Commands to ListProcessor may be issued interactively, i.e., directly
to ListProc without using e-mail, if both the host running ListProc and
the system you use are networked directly on the Internet. ILP clients
are available to run under UNIX, X-windows, Macintosh, and MS-Windows.
An ilp session offers a command line interface in UNIX and graphical interface
in the other clients. Copies of ilp should be available on the server hosting
the list that you interact with. If not you may contact CREN for the latest
version.
If you are using UNIX you will need to compile the ilp client before you use it. Then you connect to your desired server with the command "ilp host@domain" where "host@ domain" is replaced by the Internet domain name for the server to which you are connecting. It may be necessary to give an optional port address; check with your ListProc system manager if this is necessary. Once you connect you will be prompted for a username and password. Log in with the e-mail address that ListProc knows for you in your list as a login name and use your list password as a password. If you are not subscribed to any lists on the system you may login as "test" giving a password of "new-user". Once a connection has been established, you will get the ilp command prompt "REQUEST>" to which all commands are entered. In the examples below the command prompt is in regular type as above and the commands that you type are in bold type. If ListProc cannot match your e-mail address and password with one in a known list then ListProc will give you "casual user" privileges. Casual users may only issue commands for help, information, recipients, and statistics for public lists and may issue index, get, view, and search requests in the archives. If you are a subscriber to a list then you may issue all these plus the set, run, subscribe, unsubscribe, and which commands. List owners may additionally issue all the owner commands for their lists. To review your command privileges type a question mark "?" or "privileges" at the prompt. ListProc accepts all ilp commands exactly as it does via e-mail. Long requests may be continued on multiple lines with an ampersand "&" at the end of each line. With the UNIX version of ilp the output of every request may be redirected to a file by using a standard UNIX redirection ">" or ">>" followed by a file name. For example, to get an index of an archive typing "REQUEST> index > listproc.index" will obtain an index of the archives and save it in a file called listproc.index. Like ftp, ilp allows you to specify a file type for all files transferred using the keywords "binary" and "ascii". Input may also be redirected from a file using the UNIX redirection "<" followed by a filename. Therefore you can create a file called BATCH.REQUESTS containing the lines
index>index.text
get ListProc info >>index.text
quit
and run it with the command:
"REQUEST> <BATCH>REQUESTS".
You can also use UNIX porting of output with the "|" such that the command:
"REQUESTS> review listname | more"
will pipe the output of the "review " command to the UNIX "more" command. As a further example, you can look for a specific subscriber in a list by issuing the command:
"REQUESTS> review listname | grep -i name" where
"name" is replaced by the person's name.
To end an ilp session just enter quit or exit at the prompt.
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