-=> Quoting Winston Smith to Tony Pater <=-

 WS> Would the MS-DOS "FIND" string command do (or perhaps a GNU/UNIX
 WS> EGREP) ?  i.e. are you just looking for a string match...  or are you
 WS> actually creating/building an e-mail file for a mail spooler such as
 WS> SMTP, etc. ? 

 Thanks Winston for the above suggestions.
 Using DOS utes is un-necessary as 4dos/4os2 are more powerful than
 the vanilla 'FIND' that is packaged with MS.DOS or OS/2.

 I have 'agrep' and 'grep'.

 What I need to do is to create a filter (REXX would be nice), where
 it would search the folders for a key phrase/word then ask if I
 wish to 'read' those files found with matching word/string, and/or
 ask me if I wish to :

 1. copy to ascii file
 2. strip out the word/phrase or the whole line
 3. strip out 'n' lines above and 'n' lines below the found word/
    phrase.
 4. Ask if I wish to read 'n' lines above and 'n' lives below the
    found word/string in the message(s) ?

 In addition to searching/looking at file/message contents, I need
 to 'strip out' several lines of advertising that are appended to
 each/every email coming via a forum. (They place adverts at the
 bottom of every email that comes through within the forum).
 So far I've had a look at *nix tools 'head' and 'tail' in conjuntion
 with 'grep'  ...... but REXX or 4os2 'btm' would be a better
 solution as it requires only one call, whereas tail/grep etc would
 involve 3 calls ....

 I suppose it comes down to a REXX search and filter routine ?

 There Winston ..... I hope the above gives a better idea of what
 I'm trying to achieve.
 If you have any ideas or a REXX script that'd be neat, but
 as file transmissions via Fidonet aren't accepted by my Sysop
 such a script or snippets of code would need to be in the body of
 the message.
 And yes, you're dead right ... I should learn REXX tootsweet  !

 Kindest Regards to you this fine Sydney morning ..... I'm off
 for a fag and a cuppa :-)

 Tony
 Sydney, Oz
 Wed 28/10/1998  9:13:49  

... 4dos/4os2.. under Warp 4
--- FMail/2 1.22+