If you don’t have access to a Linux distribution site to FTP the software, you can still get the files transferred to you if you have a e-mail system that can reach a Linux site. This method is an alternative for those using on-line systems that allow Internet mail but do not allow direct access to FTP and those using some corporate systems that do not allow you to dial out directly to reach FTP sites but can transfer e-mail.

To get Linux by e-mail from an FTP site, use the site’s ftpmail utility. All of the sites mentioned in the previous Linux FTP site list support ftpmail. To get complete instructions on using ftpmail, send an e-mail message to ftpmail login at one of the sites (for example, address your e-mail to ftpmail@sunsite.unc.edu). The body of the e-mail message should have only the word help in it. Any other comments may cause the ftpmail utility to incorrectly process your request. For this reason, you may want to suppress any signature files that are appended to your e-mail automatically.

Upon receiving your request, ftpmail sends you instructions for using the service. In most cases, you embed the FTP commands you want executed at the remote site as the body of your mail message. For example, to get a directory listing of the Linux directory, send a mail message with the following body:

open sunsite.unc.edu

cd /pub/Linux

ls

quit
The ftpmail utility at the remote site processes the commands as if they were typed directly into FTP. To transfer a file to yourself through e-mail, you could send the following mail message:

open sunsite.unc.edu

cd /pub/Linux

binary

get README

quit
This message sends you the file README back through e-mail. The ftpmail system is slower than FTP because you must wait for the e-mail to make its way to the target machine, be processed by the remote system’s ftpmail utility, format a reply, and send the return message back to you. Still, ftpmail does provide a useful access method for those without FTP connections and an easy way to check the contents of the Linux directories on several machines without having to log in to them, which can be useful when you want to occasionally check for updates to the software.

The files you want to transfer may exceed your mail system’s maximum file size limits. Some mail systems will break the files into smaller chunks and allow you to reassemble them when you receive them, but other e-mail systems impose a small size limit on e-mail, making it impractical to use ftpmail to get large files like the complete Linux software distribution.