"Ingredients":
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Yarn 0.92 offline-reader - www.vex.net/yarn or Simtel
Yarn Utilities see above
YAN at least 2.2, preferably newest version www.isis.ukgateway.net
SMOFSEND 1.0 - smsd_10.zip ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/ibmpc/apps/mailne=
ws
GNU Textutilities tut111ax.zip from Simtel, or any other unixish txtutili=
ties
DOS2UNIX or any other _DOS to Unix_ textfile conversion utility
All these are freeware. It's not too much if you consider that most of th=
em
should be on every DOS user's harddisk, anyway.
(BTW, though I couldn't test it on platforms like Win 9.x or OS/2, I can'=
t
see any reason, why it shouldn't run well in a DOS-box.)
Setup:
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What I describe is my setup, of course, which is _almost_ standard. If yo=
u
have a different setup, don't forget to adjust your _PATH and ENVIRONMENT=
_
settings. ( I often use absolut paths, it saves environment space. )
YARN standard setup in C:\YARN
YAN standard setup in C:\NOS
GNU Textutilities standard in C:\BIN
YARNUTIL _everything_ in C:\YUTIL, no subdirectories
DOS2UNIX.EXE in C:\YUTIL
SMOFSEND.EXE & .CFG in C:\YARN
I assume, all of the necessary programs work smoothly on your system :-)
!!!IMPORTANT!!!
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Before you collect your mail using YAN, do not forget to issue the
POPMAIL SEPARATOR command. This is the key to your success.
Version 2.2 and version 2.3 have slightly different syntax:
2.2 popmail separator b ( IIRC)
2.3d popmail separator ( the place for the definition remains blank )
Unlike the case with UKA_PPP & Yarn, here you have to setup your newsgrou=
ps
in Yarn by yourself prior to import the news, using the "newgroup"
utility.
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~
We start at the moment you have downloaded your emails and news with YAN
and terminated the connection.
You can use following batch:
::****IMP.BAT****
@echo off
cd c:\nos\spool\articles
if exist batch.txt move batch.txt %yarn%\batch.txt > nul:
cd ..\mail
if exist mailbox.txt move mailbox.txt c:\yutil\mailbox.txt > nul:
cd c:\yutil
dos2unix %yarn%\batch.txt > nul:
if exist mailbox.txt spl2fold mailbox.txt %yarn%\mail\newmail /Q- > nul:
@echo on
call resend.bat %yarn%\mail\newmail
cd %yarn%
expire -r
if exist batch.txt import -r batch.txt
yarn
del c:\yutil\mailbox.txt
::end
Of course, this is just a skeleton batch that you can modify
according to your needs and to your taste.
Your batch.txt may contain both headers and full articles. Unlike _all_
other versions and variations of KA9Q, YAN 2.3d produces a DOS style
batch.txt (LF/CR), instead of the standard Unix (LF) rnews format.
That's why we need a conversion utility: otherwise all your articles and
headers go to junk! Don't forget to adjust the name of your mailbox file.
!!!IMPORTANT!!!
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Please note the "expire -r" line in IMP.BAT
As you know YARN keeps track of imported articles. However, it cannot
distinguish between "header-only" and "full" articles. If you omit the
expire.exe utility, import.exe will reject exactly those articles you
have chosen for download before. It takes them for duplicates.
There are two ways to solve this problem, setting in expire.exe before
import is the simpler solution. (I'll mention the other one later)
I'm sure, you will be amazed, how fast and precisely your mails will be
resent, reimported and directed into the appropriate folders or pseudo
newsgroups, following the predefined filter rules. Your full articles and
newsheaders will land in the appropriate newsgroups.
However, this is not everything. We can select from the message headers
those that we intend to download in our next online session later, using
hardly anything more than Yarn's own capabilities! All we need is a tiny
batch in Yarn's home directory ( Here C:\YARN).
::**G.BAT**
find "Message-ID" >> c:\nos\spool\news\get.tmp
::end
While reading your news you see header-only articles. If you want to retr=
ieve
them in your next online session, just hit ALTGR-|(vertical bar),
then "g" and ENTER.
Preparing emails for KA9Q is not difficult, either: it is SMOFSEND's job.
Smofsend and its configuration file should be in Yarn's directory.
#Sample SMOFSEND.CFG
[queuedir] c:\nos\spool\mqueue
[mailhost] mailto.isp.net <-- your ISP's SMTP server
Write your emails and email replies. Go back to the "main menu" and hit t=
he
"R" key. You see a line like "mail..................15", if your "mail re=
ply
packet" contains 15 emails. Hit the Spacebar in order to see the
Subject lines. The cursor bar is on the first mail. Hit ALTGR-|
type in "smofsend %f" and hit the ENTER key. Repeat this for every line.
Don't worry, you only have to type in the command once :-)
After this you go back one step by hitting ESC. Now you can delete the
mailpacket "mail", you don't need it anymore. Don't be afraid, in the
background Yarn has already made a copy of each mail for your archive, in
the folder MAILED (default).
Of course, you can reply to news articles you read before and can post
original articles. The procedure is similar like before. (You remember
ALTGR)
After finishing your messages you go back to the "main menu",
aka "Newsgroup Selection". Hit "R" and go with the cursor bar onto "news".
This is your news reply packet. Hit the Spacebar to see the Subject lines.
The next step is familiar to us: Hit ALTGR-|, then n1, and then ENTER.
BTW, n1 is a batch again:
::**N1.BAT**
find /V "=BA$%qwer&&ZUIO&/()" >> news.tmp
::end
As you see, the trick is to look for a character string that
(hopefully) never will show up in one of your messages :-)
Go through all Subject lines. If you are ready you can delete the "news"
file by hitting DEL.
Another short batch finishes the articles and prepares them for delivery.
::**N2.BAT**
@echo off
csplit -f news -n 4 -z news.tmp /^From:/ {*}
copy news0???.* c:\nos\spool\nqueue\news*.txt
del news0???
del *.tmp
::end
We are _almost_ ready. You remember, we created a "get" file for YAN.
This file is still not in the appropriate format. Another problem is,
that some newsmasters preserve the illegal Message-ID of some
broken newsreaders by creating a useless header line like this:
"X-Orig-Message-ID: "
Such lines must be eliminated, and our get file must be somewhat
taylored. We can use makeget.bat for this.
::***MAKEGET.BAT***
@echo off
cd c:\nos\spool\news
type get.tmp | find /V "X-Orig-" > get.$$$ | cut -b 13- > get
::end
This kind of batches you can execute from within Yarn, too, by pressing
SHIFT-! (Don't forget to "exit").
Admittedly, this method forces the user to keep his HD tidy and move
the articles to folders right after having read them. There is a way
out: instead of using expire.exe before import.exe, you can use two
other small utilities written for KA9Q.
ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/ibmpc/apps/mailnews offers PEEL (freeware) and
MAKE_GET (shareware). (You need both.) If you process batch.txt with
these utilities, you don't have to import the header-only articles
into Yarn, hence there will be no collision.
________________________________________________________________________
Well, this was Yarn and YAN. I'm quite sure, using such simple utilities
it would be possible to combine any other variant of KA9Q with Yarn.
However, without modifying NET.EXE's sources users would be forced to pos=
t
through mail2news gateways.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Could please somebody tell me, where to find the utility YURL?
--=20
Tibor Mocsar