Common Questions and Answers about veronica, a title search and retrieval system for use with the Internet Gopher.

The current version of this FAQ can be retrieved through gopher at veronica.scs.unr.edu, in the veronica directory. FAQ by Steven Foster and Fred Barrie .

Archive-name: veronica-faq Last-modified: 1993/08/23.

List of questions in the veronica FAQ:

Q1: What is veronica? Q2: How can I connect to veronica? Q3: So I get a list of titles; How can I get information about the location 

of items I am interested in?

Q4: Why do I need to use 'item descriptor' to get context and host info? Q5: How can I get my server into the veronica database? Q6: How can I keep my server out of the veronica database? Q7: How often is the database updated? Q8: Where can I get the software to run veronica? Q9: Where can I get the veronica dataset? Q10: Why can't I get a reply from a veronica server? Q11: What does "veronica" mean? Q12: Why doesn't my server show up in veronica searches? Q13: Where are the veronica server sites? Q14: How do I compose veronica search queries and use the veronica options?

Q1: What is veronica?

A1: veronica is a service that maintains an index of titles of 

gopher items, and provides keyword searches of those titles.
A veronica search originates with a user's request for a search,
submitted via a gopher client.  The result of a veronica search is 
a set of gopher-type data items, which is returned to the gopher 
client in the form of a gopher menu.  The user can access
any of the resultant data items by selecting from the returned menu.
A veronica search typically searches the menus of hundreds
of gopher servers, perhaps all the gopher servers that are announced
to the Internet.  
At present, there are no "veronica clients" per se;  veronica is 
accessed through normal gopher clients.   veronica is tightly 
integrated with the gopher protocol.
The veronica service comprises two functions:  
1). Harvesting menu data from gopher servers, and preparing it for use;
2). Offering searches of that database to gopher clients.   
These two functions are not necessarily provided by the same host
computer.  Most users and administrators of veronica search servers
will not need to be concerned with the first phase of the process.
Operators of veronica query-engines can obtain a prepared dataset 
for use with the query server ( Q9 below ).
veronica evolved as a solution to the problem of resource discovery 
in the rapidly-expanding gopher meta-burrow.  At the University of 
Nevada, there was an outcry for an easy way to find gopher-based 
information without doing a menu-by-menu, site-by-site search.

Q2: How can I connect to veronica?

A2: veronica must be accessed through a gopher client. 

Assuming you have a gopher client, use it to connect to a gopher
server which offers a link to a veronica server.  
If your local gopher server does not already have a link to veronica, 
use gopher to go to the server at gopher.micro.umn.edu ( port 70 ). 
Choose the menu item "Other Gopher and Information Servers".  
Choose veronica from that menu.  In step-by-step form it is like this:
1. gopher to gopher.micro.umn.edu  by typing:
	gopher gopher.micro.umn.edu 70 
   Note that this is a unix-client example. Other clients will 
   have a different way of specifying the server.

2.  go to the directory named 
	"8.  Other Gopher and Information Servers/"
3.  select that item
4.  go to the item named 
	"2.  Search titles in Gopherspace using veronica/"
5.  select that item.  This item is a gopher link to the veronica 
    directory at the University of Nevada.

6.  There are several searches and documents in this directory.
    Help files and announcements and will be posted here.
    This menu contains links to all the announced veronica servers.
    Choose any server by clicking on its entry;  if it give the
    message "Too many connections" or "Cannot connect", you can
    try one of the other servers.

When you choose a search item, you will be prompted to
enter a keyword or keywords to define your title search.
The simplest way to search with veronica is to enter a single
word and hit the RETURN key.  It does not matter whether the
word is upper-case or lower-case.  For details on how to
compose more complex veronica queries, see Q14 in this FAQ,
"How do I compose a veronica search query".
The veronica server will return a gopher menu composed of items
whose titles match your keyword specification.  These items are
culled from the menus of (potentially) many gopher servers. 
As with any gopher menu, you access an item of interest by 
double-clicking it or hitting the <return> key.
If you want to include veronica service on the menu of your local 
gopher server,  you can find the gopher-item-descriptor for veronica 
from this menu at Minnesota;  ask the administrator of your local 
gopher server to include a link to that item on your local menu.
If you DO NOT have a gopher client, you may access gopher and
veronica by telneting to one of the telnet-accessible anonymous
gopher clients.  This is what the Gopher-FAQ has to say about the
telnet sites for gopher:

* QUERY KEYWORD LOGIC The search understands the logical operators AND, NOT, OR, (, and ). Adjacent keywords without an intervening logical operator are treated as though conjoined by an AND. Interpretation of the query starts from the right-hand, interpreting operators as encountered. If in doubt about order of interpretation, USE PARENTHESES! Search keywords are NOT case-sensitive. * RESTRICTING THE SEARCH TO CERTAIN GOPHER TYPES You can limit the data returned by veronica to certain gopher item types. This restriction is done by adding a -t type specifier to your query. The -t flag may appear anywhere in the search specification. For instance: 

  "women -t1" returns links to gopher DIRECTORIES whose name contains "women".
  "-t1 women"  does exactly the same thing.

NOTE that there must NOT be any spaces between the -t and the type specifier.

You may specify MORE THAN ONE type in the query. DO NOT use separate -t specifications to do this; simply put all the types together (with no spaces) after the -t. For example: 

  "-ts1  mac"  returns links to gopher DIRECTORIES or SOUNDS with the word

"mac" in the name. 

  "women -t18"  returns links to gopher DIRECTORIES or TELNET links, whose

name contains the word "women".

Official gopher types, from the Gopher Protocol Document, are:

0 item is a file 1 item is a directory 2. item is a CSO (qi) phonebook server 3 ERROR 4 item is a BinHexed Mac file (discouraged) 5 item is a DOS binary archive of some kind (discouraged) 6 item is a Unix uuencoded file (discouraged) 7 item is an Index-Search server 8 item is a pointer to a telnet session 9 item is a binary file of some sort + redundant server ( same a previous server )

* USING THE OPTIONS Just include the options in the search query. They will work with any gopher client. You can put options before the query words, after the query words, or even between query words. DO NOT cluster more than one option behind a single hyphen; instead, use a separate hyphen for each separate option. For example: gopher -t1s -l -m400 This example requests 400 items containing the word "gopher", and specifies that we want only items whose type is "directory" or "sound", and that we want a link-file containing the results. * EXAMPLES:

Simple examples:

Search on the keyword "internet". This will return a menu list of 

   (at most) 200 records that have the word internet in the title field.

Just type- internet

Search on the keyword "internet", but specify 1000 items instead of 

   the default 200.

type- internet -m1000 

       or

-m1000 internet

Search on the keywords "chicken" and "wine". This returns a menu 

   list of (at most) 200 records that have _BOTH_ "chicken" and "wine".

Type- chicken and wine

Search for the keywords "chicken" or "wine", specifying directories only. 

   This returns a menu list of records that have _EITHER_ chicken or wine,
   and which are GOPHER DIRECTORY entries.  Type-

chicken or wine -t1 

   or

-t1 chicken or wine

Examples for the operator "NOT":

To use the operator "NOT" in a query:

chicken not wine (will search for all titles with the 

                                word chicken _BUT NOT_ the word
                                wine)

chinese food not msg (will search for our health nuts 

                                    all the titles with the words
                                    chinese _AND_ food _BUT NOT_
                                    msg.  Remember there is an
                                    implied _AND_ between two words)

Examples for infix queries:

The parentheses allow more complicated searches that were 

   not available in previous versions of the perl veronica server.

examples:

chicken (wine or curry) -m (will list ALL titles with the 

                                        	words chicken _AND_ either
                                        	wine _OR_ curry.  -m asks

for ALL records.)

(chicken or wine) not (msg or growing) 

                                   (will search for titles with the
                                    words chicken _OR_ wine _BUT NOT_
                                    msg _OR_ growing)

Examples for word stemming

The metacharacter "*" matches anything at the TRAILING END of a 

   search word.

chicken* (will search for all titles with the 

                                word chicken, chickens, ...)

chicken* or wine* (will search for all titles with the 

                                word chicken, chickens, ... _OR_ 
                                wine, wines, wineries, ...)

(chicke* or wine*) not (msg* or growing* and good*) 

                               (this query results are left to the
                                curious)