For a C compiler: There's a version of gcc that is bundled with the NetBSD
distribution.  I believe that you are allowed to include/exclude it when
you select the install sets.  If you elected not to include the
programming tools when you installed the system, then that was probably an
error.  (There are several ways to get around it, I suppose.  If you have
plenty of disk space, the simplest suggestion to describe is to re-install
NetBSD, and this time ask to have everything installed.)


As for packages, the easiest way to deal with them (IMHO) is via
pkgsrc.  You can download the pkgsrc.tar.gz file from a NetBSD site and
extract it so that it expands as /usr/pkgsrc/...  Then, browse around the
tree of directories; to install a package, you can issue ``make update''
or ``make install'' while in the package-specific directory.  (You can
``update'' a package even if you do not have it installed yet.)

Either ``make install'' or ``make update'' will download the sources,
extract them, patch them, configure them, compile, and install the
resulting binaries.  Both should also install anything that the two depend
upon.

As part of pkgsrc, you should have a file /usr/pkgsrc/Packages.txt; you
can read that for more information on the NetBSD package system.


As far as corrupt files go...  It sounds a little odd if you keep running
into lots of corrupt archives.


  "I probably don't know what I'm talking about." --rauch@eecs.ukans.edu