Gopher
The Gopher is another powerful system for archiving, organizing, and retrieving information. Like FTP, Gopher is used to make text and binary files available through servers throughout the world. Unlike FTP, however, Gopher makes text files and so me binary files (like pictures, for example) available for direct reading by people traveling through Gopherspace. Like FTP, Gopher is a client/server system.

To make you search of gopherspace more effective, you might want to use Veronica or Jughead. Instructions for using Veronica and Jughead can be found by clicking here.

Accessing Gopher via Unix

There are two was to access Gopher via Unix. Both involve workig from the Unix prompt. The first way is to type "gopher" at the Unix prompt and then hitting "return".
This method accesses Gopher via the default Gopher server for the Unix machine. On u.cc.utah.edu, the default gopher server is gopher.cc.utah.edu. The second way to access gopherspace via Unix is very similar, except that you select a specific Gopher se rver by typing its name after "gopher" at the unix prompt. For example, if you want to access the Gopher server at the Manchester Computer Centre in Manchester, England type the followig at the Unix prompt:

and then hit return.

Either way will bring you to a main menu for the Gopher server you have chosen. Each one of the entries in the menu is called a jewel. A Gopher jewel is very similar to a hotlink on the world wide web in that each jewel is alink to files or other jewels that follow the link. For example, if you access the Gopher server at gopher.cc.utah.edu, you will find a menu that looks like this:

                   Internet Gopher Information Client v2.1.3

                      Home Gopher server: gopher.utah.edu

 -->  1.  About the U of U Gopher/
      2.  General Campus Information/
      3.  Academic Organizations/
      4.  News And Calendars/
      5.  Off Campus Information/
      6.  Other U of U Gophers/
      7.  Other Gophers/
      8.  Phone Books/
      9.  Libraries Books and Databases/
      10. Information Organized By Subject/
      11. Search titles in Gopherspace using veronica/
      12. Search menu titles using jughead/



Press ? for Help, q to Quit                                         Page: 1/1

If you move the cursor to that entry and press enter, the Gopher client software will follow that jewel to another menu of jewels linked to other Gophers. To move the cursor, you can either use the arrow keys to move it up or down, or you can type in the item numer and hit return. You will note that there is a page number in the lower right hand corner of the screen. To page down, you can press the [space bar]. To go back up a page, press the - key.

Once you have selected a jewel, you will be taken to the corresponding menu or file linked that jewel. If you need to return to a previous menu, press u for "up" until you arrive at the desired menu. If you needhelp, use the ? key, and a file with abbreviated instructions will appear.

As you might notice, all of the jewels above end with a slash ("/"). this indicates that the jewel is linked to another menu or directory. Other menu items will end with a , indicating that there will be some sort of searching device (for user information, subject searches, etc.). Menu items that do not end with either of these characters are usuall text files. When you select a text file, you will be able to read it directly through the gopher interface.

While reading the file, you will be able to read text above or below the gopher screen by paging up using the [space bar] to page down and the b key to page up. You can also use the arrow keys to perform, these functions. To exit the text file, simply type u or q.

Once you have found a file that you want to download to your account, simply press s for "save" and then a dialogue box will appear will the name of the file and a choice to either save the file to your home directory ([return]) or to cancel the save (^g). You can also ask for help (^-) at this time. If the title of the file is longer than you'd like, you can edit in the dialogue box before pressing [return] to save.

When you are ready to quit gopher, make sure you are in a menu and press q.

Summary of Gopher Commands