Help on a little script

[antenneX]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Jeays" <Mike.Jeays at rogers.com>
To: "antenneX" <antennex at swbell.net>
Cc: <freebsd-questions at freebsd.org>
Sent: Sunday, January 23, 2005 11:49 AM
Subject: Re: Help on a little script


> On Sun, 2005-01-23 at 11:30, antenneX wrote:
> > Am running FBSD-4.10p2
> >
> > I have a serious need for some help on a CGI script I just
installed.
> > I've tried to reach the author but no dice there.
> >
> > It's used to automate "unsubscribes" on a mail list.
> >
> > It works well except for this:
> > It changes my mail list from this format:
> > name1
> > name2
> > name3
> >
> > ...to this:
> > name1name2name3 <---one big long line with no separators.
> >
> > With over 6000 names it makes a huge long line instead with no space
> > between
> > the names either. It make a mess!
> >
> > I know how to convert
> > name1
> > name2
> > name3
> >
> > ...to
> > name1 name2 name3.....
> >
> > like this:
> > #cat mybadlist | xargs > mygoodlist
> >
> > ...but, need the reverse.
> >
> > So how can I convert
> > name1name2name3
> > ...back to the original format?
> > name1
> > name2
> > name3
> >
> >
> > Would really appreciate your help as it is really messing up my mail
> > lists....
> >
> > Thanks in advance!
> >
> > Best regards,
> >
> > Jack L. Stone
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > freebsd-questions at freebsd.org mailing list
> > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
> > To unsubscribe, send any mail to
"freebsd-questions-unsubscribe at freebsd.org"
>
> It may be impossible, if the names have really been run together with
no
> separator at all. 'john.doe at xyz.competer@xyz.netmike at xyz.org' cannot
> reliably be parsed into distinct names.  Are you quite sure there is
no
> separator - look at the file with od (octal dump).
>

I was afraid of that. Fortunately I have routine backups every few
hours.

I have discovered that I have not been able to reproduce the corruption
or script failure. In copying back the good formtted list (but with some
unsubscribes back in) and running the web page unsubscribe, it is fine
for now -- but, mystified as to why it happened. Only been using the
script for 3 days but has had numerous adds and deletes before this.

Some sort of bug in the script. I thought it might have been a very log
email on the list, but removing and putting back made no difference.
Only this one list has been affected and is one of the largest.

Thanks for your reply.....