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- Getting subscriber lists for BITNET lists
- -----------------------------------------
-
-
- Date: Thu, 25 Jun 1992 09:45:33 CDT
- Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.BITNET>
- Sender: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.BITNET>
- From: Ernest Perez <EPEREZ@UTDALLAS.BITNET>
- Subject: personal list 'address book'
-
- ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
-
- I've got a slight PC-based variation of Roy Tennant's informative April
- message about an easy way to search current list subscriber files. In effect,
- you can use such a file as a simple "address book" for email addresses of all
- list subscribers, and keep it on your PC.
-
- In his message, he described the very simple command procedure needed to
- obtain a copy of the complete PACS-L subscriber list, or one for any other
- list you're interested in getting...
-
- >I send a message to the LISTSERVs that host key library lists
- >(e.g., PACS-L) asking it to send me a list of subscribers. The LISTSERV
- >command is REV (for review) and the list name. For example, to get
- >the list of PACS-L subscribers, you would send the message REV PACS-L
- >to LISTSERV@UHUPVM1.BITNET
- >
- >Then, when the file arrives in your e-mail you save it as a file in your
- >computer account. This file can then be searched for the occurrence of
- >a string with the "grep" command.
- [Here Roy goes into the details of using UNIX commands for searching the file
- stored on your host machine.]
-
- For handiness, and the ability to use the list offline, I decided to download
- to my IBM-persuasion PC, using the following general approach.
-
- 1) Use Kermit to download file from UTDALLAS IBM host to my PC
- 2) ZIP the text file down to a zipped (compressed) file, with PKZIP 1.1.
- 3) Use Buerg's LIST file browser to inspect and search the file.
-
- E.g., Using LIST, to find 'Tennant' in the subscriber list, you press 'f'
- for FIND, and then enter 'tennant' in the prompt area. (it's case insensitive
- search) In case you find a false drop, press 'a' for AGAIN. Complicated
- syntax, what?
-
- LIST version 7.5g, which I currently use, has the ability to display and
- browse zipped files, and will do FAST string search of even a 241K file. I
- tried it as I wrote this, it took 5-6 seconds to unzip the file (in memory),
- and 3 seconds to search the entire file for a nonexistent string ('xxyyzz').
-
- LIST assumes you have PKUNZIP.COM and FV.COM in your path, to do the automatic
- in-memory unzipping. Both this programs are contained in the basic PKZIP
- self-extracting file that you get for using the ZIP utilities.
-
- Convenient, resident in my box, offline from the host, and comfortably small.
- The update for the PACS-L subscriber list which I downloaded today was 241K,
- and it zipped down to 83K, using the PKZIP default command mode.
-
- Great for when you're writing messages offline, and taking notes on who/where
- to send them. A nice side benefit is that the PACS-L subscriber list, at
- least, sorts the addresses alphabetically, by the host computer string (the
- address string after the '@' in the address). So all the addresses for a given
- host/organization are listed together.
-
- Both PKZIP and LIST utilities are shareware and available EVERYWHERE.
-
- Cheers,
- Ernest
-
-
- ............................
- Ernest Perez, Ph.D
- Access Information Associates
- 2183 Buckingham, Suite 106
- Richardson TX 75081
- 214-530-4800
- INTERNET: eperez@utdallas.edu
- BITNET: eperez@utdallas
- ............................
-
-