This tutorial details procedures for deleting and editing list notebook logs. Deleting notebook logs is very straightforward. Editing notebook logs is a more advanced technique and should only be done after you have built your skills and feel confident as a List Owner.
Note that the deletion and editing of individual notebook logs does not affect the operation of the archive facility. It is the List Header keyword Notebook= that controls whether messages posted to the list are archived or not.
3.1 Permanently Deleting Notebook Logs
3.2 A Temporary Alternative to Deletion
4.1 Correct Notebook Log Format
4.2 Editing via Reply-to or Forwarding Mail
4.3 Editing via Exporting and Importing Mail
[Back to New Owner List Archives and Files]
There may be some instances when you wish to delete or edit your notebook logs in your list archives. For example,
- There may be storage constraints on your LISTSERV host.
- Your LISTSERV provider may charge you for archive storage and you wish to save money.
- Your list may have exceeded an archive storage quota and stopped processing and you need to re-claim storage prior to issuing a FREE listname command.
- Or perhaps you just wish to delete some unnecessary or inflammatory posts from your archive.
There are primarily two methods for managing notebook log storage. Section 3 discusses removing notebook logs in their entirety (a relatively simple task) and Section 4 discusses editing the contents of notebook logs (more advanced.)
[Back to Edit List Archives Table of Contents]
As with all other LISTSERV commands, the following commands used to manage the archives must be sent to the LISTSERV Command Address.
| Command | Description | Important Notes |
| INDEX listname | Returns a listing of files available from your list including all notebook logs and those in the File Catalog (if it exists.) | An informational, read-only command. |
| SHOW QUOTA | Only applicable to certain LISTSERV sites (e.g., Ease-Home). Will return the amount and percentage of archive storage available for all lists that you own on the server. | An informational, read-only command. |
| GET listname LOGYYMMW | Used to retrieve a specified notebook log. For example, LOG9801A would be for the first week of January, 1998 | A read-only, retrieval command |
| PUT listname LOGYYMMW PW=XXXXXXXX | Used to store edited notebook logs back to the server, or with a blank line following, will delete a notebook log. PUT commands are also used to store the List Header and other list files such as the Welcome and Farewell files. | Will store the text immediately following back to the server. If a blank line follows the PUT command, the specified file will be deleted. |
[Back to Edit List Archives Table of Contents]
Deleting notebook logs is very simple and will conserve the available archive storage that your list is allotted. This section describes two methods. The first method should be used when you are certain that you wish to delete a specified notebook log. The second method should be used when you wish to re-claim archive storage temporarily or if you have not made a final decision regarding permanent deletion.
Permanently deleting a notebook log in its entirety is quite easy. You simply send to the Command Address
INDEX listname
to receive a listing of all notebook log files available for your list and simply send the following PUT command to the Command Address
PUT listname LOGYYMMW PW=XXXXXXXX
<insert blank line here>
where LOGYYMMW corresponds to the notebook log that you wish to delete. If your list has monthly archives the name of the notebook log would be in the format LOGYYMM.
NOTE: Do not delete your
current notebook log. That one is still being written to by the list.
The PUT command with the
subsequent blank line will delete both the notebook log contents
and its "entry" (i.e., name) in the List Archives.
Because the entry is gone, you will not be able to PUT
a backup of the notebook log back to the server (assuming you had
retrieved one before the deletion with a GET
command.) You would need assistance from the LISTSERV Site
Manager to create the entry for a notebook log that was deleted..
Depending upon the support level at your LISTSERV site, this
assistance may or may not be available. If you are not absolutely
certain that you wish to permanently delete a notebook log from
the archives you may wish to use the alternative in
Section 3.2.
[Back to Edit List Archives Table of Contents]
3.2 A Temporary Alternative to Deletion
If you are not completely decided about whether
to delete a notebook log in its entirety or just to edit the
notebook log, it is recommended that you PUT back to the
server a temporary edited version rather than deleting the entire
log entry. This method may be particularly helpful if your list
has exceeded quota and although you wish to increase your archive
storage, you cannot get in touch with the LISTSERV Site Manager
very quickly. (For example - after hours or on the weekend.)
Specifically, send the command
INDEX listname
to receive of list of notebook logs. Then send
GET listname LOGYYMMW
to retrieve a notebook log locally. Save a copy
for backup (this step is essential!) on your local system. Store
a temporary notebook log back to the server by using the PUT
command with "temporary" text following the command
line. For example,
PUT listname LOGYYMMW PW=XXXXXXXX NOTE: There must be no blank
lines between the PUT command and the beginning of the temporary
notebook log contents. Furthermore, you cannot use a file
attachment. Otherwise you will delete the entry for this notebook
log and defeat the purpose of this alternative.
See examples.
If applicable, you can FREE listname
to continue list processing and when archive space is increased,
you can PUT the original notebook back to the server by
sending the command
PUT listname LOGYYMMW PW=XXXXXXXX This alternative method will undoubtedly
re-claim archive space and allow you to keep your options open.
[Back to Edit List Archives Table of Contents]
4. Editing Notebook Log Contents
Editing the contents of a notebook log is more
difficult than outright deletion. If done incorrectly, you could
severely impact the search and retrieval database capability. Of
course, if you save your original unaltered notebook log locally,
you can always fix matters. However, if you have a low threshold
for making mistakes and are timed-constrained, your best bet
would be to avoid editing notebook logs. If your purpose in
editing archives is to avoid an outage due to exceeding quota and
not primarily to fine-tune the content of your archives, you may
be better off monitoring your list archive space with the SHOW
QUOTA command and either request additional storage from
your LISTSERV provider or delete
notebook logs in their entirety when
your archives exceed 80% capacity.
The steps to edit a notebook log are as follows:
First send the command
INDEX listname
to determine which notebook logs you wish to
edit. Then, retrieve a copy of the desired notebook log by
sending the command:
GET listname LOGYYMMW
NOTE: Do not edit your
current notebook log. That one is still being written to by the
list. It is very important when editing notebook logs that you
keep an original unaltered copy locally until you know your
procedures were successful.
After editing the notebook log,
you will send the command
PUT listname LOGYYMMW PW=XXXXXXXX to replace the specified
notebook log on the server with the newly edited version.
Although the above steps to choose, retrieve
and store a notebook log are quite straightforward, the actual
editing process will vary depending upon the editor and mail
program that you use. Two possible editing techniques are
described in Section 4.2 and Section 4.3. No matter which method you use (or if you develop your
own method) there are some general caveats to keep in mind:
- The following e-mail programs are known to have difficulty handling large
messages of the kind needed to successfully edit Archives: AOL, Juno, Hotmail, Yahoo, Compuserve. The
popular mail programs Eudora and Pegasus may also have
problems editing archives because of an editor buffer size limitation.
- Mail programs that do work, though you may need to become familiar with
their features: MS Internet Mail, Netscape Mail, Agent.
(NOTE: The above list of mail programs is not
all-inclusive. Nor does it imply any recommendation but
is for informational purposes only. As List Owner, you will
wish to investigate the capabilites and restrictions of several of
the many mail programs available and make an informed
decision about what you prefer to use.)
If your list has a WWW archive interface,
the changes you have made while editing your archives will not be reflected there
until you do 2 things:
[Back to Edit List Archives Table of Contents]
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:
Hi Everyone,
With the stress and busy-ness of the holiday season I was never able to read
the Happy New Year to everyone!
Jill
========================================================================= 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 With the stress and busy-ness of the
holiday season I was never able to read the Happy New Year to everyone!
Jill
========================================================================================= Organization: Big Online Service (http://www.bigonlineservice.com) What did you say?
John
The above notebook log has a multitude of formatting errors.
[Back to Edit List Archives Table of Contents]
Some e-mail programs will allow you to reply to
the results of your GET listname LOGYYMMW command and quote the original message, therefore allowing you to edit it. However, in many instances,
the reply feature of mail programs will place a > symbol in front of
quoted text. This > would then show up in the edited version
of your archive which is most likely unacceptable to you. Some
mail programs, however, will quote replies (or sometimes
forwarded e-mail) without the > in front of the original text. You will wish to investigate the Reply-to and
Forward Mail capabilities of your current mail program and
perhaps investigate other programs as well. It may be necessary
for you to either update the release level of your current mail
program, if possible, or obtain another program.
[Back to Edit List Archives Table of Contents]
4.3 Editing via Exporting and Importing Mail
Some mail programs allow you to import messages
from a text file. Therefore, you could use the following method:
Of course, your mail program must allow you to
create very large messages. It may be necessary for you to either
update the release level of your current mail program, if
possible, or obtain another program.
[Back to Edit List Archives Table of Contents]
An example of a correct PUT command:
Note how the line of
"=" signs immeidately follows the PUT command line.
Incorrect PUT command:
Note the incorrect blank line following the PUT
line. This will result in the notebook log and its entry (name)
being deleted. Use care not to have a blank line if you do not
want to permanently remove the entire notebook log entry. You
will need the assistance of the LISTSERV Site Manager to correct
if you inadvertently remove the entry. Depending upon your
LISTSERV provider's level of support, this assistance may or may
not be available.
[Back to Edit List Archives Table of Contents]
[Back to New
Owner List Archives and Files]
This is a temporary notebook log.
<insert original backup notebook log here in
proper format >
<insert edited notebook log here in
proper format >
This forces the WWW archive indexes to be rebuilt so they match the newly edited archives.
4.1 Correct Notebook Log Format
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
assignment. I am looking forward to the next discussion.
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
================================================================
=========
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,
assignment. I am looking forward to the next discussion.
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
Subject: Re: 1998!Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit
4.2 Editing via Reply-to or Forwarding Mail
Some people will think that the "Redirect" feature of the Eudora email program can avoid this. Unfortunately it cannot be used because it produces a non-standard From: address that will be rejected by LISTSERV.
PUT listname LOG9801A PW=XXXXXXXX
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 31 Dec 1997 19:32:35 -0800
(actual headers and message body text omitted)
.
.
.
PUT listname LOG9801A PW=XXXXXXXX
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 31 Dec 1997 19:32:35 -0800
(actual headers and message body text omitted)
.
.
.