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>>> INFO Information about the &LISTNAME list There is no information file for the &LISTNAME list. Here is a copy of the list "header", which usually contains a short description of the purpose of the list, although its main purpose is to define various list configuration options, also called "keywords". If you have any question about the &LISTNAME list, write to the list owners at the generic address: .ce &OWNER .dd &LISTHDR >>> MOVE1 Change in your host server for the &LISTNAME list .re owners &WEEKDAY, &DATE &TIME Your host server for the &LISTNAME list (&TITLE) has just been changed from &LISTADDR to &NEWADDR by &MBX(&INVOKER). You must now send mail to &NEWADDR and direct administrative requests to the corresponding server. >>> SIGNOFF1 &LISTNAME: &WHOM left the list &WEEKDAY, &DATE &TIME &MBX(&WHOM) has just signed off the &LISTNAME list (&TITLE). >>> SIGNOFF2 Your request to sign off the &LISTNAME list .re owners &WEEKDAY, &DATE &TIME No entry for your &WHOM address could be found in the &LISTNAME list at &MYHOST. Here are a number of possible reasons why you might still be getting mail from the list: 1. You could be subscribed under a different, but equivalent address. For instance, if your e-mail address as it appears in the 'From:' line of messages coming from you has the misfortune of depending on the distance between your workstation and the terminal room door, you were probably subscribed from a different address and, while your mail system knows that the two addresses are equivalent, LISTSERV has no way to know that. In this case the only thing you can do, beyond contacting the list owner, is to send a "REVIEW &LISTNAME" command to find out under what address you are subscribed, and try to duplicate it with the help of your user support people. 2. If you are a BITNET user, you might be subscribed under your Internet address and sending this command via BITNET, or vice versa. Most BITNET sites have registered their Internet addresses in the BITNET nodes database, BITEARN NODES (the "tag" containing this information is called ':internet' - if you do not understand any of this, just bring a copy of this message to your user support people). Unfortunately, some sites have still not done that, and in such cases LISTSERV has no way to determine that, for instance, BITNET node XYZCOL1 is the same as Internet host VM3.XYZ.EDU. If you suspect this might be your problem, try resending your request via both interactive message (SEND under VMS, TELL under VM) and e-mail. 3. You might be subscribed under an equivalent yet different address - for instance, one with explicit gatewaying, or an X.400 address with different ordering of the various components, etc. You could send a "REVIEW &LISTNAME" command and inspect the list membership to find out whether this is the case, and ask the list owners to remove that address from the list. 4. You could be subscribed to the list under another account, from which mail is being automatically forwarded to your &WHOM account. In that case you should be able to leave the list by resending the signoff request from the account in question. 5. You could be subscribed to the list indirectly, via a "redistribution" list. That is, one of the subscribers to the LISTSERV list is in fact a mailing list, to which you are yourself subscribed (note that this "sub-list" is not necessarily managed by LISTSERV and, in fact, such lists are often manually maintained, in which case the only way to leave the list is to contact the person who maintains it). Since you are not directly subscribed to &LISTNAME, the only way for you to stop getting the postings is to contact the administrators of this sub-list and ask them to sign you off. You should be able to contact the list owners by simply replying to this message (if you do not know how to reply to a message in your mailbox, you can send a new message to '&OWNER' instead). >>> DELETE1 Your removal from the &LISTNAME list .re owners &WEEKDAY, &DATE &TIME You have been removed from the &LISTNAME list (&TITLE) by &MBX(&WHOM). >>> AUTODEL1 Your removal from the &LISTNAME list .re owners &WEEKDAY, &DATE &TIME You have been automatically removed from the &LISTNAME list (&TITLE) as a result of repeated delivery error reports from your mail system. This decision was based on the automatic error monitoring policy in effect for the list, and has not been reviewed or otherwise confirmed by a human being. If you receive this message, it means that something is wrong: while you are obviously able to receive mail, your mail system has been regularly reporting that your account did not exist, or that you were otherwise permanently unable to receive mail. Here is some information which may assist you or your local help desk in determining the cause of the problem: - The failing address is &ADDR. - The first error was reported on &DATE1. - Since then, a total of &ERR delivery errors have been received. - The last reported error was: &MSG PLEASE DO NOT IGNORE THIS MESSAGE. While you can of course re-subscribe to the list, it is important for you to report this problem to your mail administrator so that it can be solved. This problem is not specific to the &LISTNAME list, and also affects your private mail. This means that YOU HAVE PROBABLY LOST SOME PRIVATE MAIL AS WELL. Anyone trying to write to you during the same time frame will probably have received the same errors for the same reason. The &LISTNAME list is but one of the many people who may have tried to write to you while your mail system was malfunctioning. DO NOT LET TECHNICAL PEOPLE CONVINCE YOU THAT THIS IS NORMAL. It is never normal for a mail system to claim that a valid, working account does not exist, just as it would not be normal for the post office to return some of your mail with "addressee unknown" when the address was written correctly. It is true that some mail systems are less reliable than others, and your technical people may be doing the best they can with the tools they have. But, ultimately, the level of service that you are receiving is the result of a business decision, and not something due to a universal technical limitation that one can only accept. Reliable mail systems do exist, and it is ultimately up to you to decide whether this level of service is acceptable or not. >>> ADD1 You have been added to the &LISTNAME list .re owners &WEEKDAY, &DATE &TIME You have been added to the &LISTNAME mailing list (&TITLE) by &MBX(&INVOKER). .im $SIGNUP >>> ADD2 &LISTNAME: &WHOM joined the list &WEEKDAY, &DATE &TIME &MBX(&WHOM) has just subscribed to the &LISTNAME list (&TITLE). >>> ADDREQ1 &LISTNAME: &WHOM requested to join &WEEKDAY, &DATE &TIME A request for subscription to the &LISTNAME list (&TITLE) has been received from &MBX(&WHOM). .bb &WITH ^= '' The following subscription options have been requested: &WITH. .eb You can, at your discretion, send the following command to &MYNAMES to add this person to the list: .ce ADD &LISTNAME &WHOM &USERNAME PS: In order to facilitate the task, this message has been specially formatted so that you only need to forward it back to &MYNAMES and fill in the password to have the command executed. Note that while the formats produced by the forwarding function of most mail packages are supported, replying will seldom work, so make sure to forward and not reply. .fo off ------------------------------------------------------------------------- // JOB PW=XXXXXXXX ADD &LISTNAME &WHOM &USERNAME // EOJ >>> SETINFO Change in your subscription options for the &LISTNAME list .re owners &WEEKDAY, &DATE &TIME &MBX(&INVOKER) has just altered your subscription options for the &LISTNAME list as per the "&CMD" command. For more information about subscription options, send a "QUERY &LISTNAME" command to &MYNAMES. >>> ADDMOD2 Change in your name registration for the &LISTNAME list .re owners &WEEKDAY, &DATE &TIME &MBX(&INVOKER) has just changed your name as it appears in the &LISTNAME list from "&OLDNAME" to "&NEWNAME". If this is not correct, just issue a "SUBSCRIBE &LISTNAME" command with the correct name - as though you were not on the list and wanted to subscribe to it. >>> ADDPW1 Your new password for &MYSELF .re postmasters &WEEKDAY, &DATE &TIME &MBX(&INVOKER) has assigned a password of "&PW" to you for use with &MYNAMES. You will need this password for the Automatic File Distribution commands. Send an "INFO AFD" command to &MYNAMES for more details on these commands. >>> ADDPW2 Addition of a LISTSERV password for &WHOM &WEEKDAY, &DATE &TIME &MBX(&WHOM) has just been assigned a LISTSERV password for &MYSELF. >>> ADDPW3 Request for addition of a LISTSERV password &WEEKDAY, &DATE &TIME &MBX(&WHOM) has requested the assignment of a LISTSERV password of "&PW" to be used with &MYSELF. You can, at your discretion, issue the following command to confirm this request: .ce PWC ADD &WHOM &PW PW=createpw PS: In order to facilitate the task, this message has been specially formatted so that you only need to forward it back to &MYNAMES and fill in the password to have the command executed. Note that while the formats produced by the forwarding function of most mail packages are supported, replying will seldom work, so make sure to forward and not reply. .fo off ------------------------------------------------------------------------- // JOB PW=XXXXXXXX PWC ADD &WHOM &PW // EOJ >>> DELPW Removal of your password for &MYSELF .re postmasters &WEEKDAY, &DATE &TIME &MBX(&INVOKER) has just removed your LISTSERV password for &MYSELF. >>> RENEW1 Renewal of your subscription to the &LISTNAME list &WEEKDAY, &DATE &TIME Your subscription to the &LISTNAME list is due for renewal. If you wish to remain subscribed to &LISTNAME, please issue the following command to &MYNAMES at your earliest convenience: .ce CONFIRM &LISTNAME You will be automatically removed from the list if you do not send a CONFIRM command within the next &DELAY days. PS: In order to facilitate the task, this message has been specially formatted so that you only need to forward it back to &MYNAMES to have the command executed. Note that while the formats produced by the forwarding function of most mail packages are supported, replying will seldom work, so make sure to forward and not reply. .fo off ------------------------------------------------------------------------- // JOB CONFIRM &LISTNAME // EOJ >>> RENEW2 Expiration of your subscription to the &LISTNAME list .re owners &WEEKDAY, &DATE &TIME Your subscription to the &LISTNAME list has expired and you have failed to confirm it in the &DELAY day delay that you had been granted. You have therefore been automatically removed from the list. You can re-subscribe to the list, if you want to, by sending the following command to &MYNAMES: .ce SUBscribe &LISTNAME >>> SIGNUP1 You are now subscribed to the &LISTNAME list .re owners &WEEKDAY, &DATE &TIME Your subscription to the &LISTNAME list (&TITLE) has been accepted. .im $SIGNUP >>> $SIGNUP Standard message to new subscribers Please save this message for future reference, especially if this is the first time you subscribe to an electronic mailing list. If you ever need to leave the list, you will find the necessary instructions below. Perhaps more importantly, saving a copy of this message (and of all future subscription notices from other mailing lists) in a special mail folder will give you instant access to the list of mailing lists that you are subscribed to. This may prove very useful the next time you go on vacation and need to leave the lists temporarily so as not to fill up your mailbox while you are away! You should also save the "welcome messages" from the list owners that you will occasionally receive after subscribing to a new list. To send a message to all the people currently subscribed to the list, just send mail to &LISTADDR. This is called "sending mail to the list", because you send mail to a single address and LISTSERV makes copies for all the people who have subscribed. This address (&LISTADDR) is also called the "list address". You must never try to send any command to that address, as it would be distributed to all the people who have subscribed. All commands must be sent to the "LISTSERV address", &MYNAMES. It is very important to understand the difference between the two, but fortunately it is not complicated. The LISTSERV address is like a FAX number that connects you to a machine, whereas the list address is like a normal voice line connecting you to a person. If you make a mistake and dial the FAX number when you wanted to talk to someone on the phone, you will quickly realize that you used the wrong number and call again. No harm will have been done. If on the other hand you accidentally make your FAX call someone's voice line, the person receiving the call will be inconvenienced, especially if your FAX then re-dials every 5 minutes. The fact that most people will eventually connect the FAX machine to the voice line to allow the FAX to go through and make the calls stop does not mean that you should continue to send FAXes to the voice number. People would just get mad at you. It works pretty much the same way with mailing lists, with the difference that you are calling hundreds or thousands of people at the same time, and consequently you can expect a lot of people to get upset if you consistently send commands to the list address. You may leave the list at any time by sending a "SIGNOFF &LISTNAME" command to &MYNAMES. You can also tell LISTSERV how you want it to confirm the receipt of messages you send to the list. If you do not trust the system, send a "SET &LISTNAME REPRO" command and LISTSERV will send you a copy of your own messages, so that you can see that the message was distributed and did not get damaged on the way. After a while you may find that this is getting annoying, especially if your mail program does not tell you that the message is from you when it informs you that new mail has arrived from &LISTNAME. If you send a "SET &LISTNAME ACK NOREPRO" command, LISTSERV will mail you a short acknowledgement instead, which will look different in your mailbox directory. With most mail programs you will know immediately that this is an acknowledgement you can read later. Finally, you can turn off acknowledgements completely with "SET &LISTNAME NOACK NOREPRO". .bb &DEFOPT ^= '' Following instructions from the list owner, your subscription options have been set to "&DEFOPT" rather than the usual LISTSERV defaults. For more information about subscription options, send a "QUERY &LISTNAME" command to &MYNAMES. .eb .bb &KWD(NOTEBOOK,1) = YES Contributions sent to this list are automatically archived. You can get a list of the available archive files by sending an "INDEX &LISTNAME" command to &MYNAMES. You can then order these files with a "GET &LISTNAME LOGxxxx" .bb &LITE = 1 command. .eb .bb &LITE = 0 command, or using LISTSERV's database search facilities. Send an "INFO DATABASE" command for more information on the latter. .eb .eb .bb (&KWD(DIGEST,1) = YES) or ((&KWD(DIGEST,1) ^= NO) and (&KWD(NOTEBOOK,1) = YES)) This list is available in digest form. If you wish to receive the digested version of the postings, just issue a SET &LISTNAME DIGEST command. .eb .bb &KWD(CONFIDENTIAL,1) = YES IMPORTANT: This list is confidential. You should not publicly mention its existence, or forward copies of information you have obtained from it to third parties. .bb &KWD(NOTEBOOK,1) = YES Please note that the "GIVE" command is automatically disabled for all archive files. .eb .eb .bb CONCEAL not in &DEFOPT .se x = &KWD(REVIEW) .bb ((&x ^= POSTMASTER) and (&x ^= OWNER)) and (&x ^= OWNERS) Please note that it is presently possible for .bb &x = PUBLIC anybody .eb .bb &x ^= PUBLIC other people .eb to determine that you are signed up to the list through the use of the "REVIEW" command, which returns the e-mail address and name of all the subscribers. If you do not want your name to be visible, just issue a "SET &LISTNAME CONCEAL" command. .eb .eb More information on LISTSERV commands can be found in the LISTSERV reference card, which you can retrieve by sending an "INFO REFCARD" command to &MYNAMES. >>> SUB_CLOSED Message sent to user trying SUBSCRIBE on closed list Sorry, the &LISTNAME list is closed. Contact the list owner (&OWNER) for more information. >>> SUB_OWNER Message sent to user trying SUBSCRIBE on by-owner list Your request to join the &LISTNAME list has been forwarded to the list owner for approval. If you have any question about the list, you can reach the list owner at &OWNER. >>> POST_EDITOR Message sent to user when posting is forwarded to editor Your &MESSAGE has been submitted to the .bb &MODERATORS = 1 moderator of the &LISTNAME list: &MBX(&MODERATOR). .eb .bb &MODERATORS ^= 1 moderators of the &LISTNAME list. .eb >>> REQACK1 Your message to &LISTNAME-request@&MYHOST &WEEKDAY, &DATE &TIME Your message to &LISTNAME-request@&MYHOST has been forwarded to the "list owners" (the people who manage the &LISTNAME list). If you wanted to reach a human being, you used the correct procedure and you can ignore the remainder of this message. If you were trying to send a command for the computer to execute, please read on. The &LISTNAME list is managed by a LISTSERV server. LISTSERV commands should always be sent to the "LISTSERV" address, ie &MYNAMES. LISTSERV never tries to process messages sent to the &LISTNAME-request address; it simply forwards them to a human being, and acknowledges receipt with the present message. The "listname-request" convention originated on the Internet a long time ago. At the time, lists were always managed manually, and this address was defined as an alias for the person(s) in charge of the mailing list. You would write to the "listname-request" address to ask for information about the list, ask to be added to the list, make suggestions about the contents and policy, etc. Because this address was always a human being, people knew and expected to be talking to a human being, not to a computer. Unfortunately, some recent list management packages screen incoming messages to the "listname-request" address and attempt to determine whether they are requests to join or leave the list. They look for words such as "subscribe", "add", "leave", "off", and so on. If they decide your message is a request to join or leave the list, they update the list automatically; otherwise, they forward the message to the list owners. Naturally, this means that if you write to the list owners about someone else's unsuccessful attempts to leave the list, you stand good chances of being automatically removed from the list, whereas the list owners will never receive your message. No one really benefits from this. There is no reliable mechanism to contact a human being for assistance, and you can never be sure whether your request will be interpreted as a command or as a message to the list owners. This is why LISTSERV uses two separate addresses, one for the people in charge of the list and one for the computer that runs it. This way you always know what will happen, especially if you are writing in a language other than English. In any case, if your message was a LISTSERV command, you should now resend it to &MYNAMES. The list owners know that you have received this message and may assume that you will resend the command on your own. You will find instructions for the most common administrative requests below. .FO OFF ********************* * TO LEAVE THE LIST * ********************* .FO ON Write to &MYNAMES and, in the text of your message (not the subject line), write: SIGNOFF &LISTNAME .FO OFF ******************** * TO JOIN THE LIST * ******************** .FO ON Write to &MYNAMES and, in the text of your message (not the subject line), write: SUBSCRIBE &LISTNAME .FO OFF ************************ * FOR MORE INFORMATION * ************************ .FO ON Write to &MYNAMES and, in the text of your message (not the subject line), write: "HELP" or "INFO" (without the quotes). HELP will give you a short help message and INFO a list of the documents you can order. >>> CONFIRM1 Text of confirmation requests .bb &CMD ^= '' Your command: .se C command .ce &CMD .bb &INFO = '' requires confirmation. .eb .eb .bb &CMD = '' Your commands: .se C commands .dd &CMDLIST .bb &INFO = '' require confirmation. .eb .eb .bb &INFO ^= '' &INFO .eb To confirm the execution of your &C, simply reply to the present message and type "ok" (without the quotes) as the text of your message. Just the word "ok" - do not retype the &C. This procedure will work with any mail program that fully conforms to the Internet standards for electronic mail. If you receive an error message, try sending a new message to &MYSELF (without using the "reply" function - this is very important) and type "ok &CODE" as the text of your message. Finally, your &C will be cancelled automatically if LISTSERV does not receive your confirmation within &EXPIRE. After that time, you must start over and resend the &C to get a new confirmation code. If you change your mind and decide that you do NOT want to confirm the &C, simply discard the present message and let the request expire on its own. >>> WWW_INDEX HTML for the main list archive screen (listname.html) .FO OFF <title>Archives of &LISTADDR</title> .IM $WWW_ARCHIVE_HEADER <center> <h1>Archives of &LISTADDR</h1> <h3><i>&TITLE</i></h3> </center> <ul> .bb &SEARCH ^= '' <li>&SEARCH;Search the archives</a> .eb <li>&POST;Post to the list</a><p> .DD &DD </ul> .IM $WWW_ARCHIVE_TRAILER >>> PROBE1 Subscription probe for &LISTNAME - please ignore &WEEKDAY, &DATE &TIME This message is a "probe" for your subscription to the &LISTNAME list. You do not need to take any action to remain subscribed to the list, and in particular you should not reply to this message. Simply discard it now, or read on if you would like to know more about how this probing mechanism works. A "probe" is a message like the one you are reading, sent to an individual subscriber and tagged with a special signature to uniquely identify this particular subscriber (you can probably not see the signature because it is in the mail headers). If the subscriber's e-mail address is no longer valid, the message will be returned to LISTSERV and the faulty address will be removed from the list. If the subscriber's address is still valid, the message will not bounce and the user will not be deleted. The main advantage of this technique is that it can be fully automated; the list owner does not need to read a single delivery error. For a large or active list, the manpower savings can be tremendous. In fact, some lists are so large that it is virtually impossible to process delivery errors manually. Another advantage is that the special, unique signatures make it possible to accurately process delivery errors that are otherwise unintelligible, even to an experienced technical person. The drawback, however, is that this method lacks flexibility and forgiveness. Since the Internet does not provide a reliable mechanism for probing an e-mail address without actually delivering a message to the human recipient, the subscribers need to be inconvenienced with yet another "junk message". And, unlike a human list owner, LISTSERV follows a number of simple rules in determining when and whether to terminate a subscription. In particular, a common problem with automatic probes is mail gateways that return a delivery error, but do deliver the message anyway. LISTSERV has no way to know that the message was in fact delivered, and in most cases the subscriber is not aware of the existence of these "false" error reports. If this happens to you, LISTSERV will send you another message with a copy of the delivery error returned by your mail system, so that you can show it to your technical people. >>> PROBE2 Probe failure for &LISTNAME &WEEKDAY, &DATE &TIME &MYSELF has just received the enclosed delivery error as a result of a probe sent to your &MAILBOX account for the &LISTNAME list. If you are reading this message, it means that your mail system is successfully delivering mail to your mailbox, while at the same time reporting that an error has occurred (or, alternatively, the error could be due to a system problem which has since then been fixed). At any rate, LISTSERV has no way to know that you have actually received the present message, and is operating on the assumption that your e-mail address is no longer valid. Typically, LISTSERV will send you one or more additional probe messages, on a daily basis, to determine whether the failure persists, and if so you will be removed from the list eventually. Some lists are configured to remove users on the first failure. Assuming you have not been removed from the list yet, you can stop this process by sending the following command to &MYSELF as soon as possible: .ce CONFIRM &LISTNAME This will tell LISTSERV that your account actually does work and that you still want to receive mail from the &LISTNAME list. While the CONFIRM command will solve your immediate problem, it is only a matter of time until you find yourself in the same situation again. Please take a look at the enclosed error report and try to determine whether it is a genuine error, or just an informational message. Bear in mind that this error report was processed by a computer that cannot tell "User JAIME24 does not exist" from "Please note that the Department of Microbiology will be closed from December 19 to January 2" or "Attempts to deliver your message have been unsuccessful for 300 seconds; will keep trying for another 431700 seconds". These informational messages, while possibly useful to a human reader, should not be sent in answer to a message coming from a mailing list (it is very easy for the mail program to determine whether a message is coming from a mailing list). Genuine errors should be reported to your computer/network support staff as soon as possible so that they can be corrected. .fo off ------------------------- Delivery error report ------------------------- .dd &DD >>> WWW_ARCHIVE_INDEX WWW archive interface, INDEX.HTML .FO OFF <title>List archives at &MYHOST</title> .IM $WWW_ARCHIVE_HEADER <center> <h2>List archives at &MYHOST</h2> </center> <hr> <p>From this page you can browse the online archives of the following mailing lists: <dl> .DD &DD </dl> .IM $WWW_ARCHIVE_TRAILER >>> WWW_ARCHIVE_USER_FORMS A list of additional "user" forms to format HEADER TRAILER SEARCH_HELP >>> WWW_ARCHIVE_TRAILER Trailer file included by the CGI script .FO OFF .IM $WWW_ARCHIVE_TRAILER >>> WWW_ARCHIVE_HEADER Header file included by the CGI script .FO OFF .IM $WWW_ARCHIVE_HEADER >>> $WWW_ARCHIVE_HEADER Header text for WWW archive interface .* Set white background to match anti-aliasing for default GIF files .* Other GIF files for different backgrounds are available from L-Soft <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#0000FF" vlink="#FF0000"> >>> $WWW_ARCHIVE_TRAILER Trailer text for WWW archive interface <p> <hr> .bb &LITEFE = 0 <a href="http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html"> .eb .bb &LITEFE = 1 <a href="http://www.lsoft.com/free-edition.html"> .eb <img src="/archives/lpowered.gif" align=right alt="Powered by LISTSERV(R)" border=0></a> <a href="http://www.lsoft.com/lists/listref.html"> <img src="/archives/catalist.gif" border=0 alt="CataList - online search" align=right></a> <font size=-1> Back to the <a href="/archives/index.html">&MYHOST archive index.</a> </font> >>> WWW_ARCHIVE_SEARCH_HELP Help on the search function .FO OFF <title>Searching list archives</title> .IM $WWW_ARCHIVE_HEADER <center> <h1>Searching list archives</h1> <p> <a href="#HOWTO">How does it work?</a><br> <a href="#ADV">Advanced searches</a><br> <a href="#TIPS">Search tips</a><br> <a href="#INTL">Non-English searches</a><br> <p> </center> <hr> <a name="HOWTO"> <h2>How does it work?</h2> <p>A search can be as simple as typing a single word in the "Search for:" box and clicking on "Start the search", or it can involve the full power of LISTSERV's database functions. Here are a few examples of simple searches (the <tt>text of the example</tt> should be entered in the "Search for:" box, and none of the other boxes should be filled in): <ul> <li>To search for messages about John Kennedy, simply type <tt>John Kennedy</tt> in the search box. This will show all the messages that contain the words "John" and "Kennedy" close to each other.<p> <li>You could also type <tt>'John Kennedy'</tt>, but this would not show messages about "John F. Kennedy".<p> <li>For better results, you could use <tt>(John Kennedy) or JFK</tt> so that you also get the messages that say "JFK".<p> <li>To search for words that are not necessarily close to each other, use "AND". For instance, <tt>Mozart and Beethoven</tt> would show all the messages that mention both composers, whereas <tt>Mozart Beethoven</tt> would only find a small fraction of them.<p> <li>To make a search case sensitive, enclose it in double quotation marks. If you are interested in the works of Norman Mailer, you will probably find that searching for <tt>Mailer</tt> returns a lot of unexpected messages, whereas <tt>"Mailer"</tt> gives much better results.<p> <li>You can get as sophisticated as you want: <tt>((John Kennedy) or JFK) and not ((Bay Pigs) or Cuba)</tt> would look for messages about JFK that do not mention Cuba or the Bay of Pigs.<p> <li>Some characters have a special syntactical meaning to the database functions and must be enclosed in single quotes for correct results. For instance, parentheses need to be quoted in this manner; search for <tt>'f(x)'</tt> instead of <tt>f(x)</tt>.<p> <li>Only the first 100 matches will be shown. </ul> <a name="ADV"> <h2>Advanced searches</h2> <p>In the <a href="#HOWTO">previous section,</a> we discussed how to make a simple (or even complex) search using the "Search for:" box. While this is sufficient for most searches, the other search options can be used to further restrict the scope of your search and make it easier for you to find what you are looking for. <a name="SUBJECT"> <h3>The subject search box</h3> <p>To restrict your search to messages whose subject contains specific search words, simply type them in the subject search box. The syntax is the same as for the <a href="#HOWTO">"Search for:" box,</a> with one difference: the "AND" operator is redundant, because a subject field is very short and all the words are considered to be "close" to each other. Thus, in the subject box there is no difference between a search for <tt>Mozart and Beethoven</tt> and a search for <tt>Mozart Beethoven</tt>. <p>Subject searches are a good alternative when searching large archives, or when searching for topics that are mentioned quite often. If a word that you are looking for appears in the subject of a message, it is much more likely to reflect the actual contents of the message than if it only appears in one isolated sentence. On the other hand, maybe what you are looking for is hidden in a message that was about something else, and where someone just happened to mention your topic of interest in passing. <a name="AUTHOR"> <h3>The author search box</h3> <p>You can also restrict your search to messages posted by a particular person. If you know the e-mail address of the person who wrote the message you are interested in, this can be a very effective way to find what you are looking for, without having to go through dozens of unrelated messages. Note that you do not need to know the exact e-mail address. For instance, if you know that the userid is "john" and the host name is some machine at XYZ.COM, you can simply enter <tt>john xyz.com</tt> in the search box. <p>Whatever you do, <b><i>do not try to use wildcards</i></b> (<i>e.g.</i> "john@*.xyz.com") as this is not the correct syntax. The author search box uses the same syntax as the subject and <a href="#HOWTO">"Search for:" boxes.</a> Note that, since the author's e-mail address is a single word, there is no concept of "close" <i>vs.</i> "distant" and the AND operator is redundant: <tt>john xyz.com</tt> and <tt>john and xyz.com</tt> are equivalent. <a name="DATES"> <h3>The "since" and "until" search boxes</h3> <p>It is not uncommon for popular mailing lists to have archives spanning 10 or more years of activity. If the mailing list is about technology, you may not be interested in messages that are older than a few year. Or, alternatively, you may happen to know when approximately the information you are looking for was posted to the list. You can use the "Since" and "Until" boxes to restrict your search accordingly. <p>The syntax is very flexible and you can specify a date and/or time in just about any of the commonly used formats: <ul> <li><tt>23 Jun 1986</tt> (self explanatory). <li><tt>1986-06-23</tt> (international date format). <li><tt>1995</tt> or just <tt>95</tt> selects 1 Jan 1995 for the "since" box or 31 Dec 1995 for the "until" box. <li><tt>APR</tt> selects April of the current year, 1st or 30th depending on whether this was entered in the "since" or "until" box. <li><tt>APRIL 95</tt> &– same as above, but for the year 1995. <li><tt>TODAY-7</tt> (7 days ago) makes it easy to get a list of all the messages posted in the past week. You can also use <tt>YESTERDAY</tt> or <tt>TODAY</tt> for a shorter time span. </ul> <b>IMPORTANT:</b> The US date format (mm/dd or mm/dd/yy) is not supported because it is ambiguous. Many other countries use dd/mm or dd/mm/yy instead, and to avoid ambiguities LISTSERV only supports the international date format, yyyy-mm-dd or yy/mm/dd. <a name="TIPS"> <h2>Search tips</h2> <p>Here are a few tips which may prove useful if you are not getting anywhere with your search. <ul> <li>In most cases, you will save a lot of time by using the <a href="#DATES">"Since" and "Until" boxes</a> to narrow your search to a particular date range, even if it is very approximate. <li>If you know the author of the message and have his e-mail address, use the <a href="#AUTHOR">author search box</a> to restrict your search. <li>If you know the author's name, but not his e-mail address, add his name to the <a href="#HOWTO">"Search for:" box.</a> Hopefully it will be somewhere in the message header or text, and this will help narrowing the search. Make sure to clearly separate the name from the rest of the search. If you were looking for <tt>computer stores</tt> and know that the message you are looking for was written by Mary Travis, your new search should be for <tt>(computer stores) and (Mary Travis)</tt> (if you just search for <tt>computer stores Mary Travis</tt>, the four words will have to be close to each other or there will be no match). <li>Make sure to read the <a href="#INTL">notes on non-English searches</a> if you are conducting a search in a language that uses non-English characters. <li>An easy way to find a recent message is to make a search with <tt>TODAY-7</tt> in the "Since" box, leaving all the other boxes empty. You can add the URL to your hotlist and come back to it regularly to see all the messages posted in the last week. </ul> <a name="INTL"> <h2>Non-English searches</h2> <p>Every effort has been made to make ISO-8859-* searches work as transparently as possible, in spite of the complexity of the situation. In order to better understand the cases where searches do not actually work as expected, you should know that the messages are archived in the format in which they were originally sent. This will typically include a mix of native 8-bit text, MIME quoted-printable text, MIME base64 text, and other proprietary encoding methods such as WINMAIL.DAT, plus of course 7-bit text. Each of these messages presents its own challenges: <ul> <li><b>Native 8-bit text</b> normally produces the expected results. See below for a list of generic problems that may affect even native 8-bit text. <li><b>MIME quoted-printable text</b> will, in most cases, produce the expected results. Conceptually, the search is carried out as though the <tt>=xx</tt> escape sequences had been replaced with their corresponding characters before beginning the search. However, soft line breaks (trailing '=' signs) are not processed (the lines are not merged). If the poster's mail client uses soft line breaks to split words in the middle, they will not be recognized. For instance, if the word "house" were written as "hou=" on one line followed by "se" on the next line, LISTSERV would not find a match with the search string "house". <li><b>MIME base64 text</b> is not supported by the search interface. This type of encoding should only be used for binary data, because it is totally unintelligible to people without a MIME user interface and because it is context sensitive (that is, LISTSERV would have to decode the entire message before beginning the search). <li><b>Proprietary encoding methods</b> such as WINMAIL.DAT are not supported by the search interface. In most cases, these formats suffer from the same kind of problems as MIME base64 text, and the mail programs that generate these messages are being replaced with MIME-capable programs. <li><b>7-bit text</b> (with national characters) does not work at all. It is impossible to translate this text to native 8-bit form without knowing the language in which it is written. </ul> <p>In addition, there are a number of generic problems that affect all message formats: <ul> <li><b>Code page:</b> a typical international archive will contain messages in a variety of incompatible code pages (Latin-1, Icelandic, <i>etc.</i>) While LISTSERV knows the code page of each of the individual messages, it does not know the code page of the search string you are entering, nor does it support searches that span multiple code pages. If you search for one of the characters in the Icelandic code page, LISTSERV may incorrectly match messages written in another code page in which this character is not present, but where another character with the same binary code was found in the message. <li><b>Case-insensitive searches:</b> special tables are required to properly evaluate case-insensitive searches with non-ASCII characters. The tables LISTSERV uses were designed for the Latin-1 (ISO-8859-1) code page and may not give correct results with other code pages. <li><b>EBCDIC systems:</b> LISTSERV servers running on EBCDIC systems may give incorrect results due to the multiple ASCII-EBCDIC translation steps involved in processing your request. The TCP/IP product, the SMTP server, the web server and LISTSERV each have their own tables, which may or may not be identical. </ul> .IM $WWW_ARCHIVE_TRAILER >>> XHTML_LISTSERV_REPLY_TRAILER - <hr> <img src="http://www.lsoft.com/images/htmlbot.gif" border=0 align=left alt="Help bar" usemap="#M"> <map name=M> <area coords="0,0,55,70" href="http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html" title="Help"> <area coords="55,0,110,70" href="http://www.lsoft.com/lists/listref.html" title="Find"> <area coords="110,0,164,70" href="&WAURL;" title="Browse"> </map> LISTSERV control panel >>> DIRECTORY Template directory for X-GETTPL (overrides only) DIRECTORY - ADDPW1 - ADDPW2 - ADDPW3 - DELPW - WWW_ARCHIVE_SEARCH_HELP - WWW_ARCHIVE_INDEX - WWW_ARCHIVE_USER_FORMS - WWW_MONTHS Month names for listname.html (for translation purposes) BOTTOM_BANNER Bottom banner for list postings TOP_BANNER Top banner for list postings POSTACK1 Reply sent to anyone posting to the list (for "replybots")