[comp.sources.wanted] Mail Server Software

xg00@GTE.COM (Xev Gittler) (06/20/89)

I know it's out there, but I can't remember where. I am looking for
mail server software, that will allow me to set up a database, and
allow people to mail requests in and get automatic responses. If
anyone, has, or knows where I can find such software, please let me
know via e-mail. Thanks.

-- 
					Xev Gittler
					xg00@gte.com, or
					xg00%gte.com@relay.cs.net

bill@twwells.com (T. William Wells) (06/21/89)

In article <7087@bunny.GTE.COM> xg00@GTE.COM (Xev Gittler) writes:
: I know it's out there, but I can't remember where. I am looking for
: mail server software, that will allow me to set up a database, and
: allow people to mail requests in and get automatic responses. If
: anyone, has, or knows where I can find such software, please let me
: know via e-mail. Thanks.

Subscribe to comp.archives, the group I moderate. Among other things,
I collect server software. (Speaking of which, if you have software
relating to archives, e.g., servers, archivers, indexers, or what
have you, that is freely distributable, I want it. I will make it
available through my server.) Following is the help message for my
server:

The comp.archives database server is a rather stupid set of shell
scripts to let you use e-mail to get information from the
comp.archive database. At this time, all that is available are the
archive site database, some informational messages, and some
archive related software.

What you do is to send a message to

	comp-archives-server@twwells.com

The subject of the message is ignored; all commands go in the body
of the message. The commands it recognizes are:

path path-to-you

	You *must* include a path line somewhere in the message
	because the shell script will e-mail the response to that
	address. I run a smart mailer here with a complete set of
	maps, so if you are in the maps and trust the route from
	here to there, you can just put user@site for the path.

	For example, if you want the server response to go to user
	foo at address baz, and if baz is in the mail maps, your
	path line would look like:

		path foo@baz

	If baz isn't in the maps, or if you know that mail to you
	that relies on the maps is unreliable, you can make it
	something like:

		path well-known-site!site2!...!baz!foo

	I am directly connected to uunet, so that is a good site
	to start from. If you know a reliable route from my site,
	you can include the whole path (excluding twwells) and the
	server will follow that.

	Avoid using paths that contain a percent sign (%); these
	tend to be misinterpreted by many mailers.

send help

	Send the latest version of this message.

send sitereg

	Send a form you can fill out to register your archive. You
	fill out the form and send it to

		comp-archives-request@twwells.com

send format

	Send a description of the comp.archives database entry
	format. Warning, it's about 13K.

send index

	Send an index of the comp.archives database. The index has
	entries of the form:

		<site name> -- <access> -- <title>
		<keywords>
		...

	When requesting information about a site, use <site name>
	in a "send site" command. The <access> field is a clue as
	to how you can get to the archive: words like uucp, ftp,
	mail, bbs, and fido. The keywords are there to give you a
	clue as to what is in the archive.

send db.perl.shar

	There is a perl script to automatically extract the
	archive info from the DB: postings. This will get you that
	perl script.

send db.serv.shar
send decwrl.shar
send netlib.1.shar
send netlib.2.shar

	I archive three servers. The first is the server I use for
	comp.archives; it is a _very_ simple set of shell scripts
	(about 100 lines) and has no documentation. I also have
	the decwrl server and the netlib server. Because the
	latter two servers are large, you should not include
	anything else in your request when you ask for them. Also,
	the netlib server is over 70K; therefore, I split it into
	two separate parts. You should ask for each separately.

send site site-name

	Send information about a specific site. You will receive
	both the database entry and the informational posting that
	went with it, if there was one.

quit

	Cause any data after this line to be ignored. Useful if
	your mailer appends a signature to your message.

The server is entirely automatic and does not try to resend failed
mail, nor do I pay any attention to failed mail. If you don't get
a reply after a reasonable time, or get a bad reply, send mail to

	comp-archives-request@twwells.com

and tell me what the problem is. Server requests to this address
will be summarily ignored.

---
Bill                    { uunet | novavax | ankh | sunvice } !twwells!bill
bill@twwells.com

send comp.archives postings to comp-archives@twwells.com
send comp.archives related mail to comp-archives-request@twwells.com
send comp.archives server requests to comp-archives-server@twwells.com