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Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!agate!math.berkeley.edu!raymond
From: raymond@math.berkeley.edu (Raymond Chen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Mail server for FAQ file and SIMTEL20 index
Message-ID: <1990Mar7.073215.23815@agate.berkeley.edu>
Date: 7 Mar 90 07:32:15 GMT
Sender: usenet@agate.berkeley.edu (USENET Administrator;;;;ZU44)
Reply-To: raymond@math.berkeley.edu (Raymond Chen)
Followup-To: poster
Organization: U.C. Berkeley
Lines: 52

For those of you who missed the FAQ file and for those of
you who don't have perl (and can't use my "lookup" program
to hunt down programs in the SIMTEL20 index), I've written
a mail server just for you.  (Yes, I wrote it all by my
lonesome.)

To access the FAQ server, send a piece of email with the
subject "Command" to raymond@math.berkeley.edu.  The body
of the message may contain any of the following commands:

path your-return-address        	[optional]
        The server can usually figure out the correct return address so
        you don't need this line unless your first try didn't work.

send filename
        Sends the latest version of the specified file.
        Currently, the only file available is faq.csip,
        namely the Frequently Asked Questions for comp.sys.ibm.pc.

lookup regexp
        Looks in the SIMTEL20 directory index for any file
        whose filename or description matches the regular
        expression.  The output is mailed to you.

end     Marks the end of your mail.  If you leave this off,
        the server will get confused.  So don't leave it off.

Keep the command left-justified and don't put control characters (e.g.,
tabs) in the message.  Note that the account is my regular account, so
please, be gentle.  It's the only account I've got.

Sample usage from a UNIX machine:  Suppose I want the latest copy
of the FAQ file and want to see if SIMTEL20 has any programs that
let me redirect printer output to a file.

        % mail raymond@math.berkeley.edu
        Subject: Command
        send faq.csip
        lookup printer.*file
        end
        ^D

After a few hours, I receive two pieces of mail.  One contains
the FAQ file, the other contains the output of my lookup request.

Isn't that simple?  Now you have no excuse for not looking in
either the FAQ file or the SIMTEL20 index.

Warning:  I keep the index as up-to-date as I can, but I make
          no guarantees.
--
raymond@math.berkeley.edu     Maintainer of the csip Frequently Asked Questions