oberman@lll-icdc ("Oberman, Kevin") (07/24/86)
>I am looking for a utility that will run under VMS that is similar to the unix >"news" utility. Basically, this would compare the dates of files in a news >directory with a date stored in each user's login directory, and display new >messages to the user. Usefull options to the basic display on new items could >be printing headers of news files, reporting the number of new news items, etc. I have a NEWS system which does most of what you request. It stores the time of a NEWS read in the SYSUAF user data area. A program is run out of SYLOGIN.COM to check that time vs the time of NEWS update. The user is notified if the NEWS has been updated since it was last read. It has a number of option, such as printing the NEWS, writing it to a local file, and multiple NEWS subtopics. At least 10 systems here have been using the system for several years with no problems. The source is in FORTRAN. Due to length I will not post it, but I would be glad to send a copy to anyone wanting it. R. Kevin Oberman ARPA: oberman@lll-icdc.arpa Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (415) 422-6955 ------