==================
snarf version 1.0
October 10th, 1996
==================

Description
-----------
     Snarf is a utility I wrote to retrieve documents via the http,
finger, ftp, and gopher protocols.

Usage
-----
     Snarf is invoked with at least one argument, either a fully
qualified URL or an alias from your personal .snarfrc file. (See the
file "snarfrc" for a sample layout for this file.) Snarf then requests
the remote file and saves it locally. The default behavior is for
snarf to save the local file with the same name as the remote one, but
you can explicitly name the local file as the second argument if you
want. Using a dash, "-", as the local filename sends the document
retrieved to standard output.

Notes
-----
     I wrote this in three days, it's majorly kludgy, but it
works.
     People ask me, "Why even bother writing a program like this?
Netscape already does all this!! YOU STINKING DORK!" But then I kick
them and they shut up. The reason I wrote this is so I WOULDN'T have
to use Netscape, when all I really wanted to do is grab Dilbert or
Dr. Fun off the Web. I added gopher and finger support because it was
so easy. And yes, I know, ncftp already supports URLs in the retrieval
of documents, but if I didn't support FTP I'd feel like a filthy liar
in calling this "all-purpose." Also, it's about 5932081k smaller than
ncftp.
     If you find a bug, please write to me, or fix it and mail me the
patch. I know this is some gross code, and I fully intend to fix it,
even if it's just for my own benefit. If you really like this program,
write to me and say so and I will feel happy. I can be reached in the
following ways:

Email: xach@mint.net

Snail mail: Zachary Beane, 17 Talmadge Rd., Waite, ME 04492, USA

Credits
-------
     Many thanks to Greg Lewis for helping me find out what flags I
needed to add to newer SunOSs to get this program to compile.

Note on 1.0
-----------
     I finally feel clean about calling this 1.0, because it now supports
the ftp protocol, through a very nice library of routines provided from
ftplib, a great package written by Tom Pfau.

Note on 0.5a
------------
     I originally wrote this and gave this to a few friends in July of 1995.
I basically updated the copyright notice and changed a few email addresses
in October of 1996 and re-released version 0.5, hence the "new" version.

