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There is a mailing list for users of the rel program
suite. The list is moderated, and can be joined by sending an
email to nformatix-request@johncon.com,
with the word "subscribe" in the
"Subject:" line. (Likewise, to be removed
from the mailing list distribution, send an email with the
word "unsubscribe" in the
"Subject:" line.)
The mailing list archive uses the rel program suite in
conjunction with procmail
and smartlist, for list operations, and a Unix system's
mail transfer agent to handle email operations and
distribution. Sendmail,
Exim, and Qmail are known to work with
the rel email archive software, which is also provided in the
source distribution. The email is archived in a full text
information retrieval system, and the files and directory
structure automatically maintained. The filenames and
directory names are generated by timestamps to facilitate
maintenance. The information retrieval system consists of only
procmail and shell scripts for flexibility and
extensibility.
An email sent to nformatix@johncon.com will
be archived, and distributed to all members on the mailing
list. Any member can reply to the email, either personally to
the sender, or to the mailing list, in which case the reply
will be distributed to all members.
Previous messages may be retrieved from the mailing list
archive by sending an email to nformatix-request@johncon.com
with a "Subject: archive", and a search request in the body of
the message.
The valid search requests are:
- archive rel
infix_keyword_expression
- where infix_keyword_expression is an infix keyword
expression consisting of keywords, boolean operators, and
grouping operators:
- | is the 'or' boolean keyword operator,
- & is the 'and' boolean keyword operator,
- ! is the 'not' boolean keyword operator,
- and '(' and ')' are the grouping operators.
The documents that contain the evaluated infix keyword
expressions are returned in an RFC934 digest, in order of
relevance.
Aliases for 'rel': relevance, search.
Example:
archive rel this & that
would retrieve all email from the archive that contain
both the words "this" and "that".
- archive relx
infix_keyword_expression
- where infix_keyword_expression is an infix keyword
expression consisting of phonetic keywords, boolean
operators, and grouping operators:
- | is the 'or' boolean keyword operator,
- & is the 'and' boolean keyword operator,
- ! is the 'not' boolean keyword operator,
- and '(' and ')' are the grouping operators.
The documents that contain the evaluated infix keyword
expressions are returned in an RFC934 digest, in order of
relevance.
Aliases for 'relx': sound, soundex.
Example:
archive relx this & that
would retrieve all email from the archive that contain
words that sound like "this" and sound like "that".
- archive rels
infix_keyword_expression
- where infix_keyword_expression is an infix keyword
expression consisting of simple phonetic keywords, boolean
operators, and grouping operators:
- | is the 'or' boolean keyword operator,
- & is the 'and' boolean keyword operator,
- ! is the 'not' boolean keyword operator,
- and '(' and ')' are the grouping operators.
The documents that contain the evaluated infix keyword
expressions are returned in an RFC934 digest, in order of
relevance.
Example:
archive relx this & that
would retrieve all email from the archive that contain
words that sound like "this" and sound like "that".
- archive grep regular_expression
- where regular_expression is an egrep(1) compatible
generalized regular expression.
The documents that contain records with the specified
generalized regular expression are returned in an RFC934
digest, in chronological order of the date and time of
submission of the document to the information retrieval
system.
Aliases for 'grep': egrep, fgrep.
Example:
archive grep this
would retrieve all email from the archive that contain
word "this".
- archive rgrep
regular_expression
- where regular_expression is an egrep(1) compatible
generalized regular expression.
The documents that contain records with the specified
generalized regular expression are returned in an RFC934
digest, in reverse chronological order of the date and
time of submission of the document to the information
retrieval system.
Aliases for 'rgrep': regrep, rfgrep.
Example:
archive rgrep this
would retrieve all email from the archive that contain
word "this".
- archive date regular_expression
- where regular_expression is an egrep(1) compatible
generalized regular expression of the form
yy[mm[dd[hh[mm[ss]]]]].
The documents submitted to the information retrieval
system with a time stamp that matches the specified
generalized regular expression are returned in an RFC934
digest, in chronological order of the date and time of
submission.
Aliases for 'date': chron, chronological.
Example:
archive date 98
would retrieve all email from the archive from
1998.
- archive rdate
regular_expression
- where regular_expression is an egrep(1) compatible
generalized regular expression of the form
yy[mm[dd[hh[mm[ss]]]]].
The documents submitted to the information retrieval
system with a time stamp that matches the specified
generalized regular expression are returned in an RFC934
digest, in reverse chronological order of the date and
time of submission.
Aliases for 'rdate': rchron, rchronological.
Example:
archive rdate 98
would retrieve all email from the archive from
1998.
Additional commands:
- archive version
- will return version information about the information
server.
- archive help
- will return this help document.
Electronic mail format for commands:
Commands may be in the subject line, for example:
- To: nformatix-request@johncon.com
Subject:
archive rel (this & that) ! those
would return all documents in the archive that contain both
words, "this" and "that", but also do not contain the word
"those".
Or in the body of the message, one per line, for
example:
- To: nformatix-request@johncon.com
Subject:
- archive rel (this & that) ! those
- archive rel (some | more)
Multiple/additional valid commands may be issued in the
body of the message, in either case.
The command qualifier 'archive' is preferred to insure
non-ambiguous command interpretation, but not mandatory.
An acceptable alternative syntax is available:
- To: nformatix-request@johncon.com
Subject:
archive
- rel (this & that) ! those
rel (some |
more)
Keywords can contain phrases specifying a consecutive
sequence of words in documents as the search criteria. The
"\\ ", (backslash, backslash, space,) character sequence
is the concatenation delimiter for keywords:
- To: nformatix-request@johncon.com
Subject: archive
- rel (this\\ and\\ that)
The documents that contain the word "this",followed by the
word "and", followed by the word "that", are returned in an
RFC934 digest, in order of relevance.
Lines starting with a '#' are ignored.
This list is moderated, and access is restricted. All
transactions with the information server are logged and
archived.
Do to the liability of distributing malicious programs,
(i.e., virus or worms,) through the mailing list, please, no
attachments.
Enquiries to the list maintainer, John Conover, can be made
by sending an electronic mail addressed to john@email.johncon.com.
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