It does make sense indeed! I do hope to be able to take into account all these details when posting my next question to this list. In the meantime, I keep learning! Thank you so much for your time!
On Wed, Sep 2, 2015 at 10:13 PM, Mark Sapiro <m...@msapiro.net> wrote: > On 09/02/2015 12:27 PM, [IDIS Technical Secretariat] Ricardo Rodríguez > wrote: > > > > Still, I've a doubt about the syntax of Mailman commands. I do need to > do... > > > > [root@idis2 r.users.mbox]# cleanarch <r.users.all.mbox> > r.users.all.clean.mbox > > > > > > While <> are not required in command arch... > > > > > > [root@idis2 r.users.mbox]# arch --wipe r.users r.users.mbox > > > > > > If I don't use <> to enclose the input file name in cleanarch, I get the > > help page! > > > You are not 'enclosing' the input file name in cleanarch with <>. > cleanarch reads the input mailbox from stdin and writes the output mbox > to stdout. You are actually saying '<r.users.all.mbox' which redirects > stdin from the terminal to the file r.users.all.mbox and '> > r.users.all.clean.mbox' which redirects stdout from the terminal to the > file r.users.all.clean.mbox. > > Note that you didn't need to do this as the > <http://www.arctic.org/~dean/scripts/ezmlm2mbox> script already writes a > 'clean' mbox. > > On the other hand if you give a second argument to bin/arch, it assumes > that is the mbox. It doesn't read stdin in any case and writes various > progress info to stdout. > > > > Usage of both commands as per their help pages are close to similar... > > > > > > Usage: cleanarch [options] < inputfile > outputfile > > > This means use shell redirection to read the input from inputfile and > write the output to outputfile. > > > > Usage: /usr/lib/mailman/bin/arch [options] <listname> [<mbox>] > > Here the notation <listname> means that is a variable to be replaced > with the actual list name and [<mbox>] means that <mbox> is a variable > to be replaced with the actual mbox, but the [] mean it's optional - if > not provided it is computed as > archives/private/<listname>.mbox/<listname>.mbox. > > > > Also, arch alone shows its help page > > because arch without at least a <listname> argument is invalid > > > > whereas cleanarch alone do > > "nothing". > > Actually cleanarch alone is valid and both reads its input from and > writes its output to the terminal. That's why if you type just > 'cleanarch', it doesn't return immediately to a command prompt but waits > for input from the terminal. > > Consider > > mark@msapiro:~$ /var/MM/21/bin/cleanarch > - it's waiting for input- I type > From someone > - it responds > >From someone > - to stdout, and > Unix-From line changed: 1 > From someone > - to stderr. then I type ^D (control-D - end of file) and it responds > 0 messages found > - and exits. > > > Those usage lines and command behaviour aren't to consistent, > > are they? Could this behaviour be caused by my local configuration? > > > No. They are caused by two different programs written by at least two > different people. So yes, they aren't exactly consistent, but if you > understand the different commands and the shell redirection, it may make > more sense. > > True, cleanarch could have been written to require an input file > argument instead of using stdin, but using stdin and stdout makes it > easy to insert it into a pipeline of commands as in for example > > ezmlm2mbox [-d] ezmlm_dir | cleanarch | arch --wipe <listname> - > > except for the fact that arch doesn't read its stdin even if the > conventional '-' is used as the mbox file name. > > -- > Mark Sapiro <m...@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers, > San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan > -- Ricardo Rodríguez Research Management and Promotion Technician Technical Secretariat Health Research Institute of Santiago de Compostela (IDIS) http://www.idisantiago.es ------------------------------------------------------ Mailman-Users mailing list Mailman-Users@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/mailman-users Mailman FAQ: http://wiki.list.org/x/AgA3 Security Policy: http://wiki.list.org/x/QIA9 Searchable Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/mailman-users%40python.org/ Unsubscribe: https://mail.python.org/mailman/options/mailman-users/archive%40jab.org
