comparc@twwells.uucp (comp.archives) (02/24/89)
[This was one of my earliest received entries. Back then I had no CO
line for mail servers. Now I do so I'm reposting this. tww]
@ADD SITE
NM uhnix2.uh.edu
EN bill@twwells.uucp (T. William Wells) 23 Feb 89
TM CST
TT GENBANK-SERVER
AD archive-managment@uhnix2.uh.edu (?)
MA
CO mail;mail;uhnix2.uh.edu;help
IX
KW genbank
DE This is a mail response facility which will return a specific
DE GenBank entry requested via e-mail. The request must specify one,
DE and only one, locus name (from the LOCUS line) from the GenBank
DE sequence database.
DE
DE The server can be accessed on the Internet and UUCP *only* at this
DE time. Future connection through BITNET is possible.
@END
The University of Houston Department of Biochemical and Biophysical Sciences
and University Computing Center announce the availability of a
GENBANK-SERVER
This is a mail response facility which will return a specific GenBank
entry requested via e-mail. The request must specify one, and only one,
locus name (from the LOCUS line) from the GenBank sequence database.
The server can be accessed on the Internet and UUCP *only* at this time.
Future connection through BITNET is possible.
Please be aware that a mail response program is not "smart" and can
only respond to a limited set of commands. The full indexing of GenBank
(author, accession number, journal citation) are NOT available.
The address to use is
genbank-server@uhnix2.uh.edu (Internet)
or
...uhnix2!genbank-server (Usenet)
and your request can consist of one of the following:
HELP
SEND LOCUS genbank_locus_name_
SEND INDEX
SEND HELP (this may also work)
"HELP" will result in a small help file being sent back.
SEND LOCUS genbank_locus_name will return via e-mail the requested locus
if it exists, and an error message if it does not. Index files are
available; ask for the master index via SEND INDEX and there will be more
information sent back.
Server Policies:
The server runs every half hour and will handle only *one* request at a
time. If you want more than one entry, send in separate requests.
Large GenBank entries (Lambda, EBV, tobacco and liverwort chloroplasts)
may not make it through the thread of mailers. UUCP mailers, in
particular, silently enforce a limit of 64,000 characters in a single
mail message. Note also that Usenet mail is very unreliable; you should
consult the "pathalias" database to construct a mail path from
your machine to uhnix2. A local Unix mail wizard may be able to help.
In the near future we will add access by accession number. It is
highly recommended that you get the help file, which explains the
version of GenBank being distributed and the update policy.
The server contains a simple response to someone asking for too many
loci or otherwise abusing the service: it stops working for them.
Please restrict your requests to no more than one or two a day; if
the demand is too great the service will randomly choose requests
to ignore, or will be stopped altogether.
Questions can be sent to dd@lanl.gov (Internet) or dd%lanl.gov@CUNYVM(BITNET).
Requests to talk to a human rather than a mail response program should
be sent to archive-managment@uhnix2.uh.edu.