The format of the notebook log text is very precise.

NOTE: If your edited archive file does not adhere to this specific format, the searching and retrieval of archive posts will be seriously impaired.

The notebook log consists of multiple posts. Each post is separated from each other by a line of exactly 73 equal signs. The line of equal signs must be followed immediately by the mail headers such as "Date:", "Reply-to:", "From:", and "Subject:". There must be no blank lines in between the line of equal signs and the mail header lines. After all the headers, there must be at least one blank line before the body of the e-mail begins. After the body of the e-mail is finished, the next post will begin with another line of 73 equals signs.

An example of a properly formatted notebook log:


PUT listname LOG9801A PW=XXXXXXXX
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 1 Jan 1998 08:18:14 -0800
Reply-To: "Discussion List"<discuss@DOMAIN.COM>
Sender: "Discussion List"<discuss@DOMAIN.COM>
From: Jill Talker <jtalker@radio.com>
Organization: Society for Big Talkers
Subject: Re: What's Next? Happy New Year
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit


Hi Everyone,


With the stress and busy-ness of the holiday season I was never able to read the
assignment. I am looking forward to the next discussion.


Happy New Year to everyone!


Jill


=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 1 Jan 1998 08:50:48 EST
Reply-To: "Discussion List" <discuss@DOMAIN.COM>
Sender: "Discussion List" <discuss@DOMAIN.COM>
From: John Listener <jlistener@bigonlineservice.com>
Organization: Big Online Service (http://www.bigonlineservice.com)
Subject: Re: 1998!
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit


What did you say?


John


Should you incorrectly edit the notebook logs or if your text editor truncates or adds lines where is should not, your notebook log could become corrupted and the searching and retrieval of specific posts will be seriously impacted. Not all message headers are required. However, "Date:", "From:", and "Subject:" should always be present and in that order.

Here is an example of an example of an improperly formatted notebook log:

PUT listname LOG9801A PW=XXXXXXXX
================================================================
=========


Date: Thu, 1 Jan 1998 08:18:14 -0800
Reply-To: "Discussion List" <discuss@DOMAIN.COM>
Sender: "Discussion List"<discuss@DOMAIN.COM>
From: Jill Talker <jtalker@radio.com>
Organization: Society for Big Talkers
Subject: Re: What's Next? Happy New Year
MIME-Version: 1.0Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Hi Everyone,


With the stress and busy-ness of the holiday season I was never able to read the
assignment. I am looking forward to the next discussion.


Happy New Year to everyone!


Jill


=========================================================================================
Date: Thu, 1 Jan 1998 08:50:48 EST
Reply-To: "Discussion List"<discuss@DOMAIN.COM>
Sender: "Discussion List"<discuss@DOMAIN.COM>
From: John Listener jlistener@bigonlineservice.com


Organization: Big Online Service (http://www.bigonlineservice.com)
Subject: Re: 1998!Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit


What did you say?


John


The above notebook log has a multitude of formatting errors.

  • The first line of 73 equal signs is wrapped to the next line.
  • There is a blank line after the equal signs in the first post.
  • There is not a blank line between the last header line of the first post and the body of the message.
  • The second post has too many equal signs in the line preceding it.
  • There is a blank line in the middle of the message headers. The headers after the blank will be considered part of the message body.