Here is a little background, for anyone following the conversation, wondering what this is about. Years ago, the gutindex files used to be the _only_ way to locate a text at project gutenberg. If you care to search you can still find old "newbie instructions" written by Michael Hart, describing how to search the gutindex files, find a "base file name", enter command line ftp instructions to retrieve the file, etc. This purpose has been for the most part superceded with the use of online catalogs. (An old one on the promo.net site, and then the current incarnation in use.) However, the gutindex files have been maintained until relativly recently, and could still be useful in some situations. They are basically, plain text files, with each PG text identified on its own line. Over time, more various conventions and additional comments, cross-referencing, and so forth were getting added and making it very bulky. Having a catalog-type record for the definitive information source for each text began to make much more sence. (And thankfully made the distinction between the old "base-file-name" system, and the current numbered system invisible to the average user.) On our current website, Marcello has identified them as "offline catalogs" and they are linked to from: http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:Offline_Catalogs Andrew On Sat, 27 Jun 2009, Al Haines (shaw) wrote:
Has anyone discussed the maintenance of the gutindex files with Greg Newby? If not, it would be advisable.
Al