How do I receive a list of archive log files for the Medieval Art List?

Send an e-mail to listserv@listserv.utoronto.ca. In the body of the message type a command of the form:

INDEX Medart-L

You will receive a message with a list of available archive log files of the form:

* Archive files for the CAMERA-L list at LISTSERV.UTORONTO.CA
* (weekly logs)
*
* filename filetype GET PUT size (bytes) date time
* -------  --------  -----  ----  ----   ---  ----
  CAMERA-L LOG9901C LOG OWN 13,200 1999-01-20 13:54:10
  CAMERA-L LOG9902D LOG OWN 15,698 1999-01-27 11:20:30

The archives are separated into manageable file sizes depending on the volume of messages sent to the list.

Retrieving an Archived File&emdash; The GET Command

To retrieve an archived file, send an e-mail to listserv@listserv.utoronto.ca. In the body of the message type a command of the form:

GET Medart-L FILETYPE

For example if you enter:

GET Medart-L LOG9901C

LISTSERV will send you an e-mail containing that specific archive.

Searching Techniques&emdash; The SEARCH Command

It's more likely that you'll want to retrieve an archive based on something you remember about the message contents or the message sender. Or you may remember roughly when a certain topic was discussed.

List of Messages

If you'd like to get a list of archived messages, send an e-mail to listserv@listserv.utoronto.ca . In the body of the message type a command of the form:

SEARCH * IN Medart-L

For example:

SEARCH * IN Medart-L

will return a list (starting with the oldest) of messages, showing the date, time, number of records (lines), and the subject line for each. Only the first 100 entries are returned. See the section Search by Date, below, on how to restrict the list to a specific date range.

Single Word Search

To search for a single word, send an e-mail to listserv@listserv.utoronto.ca . In the body of the message type a command of the form:

SEARCH word IN Medart-L

For example, to find the word "lens", enter:

SEARCH lens IN Medart-L

This command would produce:

• a list of all messages that contain the word "lens"
• a command you can send to LISTSERV to retrieve the full text of the messages, and
• a short excerpt from the message showing the word in context.

See the sample output below. In the section Search by Date, you can see how to restrict the list to a specific date range.

Search for Multiple Words

Since only the first 100 matches (starting with the oldest) are presented, a single word may not be enough to find all the entries in a list's archive. By adding more words, you can, in effect, return matches across more archive files. Send an e-mail to listserv@listserv.utoronto.ca of the form:

SEARCH word1 word2 IN Medart-L

For example,

SEARCH features zoom IN Medart-L

LISTSERV will list all messages that have both "features" and "zoom", regardless of their order and case.

Case Insensitive Text String Search

If you want to search for a specific (case insensitive) text string, send an e-mail to listserv@listserv.utoronto.ca. In the body of the message type a command of the form:

SEARCH 'single quoted text' IN Medart-L

For example,

SEARCH 'digital camera' IN Medart-L

will list only those messages that have the string "digital camera" in the message.

Exact Text String Search

To find an exact match of a specific text string, enclose the string in double quotes. Send an e-mail to listserv@listserv.utoronto.ca. In the body of the message type a command of the form:

SEARCH "double quoted text" IN Medart-L

For example,

SEARCH "Shutter release" IN Medart-L

In this example, LISTSERV will only find exact case matches ("Shutter release" might appear at the beginning of a sentence). When using quotes, they must be matched, single with single, double with double.

Search by Date

Since each archive has a date field, a search can be restricted to a specified date range. Send an e-mail to listserv@listserv.utoronto.ca. In the body of the message type a command of the form:

SEARCH some text FROM date TO date IN Medart-L

For example,

SEARCH speed film FROM 12 january 97 TO 21 august 98 IN Medart-L

will find all messages that contain the word "speed" and the word "film" in the archives from January 12, 1997 to August 21, 1998. The format for the date is day month year. If the year is not specified then the search will default to the current year. The text to search for can be any of the text search techniques discussed previously.

Sender Search

You can use the sender of an e-mail as a search criterion. Send an e-mail to listserv@listserv.utoronto.ca. In the body of the message type a command of the form:

SEARCH * IN Medart-L WHERE SENDER CONTAINS e-mail address

For example,

SEARCH * IN Medart-L WHERE SENDER CONTAINS ansel.adams@bnwphoto.ca

Partial e-mail addresses can be used. For example, adams@bnw will also work in the above example.

This document is adapted from L-Soft LISTSERV: Database Functions by L-Soft. To obtain a copy of the original document, which contains a full explanation of all the LISTSERV Functions send e-mail to listserv@listserv.utoronto.ca. In the body of the message type the command of the form: