Contrary to normal practice on many ftp sites, only a few of the files here
are stored in compressed format (usually signified by filenames ending in
'.Z', '.zip', or '.gz').

This is because we are running an advanced ftp server that allows *you* to
specify whether and how you want to have a file compressed before it is
transferred to you.

Using compression will make transfers go significantly faster, especially
for the huge PostScript or ASCII files.

In the pqf directory, for instance, you can say:

	  get pqf	// The uncompressed ASCII version
or:	  get pqf.Z	// Unix compress
or:	  get pqf.gz	// GNU gzip
or:	  get pqf.zip	// zip

Only the file 'pqf' actually exists. But simply by specifying the extension
in your command, the file will arrive on your computer compressed.

Similarly, if you want to transfer an entire directory, you do not have to
transfer each file by hand, you can simply say, e.g.:

	  get pqf.tar		// Unix tar format
or even:  get pqf.tar.gz	// Tarred & compressed

Only the directory 'pqf' actually exists, but these commands will get you
the entire directory in the Unix tar format.


*** IMPORTANT NOTE ***

GIF and JPEG files *are* already compressed (this is inherent to the GIF
format). Don't try to compress them any further by using the .Z or .gz
trick - if you do you will not gain any extra compression, you will only
have to wait longer, and you will tax my computer needlessly.


*** SLIGHTLY LESS IMPORTANT NOTE ***

In order to prevent bozo's from tarring the entire archive, I have
configured the server to disallow the tar option for certain large
directories.


*** NOTE FOR WINDOWS USERS ***

The popular Winzip program (v6.0 for Win95) is apparently not able to
correctly unzip the zip-files generated by this server. This is a problem
with Winzip, not with my encoding. The solution is to get a better
freeware/shareware Windows Zip alternative, such as e.g. Zip Explorer Pro.


*** ANOTHER IMPORTANT NOTE ***

If you are reading this file on the Pratchett Archives USA mirror site,
please be aware that that server does not support this fancy compression
stuff. Auto-compression does work for the UK and Oz mirror sites, but only
the mother site supports the use of the .zip extension.