canonicalize.pl

#!/usr/bin/perl
#
# Author: Scott Rose <srose@direct.ca>
#
# $Id$
#
# Comparing two archives is complicated by the fact that each message is
# marked by the time at which it's archived. Attached is a script that
# standardizes that date, if weakly, useful for such comparisons.
#
# NOTE:
# - Must be in the html storage directory to use this.
# - If your files are stored with a different suffix than .html
# you will need to correct it below.
# - If the date is really important to you, fix this script and
# rebaseline it. 
#

for$file (glob'[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9].html') {
open F, "$file"ordie;
@lines = <F>;
close F;
open F, ">$file"ordie;
$did = 0;
for (@lines) {
if(m#^: <EM>\w{3} \w{3}\s+\d{1,2} \d{4} - \d{2}:\d{2}:\d{2} \w{3}</EM>$#) {
die'oops'if($did);
print F ": <EM>Sat Oct 16 1999 - 06:00:00 PDT</EM>\n";
$did++;
 }
else {
print F;
 }
 }
die"Oops"unless($did);
close F;
print"$file\n"
}