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+
+NWG/RFC 744 JS5 8-Jan-78 21:59 42857
+Network Working Group Joanne Sattley
+Request for Comments: 744 JZS@CCA
+NIC: 42857 8 January 1978
+
+
+ MARS - A Message Archiving & Retrieval Service
+
+
+I. Introduction
+ ------------
+
+This document describes a Message Archiving and Retrieval Service
+(MARS) which has been developed at Computer Corporation of America; it
+utilizes the Datacomputer, a network database utility developed by CCA
+for ARPA. [Research and development of a prototype MARS system was
+supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency of the
+Department of Defense, under the ARPA Very Large Databases program,
+and was monitored by the Office of Naval Research under Contract No.
+N00014-76-C-0991.]
+
+The Service is available, primarily, to groups for storage of
+teleconferencing transcripts. Is is also available, upon request, to
+individual ARPANET correspondents.
+
+There are both 'public' and 'private' messages in the database.
+Public messages may be retrieved by anyone. The public collection
+includes the messages of the Header-People [@ MIT-MC] group, and the
+MsgGroup [@ USC-ISI] proceedings.
+
+Private messages may be retrieved only by the users who have archived
+them, or anyone whose name appears on the list of message recipients.
+
+Messages archived using MARS are heavily indexed and can be retrieved
+in a variety of ways, including Boolean combinations of message
+recipients, message composition date, any text words in the message
+subject, and text words in the message body. The MARS facilities are
+integrated very naturally into the existing collection of
+message-handling tools:
+
+ . A message is designated for archiving by sending it to
+ MARS-Filer @ CCA using one of the usual message-mailing tools such
+ as SNDMSG.
+
+ . A message is designated for retrieval by sending a request as
+ ordinary mail to MARS-Retriever @ CCA.
+
+The Filer program checks for mail every hour; the Retriever program
+checks every quarter-hour. The periodicity can be altered to meet
+demand but the intent is for MARS to operate as a background job and
+only during extremely low-activity periods.
+
+The next section (II) describes the indexing operation in greater
+detail, and how to archive and retrieve messages. The last section
+(III) is an extractable user card.
+
+
+ [Page 1]
+
+NWG/RFC 744 JS5 8-Jan-78 21:59 42857
+MARS - A Message Archiving & Retrieval Service
+
+
+
+II. Using MARS
+ ----------
+
+A. Message Indexing
+ ----------------
+
+For each message, a vector of parsed tokens is created. The parsed
+tokens are collected by the message-field in which they occurred -- to
+be used as "indexes", i.e., values of inverted fields, by the
+Datacomputer.
+
+The Filer "indexes", essentially without analysis, except for the
+following:
+
+ -- Each distinguishable section of the message is indexed
+ separately; each header line is a separate inversion domain, as
+ is the body of the message.
+
+ -- The header lines which contain ARPANET addresses are analyzed in
+ order to index separately on mailbox and host.
+
+ -- The date-field is parsed and converted to the standard Tenex
+ internal date/time format, which is better adapted for
+ less-than/greater-than comparisons, as in retrievals which
+ specify a date range.
+
+ -- One-character words in both the subject-field and the
+ message-text field arbitrarily discarded.
+
+ -- Two-character words in the message-text field are arbitrarily
+ discarded.
+
+ -- Hyphenated phrases, i.e., words bound together by hyphens, are
+ retained intact.
+
+ -- All message formats which conform to RFC 733 standards are
+ accommodated. The minimum requirements are: a date-field, a
+ from-field, and a blank line between the message-header and
+ message-body.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ [Page 2]
+
+NWG/RFC 744 JS5 8-Jan-78 21:59 42857
+MARS - A Message Archiving & Retrieval Service
+
+
+
+B. To Archive Messages
+ -------------------
+
+There are three modes of filing currently supported by MARS, to wit:
+
+ -- single-message mode, wherein the MARS-Filer mailbox appears in
+ the message as an addressee;
+
+ -- forwarded-message mode, wherein the MARS-Filer mailbox appears as
+ the only primary recipient;
+
+ and
+
+ -- batch mode, wherein the mailing envelope is addressed to
+ MARS-Filer and the subject-field contains the keyword "batch".
+
+Until the ARPANET standard for the format of messages is implemented
+universally, the variability amongst formats is still greater than the
+Filer can handle as it stands. Nonetheless, a user can successfully
+file any message in a "foreign" format by forwarding it to the Filer
+under the aegis of a mail-handling program which does produce good
+formats. Admittedly, the correct header-field indexing, as described
+above, will not be done on the enclosed message; but at least, the
+words in its unreadable header fields will appear as "text" words in
+the indexing.
+
+In the case of forwarded-message-mode filing, all interesting indexing
+information is extracted from the message-header of the forwarding
+envelope prior to discarding it. The name of the archiver, the date
+and time the message was forwarded, and the subject-line information
+are recorded. The remainder is handled as though it were a
+non-forwarded message which had been CC'd to the Filer.
+
+A forwarded message may be 'annotated' by adding text (e.g., notes,
+comments, keywords) in the forwarding envelope. Annotations are filed
+and retrieved as part of the archived message.
+
+In the case of batch-mode filing, only the archiver's name and the
+date and time s/he sent the package are extracted from the mailing
+envelope. The message-body portion is then treated as a series of
+individual messages.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ [Page 3]
+
+NWG/RFC 744 JS5 8-Jan-78 21:59 42857
+MARS - A Message Archiving & Retrieval Service
+
+
+
+C. To Retrieve Messages
+ --------------------
+
+Retrievals are initiated by sending a Retrieval Request (which is a
+specially formatted message) to "MARS-Retriever@CCA". Retrieved
+messages are mailed back, one at a time, and will appear as new mail
+in the requester's mailbox.
+
+Retrieval Request messages can be composed using any SNDMSG-type of
+program, as follows:
+
+ . The recipient of the RR message must be MARS-Retriever @ CCA
+
+ . Other message header fields are ignored for now
+
+ . The message body portion of the RR is used to compose Datalanguage
+ for performing the retrieval. Its format resembles a message
+ header, or selected portions thereof.
+
+The following list defines which field names are recognized, and some
+notes on their interpretation. The scanning of each field is
+terminated by a carriage-return.
+
+ DATE: The format of the date field is day-month-year. Use of
+ hyphens is optional. This field will cause only those
+ messages composed on the specified date to be retrieved.
+
+ AFTER: Use of this field will retrieve messages composed after
+ the specified date.
+
+ SINCE: This field is interpreted like the AFTER: field.
+
+ BEFORE: Use of this field will retrieve messages composed before
+ the specified date.
+
+ UNTIL: This field is interpreted like the BEFORE: field.
+
+ FROM: This field is expected to contain a valid mailbox name.
+ The host specification is optional. If more than one name
+ is specified, ORing of the names is implicit.
+ Retrieval based upon host specification alone has not been
+ implemented.
+
+ TO: This field is expected to contain one or more valid
+ mailbox names. The host specification is optional. Spaces
+ and commas between the names imply AND.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ [Page 4]
+
+NWG/RFC 744 JS5 8-Jan-78 21:59 42857
+MARS - A Message Archiving & Retrieval Service
+
+
+
+ SUBJECT: Use of this field will retrieve all messages whose
+ indexed subject-field contents match the specified
+ word(s). Spaces and commas imply AND. The use of OR
+ must be explicit.
+
+ TEXT: Use of this field will retrieve all messages whose
+ indexed message-body contents match the specified
+ word(s). Spaces and commas imply AND. The use of OR
+ must be explicit.
+
+An interactive TENEX-based program for composing RRs is available;
+the filename is "RR.SAV". A copy of this program is stored on the
+Datacomputer, available via DFTP under node COMMON>MARS.
+
+There is also a copy of the program in CCA's directory at SRI-KA;
+another in the CCA-ACCAT directory at ISIA.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ [Page 5]
+
+NWG/RFC 744 JS5 8-Jan-78 21:59 42857
+MARS - A Message Archiving & Retrieval Service
+
+
+
+III. MARS User Card
+ --------------
+
+:: Archiving
+ ---------
+
+Individual Messages
+
+ . Include MARS-Filer@CCA on message distribution list
+
+ . Forward message to MARS-Filer@CCA [Annotation is optional.]
+
+Batches of Messages
+
+ . Incorporate the mail file as the message-body of a single
+ message sent to MARS-Filer@CCA with the clue "BATCH" in its
+ subject-field.
+
+:: Retrieving
+ ----------
+
+Using RR Program
+
+ . RR is a TENEX-based interactive program designed to prepare
+ Retrieval Request messages and to mail them to MARS-Retriever@CCA.
+
+Using SNDMSG-Type Program
+
+ . Send a message to MARS-Retriever@CCA, specifying the retrieval
+ criteria in the body of the message.
+
+Sample Retrieval Criteria
+
+SUBJECT:RFC 733 or RFC733 ; OR must be explicit
+
+TEXT:MARS Project,goals ; spaces & commas imply AND
+
+DATE: 14 November 1977
+SINCE: 1 Nov 77 ; same as AFTER: 1 Nov 77
+AFTER: 1 Dec 1977
+UNTIL: 15 January 1978 ; same as BEFORE: 15 January 1978
+BEFORE: Aug 7 76
+
+FROM: JZS@CCA ; host specification is optional
+FROM: Hacker,JZS ; comma implies OR (in FROM: field only)
+
+TO: CCA@SRI-KA ; host specification is optional
+TO: SDD-0:,SDD-1: ; spaces and commas imply AND
+
+
+
+
+ [Page 6] \ No newline at end of file