Subject: Re: Create a maillist from a file ?

From: R R Neuswanger <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 3 Apr 1997 16:40:45 -0500

On Thu, 3 Apr 1997, Dennis Maurer wrote:

> Is there a way to take a file of e-maill addresses,
> and create a maillist, or in some other way to send
> e-mail to each person in that file?
	Here's a kludge that ought to work (but that I
haven't tried): import the file into the text of a
message to yourself; send it; when it arrives, use T
(ake address) on it, and go from there.

                R.R. Neuswanger, Ph.D., NRA-L
                 Balto-Fennic, Germanic, Romance
AcqBibSuppProj (ABSP)                 There are no good spammers.
Library of Congress                   Dead ones just dry up and
Washington, DC 20540-4120             stink less.
[email-masked]            I speak for me.Only.

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From: Robin S Socha <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 4 Apr 1997 06:20:49 +0200 (CEST)

>> Is there a way to take a file of e-maill addresses, and create a
  >> maillist, or in some other way to send e-mail to each person in that
  >> file?
  >	Here's a kludge that ought to work (but that I haven't tried):
  >import the file into the text of a message to yourself; send it; when it
  >arrives, use T (ake address) on it, and go from there.

Good idea for a small list, maybe not so good for a long one...

Check the format of the file containing the addresses. If it isn't ascii,
convert it. Then check the format of the file ~/.addressbook. See if the two
formats somehow match. Then throw up your hands in dispair and get someone
who knows a little perl. It shouldn't be a problem to convert it. You
probably don't want to use pine for running a mailing list, though :-)

Later,
Robin

-----
Robin S. Socha,
Political Science Dept., Bonn University, Bonn
Key fingerprint = 7F F2 84 73 CF E9 2C 92  F6 6E F9 B4 8F FE AC 1E
To get my pgp public key, send an e-mail with the subject "get pgp-key"

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From: [email-masked] (Dennis Maurer)
Date: Thu, 3 Apr 1997 21:00:54 GMT

Is there a way to take a file of e-maill addresses,
and create a maillist, or in some other way to send
e-mail to each person in that file? I'm only talking
< 120 folks, but I sure don't want to type each one
in separately.

Thanks for any help...

Regards,
Dennis M. Maurer

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From: Robin S Socha <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 4 Apr 1997 13:20:21 +0200 (CEST)

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

On Thu, 3 Apr 1997, Dennis Maurer wrote:

  >file? I'm only talking < 120 folks, but I sure don't want to type each
  >one in separately.

Two things for you to do:

1) Take a look at the format of .addressbook. Make your file match this
format. Since it's a fixed set of addresses, you might only need the entry
for the actual address, so that's a couple of lines in perl or something.

2) Take a look at the manual for information on distribution lists and
alternate address books. You'll like it :-)

Later,
Robin

- -----
Robin S. Socha,

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From: R R Neuswanger <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 4 Apr 1997 10:53:00 -0500 (EST)

On Fri, 4 Apr 1997, Robin S Socha wrote:
		(snip)
> probably don't want to use pine for running a mailing list, though :-)
		(snip)
	Once I manage to retire, I've *got* to buckle
down and go learn to program -- though of course then
I'll probably desist from running any sort of list...
:-)
	Happy Friday, all!

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From: [email-masked] (Dennis Maurer)
Date: Fri, 4 Apr 1997 02:48:59 GMT

R R Neuswanger ([email-masked]) wrote:
: On Thu, 3 Apr 1997, Dennis Maurer wrote:

: > Is there a way to take a file of e-maill addresses,
: > and create a maillist, or in some other way to send
: > e-mail to each person in that file?
: 	Here's a kludge that ought to work (but that I
: haven't tried): import the file into the text of a
: message to yourself; send it; when it arrives, use T
: (ake address) on it, and go from there.

Thanks for the tip...
I tried the above and it did not work, anyone else ?

I need this feature to avoid typing 116 addresses not
to spam anyone. You can check several newsgroups and 
see I am anti-spam.

Regards,
Dennis M. Maurer - my real name and e-mail address !!

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From: Steve Hubert <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 4 Apr 1997 08:54:51 -0800 (PST)

The kludge really should have worked. Which version of pine are you using?
Would you mind trying the kludge but mailing it to me instead of you so I
can figure out why it didn't work? Thanks.

Steve Hubert <[email-masked]>
Networks and Distributed Computing, Univ. of Washington, Seattle

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From: Robin S Socha <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 4 Apr 1997 19:22:17 +0200 (CEST)

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On Fri, 4 Apr 1997, Steve Hubert wrote:

I understand you philosophical interest in this particular problem :-), but
the easiest solution imvho would be to edit the ascii file. I mean,
extracting those addresses from the mail would take longer than actually
typing them, wouldn't it? I strongly suspect that a little regexp-magic
would do the same in fractions of a second, but then again, I'm not a perl
wizard...

Later,
Robin

  >The kludge really should have worked. Which version of pine are you
  >using? Would you mind trying the kludge but mailing it to me instead of
  >you so I can figure out why it didn't work? Thanks.
  >> : 	Here's a kludge that ought to work (but that I haven't tried):
  >> : import the file into the text of a message to yourself; send it; when
  >> : it arrives, use T (ake address) on it, and go from there.
  >> Thanks for the tip... I tried the above and it did not work, anyone
  >> else ? I need this feature to avoid typing 116 addresses not to spam
  >> anyone. You can check several newsgroups and see I am anti-spam.

- -----
Robin S. Socha,

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From: All Womens Health Services <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 4 Apr 1997 11:06:34 -0800 (PST)

Help, I've been trying to unsubscribe to this list to no avail.
[email-masked]

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From: Steve Hubert <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 4 Apr 1997 11:21:56 -0800 (PST)

> would do the same in fractions of a second, but then again, I'm not a perl

Well, it only took about 10 seconds. Dennis sent me the file in mail, I
did Take, Listmode, A(setAll), Take and I have a list in my addressbook. I
mailed him the lines to append to his addressbook.

But actually I was even more interested in checking to see if there was a
bug that should be fixed before the next pine.

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From: Steve Hubert <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 4 Apr 1997 12:02:20 -0800 (PST)

Oops, I forgot about that, too. You have to turn on the feature 

  enable-aggregate-command-set

On Fri, 4 Apr 1997, R R Neuswanger wrote:

> 	I just realized I forgot to tell him about the
> things he has to have enabled in setup-config to do
> selection; and he may not have known that. (I'd have to
> go find them again; you must know off the top of your
> head.)

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From: Dennis Maurer <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 4 Apr 1997 12:07:29 -0800 (PST)

It must already be on, it's looks good just the way it is,
I'm in the process of writing you a detailed response, so
I'll return to that...meantime:

IT WORKED !!!

Regards,
Dennis M. Maurer - jumping for joy !!

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From: R R Neuswanger <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 4 Apr 1997 15:15:18 -0500 (EST)

Dennis, one other thought: if you start creating very
many long distribution lists, you can fill up your
.addressbook. (I think you can anyway.) 
	I often get warning messages, and sometimes
worse, when I add addresses, even when my space quota on
the pine machine is well below limit.
	There is a way to edit the .addressbook, which I
think I can still find, better than just going through
it and hitting d on individual entries.
	Another kludge, that I've set up but not tried
yet: when you take an address that you know you won't
want long, write "delete" in the comment field. Then
occasionally go into the addressbook, keep telling it w,
and delete each the slow way.
	If one of you others knows something better, I'd
like to have it.

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From: Robert de Bath <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 4 Apr 1997 20:24:14 +0100 (BST)

> < 120 folks, but I sure don't want to type each one
This is easy, in my favorite editor, takes about 30 seconds.

Take your list of addresses, one to a line:

Tom Jones <[email-masked]>
Bill Smith <[email-masked]>
....

Append a comma to the end of each line, insert 3 spaces at the start of each
line. Replace the comma at the end of the last line with a ")".
Replace the 3 spaces at the start of the first line with:
      "thelist<TAB>thelist<TAB>("

The "<TAB>" means hit the tab key.

The add the file in the pine config as an extra address-book and put 'thelist'
on the 'BCC:' line of the message header.

PS: My favorite editor is vi ... cue an emacs fan ... :-)
--
Rob.                           (Robert de Bath <[email-masked]>)

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From: R R Neuswanger <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 4 Apr 1997 14:51:57 -0500

> bug that should be fixed before the next pine.

	Here's hoping we may (with some vestige of
legitimacy) take that as a sign of hope for 4.0 soon!
Strength to all your arms!

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From: Nathan D Richards <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 5 Apr 1997 13:58:09 -0500

> Help, I've been trying to unsubscribe to this list to no avail.
Highlight comp.mail.pine and hit Delete.