Subject: Retrieving Archived Messages
   Date: Wed, 21 Jul 1999
   From: "Steven J. Coker" 
     To: [email protected]

Messages posted in the SCRoots Forum can be retrieved several ways.

1. Links are given on the SCRoots web site for the Forum web archives.  The
SCRoots web site can be found at:

   http://scroots.org/


2. You can search the SCRoots archived messages online by going to:

   http://www.liszt.com/read/SCRoots-L/
   http://www.liszt.com/read/SCRoots-D/

   https://lists.rootsweb.com/hyperkitty/
   https://lists.rootsweb.com/hyperkitty/archives/SCROOTS-L/

   https://sites.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/searches/
   https://mailinglists.rootsweb.com/listindexes/


3. You can also retrieve Forum digests by:

-=-=-=-=-

Retrieving Archived Messages

BEFORE YOU ATTEMPT ANYTHING DESCRIBED IN THESE INSTRUCTIONS BE SURE THAT YOU
HAVE READ ALL THE INSTRUCTIONS AND ALL THE NOTES GIVEN AT THE BOTTOM.  DO NOT
ABUSE THIS SERVICE.  KEEP ARCHIVE RETRIEVALS TO THE MINIMUM NECESSARY.  THEY PUT
AN EXTRA LOAD ON THE SERVERS.

A. THE DIRECTORY OF DIGEST FILES.

To find out which 1998 SCRoots digests are available send a message like this.

       To: [email protected]
  Subject: archive

           dir volume98
           quit

This will return a directory listing for all the 1998 SCRoots digests.  The
digests may have been zipped (gz) or they may be in raw text (rw) format.  A
typical listing reported might be as follows.

  -rw-rw----  1 slist  slist  30432 Mar 11 05:22 77

This tells you that digest Issue #77 was sent out using Smartlist on March 11th
at 05:22, the archived digest is only available in raw format and the file is
about 30,432 (30k) in size.


B. RETRIEVING A DIGEST.

To get digest Issue #77 in raw text form send a message like this.

       To: [email protected]
  Subject: archive

           get volume98/77
           quit

If available in gz format, use "get volume98/77.gz" to get the gz version.


C. NOTE WELL THE FOLLOWING.

* If you haven't read ALL of these instructions, then don't try any of this.

* If you do not understand these instructions, then don't try any of this.

* Turn your signature off.  If you must append a signature, include the "quit"
command to prevent the archive server from interpreting the signature.  If the
archive server tries to interpret the signature as commands, the results may be
something you really don't want to happen and both you and the service may
regret it.

* Turn off all "card" attachments.  If the archive server tries to interpret the
card as commands, the results may be something you really don't want to happen.

* Do not use capitals, directories and files are case sensitive.

* It may take from a few minutes to several hours or more before the server
sends the requested file.  Be patient.  Do not resend the request.  Wait until
you get a response from the request before you try something else.  If you don't
get a reply within 24 hours then the request probably failed and you may want to
try again.

* Don't send a lot of requests for archives.  Use this utility sparingly.  It
adds significantly to the server's workload.

* For zipped files you will need to know how to unzip the file using a utility
like WinZip (shareware).  You can download and install unzipping utility
programs from many shareware sites on the Internet such as
http://www.download.com.  If you don't know how to do this, then you should
learn before you try to retrieve the archives.  

* DO NOT SEND /* COMMANDS TO RETRIEVE ARCHIVES!  Retrieving all of the messages
in a list archive at once using a /* command will typically double the load on
the list server, and possibly worse.  On a high volume list this may be a
request for thousands of messages, which is too much for the list server to
handle, and will probably kill your own mailbox.  This is at best reverse
spamming and at worst is malicious hacking and may be a punishable offense. 
Instead of flooding the list server with messages, you're asking the list server
to flood you with messages.  Either action is unwise and may cause damage to
both the server and you.  DO NOT USE THE /* COMMAND!

* The SCRoots forum began in 1998.  There are no archived messages for SCRoots
before 1998.

* Please don't ask me to explain any of this.  If you can't figure it out from
what I've written in these instructions, then you probably should not be using
this special utility service, yet.

Hope that helps,

Steven J. Coker
SCRoots Forum Manager
http://scroots.org/

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