HELP FILE of ML ----- Index ----- 1 FYI: Brief Summary 2 Fundamental Usage 2.1 What is a mailing list? 2.2 Usage of Commands 2.3 When you confused ... 3 Commands List 3.1 How to retrieve files; basic commands 3.2 How to get member list and unsubscribe 3.3 When your email address changed 3.4 Digest Delivery 3.5 How to retrieve past articles 4 Not standard commands 4.1 Library commands 4.2 whois database (ML local) 4.3 Traffic command 5 Command Usage Examples 5.1 Retrieve past articles ----------------- 1 FYI: Brief Summary Here I introduce the brief summary for you which may join this mailing list in error. To unsubscribe ML , send "unsubscribe" in the mail body to the address . Also you can send "# unsubscribe". "#" is prepended in fml documents for some historically reasons. "#" is NOT NEEDED in almost all cases but fml can accepct commands with or without '#'. Please ignore this in default configuration. To stop the delivery for a vacation, send "# off" in the mail body to . To start the delivery again, send "# on" in the same way. To get the past articles, firstly send "# index" in the mail body to the address to retrieve the list of articles. It shows the list this ML stores. To retrieve articles, use "# get" or "# mget" command. For example, send "# mget 100-200" to retrieve articles from 100 to 200. Fml compares From: field in a posted article with member list. If you have several mail addresses, pay attention! 2 Fundamental Usage 2.1 What is a mailing list? A mailing list (ML) is mail forwarding mechanism. When you send a mail to the address ruby-talk@netlab.co.jp the mail is forwarded to all members of this ML. 2.2 Usage of Commands This ML server has a lot of functions. Please send English command phrases/words to . ruby-talk-ctl@netlab.co.jp A command has a command keyword and the options. # command options Depends on the configuration of the ML server, '# help' and '#help' may be treated as the same. (if USE_RPGruby-talkFLAG is non-nil) Note that commands are case-insensitive, i.e. # help = $ Help = # HELP [Option] means optional. % is shell prompt. Example 1: --------- mail body -------------- # help ----------------------------------- Send "# help" to , you obtain the help file of this ML. Example 2: To retrieve help articles from 10 to 14 member list --------- mail body -------------- # help # get 10-14 # members # exit ----------------------------------- 2.3 When you confused ... Please see the mail header, you will find the basic information. X-MLServer: fml [fml 2.1_RELEASE](distribute + commands available mode) X-ML-Info: If you have a question, send "# help" to the address ruby-talk-ctl@netlab.co.jp X-MLServer: fml [fml 2.1_RELEASE](distribute only mode) If you are confused and have no clue, you can take a contact with the ML maintainer at the address ruby-talk-admin@netlab.co.jp When you make the contact, you should write What you did? Error/ returned mails if exist 3 Commands List The command syntax is command description [] is optional. 3.1 How to retrieve files; basic commands # help Get command help (this file) # objective Get ML objective # guide Get ML guide (non-members are allowed to use this command) # msg Send a mail to ML administrator # summary [arg] Get a summary of ML articles arg: range of the ML articles Ex. summary whole summary (1-last) summary last:10 summary of last 10 articles summary 100-200 summary of article 100-200 # exit # end # quit Terminate command processing (so that your signature will not get processed) 3.2 How to get member list and unsubscribe # members Get member list # actives Get active member list # status [arg] # stat [arg] Get current status of a member (batch send mode or OFF etc.) arg: the member's address (myself if not specified) # skip Make the address of From: in your mail a posting only address; mails will not be sent to this address any more # noskip Reverse of # skip # off Sign off ML temporarily (stop receiving mails) # on Resume receiving mails after # off # bye Sign off ML permanently # unsubscribe Sign off ML permanently 3.3 When your email address changed To change the address which you use to join this ML, you can use ' chaddr' command. The form is # chaddr old-address new-address Please send this form from OLD-ADDRESS (fml 2.2 specification). 3.4 Digest Delivery <<<<< Batch mail mode (approximately every N hours) # matome [opt] Send batch mail at approximately every hours To be exact, mail are sent at N clock where 0 == N (mod ) N=1..24 When is between 13 to 36, mail batch will be sent once a day at if =13..24 -24 if =25..36 Ex. # matome u plain(unpack) format # matome i lha+ish format [opt]: (no option) gzip(with UNIX From:) u PLAINTEXT(with UNIX From:) uf PLAINTEXT(with UNIX From:) i lha+ish ish lha+ish b RFC934 format PLAINTEXT d RFC1153 format PLAINTEXT mp MIME/Multipart PLAINTEXT # matome 0 Cancel batch mode. Return to normal distribution Ex. # matome 1 Mail batch every 1 hour (gzip-ped) # matome 2 Mail batch every 2 hours (gzip-ped) # matome 2u Mail batch every 2 hours (plain text) # matome 2mp Mail batch every 2 hours (MIME/Multipart) # matome 17 Mail batch once a day at 17:00 (gzip-ped) # matome 29 Mail batch once a day at 5:00 (gzip-ped) 3.5 How to retrieve past articles # index Get a list of files which you can # get Index file will be returned if it exists # get ID # send ID Get a ML article (sends back in plain text) # mget [mode] [interval] # mget [mode] [interval] Get multiple files (ML articles or archive files) Arg: Ex. 1-10,12,15-100 1,2,10 first first:10 last:30 100-last (MH syntax) Ex. * ? 1? 1?? [mode] gz tgz ish rfc934 b rfc1153 d unpack uf (default=tgz) [interval] mail time interval if the reply spans multiple mails (default=300) Mode: (No option) 'tar+gzip' -> spool.tar.gz tgz 'tar+gzip' -> spool.tar.gz uf PLAINTEXT(with UNIX From:) gz GZIP(with UNIX From:) b lha+ish ish lha+ish rfc934 RFC934 format PLAINTEXT unpack PLAINTEXT(with UNIX From:) uu UUENCODE d RFC1153 format PLAINTEXT rfc1153 RFC1153 format PLAINTEXT 4 Not standard commands These commands may be unavailable for maintainer's policy. In default fml disables these functions. 4.1 Library commands To add a file to the archive area of this ML and retrieve them. # library command [options] # library index get index list in library archive area # library summary the same as "# library index" # library get [NUM] retrieve NUM file in library archive area options used in "mget" are available. # library put add the mail to library archive area. # library unlink [NUM] remove NUM file in library archive area. # library delete [NUM] # library rm [NUM] 4.2 whois database (ML local) # whois [-h host] key Look up whois database with key When host is given, look up is done on the host through IPC. Otherwise the search is performed in ML local whois database # iam Put self-introduction (ML local whois database) # who # whois-index # whois-list Get the list of available whois entries 4.3 Traffic command SYNOPSIS: # traffic [-n ] [-m ] [-d] "traffic" command gives the traffic information. 5 Command Usage Examples 5.1 Retrieve past articles In the following, 'mail' refers to /usr/ucb/mail, Mail(SUN), malix(SYSR3/4) /usr/bin/Mail(4.4BSD), /usr/bin/mail(4.4BSD) * Get article number 1 % echo "# get 1" | mail % echo "#get 1" | mail * Get article number 100-200 % echo "# mget 100-200" | mail * Get article number 100-200. In the case where the reply consists of multiple mails, send each one at an interval of 30 seconds % echo "# mget 100-200 30" | mail * Get article number 100-200 in PLAINTEXT format % echo "# mget 100-200 unpack" | mail * Get article number 100-200 in lha+ish format % echo "# mget 100-200 ish" | mail * Get article number 100-200 in PLAINTEXT (mail interval = 30sec) % echo "# mget 100-200 30 unpack" | mail * Get files matching ? (i.e. article 1-9) % echo "# mget ?" | mail * Get files matching * (i.e. all articles) % echo "# mget *" | mail <<<<< Explanation of the example (1) Get the article of X-Mail-Count: 1 (article 1) NOTE: All command mail must begin with '#' If illegal commands are found, the server will send back this help file The following way is recommended: % echo "# get 1" | mail If you want to get article 1-3 % cat > foo # get 1 # get 2 # get 3 ^D % cat foo # mget 1 # mget 2 # mget 3 % cat fpp | mail Then the server will send article 1, 2, 3 in separate mails The problem with this scheme is that, for each get command the server has to start a sendmail process. Imagine you try to get 1-100 articles in this way. It will be a big burden for the server machine. The solution is to use # mget For example, we want to get article 1-9: % echo "# mget ? 30" | mail Like ftp mget command, you can use regular expression. In this case, ? will match all files with single character file name, therefore it matches 1 to 9 in spool directory. Likewise, * will match all articles, ?? will match article 10-99 Mail interval argument is not necessarily needed. If a reply is longer than 1000 lines, ML server will split it into multiple mails every 1000 lines. In this example, the server will send each of these mails at the specified interval of 30 seconds (default is 5 minutes) This argument is usually used in the case like : you only want to receive 2-3 mails for each UUCP polling interval. If your machine is IP-reachable and you are confident that it can handle lots of incoming mails at the same time, probably you don't need to worry about this argument. The requested files will be tar+gzip+uuencode-d. If the result file is longer than 1000 lines, the server will split it. You'll have to concatenate them into one file, say bar, and then decode, decompress, extract the original files from it (uumerge.pl is very convenient for this purpose) % uudecode bar % ls spool.tar.Z % zcat spool.tar.Z | tar xf - % ls spool.tar.Z spool % ls -l rw-r--r-- ............................ spool.tar.Z drwxr-xr-x ............................ spool spool/ contains the files you want History: 1998/08/17 translated by fukachan@sapporo.iij.ad.jp by fukachan@sapporo.iij.ad.jp 1997/04/17 improved by metalman@kt.rim.or.jp 1997/04/16 hand-patched by fukachan@sapporo.iij.ad.jp 1997/04/13 improved by metalman@kt.rim.or.jp 1997/04/05 imported and merged by fukachan@sapporo.iij.ad.jp 1997/04/13 improved by metalman@kt.rim.or.jp 1997/04/04 improved by metalman@kt.rim.or.jp 1997/04/01 improved by metalman@kt.rim.or.jp help and help.example2 are merged by fukachan@sapporo.iij.ad.jp (preparation for 2.1 RELEASE) help.example2 contributed by umura@nn.solan.chubu.ac.jp (mnews ML's help is contributed) original by fukachan@phys.titech.ac.jp $Id: help.wix,v 2.1 1998-09-06 14:29:59+09 fukachan Exp fukachan $