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+# ndncatchunks and ndnputchunks
+
+**ndncatchunks** and **ndnputchunks** are a pair of programs to transfer a file as Data segments.
+
+* **ndnputchunks** is a producer program that reads a file from the standard input, and makes
+  it available as NDN Data segments.  It appends version and segment number components
+  to the specified name, according to the
+  [NDN naming conventions](http://named-data.net/publications/techreports/ndn-tr-22-ndn-memo-naming-conventions/).
+
+* **ndncatchunks** is a consumer program that fetches Data segments of a file, optionally
+  discovering the latest version of the file, and writes the content of the retrieved file to
+  the standard output.
+
+## Version discovery methods
+
+* `fixed`    : ndncatchunks will send an interest attempting to find a data packet with the
+               specified prefix and version number. A version component must be present at the
+               end of the user-specified NDN name.
+
+* `iterative`: ndncatchunks will send a series of interests with ChildSelector set to prefer the
+               rightmost child and Exclude selectors, attempting to find a data packet with the
+               specified prefix and the latest (the largest in the NDN canonical ordering)
+               version number.  The version is declared "latest" after a predefined number of
+               data retrieval timeouts (default: 1).
+
+The default discovery method is `fixed`. Other methods will be implemented in future versions
+of the tool.
+
+
+## Usage examples
+
+### Publishing
+
+The following command will publish the text of the GPL-3 license under the `/localhost/demo/gpl3`
+prefix:
+
+    ndnputchunks ndn:/localhost/demo/gpl3 < /usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-3
+
+To find the published version you have to start ndnputchunks with the `-p` command line option,
+for example:
+
+    ndnputchunks -p ndn:/localhost/demo/gpl3 < /usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-3
+
+This command will print the published version to the standard output.
+
+To publish data with a specific version, you must append a version component to the end of the
+prefix. The version component must follow the aforementioned NDN naming conventions.
+For example, the following command will publish the version `%FD%00%00%01Qc%CF%17v` of the
+`/localhost/demo/gpl3` prefix:
+
+    ndnputchunks ndn:/localhost/demo/gpl3/%FD%00%00%01Qc%CF%17v < /usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-3
+
+If the version component is not valid, a new well-formed version will be generated and appended
+to the supplied NDN name.
+
+
+### Retrieval
+
+To retrieve the latest version of a published file, the following command can be used:
+
+    ndncatchunks -d iterative ndn:/localhost/demo/gpl3
+
+This command will use the iterative method to discover the latest version of the file.
+
+To fetch a specific version of a published file, you can use the `fixed` version discovery method
+(the default). In this case the version needs to be supplied as part of the name.  For example,
+if the version is known to be `%FD%00%00%01Qc%CF%17v`, the following command will fetch that
+exact version of the file:
+
+    ndncatchunks ndn:/localhost/demo/gpl3/%FD%00%00%01Qc%CF%17v
+
+
+For more information, run the programs with `--help` as argument.