COAST Security Archive Logo Archive Structure

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Overview

This page describes how the archive is organised. This includes how the indexing is done, where the data is stored, and how it is organised by subject.

When data is being brought into the archive, it is convenient to place it in a directory tree which is broken down on a per-site basis. This is termed the mirror tree. Each directory in this tree contains all the data that is copied from a remote site. The directory name is the site's remote address. For example, any data from the site net.tamu.edu would be stored in the directory ..../mirrors/net.tamu.edu. Depending on how the data is mirrored, this directory may itself contain subdirectories.

This layout of data is convenient for mirroring, but is difficult to navigate. A second directory tree is built which contains pointers into the mirror tree - this is the subject tree. This tree is structured by topic.

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Why choose this layout?

This format was chosen to simplify the mirror process, yet still allow the data that was mirrored to be accessed intelligently. The following scenario is very common when a site is mirrored: certain useful files are copied from the site which correspond to different tools or documents. All these files are placed in the same directory in the mirrors tree. But these tools may perform different functions, or the documents may realte to different subjects. We create links to the individual tools from the directories in the subject tree. This allows, for example, all documents related to viruses to be linked under the pub/doc/viruses directory.

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The Subject tree

The subject tree breaks the information in the archive down hierarchically.

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The Mirrors Tree

The mirrors tree holds information mirrored off remote archive sites.

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Administrative Directories

The administrative directories hold the tools used to build and maintain the archive. They are located under the /u/coast2/ftp-admin directory.

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Data Directories

The data directories contain the raw information held in the archive. They are located under /u/coast3/ftp/pub. Notice this is coast3/ and not coast2/!!

FTP System Directories

These are located under /u/coast3/ftp/. They are used by the ftp program.

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O Built by Mark Crosbie and Ivan Krsul.

Security Archive Page Security Archive Homepage.

COAST Homepage COAST Project Page.

Purdue CS Homepage Purdue CS Dept page.

Last Modified: 16 March, 1995.

security-archive@cerias.purdue.edu (COAST Security Archive)