procmail
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Re: Counting score program exit code and negation

1997-02-04 16:21:15
Hi Lars,

Thanks. All I needed was a simple example of the syntax, like
you have provided:

On Tue, 4 Feb 1997, Lars Kellogg-Stedman wrote:
       If the exitcode of the program is negated, then, the exit-
       code  will be considered as if it were a virtual number of
       matches.  Calculation of the added score then proceeds  as
       if  it  had been a normal regular expression with n=`exit-
       code' matches.

And this says that:

:0
* 1^2 ! /usr/kmarsh/bin/counat

Actually, it says NOTHING of the syntax, and it gives no grammar
as a guideline to building that syntax (not picking on you, Lars,
but on the vagueness of the man pages). This left me looking
for examples, which I couldn't find, which left me with the 
procmailrc man page looking for a grammar.

The procmailrc manual page said that ? evaluated the return value.
I assumed that that syntax was negated in someway. Since this
is the only mention of return values that I can find, it was
the syntax that I tried to negate.

The following symbols are defined IN ANOTHER PART OF THE procmailrc PAGE:
       !    Invert the condition.
 
       $    Evaluate  the  remainder according to sh(1) substitu-
            tion rules inside double quotes, skip leading whites-
            pace, then reparse it.
 
       ?    Use the exitcode of the specified program.
 
       <    Check if the total length of the mail is shorter than
            the specified (in decimal) number of bytes.
 
       >    Analogous to '<'.
 

The x^y progname syntax, where is it? Is there an example or
a grammar suggesting it?

My biggest problem with procmail is deciphering the man pages.

If it just gave a concise grammer, I could use it without asking
questions- as is, I have to constantly re-read the man pages
and search for clues and examples.

I know most of my questions are answered in there "somewhere", but
having to read five different parts of three different pages
is ridiculous. A concise grammar would save 1/2 of the procmail
list bandwidth.

Just venting,
Ken


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