newsbin.com

What is the format for making a watch list that searched for 2 or more strings? For example, if I want all posts containing

car or auto or airplane

what would be the proper syntax to use? I've tried "or" and <space> and both only return the first string. E.g. "car" in the above.

What kind of search list, internet or local headers?

I have NO idea what the difference would be. My first thought is, "I don't have local Usenet headers..." so I know I am wrong.

I would like to open Newsbin, and have it search for set strings in one group, and download all posts with those strings.

If you use headers, meaning you download headers from the news server, you use one syntax. If you're using the search tab or a watch list set for "Internet" You search is more like google search.

The default is "AND" so if you just put words in "Word1 Word2 Word2" it's effectively "word1 and word2 and word3".

You can negate with a - so "-german" for instance.

It looks like you can do OR but it has to be upper case. Don't ask me why...

"word OR word" seems to work.

You can test all the words in the search tab before you add them to a watch list.

A bug.

I am using Header Download

I [Test Watch] for "write" -- 28 responses
I [Test Watch] for "car" -- 725 responses
I [Test Watch] for "write OR car" -- 725 responses
I [Test Watch] for "write and car" -- 725 responses
I [Test Watch] for "write and car and women" -- 725 responses
I [Test Watch] for "write" -- 725 responses -- HUH???
I [Test Watch] for "xcghasne" -- 725 responses -- yaeh, something is screwy ...

SO I change my search terms to "write OR publish" close and run it -- 725 responses. And when I look at those responses, each and every one has "car" in it.

Close Newsbin. Reopen. Scan headers. Rescan (watch) topic -- 725 headers, all with "car" in them.'

I have NO idea what is happening.

Edit: Correction -- it is still reporting 725 headers, and it is including "car" despite the fact that is NOT a search term, but "write" is also showing up.

Next Edit -- I deleted the search and recreated it. It appears to be working except the files are not auto-downloading.

Any ideas on that?

If you're using header downloads, you have to use regular expressions.

"write|car". = write OR car
"write car" = write AND car

Are you purging the contents of the watch list each time? If not, then it'll accumulate results from all of your testing. You have to clear it between each test.

No, I did not know to purge them. I do now.

Next question--I have the auto download fag set to on. Nothing is downloading. Min size 0, max size 100MB. Any ideas of what I should look for?

Watch lists only feed to the download list after header downloads complete. So, you have to trigger a header download and the header download has to contain results for the watch list in order for it to feed files to the download list.

Have a watch that feeds files automatically to the download list so, it's is possible to make it work.

My Watchlist:



When I test scan it I get ZERO results:



When I tell the actual Watch List to scan/rescan, I get ZERO results:



Number of posts in that group that have the word "write" in them is 65:



I have NO idea what I am doing wrong.

1 - Rescan won't feed files to the download list automatically. It just allows you to rescan for more hits.

2 - As I mentioned, your search string is wrong. It should be "write|publish"

3 - Only new header downloads feed the download list.

I generated a brand new watch list. I used the same settings you did, I set the "search in" to my own book related topic. I then re-downloaded headers for the same group you're trying. A bunch of matching files started to show up on the download list.

If you still can't get that to work, look down where it says "Cache" and see of there's a number in parens. Maybe you have a large backlog of headers and that's why they're not showing up yet.

OK, I fixed the search string syntax. That appears to have made it find the proper files! (Publish and Write are BOTH showing up! YAY!)

And if I am reading what you said correctly, it will not automatically pull in OLD files, but the auto download SHOULD, however snag all new ones-correct?

crosgrove wrote:OK, I fixed the search string syntax. That appears to have made it find the proper files! (Publish and Write are BOTH showing up! YAY!)

And if I am reading what you said correctly, it will not automatically pull in OLD files, but the auto download SHOULD, however snag all new ones-correct?

Exactly.

Now that waiting game...

And, as always, ty for the assist!