Re: Searching the Archives -- another method

[Freda B Birnbaum <fbb6...>]

On Wed, 3 Sep 2003, Ari Davidow wrote, re an earlier statement:

> At this time, search of the archives is broken. Shamash has promised to
> fix it "soon" as of a few months ago.
>
> When it is repaired, you will be able to search the Jewish-music
> archives from http://www.ivritype.com/resources/jlists.html#jewish-music


> Joel Bresler notes that at least some of the archives are indexed in
> Google. I would therefore suggest trying the following:
>
> At the Google search box, enter
>
>       [jewish-music] shamash
>
> followed by the term(s) you want to search, as in
>
>       [jewish-music] shamash flute vibrato
>
> It will lead to some list results, and some other results, all of which
> may be useful. (I believe that there are ways to specify date ranges in
> Google, as well.)


I just tested out the method I use to search other Shamash lists to which
I'm subscribed, and it seems to be working.  It's email-based rather than
Web-based.

You send commands to listproc (at) shamash(dot)org requesting a listing of the
archive files so you know what their names are (and the names indicate the
dates), and commands requesting the information you want.  It appears to
NOT be case-sensitive, although I suspect that if a term spread over 2
lines in the file it might not be picked up.  When you get return mail
from Shamash, you then know what files to request.  Be aware that some of
the files are large and may be sent to you in several parts.  You will
have to use an editor to search for the material you want.

For example, I just tried this:

I sent to listproc (at) shamash(dot)org the commands

index jewish-music -all
search jewish-music -all "Carlebach"
search jewish-music -all "birnbaum"
search jewish-music -all "Birnbaum"

and I received a (LARGE!) message with all the file names of the archives,
as well as messages about which files had matches for my search terms, and
using that was able to send a message to listproc (at) shamash(dot)org 
requesting
the file I wanted:

get jewish-music 030814


Note that the file names reflect the dates the files were created, e.g.

jewish-music 981018  and so forth.

Hope this helps.

Freda Birnbaum, fbb6 (at) columbia(dot)edu
"Call on God, but row away from the rocks"

---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org ---------------------+