client that would
redial the site and continue the transfer if ever the connection was
broken. 

	Subsequently, another command line client called lftp does just this
(and is excellent by the way). I sought to incorporate a similar feature in
xmftp, and it is called RTM mode. If enabled (via General Settings), and no
data is recieved within a certain time frame, an attempt is made to redial the
site and resume the transfer. xmftp tries indefinitely to reconnect to the
site, pausing 30 seconds between each retry.

	But hey, if my PPP connection goes down, what will bring it back up
again? Certainly not xmftp, therefore RTM mode has to work in conjunction with
something else making sure an internet connection is re-established if
broken. I personally do this with some simple scripts via 'cron'.

	So is RTM mode good for anything besides us slow pokes with modem
connections? Yes it is. Sometimes connections are broken to sites, and if RTM
mode is enabled, xmftp 'should' notice this and redial the site to resume the
file(s). Of course the remote system must support the REST (resume) command
for RTM mode to work. Most 'real' sites support REST. Some Win95/NT ftpd's
don't, but then again I don't consider them 'real' OS's :).

1.6	Is there a mailing list for notification of xmftp updates?
------------------------------------------------------------------

	Just email me at the following address saying you'd like to be on the
mailing list for version updates:

	valankar@bigfoot.com


				2. Appearance
				-------------

2.1	How can I change xmftp's default color scheme? It is ugly!
------------------------------------------------------------------

	Simple, use X resources. This does not give you very much control over
the colors, but it can definitely help the appearance. You can do this on the
command line or via ~/.Xdefaults. For example, I like the following scheme:

xmftp -background DarkSlateGray -foreground Wheat

	If you don't want to type this in all of the time just add lines to
your ~/.Xdefaults as follows:

xmftp*background: DarkSlateGray
xmftp*foreground: Wheat

	Then do a 'xrdb ~/.Xdefaults' to make the changes take affect (or
restart X), and xmftp should have the colors you specified.

2.2	How can I use my own icons instead of the default ones?
---------------------------------------------------------------

	xmftp checks the environment variable XMFTP_ICON_DIR before it tries
to display its internal icons. If that variable is set, icons are loaded from
that dir. You must put all of your icons in that directory, with names just
like in source/ui/icons/ from the xmftp source tree. Icons must be XPM format!

2.3	I need more control over fonts besides 'Large' and 'Small'! How?
------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Currently you can only change the directory listing font. This can be
done via a .Xdefaults. Assuming you are proficient in horrific X font lists,
you can change the tags LG_LIST_TAG and SM_LIST_TAG to change the default
Large and Small fonts respectively. For example, the following is the default
setting for the xmftp Small font:

xmftp*fontList: fixed,-*-courier-medium-r-*--*-120-*=SM_LIST_TAG



				3. Troubleshooting
				------------------

3.1	xmftp is extremely buggy. Why?
--------------------------------------

	There are many problems being worked on. See the file BUGS for known
	problems. For now, the basic features are for the most part
	working. If you think you've found a new problem not mentioned in the
	file BUGS, please let me know!
	
3.2	Help! I cannot connect to any host!
-------------------------------------------

	First make sure you have the newest version of xmftp. The latest
	release is always at http://www.magg.net/~kaos/html/xmftp.html

	Next, the problem most likely deals with resolving of a hostname.
	Try to connect to an explicit IP address instead of a name address.
	Make sure this works first.

	If you are recieving a 'gethostbyname' error, then instead of 
	using 'make' to compile try:

	make bad_gethostbyname

3.3	What does 'make bad_gethostbyname' do?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The 'make bad_gethostbyname' command will force xmftp to use 
	nslookup instead of the gethostbyname() function when compiling.

	Evidently, not all nslookup's give the same output on all systems.
	Therefore xmftp will get confused or hang. Notably, a Debian
	nslookup gives very different output from a Slackware or Redhat
	nslookup.

	Until I figure out a better way of handling this, you will have to
	use an nslookup binary that gives similar output as the Slackware
	and Redhat ones. If you don't have access to one of these, let
	me know.

3.4	I really dislike xmftp
------------------------------

	make uninstall and let me know how I can improve on it.


		Viraj Alankar
		valankar@bigfoot.com
