On Tue, 14 Nov 2000, Paul (NCC/CS) wrote:
> 1. a tar balled distfile directory tree that I can down load
> using ftp.

Not available - that'd mean keeping twice the space, which is not really
an option - we're talking of 3GB here... 

What you can do is change to the /pub/NetBSD/packages directory on
ftp.netbsd.org and get "distfiles.tar.gz". The file is not there, but the
FTP server supports tar-on-the-fly. I can only hope it doesn't make
temporary files, though... :-)


> 2. cdrom iso images of the distfiles tree so I can burn a cd
> with them on.

same problem as above... doing weekly sets of ISOs may be a nice thing,
though. 


> 3. cdrom's of the distfiles tree that you can purchase.

Please ask your Wasabi sales rep (see www.wasabisystems.com), maybe
they'll offer that. 


> How can a home user with a tiny pipe internet connection
> ever hope to get the distfile collection?

Patience. Lots of it. 
I'm basically in the same situation, only with a 56k modem. Not much
difference...


> Is there an ftp client program in existence that will ftp
> subdirectories that I can be pointed to?

wget does, see it's "-r" option. 


 - Hubert

-- 
Hubert Feyrer <hubert@feyrer.de>