Getting subscriber lists for BITNET lists
-----------------------------------------


Date:         Thu, 25 Jun 1992 09:45:33 CDT
Reply-To:     Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.BITNET>
Sender:       Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.BITNET>
From:         Ernest Perez <EPEREZ@UTDALLAS.BITNET>
Subject:      personal list 'address book'

----------------------------Original message----------------------------

I've got a slight PC-based variation of Roy Tennant's informative April
message about an easy way to search current list subscriber files. In effect,
you can use such a file as a simple "address book" for email addresses of all
list subscribers, and keep it on your PC.

In his message, he described the very simple command procedure needed to
obtain a copy of the complete PACS-L subscriber list, or one for any other
list you're interested in getting...

>I send a message to the LISTSERVs that host key library lists
>(e.g., PACS-L) asking it to send me a list of subscribers. The LISTSERV
>command is REV (for review) and the list name. For example, to get
>the list of PACS-L subscribers, you would send the message REV PACS-L
>to LISTSERV@UHUPVM1.BITNET
>
>Then, when the file arrives in your e-mail you save it as a file in your
>computer account. This file can then be searched for the occurrence of
>a string with the "grep" command.
[Here Roy goes into the details of using UNIX commands for searching the file
stored on your host machine.]

For handiness, and the ability to use the list offline, I decided to download
to my IBM-persuasion PC, using the following general approach.

1) Use Kermit to download file from UTDALLAS IBM host to my PC
2) ZIP the text file down to a zipped (compressed) file, with PKZIP 1.1.
3) Use Buerg's LIST file browser to inspect and search the file.

E.g., Using LIST, to find 'Tennant' in the subscriber list, you press 'f'
for FIND, and then enter 'tennant' in the prompt area. (it's case insensitive
search) In case you find a false drop, press 'a' for AGAIN. Complicated
syntax, what?

LIST version 7.5g, which I currently use, has the ability to display and
browse zipped files, and will do FAST string search of even a 241K file. I
tried it as I wrote this, it took 5-6 seconds to unzip the file (in memory),
and 3 seconds to search the entire file for a nonexistent string ('xxyyzz').

LIST assumes you have PKUNZIP.COM and FV.COM in your path, to do the automatic
in-memory unzipping. Both this programs are contained in the basic PKZIP
self-extracting file that you get for using the ZIP utilities.

Convenient, resident in my box, offline from the host, and comfortably small.
The update for the PACS-L subscriber list which I downloaded today was 241K,
and it zipped down to 83K, using the PKZIP default command mode.

Great for when you're writing messages offline, and taking notes on who/where
to send them. A nice side benefit is that the PACS-L subscriber list, at
least, sorts the addresses alphabetically, by the host computer string (the
address string after the '@' in the address). So all the addresses for a given
host/organization are listed together.

Both PKZIP and LIST utilities are shareware and available EVERYWHERE.

Cheers,
Ernest


............................
Ernest Perez, Ph.D
Access Information Associates
2183 Buckingham, Suite 106
Richardson TX 75081
214-530-4800
INTERNET: eperez@utdallas.edu
  BITNET: eperez@utdallas
............................
 
