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DARXITE README FOR RELEASE 0.4
==============================

This is the README file for the Darxite system, release 0.4 (aka Agrajag).
Darxite is an system for retrieving and uploading files via FTP and HTTP
where a "daemon" process sits in the background and downloads or uploads the
files, while a number of "client" processes can control it and provide a
user interface. It's the ideal way to transfer files over an unreliable
network connection.

The client programs included in this release include a nice GTK FTP client,
a command-line FTP client a la ncftp and some programs to display the status
of the batch being downloaded. The release also includes a GNOME panel
applet that accepts drag and drop (even from Netscape!) written by Manuel
Clos, and a GNOME batch control centre also written by him.

More information and the latest version of Darxite can always be found on
its homepage, http://darxite.cjb.net/. There is now also a Darxite mailing
list, on which release announcements and so on will be made: to subscribe,
send a blank e-mail to darxite-subscribe@egroups.com.

REQUIREMENTS
------------

The Darxite daemon is (by default) multithreaded using POSIX threads
(pthreads), although this can be disabled. This requires that you have the
"LinuxThreads" package installed. If you have glibc2, you will automatically
have this; if you've got libc5, you may have to find it and download it.
Basically, you need to have libpthread.so. If you don't, there will be some
performance losses. Note that you do NOT need to have a multithreaded
version of X.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Some versions of glibc2 don't handle threads properly. If
you're using RedHat version 5.0 or 5.1, you should upgrade to
glibc-2.0.7-19.rpm or later. If you don't, you may experience memory leaks
and other strange problems. If you don't want to upgrade, disable
multithreading.

The command-line FTP client dxftp requires a reasonably recent version of
the GNU readline library (most systems have it already).

The clients in the clients/gtk subdirectory (optional) require GTK 1.0 or
later, with GTK 1.1 required for all features to be supported.

The GNOME applet requires GNOME 1.0 or above, but your mileage may vary.
If you use a version of gnome-core prior to 1.0.10, you may experience
crashes in the panel applet (not our fault!).

INSTALLATION
------------

See the file INSTALL.

LICENCE
-------

The Darxite daemon and all the provided clients are released under the GPL.
See the file COPYING in each subdirectory for more information. The Darxite
library is released under the LGPL, so that closed-source or commercial
clients can be written by third parties.

NOTES FOR RELEASE 0.4
---------------------

This is the fourth public release of Darxite. The following new features are
implemented in this release:

The daemon
----------
 * Upload support, including recursive FTP upload
 * "Massive download", where multiple connections are opened to the same FTP
   or HTTP server
 * Output files to current directory
 * Automatic conversion of URL control codes (eg. %20)
 * Option to scramble local file names
 * Telnetting into the daemon is more friendly
 * Alias handling and generation improved
 * Experimental detection of premature file completion

Other
-----
 * "darxput" client to upload files
 * Changes to dxftp and NoctFTP to support upload
 * New "dxclip" client to get URLs from the clipboard
 * darxget can receive a list of URLs to get from stdin
 * Simple drag-and-drop support in NoctFTP
 * Config file names changed
 * Many improvements to the GNOME clients
 * darxstat-GTK improvements
 * Inclusion of a Perl script to process GetRight files by Peter Sandstrm

Bug fixes
---------
 * HTTP downloads were corrupted when resumed
 * Client file descriptors were not closed properly
 * Sundry problems with server aliases
 * Some files could get "lost" from the batch
 * Many fixes and improvements to Makefiles
 * Settings did not always change when dynamically reloaded
 * "User-Agent" string is now passed for HTTP downloads
 * Only one copy of darxget could be run at once
 * Improvements to handling large batches (more work needed!)
 * "Blocking" mode in darxget didn't work
 * Regetting a file had problems
 * HTTP downloads from slow servers could complete prematurely
 * dxftp: problems with listings
 * Memory leaks found and fixed
 * File transfers made more resilient

For more detailed change information, see the file "ChangeLog".

USAGE
-----

See the file USAGE.

CONTACT
-------

If you'd like to send me comments about Darxite or suggestions for
improvement, please do! My (Ashley's) e-mail address is <hell@ukgateway.net>.

DEVELOPING
----------

If you would like to develop a client for Darxite, read the file
"develop.txt". Please also e-mail Ashley first so there isn't any
duplication of effort and he can give you any help you need.

CREDITS
-------

See the file AUTHORS.
