WWC snapshot of http://www.dfrf.nasa.gov/X500/qbm.html taken on Sun Jun 4 1:48:31 1995

Query-By-Mail Service

The Query-By-Mail (QBM) service allows users to access the information in Dryden's X.500 Directory (and other NASA X.500 Directories). QBM consists of an e-mail message to a service, rather than to an individual. If the query(s) contained in the e-mail are successful, the user is sent an e-mail reply with the resulting information. For SMTP users, the service is reached by sending mail to: 

    query@dfrf.nasa.gov           (query@dfrf OK locally)
or 
    query@x500.dfrf.nasa.gov      (query@x500 OK locally)
The body of the e-mail message must contain one or more lines in the following format: 
      [first] last [,site]
where first is the person's first name (optional), last is the person's surname (mandatory), and ,site is the abbreviation of the site to which the query will be directed (optional). If ,site is omitted, the query will be performed on the Dryden X.500 Directory. Possible values for site include dfrf, gsfc, msfc, arc, hq, larc, lerc, jsc, ksc, etc. The site values are the standard initials for site names, as used in the NASA Telephone Directory.

If the search results in multiple matches, then the matching names found will be returned. For further information on one of the names, you will need to send another query with the full name.

Notes:

  1. The subject field is ignored by QBM.
  2. Terminate the query lines with a blank line. This will prevent QBM from trying to query with your signature block, for example.
  3. Queries are case-insensitive.
  4. If used, the first name can be separated from the surname by a space, a period, or an underscore.
  5. QuickMail users will need to use the Special Address feature to reach the QBM server.
  6. QuickMail will often (always?) insert text ahead of the user's text in the body of the message. This text will be treated as query lines and will result in error messages from the X.500 DSA.
Last Modified: June 7, 1994
 Ray Dees - dees@vista.dfrf.nasa.gov