Thanks Mark for the nice recipe, but it won't work for Windows users, and putting a tag in the subject line is a standard function in any mailing list server I would think, can't this be done on eskimo.com lists Bill?
Or maybe it's time to switch to Googlegroups or Yahoogroups? Michel ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark S Bilk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, June 09, 2006 11:22 PM Subject: How to put a [Vo] tag in the message Subject line >I use the Linux operating system on my PC instead of > Microsoft Windows, for ethical and technical reasons > explained on my website: > > http://www.cosmicpenguin.com/ > > If you're using procmail to process your incoming mail, > in, e.g., Linux, BSD, OSX, etc., you can insert a [Vo] > (or similar) tag into the Subject line of incoming vortex-l > messages by adding this "recipe" (as such entries are called) > to your .procmailrc file: > > > :0 fhw > * ^X-Mailing-List: <[email protected]> > * !^Subject: .*\[Vo.*\] > | sed 's/^Subject: /&[Vo] /' > > > The first line begins the recipe. The "f" flag causes the pipe > command in the fourth line to act as a filter for the message, > i.e., the message is processed through it and procmail then > continues testing further recipes to handle the filtered > (modified) version of the message. The "h" flag causes the > message header (not the body) to be fed to the pipe command. > The "w" flag causes procmail to wait until the pipe finishes > execution before proceeding. > > The second line tests that the message contains the header line > "X-Mailing-List: <[email protected]>", which all vortex-l > messages do (at least the recent ones that I looked at). This > is the main test to detect that the message comes from the list. > Some messages don't contain the list name in the "To:" header > line, or even the "Cc:" line (if the list was named in the > "Bcc:" line by the poster). > > The third line of the recipe tests that the Subject line of the > message does not already contain a string of the form [Vo...] > or [vo...]. If people use this method to add a [Vo] tag to > incoming vortex-l messages and then they respond to the messages, > their outgoing responses will contain the tag in the Subject line, > and it will be received as such by list subscribers. So procmail > should not add a second tag to such received messages. The > regular expression \[Vo.*\] is used so that any tag with square > brackets beginning with Vo will be detected ( [Vo], [vortex], > [Vort], etc. ). Since procmail test conditions use egrep-style > regular expressions, the square brackets have to be escaped > (with "\") so they act as ordinary characters (rather than having > their special meaning as part of regular expression syntax). > > The fourth line pipes the message header through the sed > (stream-editor) program to perform the actual insertion of the > tag into the Subject line. When sed finds the string "Subject: " > at the beginning ("^") of a header line, it substitutes ("s") > something for that. What it substitutes is what it just found > ("&"), followed by the string "[Vo] ". Since sed uses the > earlier grep-style regular expressions, the square brackets act > as ordinary characters when they are _not_ escaped by "\". > > You can replace [Vo] in the fourth line with [Vortex], [Vort], > [vortex-l], etc., to suit your taste, as long as it has square > brackets and begins with "vo" (in upper or lower case), so it > will be detected by the third line of the recipe when it comes > back through the list server. > > There are plenty of procmail tutorials on the Web; just google > for "procmail". This is a rather esoteric usage for it. Mostly > I just use it to divert messages from certain idiots (none on > this list) into spam files, which is much simpler. Regular > expressions, and sed, are also pretty simple once you get familiar > with them, and they're extremely useful. > > In general, Linux is as easy to use as MS-Windows, if you have > someone install it for you (which your local Linux user group > will do for free -- see my website), like the PC store installs > Windows. And it's much more powerful and reliable, as well as free. > > And if you want respect, well, it's absolutely essential: > > http://www.nata2.info/humor/flash/switchlinux3.swf > > Mark > >
