Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!husc6!cmcl2!brl-adm!adm!PAAAAAR%CALSTATE.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
From: PAAAAAR%CALSTATE.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: Online Guru ..
Message-ID: <11280@brl-adm.ARPA>
Date: 15 Jan 88 03:48:16 GMT
Sender: news@brl-adm.ARPA
Lines: 38

Jeff Wabik <jwabik@shamash.uucp> writes:
>  I'm curious if there exists (running
>on any system, be it PEE CEE, or UNIX) a sort_of, "Online Guru"..
>Software that you could literally ask, "How to I do disk backups", to
>which the response would be, "Dump is the UNIX utility that [...].
>Please see the manual page for dump(8) for further [...]."

There must be a smarter program than the script I hacked up recently
for my new users but it is short, simple and does the trick.

Step 1: Write a file full of one line 'facts' like:
   The MSDOS 'dir' command is done by 'ls' on Unix.
   The 'message of the day is stored in file /etc/motd and printed when you logi
(You need a lot of these - all ONE line long)
Step 2: List in a file 'stopwds' all the boring words you can think of like
   do from to in of is not of ...
Step 3: write a script that implements this pseudocode:
   for each argument in turn
       if its a stopwd ignore it
       else look for a word match (grep -iw) in the 'facts' file
       else look for any substring (fgrep -i $word $facts)
       else apologise
            and mail guru a copy of the command
   try the next argument.
Step 4: set up 'guru' as an alias for a group of volunteer experts who like
   to show off their knowledge.
Step 5: If the 'guru's are asked something - add the answers to the 'facts'file.

Step 6: Call the script 'help' (originallity!) and put it on your beginning user
    path.

Hope this helps!
Dick Botting,
PAAAAAR@CCS.CSUSCC.CALSTATE(doc-dick)
paaaaar@calstate.bitnet
PAAAAAR%CALSTATE.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
Dept Comp Sci., Cal State U, San Bernardino, CA 92407
Disclaimer: I am an only an egg