============================================================================== Empf„nger: LAURENS@r-m-b.gun.de, Nachricht Nr.: 1 Absender : mail-server@BLOOM-PICAYUNE.MIT.EDU ,Fido-To: Betreff : mail-server: "send help" Datum : 01.10.1994, 12:37:35 Bezugs-ID: 199410011637.MAA26613@penguin-lust.MIT.EDU Groesse : 9161 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -----cut here----- Introduction to the mail server A mail archiver server is a program that allows you to retrieve data from a remote computer via electronic mail -- you send requests to the server in an E-mail message, and it sends you one or more E-mail messages in response. The address you should use to send messages to this server is: mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu If that address does not work from your site, you should ask someone at your site for help figuring out what address to use to reach server. How the mail server's files are organized The files accessible via the mail server are arranged in directories, stored in a UNIX directory structure. Each UNIX directory has a name and can contain files and/or sub-directories. To refer to a file, you specify a path to it by giving the directory it's in, followed by a slash, followed by the file name. Files in sub-directories are referenced similarly, although you need to give the sub-directory names as well as the top-level directory name. For example, to refer to a file called "Gettysburg_Address" in a directory called "Lincoln", you would use this file path: Lincoln/Gettysburg_Address To refer to a file called "Lincoln_Douglas" in the "Debates" subdirectory of the "Lincoln" directory, you would use: Lincoln/Debates/Lincoln_Douglas Note that file names are case-sensitive. Mail server commands The mail server understand the following commands, which you should place in the body of your mail message to the server (the subject of your mail message will be ignored). In these commands, a word enclosed in <> represents a variable that you need to fill in; a word enclosed in [] represents a variable that is optional. The <> and [] shouldn't be included in the actual commands you send. path Specify a return mail path to use other than the mail path in the header of your message. The new address is used for responses to any commands after the "path" command. It is legal to have multple "path" commands to cause different responses to be sent to different addresses. The mail server's mailer is capable of understanding Internet addresses, UUCP addresses in the form "user@site.UUCP" (if "site" is registered in the UUCP maps), and UUCP addresses in bang-path form. If you want replies to your request to be directed to the address from which you are sending it, and you think that your message might contain a valid reply address in its header, than don't use the "path" command to specify a path -- the server is smart enough to figure out the reply address. If, however, you send a request to the server and do not get a response within a reasonable amount of time, then try sending another request with a "path" command in it to see if the server had trouble figuring out your reply address in the original request. help Get this help. index [filepath] Get an index of a directory. If no file path is specified, you'll be sent an index of the mail server's top-level directory. send Get a particular file. The file path you specify should be in the form described above. Some notes: * If the file path you specify is actually a directory or subdirectory, you will be sent a list of the files and subdirectories in the directory. * The special filename "-listing-" will retrieve a list of the files and subdirectories in a directory. For example, to get a list of the files and directories in the "Lincoln" directory, you would use "send Lincoln/-listing-". * If the final component of a specified path is "*", i.e., if only "*" appears after the last slash in the file path, all files in the directory will be sent. No other wildcards or combinations of wildcards are allowed; only "*" to match every file in a directory is allowed. * Files whose names end in ".Z" are compressed, but will be uncompressed automatically before they are sent to you, so that the server does not try to send non-text data in E-mail. Also, you can specify names of such files with or without the ".Z" extension. * The command "send /index" is equivalent to "index ". setdir Set a directory for future send and index requests. This allows you to issue several requests relative to a directory without retyping the directory each time. Some notes: * All send and index requests after this command will be relative to , i.e. they will act as if you had written before the file you specify in the send or index command. * This command is useful to save typing and to split up requests which would otherwise be longer than a line. * The directory will remain set until you use the setdir command again. Note that setdir is not relative to previous setdir commands, so the second setdir command will set the directory without regard to the first setdir command. Examples: The commands: setdir usenet/news.answers/ send usenet-faq/part1 index x-faq setdir usenet-addresses/ send smith Are equivalent to: send usenet/news.answers/usenet-faq/part1 index usenet/news.answers/x-faq send usenet-addresses/smith * The special directory "usenet-addresses" can be accessed to search a large database of E-mail addresses of people who have posted to the Usenet. For more information about it, send the command "send usenet-addresses/help". size Specify the maximum size, in bytes, of the mailed responses from the mail server. Note that the mail server will subtract some from the value specified in order to leave room for mail headers. The new size affects only mail messages sent after the "size" command was issued. If the response from the mail server is larger than the specified size, it will be broken up into multiple messages which will be mailed to you separately. If you don't want responses from the mail server to be broken up into multiple messages no matter how big they are, use "size 0". Note that a "size" command with an invalid number will be silently ignored, and that a specified size smaller than 10000 (but other than 0) will be silently changed to 10000 (i.e., 10000 is the minimum size). For example, you could use "size 100000" if you know that messages that are 100000 characters in length will reach you successfully. The default message size is 50000 bytes. vote Cast a vote with the mail server's automatic voting software. To find out currently valid votes, send "vote help". Note that responses from the server to "vote" commands are always sent in a single message, even if there are multiple "vote" commands in your mail to the server. group Start a "group" of commands whose output should be returned in a single mail message (or in one multi-part message, if the output is too large to fit in a single mail message), rather than being sent in separate mail messages. endgroup End the current group. The server executes "endgroup" implicitly when it encounters a "path" command, a "size" command, a "vote" command, a "quit" command, or the end of your message. If an "endgroup" is executed implicitly, it is executed *before* the command that caused it to be executed; for example, a "path" command that caused a group to end will cause the output of the grouped commands to be sent to the previous address, not to the new one. quit Stop parsing your message at this point. Notes The mail server limits messages to 20 valid requests ("send", "index", "help", or "vote" commands). Anything after 20 valid requests in a message is ignored. Furthermore, if the mail server encounters 20 errors in a message, it will ignore the remainder of the message. In addition to these limits, the server also limits the number of mail messages it will send to a particular address to approximately 25 messages in 24 hours. If you exceed this limit, responses to your requests may be delayed. If you do not understand something in these instructions, or if you need to talk to a real person about the mail server for some other reason, please send mail to "owner-mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu". -----cut here-----