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 The "How To" of FileFind Requests
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Originally developed by Jeff Schrunk.  Last Revision: 2003-09-04

The FileFind system offers people the ability to search for files via
echomail by writing messages addressed to the name "ALLFIX",
without quotes.  The files, file specifications, and keywords (preceded by
a '/') are placed on the subject line.  The message body may be left empty.

ALLFIX will scan the configured message areas and process all FileFind
requests.  It will scan the BBS file areas and if any matches are found, it
will write a reply in the appropriate area.

Since the FileFind requests are sent via echomail, one request may receive
multiple replies.  One problem with this system is that the flow of mail
may easily get out of hand.  ALLFIX has a number of features to reduce the
amount of mail.  First, no more than 15 files will be included in a reply. 
Second, it has the ability to ignore any local FileFind requests.  Third,
ALLFIX will not process FileFind requests that contain less than 4
non-wildcard characters (ie. characters other than the '?' and '*'
wildcards).  Lastly, ALLFIX has the ability to ignore FileFind requests
that are older than the configured number of days.

To facilitate searching for files, ALLFIX supports two elementary boolean
operators; AND and OR.  These operators may be used between filespecs and
keywords.

 Ex. /SOUND AND /32bit

In the previous example, ALLFIX will search for files that have both the
keyword SOUND and the keyword 32bit in the description.

 Ex. /SOUND AND /32bit OR /SOUNDBLASTER

In the previous example, ALLFIX will search for files with the keyword
SOUND and the keyword 32bit in the description, or for any files with the
keyword /SOUNDBLASTER in the description.

Sometimes a keyword may contain the special character "/". 
ALLFIX will normally interpret that as a special character signalling that
the rest of the text entered is a keyword.  In order to prevent ALLFIX from
doing that, the keyword can be enclosed in double quotes.  For example,
when searching for the keyword OS/2, it should be specified as
"OS/2" and not as /OS/2 which may be interpreted incorrectly by
ALLFIX.

Bob Swift, Moderator, FILEFIND Echo.

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