CENA/NT.00-745/T. Kircher Version 2
The ATNP Archive and Electronic Mailing Lists
The purpose of this
document is to describe the organisation of the ATNP Archive and ATNP related
mailing lists resulting from the changes to the ATNP Working Groups adopted
after the Berlin meeting in August 2000. This document also includes basic
information on how to access the services maintained by the French DGAC.
This document summarizes the information provided in
the web pages accessible via the URL:
http://www.tls.cena.fr/divisions/TAM/atnp_archive/
The services provided
by the ATNP archive and the ATNP mailing lists are open to all the parties
interested in the ICAO work on the ATN. These services are free. They are
rather basic, as they are intended to constitute a worktool for the ATNP
working groups, and not a showcase of the ATN. The only reason why a username
and password were introduced is to limit the traffic that could otherwise
be generated by the general public on the web.
It must be noted that the French DGAC makes no endorsement
of opinions expressed by users of the archive, or of the mail forwarding
service.
As there is no "ATNP Archive staff", so
to speak, co-operation of the users in using the published procedures is
essential in helping to maintain a good level of service.
The services described in this document should be available
all the time. Interruptions should only occur in case of technical problems.
Although the telecommunication infrastructure is regularly improved, it seems
unavoidable that users who can access the archive outside of CENA's business
hours (in the continental European time zone) should enjoy shorter transfer
times.
The ATNP Archive is a collection
of soft copies of documents produced by the working groups of the ATNP. Users
can submit files for storage onto the archive, and can retrieve files form
the archive. Most of the files are compressed using "zip" to minimise
transfer times. A compact storage format like PDF would not need to be compressed.
Native formats of files before compression are usually MS Word, Wordperfect,
or plain text. Files are stored as provided by the contributors. Format conversion
is not available from the archive.
Available files are advertised at the time of their addition
to the archive on the appropriate ATNP mailing lists (cf. 3.5
The archive manager is the only one who can update the content of the archive. Users should submit additions to the archive as indicated in 3.5 .
The archive constitutes an FTP server for the downloading of files. This service works as described in 3.4 .
The ATNP Archive is based on a Unix machine, which is on the CENA network. Users should be able to use a web navigator in addition to e-mail to have full access to all the services provided on the archive. There is an alternative for those with e-mail and FTP, which is summarily described in 3.6 .
The URL to the root of the directory tree in which archived files are stored is:
All the users of the service must login as user
atnp
with the password
upplval
Web pages will be progressively added, with an access
from
http://www.tls.cena.fr/atnp/index.html
This will be the place to look for up-to-date procedures
on how to use the available services. It is expected however, that most of
the users will directly retrieve files advertised on the mailing lists, so
these pages will not be developed to become a fancy web site.
The main branches of the archive
directory tree are:
· atn-add (addressing scheme),
· wga (one sub-directory per meeting)
· wgb (one sub-directory per meeting)
· wgab (documents of interest to both WG A and B)
· ccb,
· meetings (practical information on the upcoming meetings).
When an addition to the archive
is advertised, the message will contain an URL to each file which becomes
available from the archive. This file can then be retrieved simply by opening
the URL. Usually, this only requires clicking on the URL from the mailtool,
but it can also be done from a web navigator window.
The username "atnp", and the password "upplval"
are required before downloading can take place. This authentication of the
user needs to be performed only once per session (i.e. per connection with
the ftp server).
Files can be sent to the archive
manager as attachments to an e-mail. It is strongly advised to zip all the
files transmitted this way. Please do not send several files at once, unless
it is certain that they are transmitted in separate attachments. Please note
that if several uuencoded files are sent, and they are all placed in the
body of the message instead of being isolated in separate attachments, only
the first of them will be retrieved.
The E-mails to which files are appended should be
sent to the archive manager at address:
No action will be taken, and no warning will be sent
in return, if the file is not accompanied by a short indication of:
· the title of the document(s),
· its (their) content(s),
· the directory(ies) in which the document(s) are to be archived,
· the mailing list(s) on which the archiving is to be advertised.
The archive manager will then transfer the document(s)
to the correct directory(ies) and send an e-mail to the list aforementioned.
If a file with the same name already exists in the chosen
storage directory, the archive will be updated only if its author explicitly
requires the replacement of the file.
Great care should be taken to respect naming conventions
adopted by the rapporteur of each WG.
In case of error using the web interface, please read carefully the error message. Shutdowns of the archive are exceptional, and usually linked to unforeseen technical problems. Most of the times, it is helpful to report problems to
The most frequent problem is related to failure to authenticate
on the part of the user. The authentication window, which asks for the "upplval"
password for the "atnp" user should pop up onto the navigator screen
when you try to access a first URL from the archive in a session. If it's
not the case, it is probably a good idea to ask for local support about your
navigator on your site first.
If the problem is locating a file for which you did not
get the advertisement, you should try exploring the archive, starting at
Finally, if you have no web access, FTP is an alternative
tool that can be used to retrieve files available from the archive. A typical
sequence of line commands to retrieve a file advertised with an URL of the
form
is as follows:
ftp ftp.tls.cena.fr
username:
atnp
password: upplval
ftp> bin
ftp> cd <path>
ftp> get <filename>
ftp> bye
Please note that it is very important that the transfer
is performed in binary mode.
In support of the ATNP activities,
electronic mail distribution lists have been set up on a CENA server. These
lists have been established to support technical discussions, and ATN SARPs
development and maintenance activities. Email sent to a list address is duplicated
and sent to all the subscribers of the list.
The default value of the "Reply-to" field of
the messages received via a mailing list is the mailing list, not the original
author of the message. This means that, when a subscriber to a mailing list
uses the "Reply" button (or equivalent) of their mailer to respond
to a message received via the list, the response is sent to the whole list.
The list owner is the person who will run day-to-day
operations of a mailing list by responding to system mail messages. That
is, for instance, approving subscriptions (if the list is "closed"),
receiving notifications of successful subscriptions or un-subscriptions,
and "bounced" messages indications (messages sent to the list that
could not be delivered). The list owner only needs to be invoked by exception.
If necessary, the owner of a list named <list> may be contacted via
electronic mail at a symbolic address of the form:
<list>-owner@tls.cena.fr
The maximum length of messages that can be distributed
on any of these mailing lists is set at 40 koctets. It is strongly advised
not to attempt sending large attached files (e.g. an uuencoded text processor
file) to any ATNP mailing list. The ATNP archive described in 3
Messages exchanged on these mailing lists are not archived by CENA. If archiving is deemed necessary, it is the responsibility of the owners of each list to manage a backup on their own site.
Type of the list: open
Purpose: This list is open to any ATN-interested party,
and is used for ATNP level communications (e.g. schedule of the next working
group meetings).
Type of the list: closed
List owner:
The CCB Chairman (Steve Van Trees)
Purpose: This list only includes the ATNP CCB members and is used for CCB-level communication, CCB voting, and the initial submission of a PDR.
Type of the list: open
List owner:
The CCB Chairman (Steve Van Trees)
Purpose: This list is open to any ATN-interested party and is used to disseminate CCB decisions
Type of the list: closed
List owner:
The Subvolume 1 SME (Benoit Gosselin)
Purpose: This list only includes members of the SME 1 team and is used to progress the resolution of PDRs assigned to the SME 1.
Type of the list: closed The Subvolume 2 SME (Frédéric Picard)
Purpose: This list only includes members of the SME 2 team and is used to progress the resolution of PDRs assigned to the SME 2.
Type of the list: closed
List owner:
The Subvolume 3 SME (Jean-Marc Vacher)
Purpose: This list only includes members of the SME 3 team and is used to progress the resolution of PDRs assigned to the SME 3, and related to ATSMHS SARPs.
Type of the list: closed
List owner:
The Subvolume 3 SME (Jean-Marc Vacher)
Purpose: This list only includes members of the SME 3 team and is used to progress the resolution of PDRs assigned to the SME 3, and related to AIDC SARPs.
Type of the list: closed
List owner:
The Subvolume 4 SME (Tony Kerr)
Purpose: This list only includes members of the SME 4 team and is used to progress the resolution of PDRs assigned to the SME 4.
Type of the list: closed
List owner:
The Subvolume 5 SME
Purpose: This list only includes members of the SME 5 team and is used to progress the resolution of PDRs assigned to the SME 5.
Type of the list: open
List owner: The Chairperson of WG A
Purpose: This list is used for communications at Working
Group A level.
Type of the list: open
List owner: The Chairperson of Sub-Group A1 of WG A
Purpose: This list is used for communications at Sub-Group
A1 level.
Type of the list: open
List owner: The Chairperson of Sub-Group A2 of WG A
Purpose: This list is used for communications at Sub-Group
A2 level.
Type of the list: open
List owner: The Chairperson of Sub-Group A3 of WG A
Purpose: This list is used for communications at Sub-Group
A3 level.
Type of the list: open
List owner: The Chairperson of WG B
Purpose: This list is used for communications at Working
Group B level.
Type of the list: open
List owner: The Chairperson of Sub-Group B1 of WG B
Purpose: This list is used for communications at Sub-Group
B1 level.
Type of the list: open
List owner: The Chairperson of Sub-Group B2 of WG B
Purpose: This list is used for communications at Sub-Group
B2 level.
Type of the list: open
List owner: The Chairperson of Sub-Group B3 of WG B
Purpose: This list is used for communications at Sub-Group
B3 level.
Subscriptions are handled by a software package called "majordomo". All the common actions are most conveniently carried out through a web interface at URL:
http://www.tls.cena.fr/cgi-bin/majordomo
This interface is supposedly self-explanatory. It is
meant for all the subscribers, as well as list owners. A password is required
to execute some commands, which are reserved to list owners.
The ATNP mailing lists are either "open" or
"closed" un-moderated public lists. A subscriber to an "open"
list is approved systematically. All subscriptions to "closed"
lists are sent to the list owner for prior approval.
Users of the mailing lists are kindly asked to update
their e-mail addresses when they change. Unfortunately, there is no way to
substitute a new address to an old address with a single command! The solution
is to execute first the procedure to unsubscribe (with the old address),
and then, when the un-subscription from the list is notified by majordomo,
to subscribe again to the same list with the new address.
All the subscribers to a list
will receive the messages sent onto that list, including the messages they
send themselves.
The single most frequent cause of error is to send a
message that is too long. No message longer than 40 koctets will be processed
by the mail forwarding service.
A message can be processed by the CENA mailing system
only if it has reached CENA. Nothing can be done for messages which have
not reached CENA, except for the author to try and send them again. If you
can get a receipt acknowledgment, please make sure your messages have actually
been delivered to the CENA address.
For those without a web navigator, it is possible to
access majordomo service via e-mail. The alternative procedure is described
below.
To subscribe to one of these lists if you do not have access to the web interface, you should send an e-mail message to majordomo@tls.cena.fr :
· the subject line of the E-mail is not taken into account,
and should thus be left blank,
· the content of the E-mail should be as follows: In this command, <name of the list> is
any of the following names:
atnp_general
atnp_ccb_sme1
atnp_ccb_sme32
atnp_wga
atnp_sga1
atnp_sgb1
subscribe <name of the list> [<internet-address>]
end
atnp_ccb_chair atnp_ccb_list
atnp_ccb_sme2 atnp_ccb_sme31
atnp_ccb_sme4 atnp_ccb_sme5
atnp_wgb
atnp_sga2 atnp_sga3
atnp_sgb2 atnp_sgb3
[<internet-address
> ] is optional. It
is the Internet e-mail address of the subscriber. This field is required
when the subscriber's Internet address is not the one from which the E-mail
subscription request to majordomo is sent.
The "end" line tells majordomo to stop processing
commands. It is useful if your mailer adds a signature to your message, for
instance.
An e-mail will be sent in return as soon as the subscription
has been accepted or rejected. In the first case, the notification contains
an explanatory text for the use of the mailing list. It describes more majordomo
commands, which are mentioned here.
The procedure to unsubscribe via e-mail, is very similar to the alternative procedure for subscription. Send an e-mail to majordomo@tls.cena.fr:
· the subject line of the E-mail is not taken into account,
and should thus be left blank,
· the content of the E-mail should be:
unsubscribe <name of the list> [<internet-address>]
end
| CCB | Configuration Control Board |
| FTP | File Transfer Protocol |
| Portable Document Format | |
SARPs | Standards and Recommended Practices |
URL | Universal Resource Locator |
| WG | Working Group |