Support for digest indexes has been added to release 1.7f. A digest index
is a kind of table of contents - a digest without the actual messages. It
gives the name  of the poster, the  subject, the number of  lines and the
date of each posting, along with a  reference number which you can use to
order  the actual  message (through  the database  functions) if  you are
interested. See the example below.
 
Indexes are  automatically available if  the list offers digests  AND the
postings are archived. An index is  sent to users who have requested this
type of subscription (via SET listname  INDEX, an alternative to MAIL and
DIGEST)  whenever a  digest is  issued.  Thus, there  is no  need for  an
"Index=" option - indexes are an integral part of the digest system.
 
I am  not going to  consider an option allowing  indexes to be  turned on
when the list is not archived, with LISTSERV keeping the last 50 messages
or 500k for a week so that people have time to order them, except that if
there were  more than 50  messages or 500k in  the digest it  should keep
everything for 3 days, and then the last  50 for a week. I know there are
many list owners who can't get disk space to archive their list, but this
sort of system simply doesn't work, it costs more in wasted manpower than
you'd save in disk space costs. With a bit of effort you can usually find
a site with the disk space to host your list.
 
The code is being made available for  beta-testing as 17E-002D rev 6. The
first index  issued for any given  list will contain question  marks in a
number of places if you were running 17E-002D rev 4 or 5 before - this is
normal and can be ignored.
 
  Eric
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date:     Sat, 9 Jan 1993 03:16:34 +0100
Reply-To: Revised List Processor (1.7e) <[log in to unmask]>
Sender:   "L201: SEARN 201 list" <[log in to unmask]>
From:     Automatic digest processor <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:  L201 Index - 9 Jan 1993 - Special issue
To:       Recipients of L201 indexes <[log in to unmask]>
 
Index Date  Size Poster and subject
----- ----  ---- ------------------
00014 01/09   15 From:    Eric Thomas <[log in to unmask]>
                 Subject: PIPE statistics
 
00015 01/09  140 From:    Eric Thomas <[log in to unmask]>
                 Subject: Mailer statistics
 
The sizes shown are the number of lines in the messages, not counting mail
headers. For your convenience, this message has been specially formatted to
make it easier to order the messages you are interested in. Just forward this
message back to L@SEARN (or [log in to unmask]) and fill in the line starting
with "Print" (if there is not enough space, you can add more lines as long as
you type "Print" on each new line). Make sure to use the forward command of
your mail program, not the normal reply function. There is a lot more the
LISTSERV database functions can do for you - for instance, you can select all
the messages with a particular subject in a single command rather than retyping
all the index numbers. For more information, send an INFO DATABASE command to
LISTSERV (you could add it before the line that says "Database search" the next
time you order messages from the LISTSERV archive).
 
//       JOB
Database search DD=Orders
//Orders DD *
Select * in L201.14-15
Print <type the numbers of the messages you want here>
/*
//       EOJ