****************************** * L-Soft international, Inc. * ****************************** ***************************** * List Owner's Manual * * for * * LISTSERV(R), version 1.8c * ***************************** August 18, 1997 Revision 2 r970818-001 The reference number of this document is 9708-UD-02. Information in this document is subject to change without notice. Companies, names and data used in examples herein are fictitious unless otherwise noted. L-Soft international, Inc. does not endorse or approve the use of any of the product names or trademarks appearing in this document. Permission is granted to copy this document, at no charge and in its entirety, provided that the copies are not used for commercial advantage, that the source is cited and that the present copyright notice is included in all copies, so that the recipients of such copies are equally bound to abide by the present conditions. Prior written permission is required for any commercial use of this document, in whole or in part, and for any partial reproduction of the contents of this document exceeding 50 lines of up to 80 characters, or equivalent. The title page, table of contents and index, if any, are not considered to be part of the document for the purposes of this copyright notice, and can be freely removed if present. The purpose of this copyright is to protect your right to make free copies of this manual for your friends and colleagues, to prevent publishers from using it for commercial advantage, and to prevent ill-meaning people from altering the meaning of the document by changing or removing a few paragraphs. Copyright (c) 1996-1997, L-Soft international, Inc. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. LISTSERV is a registered trademark licensed to L-Soft international, Inc. L-SOFT and LMail are trademarks of L-Soft international. LSMTP is a trademark of L-Soft international, Inc. EASE and CataList are service marks of L-Soft international, Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark of X/Open Company Limited. AIX and IBM are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. Alpha AXP, Ultrix and VMS are trademarks of Digital Equipment Corporation. OSF/1 is a registered trademark of Open Software Foundation, Inc. Microsoft is a registered trademark and Windows, Windows NT and Windows 95 are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. HP is a registered trademark of Hewlett-Packard Company. Sun is a registered trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc. IRIX is a trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc. PMDF is a registered trademark of Innosoft International. All other trademarks, both marked and not marked, are the property of their respective owners. All of L-Soft's manuals for LISTSERV are available in ascii-text format via LISTSERV and in popular word-processing formats via ftp.lsoft.com. They are also available on the World Wide Web at the following URL: URL: http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/index.html L-Soft invites comment on its manuals. Please feel free to send your comments via e-mail to MANUALS@LSOFT.COM. Reference Number 9708-UD-02 ========================================================================= ********************* * Table of Contents * ********************* Preface: LISTSERV Command Syntax Conventions 1. About Mailing Lists and LISTSERV(R) 2. Starting a Mailing List--The Basics 2.1. Avoid duplication of effort 2.2. What skills do I need to start and maintain a LISTSERV mailing list? 2.3. Creating a mailing list Where can it be done, and Who can do it? 2.3.1 Naming Conventions 2.4. List Header Keywords and what they do 2.5. Sending commands to LISTSERV 2.6. Retrieving and editing the list some considerations 2.7. Defining list owners 2.8. List passwords are now obsolete 2.9. Storing the list on the host machine 2.10. Fixing mistakes 2.11. A sample list header file 2.12. Security options 2.12.1. First line of defense: The VALIDATE= keyword 2.12.2. Controlling subscription requests 2.12.3. Controlling the service area of your list 2.12.4. Controlling who may review the list of subscribers 2.12.5. Controlling who may access the notebook files 2.12.6. Controlling who may post mail to the list 2.12.7. The OK confirmation mechanism 2.12.8. Personal passwords 2.12.9. Restricting subscriber privileges 2.12.10. Restricting the number of postings per user to the list per day 2.13 How to set up lists for specific purposes 2.13.1. Edited lists 2.13.2. Moderated lists 2.13.3. Semi-moderated lists 2.13.4. Self-moderated lists 2.13.5. Auto-responders 2.13.6. Announce-only lists 2.13.7. Peered lists 2.13.8. "Super-lists" and "sub-lists" 2.13.9. "Cloning" lists 3. Advertising Your Public Mailing Lists 3.1. List of Lists maintained by LISTSERV 3.2. Adding HTML to a list header for the CataList 3.2.1. Update latency 3.2.2. Inserting a pointer to another list 3.2.3. Restrictions on the placement of equal signs 3.3. Defining search categories in a list header for the CataList 3.3.1. Examples of category settings 3.4. The INFO command and how to implement it 3.5. The NEW-LIST project at North Dakota State 3.6. The Internet Network Information Center (INTERNIC) 3.7. The Global List Exchange (GLX) and why you should mention it 3.8. How NOT to advertise a mailing list 4. Managing Subscriptions 4.1. How to add and delete subscribers to/from a list 4.1.1. X.400 and X.500 addressing--Special problems 4.1.2. Adding users whose address and real name exceed 80 characters 4.2. Finding users who do not appear in the list 4.3. Converting mailing lists to LISTSERV from other systems 4.4. Using the QUIET option with commands 4.5. Dealing with bounced mail 4.5.1. What is a bounce, and what can typically cause one? 4.5.2. What to do about several types of bounces 4.5.3. Redistribution lists and why they may cause you migraines 4.6. Delivery error handling features 4.6.1. Auto-Delete considerations for holidays 4.6.2. Automatic address probing 4.7. Subscription confirmation 4.8. Subscription renewal 4.9. The SERVE command 4.10. "Peering" Large Lists 4.10.1 Moving users from one (peer) server to another 4.10.1 Special commands for peered lists only 5. Setting Subscription Options For Subscribers 5.1. How to review current subscription options with QUERY 5.2. How to set personal subscription options for subscribers 5.3. Options that may be set 5.3.1. Mail/NOMail 5.3.2. DIGest/NODIGest 5.3.3. MIME/NOMIME 5.3.4. INDex/NOINDex 5.3.5. ACK/NOACK/MSGack/NONE 5.3.6. Options for mail headers of incoming postings 5.3.7. CONCEAL/NOCONCEAL 5.3.8. REPro/NOREPro 5.3.9. TOPICS 5.3.10. POST/NOPOST 5.3.11. EDITOR/NOEDITOR 5.3.12. REVIEW/NOREVIEW 5.3.13. RENEW/NORENEW 5.4. Setting original default options with the Default-Options= keyword 6. Moderating and Editing Lists 6.1. List charters, welcome files, and administrative updates 6.2. The role of the list owner as moderator 6.3. The role of the list owner as editor 6.4. Setting up an edited list 6.5. Submitting subscriber contributions to an edited list 6.6. Message approval with Send= Editor,Hold 6.7. Using list topics 6.8. The listname WELCOME and listname FAREWELL files 6.8.1. Creating and storing listname WELCOME and FAREWELL files 6.8.2. Using the listname WELCOME file as a moderation tool 6.8.3. Using the listname FAREWELL file as a feedback tool 6.8.4. The alternative to using WELCOME and FAREWELL files 6.9. Social conventions (netiquette) 6.10. Spamming: what it is, and what to do about it 6.11. Appropriate use policies: considerations 7. Overview of List Archives 7.1. What is the list archive? 7.2. Setting up and managing archive notebooks 7.2.1. Indexing available archive notebooks 7.2.2. Deleting existing archive notebooks 7.3. Database Functions Overview 7.3.1. LISTSERV Command Job Language Interpreter 7.3.2. A basic database session (VM servers only) 7.3.3. A basic database session (non-VM servers running 1.8c or later only) 7.3.4. Narrowing the search 7.4. Where to find more information on Database Functions 8. Overview of File Archives 8.1. What is the file archive? 8.2. Starting a file archive for your list 8.3. Filelist maintenance (VM systems only) 8.3.1 Retrieving the filelist 8.3.2 Adding file descriptors to the filelist 8.3.3. File Access Codes (FAC) for user access 8.3.4 Deleting file descriptors from the filelist 8.3.5. Storing the filelist 8.4. The listname.CATALOG system on non-VM systems (new for 1.8c) 8.4.1. Updating the sub-catalog 8.4.2. Indexing the sub-catalog 8.5. Storing files on the host machine 8.6. Deleting files from the host machine 8.7. Automatic File Distribution (AFD) and File Update Information (FUI) 8.8. File "Packages" 8.9. Where to find more information on File Archives 9. Customizing LISTSERV's Default Mail Templates 9.1. What LISTSERV uses mail templates for 9.2. The DEFAULT.MAILTPL file and how to get a copy 9.3. Mail template format and embedded formatting commands 9.4. Creating a .MAILTPL file for a list 9.4.1. The INFO template form 9.4.2. Other useful template forms 9.4.3. Tips for using templates 9.5. Storing the .MAILTPL file on the host machine 9.6. Other template files: DIGEST-H and INDEX-H 9.7. Using the DAYSEQ(n) function 9.7.1. Rotating bottom banner 9.7.2. Rotating FAQ via the PROBE1 template and "Renewal= xx-Daily" 10. Gatewaying to USENET 10.1. Why would I want to? 10.2. How to go about it 10.3. Special considerations and problems with gatewaying 11. Solving Problems 11.1. Helping subscribers figure out the answers 11.2. Loop-checking can cause occasional problems with quoted replies 11.3. User can't unsubscribe and/or change personal options 11.4. Firewalls 11.5. What to do if LISTSERV wont store your list 11.6. If I can't find the answer, where do I turn? Appendix A: System Reference Library for LISTSERV version 1.8b Appendix B: List Keyword Alphabetical Reference for LISTSERV version 1.8b Appendix C: Sample Boilerplate Files Appendix D: Related Documentation and Support Appendix E: Acknowledgments L-Soft international, Inc. List Owner's Manual for LISTSERV(R), version 1.8c April 18, 1997 Revision 2 r970818-001 Copyright (c) 1996-1997, L-Soft international, Inc. All Rights Reserved Worldwide The reference number of this document is 9708-UD-02. ************************************************ * Preface: LISTSERV Command Syntax Conventions * ************************************************ Generally, parameters used in this document can consist of 1 to 8 characters from the following set: A-Z 0-9 $#@+-_: Deviations from this include: fformat Netdata, Card, Disk, Punch, LPunch, UUencode, XXencode, VMSdump, MIME/text, MIME/Appl, Mail full_name first_name [middle_initial] surname (not your e-mail address) listname name of an existing list node BITNET nodeid or Internet hostname of a BITNET machine which has taken care of supplying an ':internet' tag in its BITEARN NODES entry; or the fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) of an Internet host. pw a password containing characters from the set: A-Z 0-9 $#@_- ?!|% userid Any valid RFC822 network address not longer than 80 characters; if omitted, the 'hostname' part defaults to that of the command originator Other deviations from the standard set will be noted along with the affected commands. Also please note the following conventions for representing variable or optional parameters: < > Angle brackets always indicate required parameter names that must be replaced by appropriate data when sending commands to LISTSERV [ ] Square brackets enclose optional parameters which, if used, must be replaced by appropriate data when sending commands to LISTSERV *************************************** * 1. About Mailing Lists and LISTSERV * *************************************** LISTSERV is a system that allows you to create, manage and control electronic "mailing lists" on a corporate network or on the Internet. Since its inception in 1986 for IBM mainframes on the BITNET academic network, LISTSERV has been continually improved and expanded to become the predominant system in use today. LISTSERV is now available for VM, VMS(TM), unix(R), Windows NT(TM), and Windows 95(TM). Versions for the Apple Macintosh and MPE (HP 3000) are in development. Consider for a moment what the users of your electronic mail system actually use electronic mail for. Do they discuss problems and issues that face your organization, down to the departmental level? In an academic setting, do your faculty and students communicate via electronic mail? As with "real world" distribution lists, electronic mailing lists can make it possible for people to confer in a painless manner via the written word. The electronic mail software simply replaces the copying machine, with its associated costs, delays and frustrations. In fact, electronic mail lists are easier to use than most modern copiers, and a lot less likely to jam at just the worst possible moment. Because electronic mail is delivered in a matter of seconds, or occasionally minutes, electronic mailing lists can do a lot more than supplement the traditional paper distribution lists. In some cases, an electronic mailing list can replace a conference call. Even when a conference call is more suitable, the electronic mailing list can prove a powerful tool for the distribution of papers, figures and other material needed in preparation for the conference call. And, when the call is over, it can be used to distribute a summary of the discussion and the decisions that were made. What before might have been an exchange of views between two or three people can now become an ongoing conference on the issue or problem at hand. Announcement lists and even refereed electronic journals can be made available to your audience, which can be as small as a few people or as large as the entire Internet community. If you need a further overview, please see Appendix D, Related Documents and Support, for information on how to get one. ***************************************** * 2. Starting a Mailing List The Basics * ***************************************** 2.1. Avoid duplication of effort ================================ Before you start your list, it pays to do a careful search in several places to find out if you are duplicating an already-existing list, or if the name you are considering is already in use for a list on a differing subject. The first place to check is the "CataList" service maintained by LISTSERV itself. This service lists all public lists running on LISTSERV servers worldwide. Point your Web browser of choice at the URL http://www.lsoft.com/lists/listref.html to access CataList. If you don't have a web browser, you can alternately send the command LIST GLOBAL search_string in the body of mail to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.NET (or to LISTSERV at any host site). You will receive a mail message in return containing a list of all lists known to LISTSERV where either the name of the list or the short list description contains your search string. For instance, LIST GLOBAL IBM would result in the following being returned to you: ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from the LISTSERV lists known to LISTSERV@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 30 Aug 1996 12:50 (search string: IBM) Copyright 1996 L-Soft international, Inc. L-Soft international, Inc. owns the copyright to this compilation of Internet mailing lists (the "Compilation") and hereby grants you the right to copy the enclosed information for the sole purpose of identifying, locating and subscribing to mailing lists of interest. Any other usages of the Compilation, including, without limitation, identifying, locating and subscribing to mailing lists of interest. Any other usages of the Compilation, including, without limitation, solicitation, tele-marketing, "spamming", "mail-bombing" and "spoofing" are strictly prohibited. *********************************************************************** * To subscribe, send mail to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.NET with the following * * command in the text (not the subject) of your message: * * * * SUBSCRIBE listname * * * * Replace 'listname' with the name in the first column of the table. * *********************************************************************** Network-wide ID Full address and list description --------------- --------------------------------- 9370-L 9370-L@NIC.SURFNET.NL IBM 9370 and VM/IS specific topics list ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Figure 2.1. Sample output of LIST GLOBAL IBM (63 more lists were deleted for brevity) You might want to make your search more specific, as this particular search locates every list that has IBM somewhere in its title. For instance, if you wanted to start a list on some aspect of the IBM 370, you might do better to search for IBM 370. Alternative searches you can do include: - Check the archive on LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU, where the NEW-LIST project at North Dakota State University stores list announcements back to 1989. The NEW-LIST archive contains information about LISTSERV lists as well as about lists running on other types of servers. This information is accessible either via LISTSERV database searches or on the web at http://listserv.nodak.edu/archives/new-list/ - Get a copy of the Interest Groups List of Lists maintained by SRI on its server at sri.com. Note that this is a 500KB (or larger) file. ftp sri.com user: anonymous password: your_user_id cd netinfo get interest-groups - Check the Usenet newsgroups news.announce.newusers and news.lists , if they are available to you via your local news feed. - Use one of the World Wide Web search engines such as Alta Vista or Yahoo! to search for matches to the name you want to use. 2.2. What skills do I need to start and maintain a LISTSERV mailing list? ========================================================================= You should already be familiar with your mailing system and text editor. Otherwise, there are no special skills required. It is the goal of this manual to give you what you need to know about LISTSERV user commands, privileged LISTSERV owner commands, and how to read and interpret RFC822 Internet-style mail headers. LISTSERV itself is designed to operate in an identical manner no matter which operating system it is running under. Thus the fact that LISTSERV is running under VM, VMS, some flavor of Unix, or Windows NT should not be a concern to the list owner, who may not even know which version of LISTSERV his lists are running on. Additionally, we have made an attempt to give you a basic "list owner's course" in anticipation of some of the issues you may encounter in the course of moderating a list. 2.3. Creating a mailing list--Where can it be done, and Who can do it? ====================================================================== If you are looking for a site to host a list, consider the following: - First, find out if your computing center maintains a LISTSERV host. - If not, you might consider a commercial LISTSERV site. There are a number of such sites, including L-Soft's own EASE(SM) service. You can get more information on EASE(SM) by pointing a WWW browser at http://www.lsoft.com/ease-head.html Please note also that many sites (predominantly, but not necessarily limited to, those in .EDU domains) will not host commercial or potentially-controversial lists because of internal policies regarding appropriate use of their computing facilities. In such a case, your only option may be to seek a commercial LISTSERV site. Physically creating the list is the task of the LISTSERV maintainer (sometimes referred to as the "LISTSERV postmaster") at a given LISTSERV host site.( Specific procedures for requesting a list startup vary from institution to institution. It is usually best to contact the computing center at the site for more information. Because most list owners do not have the appropriate permissions to create lists, instructions on how to physically create lists are not included in this manual. If you are a LISTSERV maintainer, you can find these instructions in the Installation Guide that came with the software, or in the Site Manager's Operations Manual for LISTSERV. 2.3.1 Naming Conventions ------------------------ When choosing a name for a list, there are a few conventions and restrictions that you should keep in mind. The "-L" convention ------------------- The "-L" convention isn't required, but it can help people to realize that the mail is coming from a mailing list rather than from a real person. The people we are referring to here are people who run Internet mail systems, who may see a great deal of mail coming from a single host and begin to wonder why. If it comes from a userid that ends in a "-L", they will be more likely to recognize it as list mail. Reserved characters ------------------- Generally you want to avoid "special" characters such as the ones above the number keys on your keyboard. For example, don't use: ! which can be confused for "bang-path" addressing, e.g., UUCP @ which is a reserved character # which can cause problems with some mail software which uses it for addressing % another addressing character that could cause problems & is sometimes reserved by non-unix systems. However, please note that use of this character in the name of a list or in a sendmail alias for a list will cause LISTSERV on unix to choke. Note that it is possible under unix to create a list with a "&" character in the name quite easily, and it is also possible to create a sendmail alias with a "&" character in the alias. That does not mean it will work. * is, of course, the wildcard character. () Parenthesis are generally reserved and can't be used in file names. / The slash character is reserved and can't be used in file names. . Although on some systems it is physically possible to create lists with a dot character in the name, in general LISTSERV will not accept this nomenclature. The only place a dot can or should be used is before the word "LIST" in the PUT command; e.g., PUT MYLIST-L.LIST is equivalent to PUT MYLIST-L LIST. " Double-quote characters are not allowed. It is best if you avoid the use of special characters altogether and stick exclusively to the letters A-Z, numbers 0-9, and the characters _-+#$ when naming lists. Note that the "_" (underscore) character may cause problems with some non-compliant receiving systems. Also note that the space character (ASCII 0x20) is illegal in a list name, and L-Soft recommends that, although apostrophes (aka "single-quotes", ASCII 0x27) are valid in an RFC822 username, they not be used in list names since some mail programs may not accept them. (Also note that prior to 1.8d, not all LISTSERV commands will work for lists whose names contain an apostrophe.) If you have any question about the validity of a particular name, you can of course refer to RFC822 for the Internet standards for e-mail addressing. Maximum length of the list name ------------------------------- The length of the list name (that is, the name of the list file and thus the "official" name of the list) is restricted as follows: VM: 8 characters Non-VM: unlimited (starting with 1.8c) If you need a longer list name for a list running on a VM server, you should use the List-ID= keyword (see Appendix B). PLEASE NOTE CAREFULLY that L-Soft recommends using names of 32 characters or less whenever possible as they provide for correct alignment of the results returned by certain commands. Very long (program generated) list names are likely to conflict with mail system limits and L-Soft recommends other solutions to the problem of dynamically generated lists. As a rule, list names in excess of 70 characters are likely to result in mail delivery problems. Make it easy on your users -------------------------- While you can (within limits) name a LISTSERV mailing list just about anything you want, you will probably want to follow a couple of simple guidelines: 1. Keep the name simple. 2. Keep the name as short as possible without causing confusion. No doubt you could name a list MY-LIST-FOR-MATH-STUDIES, but who wants to type that? Conversely, MLFMS-L wouldn't mean much to Joe Random User. Somewhere in the middle is a reasonable compromise, e.g., MATH-STUDIES (or even just MATH-S). 2.4. List Header Keywords and what they do ========================================== How a LISTSERV mailing list performs its tasks is defined by its header keywords. There are several different categories of keywords, each of which is discussed below in general terms. A complete alphabetical listing of list header keywords, including default settings and all options available, is provided in Appendix B. Access Control Keywords. These keywords designate the level of "openness" for a list. They determine who can post to the list, who can review the list of subscribers, and whether or not the list is open to general subscription. Distribution Keywords. This group has to do with how LISTSERV distributes postings to subscribers, including whether or not acknowledgments are sent back to posters, how many postings may go through the list daily, whether or not the list is available in digest form and whether it is available to USENET through a gateway. These keywords also determine whether or not list topics are enabled, and how LISTSERV will configure outgoing postings for replies. Error Handling Keywords. Included under this group are the keywords controlling automatic deletion, loop-checking, and to whom error messages are sent for disposition when received by LISTSERV. List Maintenance and Moderation Keywords. A fairly large group of keywords having to do with how the list is operated, including definitions for the list owner, list editor, and the list archive notebook; whether or not (and who) to notify when users subscribe and sign off; how often subscriptions must be renewed, and so forth. These are perhaps the most basic keywords that can be set for a given list, and one of them ("Owner=") must be set for a list to operate. Security Keywords. These keywords control who can "see" the list (that is, whether or not the list appears in the List of Lists for a given user, based on the user's host site), whether or not the list is protected by a password, and the level of security necessary for changes to the list itself. The "Exit=" keyword is also contained in this group. Subscription Keywords. These control whether or not the list is open to general subscriptions, whether or not a mailing path confirmation is required, and what user options are set by default upon subscription. Other Keywords. These control other aspects of list management that are not generally changed from their defaults, and which do not fit readily into the categories listed above. 2.5. Sending commands to LISTSERV ================================= In the following sections, you will see numerous references to "sending commands to LISTSERV". All LISTSERV commands are sent to the server by email. This means that you must create a new mail message using whatever command this requires for your mail client (click on "New message" or its equivalent for most mail clients) addressed to the LISTSERV address. Let's say for the sake of argument that the list you want to subscribe to (or are currently subscribed to) is running on a server called LISTSERV.MYCORP.COM. So in order to send a command to that server, you would create a new message and address it to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.MYCORP.COM , and place the command(s) in the body (not the subject) of the message. 2.6. Retrieving and editing the list some considerations ======================================================== Once your list has been created by the LISTSERV maintainer, you can have a copy of the list sent to you for editing purposes. Simply issue the command GET listname (HEADER to LISTSERV. This will cause the server to mail you a copy of the list header only (without the subscriber list). Note that you can retrieve the entire list, subscribers and all, by omitting the (HEADER switch. However, L-Soft strongly discourages getting the entire list at any time. This is because you do not need the entire list file if all you want to do is to change list header keyword settings. Also, since LISTSERV has well-documented commands available to manage user subscriptions, you should never attempt to hand-edit a list file in order to add or delete subscribers. Therefore there should normally be no reason to issue the GET listname command without the (HEADER switch. The GET command automatically locks the list so that no changes can be made to the operating copy on the server until you do one of two things: * Issue the UNLOCK listname command (if you decide no changes are needed) * Send the list back to the server with the PUT command. Leaving the list locked also prevents new subscribers from signing up. It is therefore not advisable to leave the list locked for long periods of time. This necessitates remembering to issue the UNLOCK command if you decide not to make any changes. It is possible to request that LISTSERV not lock the list when it is sent to you. This is accomplished by adding the (NOLOCK switch to the GET command. You can use (NOLOCK and (HEADER together as in the following example: GET listname (HEADER NOLOCK (Note that the "(" switch character is used only once.) CAUTION: It is not advisable to use the (NOLOCK switch in at least two cases: * Don't use the (NOLOCK switch if you are not the sole owner of the list. This prevents conflicting GETs and PUTs by different list owners. For instance, Owner(A) GETs the list without locking it. Owner(B) then also GETs the list. The owners make differing changes to the list header. Owner(B) PUTs his changes back first. Owner(A) then PUTs his changes back, erasing every change Owner(B) made. If Owner(A) had not used the (NOLOCK switch, Owner(B) would not have been able to GET a copy of the list until Owner(A) either unlocked the list or PUT his copy back. (Owner(B) could also unlock the list himself, but it would be advisable to ask Owner(A) if he was finished editing the list header before doing so.) * Don't use the (NOLOCK switch if you get the entire list rather than just the header. You will erase all subscriptions for users who subscribed between the time you GET the list and PUT the list back. It is easier to deal with questions as to why they got the "listname has been locked since time by list-owner" message than to explain why they got a subscription confirmation and now aren't getting list mail. Another caution: If you GET the header with the (HEADER switch, do not add new subscribers "on the fly" to the bottom of the header. If you do, your subsequent PUT will replace the entire list online with what you have sent, canceling the subscriptions of every user on the list (except for the ones you added to the header). Note carefully that LISTSERV will parse a signature file as if it were new subscribers; you should therefore turn off your signature file whenever you PUT your list header. LISTSERV maintainers should note one further caution: It is considered extremely inadvisable to "hand-edit" subscriber lists, as columns at the far right of each subscriber's entry contain list control codes corresponding to the subscriber's personal option settings. The only case in which it might be appropriate to "hand-edit" would be to delete a user entirely, and then only if all attempts to delete the user via the DELETE command fail. For instance, X.400 or X.500 addresses can cause DELETE to fail because of their use of the "/" character. You can use wildcards to delete these subscriptions. You can also enclose the address in double quotes: DELETE XYZ-L "/ADMD=ABC/PRMD=DEF/...../@X400.SOMEHOST.COM" Finally, note that depending on your list configuration, you may have to use a password or respond to a confirmation request in order to GET your list header. The syntax for using a password with the GET command is GET listname (options PW=password For instance, GET MYLIST-L (HEADER NOLOCK PW=MYPASSWORD See the sections below regarding list passwords, personal passwords, and the "OK" command confirmation feature. 2.7. Defining list owners ========================= List owners should be persons who will undertake the responsibility of managing the list in all of its aspects. A list owner may be a moderator; a list owner may be called upon to determine why a user cant unsubscribe from the list, or to handle delivery errors, or to fix other problems that may arise. The primary list owner (the first owner defined) has special responsibilities as well. This owner is considered the Editor and the primary Moderator for lists that have Send= Editor but do not have Editor= or Moderator= defined. This owner receives all error messages when Errors-To= is set to Owner. In short, the primary list owner is generally the person who is ultimately responsible for the workings of the list. Secondary list owners fall into two categories: Quiet and non-Quiet. - Non-Quiet list owners receive mail sent to the listname-request address, and will receive error messages if Errors-To= Owners. - Quiet list owners will never receive delivery errors or other administrative mail from LISTSERV. Here is a sample list header excerpt for a list with all three types of list owners defined: ------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Owner= NATHAN@LSOFT.COM (Nathan Brindle) * Owner= nathan@linus.dc.lsoft.com * Owner= Quiet: * Owner= ncbnet@linus.dc.lsoft.com,cheng@linus.dc.lsoft.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Figure 2.2. Example: How to define list owners in the list header file. Note that all list owners defined after the * Owner= Quiet: line will be quiet list owners. You can define multiple owners on a single line by separating them with a comma. Note that if you put Quiet: on a line with list owner userids, you must place a comma after Quiet:, e.g. * Owner= Quiet:,ncbnet@linus.dc.lsoft.com,cheng@linus.dc.lsoft.com There must always be at least one non-quiet list owner. Otherwise LISTSERV sends all error messages and other administrative mail to the LISTSERV maintainer by default. 2.8. List passwords are now obsolete ==================================== When creating the list, a random password is assigned for security if the LISTSERV maintainer does not define one explicitly. In 1.8c it is no longer necessary to use the list password for anything; it is simply another line of defense, and you can substitute a personal password in any command that calls for a list password. See section 2.12.8, below, to learn how to create a personal password. 2.9. Storing the list on the host machine ========================================= When you are ready to store your list back on the host, include the list file in a mail message to LISTSERV. Ensure that the PW=XXXXXXXX command is in the first line of the mail body. Change XXXXXXXX to the password you have previously defined with the PW= list header keyword. Then send the message. If LISTSERV has trouble processing the edited list file, it will return a discrepancy report to you with each error noted. If the errors are categorized as "warnings only," LISTSERV will go ahead and store the list. However, if any one error is categorized as a serious error, the list will not be stored and the old version will be retained. Caution: If you are using a mailer such as Pine or Microsoft Mail that allows "attachments" to mail, do not "attach" the list file to your mail message. It must be in plain text with the PUT line at the top. LISTSERV will not translate encoded attachments. 2.10. Fixing mistakes ==================== LISTSERV always backs up the current list file before it stores a new copy. Should you discover that you have made a mistake (for instance, you have deleted all users by storing a header and adding users "on the fly"), it is possible to retrieve the previous copy of the list by issuing a GET listname (OLD command to the host server. You must then add the PUT listname LIST PW=XXXXXXXX command to the top of the file and store it. 2.11. A sample list header file =============================== Once the LISTSERV maintainer has notified you that the basic list has been created, you can send a GET command to the server to make any modifications necessary. For instance, GET MYLIST PW=MYPASSWD (HEADER might cause LISTSERV to send you the following list header file: ------------------------------------------------------------------------- PUT MYLIST.LIST PW=XXXXXXXX * The Descriptive Title of My List * * Owner= NATHAN@LSOFT.COM (Nathan Brindle) * Notebook= Yes,A,Monthly,Public * Errors-To= Owner * Subscription= Open,Confirm * Ack= Yes Confidential= No Notify= No * Files= No Mail-Via= Distribute Validate= No * Reply-to= List,Respect Review= Public Send= Public * Stats= Normal,Private X-Tags= Yes * Default-Options= NoFiles,NoRepro * * This list installed on 96/11/02, running under L-Soft's LISTSERV-TCP/IP * version 1.8c for Windows NT. * * Comment lines... * ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Figure 2.3. A sample list header file for a list called MYLIST. Below, we've now edited the list header and it is ready to be included in a mail message and sent back to LISTSERV. Note that the PUT command has been modified to include the password assigned by the LISTSERV maintainer, and note also the PW= keyword in the body of the list header which will define a new password. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- PUT MYLIST.LIST PW=MYPASSWD * The Descriptive Title of My List * * Owner= NATHAN@LSOFT.COM (Nathan Brindle) * Owner= Quiet: * Owner= nathan@linus.dc.lsoft.com * Owner= ncbnet@linus.dc.lsoft.com * Notebook= Yes,A,Monthly,Public * AutoDelete= Yes,Full-Auto * Errors-To= ncbnet@linus.dc.lsoft.com * Subscription= Open,Confirm * Ack= Yes Confidential= No Notify= No * Files= No Mail-Via= Distribute Validate= No * Reply-to= List,Respect Review= Public Send= Public * Stats= Normal,Private X-Tags= Yes * Default-Options= NoFiles,NoRepro * PW=NEWPASSWD * * This list installed on 96/11/02, running under L-Soft's LISTSERV-TCP/IP * version 1.8c for Windows NT. * * Comment lines... * ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Figure 2.4. The edited list header file ready to be sent back to the server. 2.12. Security Options ====================== LISTSERV's security options are wide ranging, from almost no protection (easiest to administer your list, but also most open to hacker attacks) to total protection requiring validation of each and every command sent to LISTSERV for your list. It is also possible to limit access to various aspects of your list, such as who can subscribe, who can review the list of subscribers, and who can access the list archives. You can hide your list from the LIST command, either at the global level or from all requests, including those from users on LISTSERVs local machine, or from a definable range in between. 2.12.1. First line of defense: The VALIDATE= keyword ---------------------------------------------------- The VALIDATE= keyword controls the level of command validation desired for your list. The default, VALIDATE= NO, requires password validation only for storing the list on the server. This is often sufficient for general needs. However, when a list is set this way, LISTSERV does not validate commands it receives for the list, under the assumption that the mail it receives is genuinely coming from a list owner. This level of validation does not protect the list from commands issued by hackers who have forged mail in the name of the list owner. The next level is VALIDATE= YES. At this level, LISTSERV requires a password for all of its protected commands. This password can be either the list password or the senders personal password as defined by the PW ADD command. The commands protected by this level are those that affect subscriptions or the operation of the list, e.g., DELETE or ADD. Users will also have to validate most commands that affect their subscriptions, but generally can do so using the OK mechanism rather than defining a personal password. Note that some user commands will be forwarded to the list owner for validation rather than accepting password validation from the user. The next level is VALIDATE= YES,CONFIRM. At this level, LISTSERV will require validation with the OK mechanism (see below) by default, but will still accept passwords where appropriate. While the less-secure passwords are still accepted, this is considered a good compromise between list security and list owner and user convenience. The next level is VALIDATE= YES,CONFIRM,NOPW. At this level, LISTSERV will no longer accept passwords as validation for protected commands. The logic is that because of the way the OK mechanism is implemented, passwords are not as safe as magic cookies. This is the recommended setting for lists that must be kept secure. Two other levels are VALIDATE= ALL,CONFIRM and VALIDATE= ALL,CONFIRM,NOPW. These levels require OK validation for all commands that cause a change in state except for the PUT command. If NOPW is not specified, passwords are accepted where appropriate. With these levels, commands that do not cause a change in state (e.g., QUERY) do not require validation. Note that LISTSERV requests coming from the local system via CP MSG or CP SMSG on VM systems or via LCMD on VMS or Unix systems never require validation, as they cannot be forged. See Appendix B for more information on the VALIDATE= keyword. 2.12.2. Controlling subscription requests ----------------------------------------- You can control subscription requests by use of the SUBSCRIPTION= keyword. By default, this keyword is set to SUBSCRIPTION= BY OWNER, meaning that all subscription requests will be forwarded to the list owner for disposition. You can also refuse all subscription requests by setting SUBSCRIPTION= CLOSED. To code a list for open subscriptions without list owner intervention, you set SUBSCRIPTION= OPEN. If you would like to add protection against forged subscription requests or bad return mailing paths, code SUBSCRIPTION= OPEN,CONFIRM. The latter will cause a subscription confirmation request to be sent to the prospective subscriber, which he or she must respond to using the OK confirmation mechanism. In order to restrict subscriptions to persons in a specific service area, see the next section. 2.12.3. Controlling the service area of your list ------------------------------------------------- It may be desirable to restrict access to your list to people in a small area. For instance, you probably would not want a list for students in a class section at a university to be advertised or accessible by people all over the world. However, without setting certain keywords appropriately, such a list will be visible to a LIST GLOBAL command. If you wish to simply hide your list from a LIST command, but still allow people to subscribe to it if they know it is there, use the keyword CONFIDENTIAL= YES. Note that users subscribed to the list as well as the list owner(s) will be able to see the list if they issue a LIST command. If you wish to hide your list from and refuse subscription requests from users outside the local area, you define two keywords: * SERVICE= bitnode1,bitnode2,some.host.edu * CONFIDENTIAL= SERVICE SERVICE= can also be set to SERVICE= LOCAL, meaning it will use either LISTSERVs global definition of which machines are LOCAL, or the machines defined by the list keyword LOCAL=. If you wish to set SERVICE to LOCAL, you should check with your LISTSERV maintainer to find out which nodes are considered local. If the global definition is not suitable, you can override it by defining the LOCAL= keyword: * LOCAL= bitnode1,bitnode2,some.host.edu,another.host.com * SERVICE= LOCAL * CONFIDENTIAL= SERVICE If there are many subdomains within your primary domain, you may wish to use the wildcard when defining the LOCAL or SERVICE keywords. For instance: * SERVICE= HOST.COM,*.HOST.COM defines the service area as HOST.COM and all subdomains ending in .HOST.COM. 2.12.4 Controlling who may review the list of subscribers --------------------------------------------------------- For whatever reason, you may wish to restrict the ability to review the subscriber list either to subscribers or to list owners. This is done by setting the REVIEW= keyword appropriately. To allow anyone, including non-subscribers, to review the list, set REVIEW= PUBLIC. To restrict reviews of the list to subscribers only, set REVIEW= PRIVATE. This is the default. To restrict reviews of the list to list owners only, set REVIEW= OWNERS. You can also restrict reviews to users within the lists service area by setting REVIEW= SERVICE , and defining the SERVICE= keyword appropriately (see the preceding section). 2.12.5 Controlling who may access the notebook files ---------------------------------------------------- Restricting access to the lists notebook archive files is similar to controlling who may review the list. It is accomplished by setting the fourth parameter of the NOTEBOOK= keyword to an appropriate value. For instance, * NOTEBOOK= Yes,A,Monthly,Public defines a monthly notebook on LISTSERVs A disk that is accessible by anyone. Change Public to Private if you wish only subscribers to be able to access the notebooks. The same access-levels are available for this keyword as for REVIEW=. (See Appendix B for a discussion of access-levels.) Note: It is not advised to change the location (second) parameter of the Notebook= keyword without prior approval from the LISTSERV maintainer. Setting this parameter to an illegal value will generate errors that will cause LISTSERV to place your list on hold until the error is corrected. If enabled, notebook archives are private by default. 2.12.6 Controlling who may post mail to the list ------------------------------------------------ The Send= list header keyword is the basic control for who may post mail to the list. If the list allows non-subscribers to post, set Send= Public. For a list that does not allow non-subscribers to post, set Send= Private. For a list where all posts should be forwarded to a moderator/editor, there are two settings: - Send= Editor forwards all postings to the list editor (see the Editor= and Moderator= keywords). This setting allows the editor to make changes before forwarding the message back to the list. Note that your mail program must be capable of inserting Resent- header lines in your forwarded mailif it is not capable of this, all such posts forwarded to the list will appear to be coming from the editor. Check with your system administrator if you are not sure whether or not your mail program inserts the Resent- headers. - Send= Editor,Hold forwards a copy of the posting to the editor but differs from Send= Editor in that LISTSERV holds the posting for a period of time (usually 7 days) until the editor confirms the message with the OK mechanism (see below). Unconfirmed messages simply expire and are flushed by LISTSERV, so there is no need to formally disapprove a posting. This method of message confirmation is well-suited to lists where it is not often necessary to modify the text of a posting, and also is an excellent workaround if the editors mail program does not generate Resent- headers in forwarded mail. Below is a sample of the editor-header for a list set to Send= Editor,Hold: ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "L-Soft list server at PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (1.8b)" Subject: ACCESS-L: approval required (701AC4) To: Nathan Brindle This message was originally submitted by joe@unix1.foo.bar.com to the ACCESS-L list at PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM. You can approve it using the "OK" mechanism, ignore it, or repost an edited copy. The message will expire automatically and you do not need to do anything if you just want to discard it. Please refer to the list owner's guide if you are not familiar with the "OK" mechanism; these instructions are being kept purposefully short for your convenience in processing large numbers of messages. ------------------------ Original message (26 lines)--------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Figure 2.5 The editor-header for a list set to Send= Editor,Hold A final method (called self-moderation) exists for lists where subscribers should be allowed to post freely, but non-subscriber posts should always be sent to an editor for approval. To enable self-moderation, set Send= Editor Editor= userid@host,(listname) Ensure that listname is in parenthesis. Note that self-moderation will catch all posts from non-subscribersincluding posts from subscribers who are posting from a different address. For instance, if the subscriber originally signed up as joe@foo.com but is posting from joe@unix1.foo.com, LISTSERV will treat his mail as non-subscriber mail. Self-moderation may require some slight changes in individual user subscriptions in order for it to work seamlessly. 2.12.7. The OK confirmation mechanism ------------------------------------- Depending on the setting of the Validate= list header keyword, certain LISTSERV commands have always required a password for execution. However, with a recognition that mail can be forged (spoofed) by just about anyone on the Internet today, L-Soft introduced a magic cookie method of command validation that is considered much more secure than passwords. In essence, the "magic cookie" method requires that the sender of the command must confirm his command via a reply containing only the text "OK". (This is actually simplistic; see below.) If mail is spoofed from the list owner's user id, the command confirmation request will always be sent to the list owner's user id, thus preventing the spoofer from confirming the command. Moreover, the "cookie" itself (a six-digit hexidecimal number) is registered to the "From:" user id of the original command. The general method of replying to a command confirmation request is as follows: - REPLY to the command confirmation request with the text "ok" in the body of the reply. (Non-case-sensitive) LISTSERV reads the "cookie" from the subject line and if it corresponds to a held job, the job is released and processed. If this does not work, it is possible that the Subject: line was corrupted in transit and you may need to try the following: - SEND a new message to LISTSERV with the text "ok xxxxxx" (where xxxxxx is the command confirmation number from the original confirmation request) in the body of the reply. It is also possible to confirm multiple command confirmation requests with a single message (for instance, if you have Send= Editor,Hold and have a number of requests to be responded to). This eliminates multiple Message approved mails from LISTSERV. However, make sure that you send the confirmations in a new mail message rather than replying to one of them. Also note that the confirmations must come from the user id that originated the command. You cannot send a command from one account and then approve it from another. 2.12.8 Personal Passwords ------------------------- The passwords recognized by LISTSERV for various operations (assuming that the NOPW parameter is not used with the Validate= keyword) are of two distinct types: - List Passwords. Beginning with 1.8c, list passwords are obsolete (we are mentioning them here only because users upgrading from earlier versions will be aware of their existence). You should define and use a personal password for all protected operations. - Personal Passwords. LISTSERV can store a personal password in its signup files corresponding to your userid. This password not only can be used in place of the list password for list maintenance operations, but also protects your FUI (file update information) and AFD (automatic file distribution) subscriptions and must be used to store your archive files, if any, on the server. To add a personal password, send mail to LISTSERV with the command PW ADD newpassword in the body of the message. LISTSERV will request a confirmation via the OK mechanism (see above) before it adds the password. If you want to remove your password altogether, send the command PW RESET This command will also require confirmation. And finally, if you simply want to change your personal password, send the command PW CHANGE newpassword [PW=oldpassword] If you do not include the old password in the command (e.g., youve forgotten it), LISTSERV will request an OK confirmation. Otherwise, it will act on the command without need for further confirmation (unless, of course, the oldpassword provided is incorrect). 2.12.9 Restricting subscriber privileges ---------------------------------------- Another security issue involves protecting the list from people who refuse to play by the rules. LISTSERV includes several different levels of privilege restriction for these users, some of which are available for use by list owners without the intervention of the LISTSERV maintainer. 1. The REVIEW personal option setting. By issuing a SET listname REVIEW FOR userid@host command to LISTSERV, you can moderate postings at the individual subscriber level. Postings from subscribers set to REVIEW are passed on to the Editor(s) or Moderator(s) of the list, or, if neither of these keywords are defined for your list, the postings are passed on to the primary list owner. At this point, the person who receives the postings can determine whether or not to approve them. Note that the subscriber always receives notification that his or her posting has been forwarded to a moderator for approval. This is to avoid the impression that the subscribers posting has been lost before reaching LISTSERV. 2. The NOPOST personal option setting. By issuing a SET listname NOPOST FOR userid@host command to LISTSERV, you can prevent a subscriber from posting to the list entirely. LISTSERV will reject postings from these subscribers and will not pass them on to a moderator. As with the REVIEW setting, note that the subscriber always receives notification that his or her posting has been rejected. 3. The FILTER= list header keyword. You can filter individual users (no wildcards) from subscribing and/or posting to your list by adding them to the Filter= list header keyword. For instance, if you have a list called MACTALK-L and you want to discourage redistribution lists from using the same name as your list, you can add * Filter= Also,MACTALK-L@* See Appendix B for more information on the Filter= syntax. 2.12.10. Restricting the number of postings per user to the list per day ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Beginning with 1.8c, you can control the maximum number of postings per day per subscriber on a list-by-list basis by setting the new (optional) second parameter of the "Daily-Threshold=" list header keyword. The default is to have no such daily limit per user. If set, when the per-subscriber threshold is reached, the subscriber is told that his message cannot be processed because he has reached the limit for today, and that he should repost his message at a later time. The counter for this limit resets to zero at midnight for all lists. This limit is waived for the list owner(s) and any list editors/moderators. If you want to set this limit, note that an overall daily threshold must be set for the list in the first parameter of the keyword. If no "Daily-Threshold=" keyword is already present in your list header, the default is "Daily-Threshold= 50". Thus, to leave the default value in force and to add a daily limit of 5 postings per day per user, you would code: * Daily-Threshold= 50,5 For more information see Appendix B. 2.13. How to set up lists for specific purposes =============================================== 2.13.1. Edited lists -------------------- An edited list is one which requires a human editor to approve messages sent to the list. Some list software and most USENET newsgroups refer to this as "moderation", but to avoid confusion between two types of moderated LISTSERV lists, the present example will be referred to as an "edited" list. Examples of edited lists range from referreed electronic journals to lists where the list owner simply wishes to exercise control over which postings are allowed to go to the list. To set up a basic edited list, simply add * Send= Editor * Editor= someuser@somehost.com to the basic list header. Note that the primary Editor= specification (that is, the first editor defined by an Editor= keyword for the list) must be a human person who will be able to act on postings sent to him or her for approval. You may not use an access-level specification (such as "Owner") when defining the primary editor for a list. Please note that L-Soft recommends setting "Send= Editor,Confirm" so as to add a level of security against malicious users forging mail from an "Editor=" address to get around your moderation settings, or against badly-configured "vacation" programs that simply reflect the message back to the list in a manner that makes it appear that the mail is coming from the editor’s address. The "Confirm" option causes LISTSERV to request an "OK" confirmation from an editor when it receives mail claiming to be from that editor. You can define multiple editors, but only the first editor will receive postings for approval. Anyone defined as an editor may post directly to the list without further intervention. Multiple editors can be defined on separate Editor= lines or can be grouped several on a line, e.g., * Editor= someuser@somehost.com,anotheruser@anotherhost.com * Editor= yetanotheruser@his.host.com To approve postings with the above configuration, the editor simply forwards (or "resends", or "bounces"--the terminology is unclear between various mail programs) the posting back to the list address after making any desired changes to the content. This should be done with a mail program that supports "Resent-" fields; if "Resent-" fields are not found by LISTSERV in the headers of the approved posting, the posting will appear as coming from the editor's address rather than from the original poster. If you do not need to physically edit the content of your users' posts (for instance, to remove anything considered "off-topic" or to remove included mail headers and so forth), you can code * Send= Editor,Hold The "Hold" parameter causes LISTSERV to send you a copy of the posting along with a "command confirmation request". To approve the posting, you simply reply to the confirmation request with "ok". For security purposes, you can code * Send= Editor,Confirm which will cause LISTSERV to request a command confirmation ("ok") from the editor sending the approved posting back to the list. This makes it impossible for an outside user to "spoof" mail from an Editor address. Naturally, you can also code * Send= Editor,Hold,Confirm 2.13.2. Moderated lists ----------------------- A moderated list is similar to an edited list, but for LISTSERV's purposes it refers to a list that uses the Moderator= list header keyword to "load-share" posting approvals among several editors. It is set up similarly to an edited list, as follows: * Send= Editor,Confirm * Editor= someuser@somehost.com * Moderator= someuser@somehost.com,anotheruser@anotherhost.com * Moderator= yetanotheruser@his.host.com This list will "load-share" the approval process between the three moderators, who will each receive one-third of the postings for approval. Note that a primary editor should still be defined. If it is desired to have one editor handle more than a single share of the approvals, you simply define the editor more than once in Moderator=. For instance, * Send= Editor,Confirm * Editor= someuser@somehost.com * Moderator= someuser@somehost.com,anotheruser@anotherhost.com * Moderator= someuser@somehost.com,yetanotheruser@his.host.com would cause every other posting to be forwarded to someuser@somehost.com for approval. Beginning with 1.8c, if the parameter "All" is coded at the beginning of the list of moderators, LISTSERV will send copies of all postings to all moderators, any of whom may approve the message. An example of this would be * Moderator= All,kent@net.police.net,joe@bar.edu Please note that something like * Moderator= kent@net.police.net,All,joe@bar.edu,alex@reges.com is not valid. "All" must appear at the beginning of the list of moderators. Assuming "Send= Editor, Hold", once a message is approved by one of the moderators, any other moderator attempting to approve the same message will be told that an identical message has already been posted to the list. If "Send= Editor" (e.g., without "Hold"), please note that if a notation is appended or prepended to the edited post, or if the body of the post itself is edited (that is to say, if the body of the approved message is changed), duplicates are possible. Thus it is important that the moderators of any list set up this way pay close attention to whether or not the posting has already been approved by another moderator. Note carefully that this means if the "All" parameter is used in "Moderator=" with "Send= Editor" (that is, without the "Hold" parameter), again a separate synchronization method will have to be used to prevent duplicates, as two moderators are unlikely to make exactly the same edits to the message. Even if LISTSERV were able to identify the two submissions as being the same message, it would not know which to choose over the other. The "Hold" and "Confirm" options for "Send=" can also be used with these examples, if desired. L-Soft recommends that "Confirm" be used by default. 2.13.3. Semi-moderated lists ---------------------------- "Semi-moderation" was developed some years ago after a great debate on whether or not an "urgent" message should be allowed to be posted to an edited list without having to go through the approval process. Although this option is still available, it can be misused by anyone who knows about it, and is therefore not generally recommended for use. However, should this feature be deemed necessary, it is activated by setting * Send= Editor,Semi-Moderated Then anyone needing to send an "urgent" message to the list simply types "Urgent:" in the subject line of their mail, followed by the subject of the message. Messages that do not have the "Urgent:" subject are forwarded to the list editor for approval as usual. 2.13.4. Self-moderated lists ---------------------------- So-called "self-moderated" lists were invented in 1993 or 1994 when the current epidemic of spamming was beginning to get cranked up and before the "spam filter" was developed by L-Soft. With the spam filter in operation, self-moderation is not as much of an issue anymore, but some lists still run this way. Self-moderation takes advantage of the ability to make an access-level a secondary list editor, and is implemented as follows: * Send= Editor,Confirm * Editor= someone@someplace.com,(listname) (The "Hold" and "Confirm" parameters for "Send=" may naturally be used if required. L-Soft recommends that "Confirm" be used by default.) Usually, one of the list owners is the primary editor (here "someone@someplace.com") and the specification of (listname) makes all of the subscribers of the listname list editors, and thus eligible to send messages directly to the list without editor intervention. Postings from non-subscribers (e.g., spammers) are deflected to the primary owner for his or her disposition. There is one caveat to this kind of list. If a user subscribes to the list, and later his mail address changes (for instance, the hostname changes slightly but mail sent to the old address is automatically forwarded to the new address), any postings from him to the list from the new address will be forwarded to the editor because the new address is not subscribed to the list. Thus there is a certain amount of list- owner overhead on this kind of list in keeping track of users whose addresses have changed and modifying the subscriber list to reflect those changes. 2.13.5. Auto-responders ----------------------- An "auto-responder" is a type of list that simply responds with a set message whenever it receives mail from someone. This kind of list can be useful for things like service messages or upgrade availability, or even to simply send back a standardized message to a user who has sent mail to a "support" address. A simple auto-responder header might look like this: * Auto-responder for service messages * Owner= someone@someplace.com * Send= Public Notebook= No Subscription= Closed In other words, it can be very simple, since you probably don't want notebook archives for this kind of auto-responder, you don't want people to subscribe to the list as it isn't really a mailing list, and so forth. To make the auto-response message for this list, you'd then create a listname.MAILTPL file (see chapter 10 for details) that includes a POSTACK1 template, like the following: >>> POSTACK1 Service Message for &MYNAMES &MYNAMES will be down Sunday from 0200 EST until 0500 EST for backups and upgrades. For more information contact LSTMAINT@&MYHOST. This particular template would inform the user that LISTSERV would be down (&MYNAMES translates to LISTSERV@NODE where NODE is the value of NODE= in the system configuration file) and to send questions to LSTMAINT@ the local host. In order to change the service message, it would be necessary only to change the POSTACK1 template. 2.13.6. Announce-only lists --------------------------- An "announce-only" list would be used to distribute a newsletter or other timely information where responses to the list are neither expected nor desired. A typical announce-only list header might look like this: * The FOO Product Announcment List * * Owner= foo@myhost.com * Owner= Quiet: * Owner= anotheruser@myhost.com * Owner= yetanotheruser@myhost.com * Editor= foo@myhost.com * Editor= anotheruser@myhost.com * Editor= yetanotheruser@myhost.com * Notebook= No * Errors-To= Owner * Subscription= Open,Confirm * Validate= No * Review= Owners * Send= Editor,Confirm * Reply-To= foo@myhost.com,Ignore * Sender= None This list is set up so that generally any response to postings will go back to foo@myhost.com, which might be a special account set up specifically to handle such things, or a mail alias pointing to another account. The newsletter can be posted by foo, or anotheruser, or yetanotheruser, all of whom are editors, but the likelihood is that it would be posted from the foo userid so that the From: line would read "From: foo@myhost.com". 2.13.7. Peered lists -------------------- Please consult your LISTSERV maintainer before peering lists. Occasionally the need to split a very large list may arise. This was more common when LISTSERV ran only on BITNET, whereas the TCP/IP version of LISTSERV is not limited by BITNET constraints. However, because of the fact that subscribers may be scattered all over the world, in rare cases it can make sense to split (or "peer") a list and share the mail load among two or more LISTSERV servers. Peering also makes it possible to have list archives located in more than one place; for example, a list might be peered between a European host and a North American host, making it possible for subscribers on each continent to retrieve archives from the nearer host. Although there is no problem about peering to another L-Soft LISTSERV list, linking to a non-L-Soft mailing list manager is not supported and can and will cause serious problems (including mailing loops) for which L-Soft international, Inc. could not be held responsible. After the link operation has been completed, it is recommended that you define "Peers=" keywords on lists you just linked. For lists running on LISTSERV for VM, this makes it possible to EXPLODE them for better network efficiency. (Because peering is not widely used today, it is unlikely that the EXPLODE command will be ported to other platforms.) Moving users from one (peer) server to another: You should be aware of the fact that a MOVE operation is not just an ADD to the new server and a DELete to the current one. This would effectively transfer the person from the old server to the new one but his distribution options would be lost in the process. Besides, you should make sure that the user does not lose any mail in the process. The proper course of action to be taken when people are moved from one list to the other is the following: 1. Send mail to the list telling people that a new peer server is being linked to the list, and that some subscribers will be moved to it. 2a. If the prerequisites for using the MOVE command are met, you should use either individual MOVE commands (in the case that there are very few users to move) or a batch-MOVE command with associated DDname (see the LISTJOB MEMO guide for more information on commands-jobs) to move the users. You may want to use the QUIET option to suppress notification if there are a lot of users to move. Warning: the MOVE command should not be used to move peer list servers. See the MOVE command description for more details. If you cannot use the MOVE command, you should try one of the following two methods: 2b. For each user to be moved, issue the following commands in the following order: * Query listname FOR userid@host (old server), write down the options. * QUIET ADD listname userid@host full_name * QUIET SET listname options FOR userid@host * Wait until you get confirmation for the two previous commands * QUIET DELete listname userid@host (old server) 2c. If there are a lot of users to move, the following method is preferred: * GET listname (old server) * GET listname (new server) * If you are using VM XEDIT: Receive both files and use the XEDIT "PUT" and "GET" commands to move users from one list to the other. You must preserve the contents of columns 81-100 across the move. * If you are using another text editor: Make sure that the editor you are using does not "imbed" control codes such as line breaks, tabs or word-wrapping characters into the text when you edit it. Use the cut and paste controls to copy lines in their entirety. You must preserve the contents of columns 81-100 across the move. Imbedded control codes and/or word wrap will generate errors when the list is stored back on the server. * Store the two lists back on their respective servers. Special commands for peered lists only ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ADDHere listname userid@host The ADDHERE command is strictly identical to ADD, with the exception that the placement of the user is not checked against the list of peer servers, i.e. the specified user is added to the local list without any further verification. (By comparison, the ADD command causes LISTSERV to check automatically to see if there is no better-suited peer list for the specified user.) EXPLODE listname [VM only] The EXPLODE command provides a means whereby a list can be automatically analyzed by LISTSERV to optimize the placement of its recipients over the various peer servers hosting the list. It requires a "Peers=" keyword to be defined in the list header (see Appendix B). Non-BITNET userids will be exploded according to the network address of the corresponding gateway (as per the SERVICE NAMES file), or ignored if the gateway could not be identified. LISTSERV will create a commands-job file containing the necessary MOVE command to transfer all the users which were found to be (possibly) mis-allocated to the peer server which is nearest to them. This file will then be sent to you so that you can review it before sending it back to the server for execution. MOVE listname userid@host newhost DD=ddname listid@newhost [VM only] The MOVE command allows list owners to easily move users from one peer server to another. It will move the complete user entry from the source server to the destination one, including full name as it appears in the specified list and all list distribution options. The MOVE operation will be done in such a way that no mail can possibly be lost by the target while the MOVE operation is in progress (duplicate mail might be received for a short duration, however). Notification will be sent to the target user unless the QUIET option was used. If the source and destination list names are identical, only the destination node ('newhost') needs be specified. Otherwise, the full network address ('listid@newhost') must be specified. The MOVE command requires both source and destination lists to have the same password. Since each server will have to send a password to the other to validate the (special) ADD/DELETE commands it is sending to the other, it has potentially a way to trap the password specified by the server, thus thwarting any attempt at inventing a protocol to allow use of this command on lists which have a different password. Besides, no MOVE operation will be accepted on lists which do not have a password at all, because for technical reasons it would allow unauthorized users to easily add someone to a list (since there would be no password validation). The MOVE command is the proper way to effect a move operation. You should not use any other command/set of commands unless you cannot use MOVE. THE MOVE COMMAND SHOULD NOT BE USED TO MOVE DISTRIBUTION LISTS!!! Since a MOVE is basically an ADD + DELETE, with the latter being done only AFTER the ADD is completed, moving a distribution list address with the MOVE command can cause a duplicate link to be defined for a short period of time. This could result in a transient mailing loop, which could become permanent if the size of the looping mailfiles is less than the size of the inter-servers "DELETE" command jobfile, and the RSCS priority of the latter has been altered. 2.13.8. "Super-lists" and "sub-lists" ------------------------------------- Please note that the LISTSERV maintainer must create the super-list. In LISTSERV 1.8c it is possible to define a "super-list" (as in opposite of sub-list), that is, a "container" list that includes all the subscribers in a predefined set of sub-lists. This can be done recursively to any depth. Only the LISTSERV maintainer can create a super-list, for security reasons. Concretely, the "Sub-lists=" keyword is protected from owner tampering in the same fashion as "Notebook=". The value is a comma separated list of all the sub-lists, which must all be on the same (local) machine. For instance: * Sub-lists= MYLIST-L,MYOTHERLIST-L The default value for this keyword is null, e.g., to have no sublists. Please note that the super-list and all of its sublists must reside on the same LISTSERV server. The only difference between a normal list and a super-list is what happens when you post to it. With the super-list, the membership of all the sub-lists is added (recursively) and duplicates are suppressed. Other than that, the super-list is a normal list with its own archives, access control, etc. You can even subscribe to it, and this is actually an important aspect of the operation of super-lists. If you are subscribed to the super-list itself, the subscription options used to deliver super-messages to you are taken from your subscription to the super-list, just like with any other list. All combinations are allowed, and in particular NOMAIL is allowed, meaning you don't want to get messages posted to the super-list. When you are subscribed to multiple sub-lists, on the other hand, things work differently: NOMAIL subscriptions are ignored. You will get the super-message if you have an active (not NOMAIL) subscription to at least one sub-list. The idea is that the super-message must be equivalent to posting to all the sub-lists, without the duplicates. Since all it takes to get a message posted to all the sub-lists is a single non-NOMAIL subscription, this is how the super-list works. The only way not to get the super-messages is to subscribe to the super-list directly and set yourself to NOMAIL. The DIGEST and INDEX options are ignored and internally converted to MAIL. The first reason is that, since in most cases the user will be on multiple sub-lists (otherwise you don't need a super-list in the first place), the only safe method to set subscription options for super- messages is by subscribing to the super-list so that there is no ambiguity. The second reason is that, in most cases, super-lists will be used for out of band administrative messages rather than for large volume discussions, so it is actually preferable to have the message sent directly. The third reason is that the super-list and sub-lists may not necessarily offer the same options (DIGEST and INDEX). In particular it is expected that many super-lists will not have archives. If you want a DIGEST or INDEX for the super-messages, you must subscribe to the super-list directly. Topics, if defined, are evaluated on a per-list basis. That is, for every sub-list (and for the super-list), LISTSERV determines whether the topic of the message is one that you want to see. If not, it acts as if you were not subscribed to this particular list. Roughly speaking, this works very well if all the sub-lists have the same set of topics (or a well-defined set of common topics), and doesn't work well at all if every list has its own set of topics. 2.13.9. "Cloning" lists ----------------------- Some sites may have a need for many lists that are essentially identical. For instance, a series of class section lists for a university department may have the same owner, allow the same class of users to subscribe, and so forth. LISTSERV makes it possible to maintain large collections of lists by "including" keywords from an external file. For instance, consider a mathematics course with ten sections. Each section should have its own list (for instance, called M101-001, M101- 002, and so forth), but the lists will otherwise be identical. The LISTSERV maintainer simply creates a text file (in this case called M101 KEYWORDS) containing the keyword definitions that will be shared by the lists, as follows: PUT M101 KEYWORDS PW=createpw * Owner= mathwhiz@someuni.edu (Professor J. Random User) * Owner= Quiet: * Owner= gradasst@someuni.edu (Joe Doakes, Graduate Assistant) * Notebook= Yes,/home/listserv/archives/m101,Monthly,Private * Auto-Delete= No * Errors-To= gradasst@someuni.edu * Subscription= Closed * Notify= Yes Confidential= Yes Validate= Yes,Confirm,NoPW * Reply-to= List,Ignore Review= Owners Send= Private * Default-Options= Repro Next, the LISTSERV maintainer stores this file in the usual way, by first making a filelist or catalog entry for it (as outlined in chapter 8) and then storing it with a PUT operation. Generally the GET and PUT FACs for this file should specify that the list owner(s) should be able to retrieve and store it. The file must be stored in LISTSERV’s A directory (the same directory that contains the *.LIST files). Note that it is also possible to create this file directly in LISTSERV’s A directory with a text editor; if you do so, make sure that you do not include the PUT command shown above. You should still make the filelist or catalog entry for the file so that the list owners can retrieve and store it. Next, the LISTSERV maintainer creates and stores a skeleton list header for each of the section lists. The first section list (M101-001) is illustrated below: PUT M101-001 LIST PW=createpw * Math 101 Section 001 Mailing List * .IK M101 The .IK command tells LISTSERV that whenever it uses this list, it should read the keyword definitions from the file M101 KEYWORDS (note carefully that the syntax is ".IK M101", not ".IK M101 KEYWORDS"). Now, whenever the professor in charge of the class wants to make a change to all of the M101 lists (for instance, he has a new graduate assistant), he simply GETs the file M101 KEYWORDS, makes the changes, and PUTs the file back, instead of having to GET separate headers for each list and make the changes to all of them individually. In order to see the complete list header, send a REVIEW listname command. The response to a GET will be only the skeleton header with the .IK command. ******************************************** * 3. Advertising Your Public Mailing Lists * ******************************************** 3.1. Lists of Lists maintained by LISTSERV ========================================== LISTSERV automatically produces a List of Lists that may be reviewed by users anywhere on the Internet in one of two ways: - L-Soft's CataList service at http://www.lsoft.com/lists/listref.html - The LISTS GLOBAL searchtext command. This list of lists is made up of one-line entries containing the short listname and the descriptive title of the list (up to about 60 characters in length). A sample of the List of Lists format was shown in Chapter 2. Note that it is possible to code a descriptive title in your list header that is more than 40 columns long, but the List of Lists will include only the first 40 columns of that title. It is therefore important from this respect to be sure that the descriptive title of your list is succinct and to the point. 3.2. Adding HTML to a list header for the CataList L-Soft's CataList service (http://www.lsoft.com/lists/listref.html) allows users to search the global list of public LISTSERV lists via the World Wide Web. Adding an HTML description to a list is easy, and can do a lot to enhance the appearance of a list in the database. All you have to do is update your list header and add the text of your choice. Here is an example: * The coffee lovers' list * * Review= Public Subscription= Open Send= Public * Notify= Yes Reply-to= List,Respect * Notebook= Yes,L,Monthly,Public * * Owner= claudia@espresso.xyz.it (Claudia Serafino) * * * COFFEE-LOVERS is an open list for, well, coffee lovers! Our * motto is: "Instant -- just say no!" * That's pretty much our whole charter, although there are a * few other * rules that you may want to read before joining. For * instance, we don't allow flame wars about decaf: if you like it, * well, it's your body after all. * *

The list is maintained by * Claudia * Serafino (that's me!) and you will find all sorts of * useful info about coffee on my home page. * * In other words, you just insert your HTML text in the list header and bracket it with and tags (these tags tell the web interface where the HTML text begins and ends -- they are not actually sent to the web browser). There are three simple rules that you must follow when inserting your HTML data: 1. The and tags must appear on a separate line, as shown in the example above. You cannot have anything else on that line and, in particular, you cannot mix keyword definitions with HTML data. 2. The HTML data you are providing is embedded into the document shown by the web interface when users query your list. Because you are given some space between two horizontal rules on an existing page, rather than a whole new page. you should not include tags that affect the whole document, like for instance . 3. While this procedure is compatible with all versions of LISTSERV, there are a few restrictions on the placement of equal signs within your HTML text with versions that do not have any specific support for the <HTML> and </HTML> markers. In practice, you can ignore this rule unless you get an error message while storing your list. When reformatting your list header description for HTML, bear in mind that the text will not always be viewed using a web browser. It is best to keep the formatting as clear as possible and minimize the usage of HTML tags, since there are still many people without WWW access. For instance, do not hesitate to use white space between paragraphs for clarity. 3.2.1. Update latency --------------------- Barring network outages, a list header update takes a maximum of 24h to be reflected in the distributed LISTS database. Database updates are usually scheduled to be broadcast at night, so the changes take place overnight. Once the LISTS database has been updated, it can take a maximum of 24h for the frozen copy of the database used by the web interface to be updated. In most cases, both the LISTS database and its frozen copy on the web server will be updated overnight. However, if the site hosting your lists is several time zones west of the site hosting the web server, and if that server only updates itself once a day, you may have to wait two days for your update to be reflected. 3.2.2. Inserting a pointer to another list ------------------------------------------ Sometimes it may be useful to link a number of related lists together so that the viewer can quickly examine all the lists without having to go back to the search screen and retyping the names you are providing. You can do this using the special HTML sequence: <!--#listref listname@hostname--> This sequence is internally translated to an <a> tag with a URL that will bring up information about the list you indicated. You must then provide a suitable caption and a closing </a> tag. Example: Don't forget to take a look at <!--#listref COFFEE-L@COFFEE.ORG--> the coffee list!</a> 3.2.3. Restrictions on the placement of equal signs --------------------------------------------------- While all versions of LISTSERV are supported, servers which have no specific support for the <HTML> and </HTML> tags will process your HTML data as an ordinary list header line and attempt to determine whether it contains a list header keyword or descriptive text. The exact algorithms vary from one version to another, but in general the parser looks for a single word followed by an equal sign. With HTML text, it is possible (if unlikely) to generate such patterns. Here is an example: * * Sample list with problem pattern * * <HTML> * For more information on the list, just check <a * href="http://www.xyz.edu/mypage.html">my home page.</a> * </HTML> * In that case, you can just reorder the HTML data so that the equal sign does not appear in this position. Alternatively, if the equal sign was meant to be actually displayed as an equal sign (as opposed to being part of some HTML tag), you can use the HTML escape sequence = instead. 3.3. Defining search categories in a list header for the CataList ================================================================= Note: The complete list of search categories may not yet be available when LISTSERV 1.8c is released. Note also that during the "pilot" phase of categories implementation, all categories will be "open", and you can define search categories for your list as long as the categories you define are in compliance with the rules for defining categories. When the "production" phase begins, only categories defined below as "open" will be open, and if a list is created or modified without a "Categories=" keyword, LISTSERV will issue a warning (but will go ahead and store the list without it). Another feature of the CataList service discussed in the preceding chapter is the ability to search for lists based on topic categories. For instance, a user might be looking for lists that discuss various aspects of opera. The same user might want to search not just for lists that discuss opera in general, but great operatic tenors in particular. In order to implement search categories for your list, you use the new "Categories=" list header keyword, in conjunction with the list of categories that can be found at the CataList site. The URL for the category list is http://www.lsoft.com/listcat.html. If you do not have a web browser, you can issue the command GET LISTCAT FILE to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.NET or any LISTSERV server running version 1.8c or higher to have a list of categories mailed to you. A typical category listing is in two parts. The first part is the category title itself (this is what you code in the "Categories=" keyword). The second part is an optional description of what the category covers. For instance: Category:SubCategory:MinorCategory Description of this category There are two types of categories that you need to be aware of. Open Categories: These categories have a description indicating that they are open and can be added to. Taking our example of great operatic tenors above, you might see the following category listed: Arts:Music:Opera:Singers Operatic Singers (Open) You notice that there are further subcategories like Arts:Music:Opera:Singers:Te_Kanawa_Kiri Arts:Music:Opera:Singers:Caruso_Enrico and so forth, but (gasp!) no category for your favorite tenor, Luciano Pavarotti! And your list is PAVAROTTI-L. Not to worry, however. Because the category of "Singers" is open, you can simply code: * Categories= Arts:Music:Opera:Singers:Pavarotti_Luciano and LISTSERV will accept the new subcategory "Pavarotti_Luciano". Note that when you create a new category, it will not show up until the central categories list has been updated. Note also that there are two "root level" open categories, Misc and Local. The Misc category is world-searchable. If, however, you code a Local category, it will only be searchable from the search engine running on the server hosting your list. Closed Categories: These are categories that cannot be added to. In other words, if you see a category like: Computers:Internet:Mailing_List_Managers:LISTSERV:Manuals:List_Owners_Man ual List Owner's Manual for LISTSERV whose description does not indicate that it is open, then you cannot add new categories after the last term. If you try to create a new subcategory under a closed category, you will receive an error message when you PUT your list header, and your updated header will not be stored. 3.3.1. Examples of category settings ------------------------------------ Categories are defined by the new "Categories=" list header keyword. Each category string's subcategories are internally delimited with colon (":") characters. Each separate category string is separated from the others with commas. If your "Categories=" keyword setting gets too long to fit on one line, simply define multiple "Categories=" keywords. Note that spaces are not allowed in categories; therefore * Categories= Arts:Music:Opera:Singers:Luciano Pavarotti is not legal, but * Categories= Arts:Music:Opera:Singers:Luciano_Pavarotti is. A simple category setting would be: * Categories= Arts:Music:Opera:Singers and if someone searched on that category, they would find our list. But we saw above that we can create a new category if we are running a list dedicated to Luciano Pavarotti. So instead, we might code * Categories= Arts:Music:Opera:Singers:Pavarotti_Luciano If, however, we're running a list for the Three Tenors, we might want to code: * Categories= Arts:Music:Opera:Singers:Pavarotti_Luciano * Categories= Arts:Music:Opera:Singers:Domingo_Placido * Categories= Arts:Music:Opera:Singers:Carreras_Jose Or even: * Categories= Arts:Music:Opera:Singers:Three_Tenors depending on our preference. If you code a sub-category that does not exist in a "closed" upper-level category, LISTSERV will respond with an error message that will list the legal sub-categories that you can use. 3.4. The INFO <listname> command and how to implement it ======================================================== Chapter 9, Customizing LISTSERV's Default Mail Templates, includes details on how to include an informative paragraph in the information mail template file for your list. When a user sends the command INFO listname to your server, LISTSERV responds with either: - The default response, which simply sends a copy of the list header to the user; or - The customized paragraph included in the listname.MAILTPL file. If listname.MAILTPL does not exist, the default response is sent. Also note that the user may send the INFO listname command to any L-Soft LISTSERV host (including the Global List Exchange discussed below), which will forward the request to the appropriate server. 3.5. The NEW-LIST project at North Dakota State =============================================== The NEW-LIST project was started in 1989 to promote mailing lists via a mailing list. NEW-LIST@LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU distributes announcements of new and changed mailing lists to over 9500 subscribers every day. The NEW-LIST administration asks only that your list be well-tested and ready for new subscriptions before you send your announcement to them. You also want to make sure that your announcement is as correct and comprehensive as possible, as news on the Internet spreads quickly and a mistake in a NEW-LIST announcement may cause problems for both you and other users months later. For more information on the NEW-LIST project and what you need to use it, you can either: - Point a World Wide Web browser at the URL ftp://listserv.nodak.edu/public/NEW-LIST/NEW-LIST.README - Send the command INDEX NEW-LIST PACKAGE to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU and retrieve the files with the GET command. (The NEW-LIST Project also published a hard-copy version of their archive in 1992 with a newer edition in 1993 under the title Internet: Mailing Lists [ISBN 0-133-27941-3], edited by Edward T. L. Hardie and Vivian Neou.) 3.6. The Internet Network Information Center (INTERNIC) ======================================================= Unlike many other lookup services on the Internet, the INTERNIC is not necessarily free. Its three distinct sections are run by General Atomics, Network Solutions, Inc. (NSI), and AT&T. You can register your list with the INTERNIC, but be forewarned. A "basic" listing is free, while an "extended" listing is not. (On the other hand, anyone with net access can search the INTERNIC databases for free.) For more information, point a WWW client at the INTERNIC web site at http://www.internic.net . 3.7. The Global List Exchange (GLX) and why you should mention it ================================================================= The Global List Exchange, or GLX, is a central clearinghouse for LISTSERV subscriptions and List of List requests. For instance, If a user knows the name of a list but not the name of the host server, GLX simplifies the process by giving the user a single address where all subscription requests for lists running on L-Soft's LISTSERV can be sent. By adding the GLX address in all advertisements for your list, you help other list owners as well as yourself by making it simple for users to subscribe to any list. Additionally, if for some reason a user is unable to contact your server directly, the GLX gives him an alternate subscription method. The GLX address is LISTSERV@LISTSERV.NET. 3.8. How NOT to advertise a mailing list ======================================== It is generally considered a breach of netiquette to invade the privacy of other lists with a broadcast announcement that your list is up and running. The only time when this might be acceptable is when your list addresses a concern of people already subscribed to another list. If you feel it necessary to post an announcement on someone else's list, it is good manners to first send private mail to the owner of that list and ask his or her permission to do so. (The same policy applies to USENET newsgroups, though it may be more difficult to find out who the moderator is.) It is certainly a breach of netiquette (and many networks' appropriate use policies) to blindly post multiple copies of your announcements to multiple lists. This kind of behavior is termed a "spam", something about which you may read more in Chapter 6, Moderating and Editing Lists. This kind of announcement is guaranteed to reap a good deal of bad will and may well result in the revocation of your network privileges. ***************************** * 4. Managing Subscriptions * ***************************** 4.1. How to add and delete subscribers to/from a list ===================================================== A list owner may add and delete subscribers manually. The command syntax is: ADD listname netaddress full_name DELete listname netaddress In a perfect world, subscribers would understand intuitively how to subscribe and unsubscribe from mailing lists. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Depending on an individual's style of list management, a list owner may choose to add or delete subscribers to the list manually, or send the potential subscriber instructions on how it is done. (See Appendix C for sample "boilerplate" instruction files that can be modified to suit local purposes.) And for lists coded Subscription= By Owner or Subscription= Closed, it is of course necessary to use the ADD command to subscribe a user. If the list is set to confirm mailing paths for new subscriptions (Subscription= Open,Confirm), it is probably wisest to use the latter option, since if a subscriber is added manually to a list, the confirmation process is bypassed. Note that full_name should contain at least two discrete words, but it is also possible to add users without knowing the value for full_name. Simply use an asterisk ("*") character. Note that if the user is already subscribed to another list on the same host, LISTSERV will pick up the value for full_name from its signup files. Examples are: RIGHT: ADD GOV-L vice-president@whitehouse.gov Al Gore RIGHT: ADD GOV-L vice-president@whitehouse.gov * WRONG: ADD GOV-L vice-president@whitehouse.gov Al WRONG: ADD GOV-L vice-president@whitehouse.gov Al-Gore When adding users, ADD will also accept a full RFC822 address that you can cut and paste from the "From:" line of a message. Be sure that you remove the "From:" part of the line. For example, the "From:" line From: Al Gore <vice-president@whitehouse.gov> becomes an ADD command as follows: ADD GOV-L Al Gore <vice-president@whitehouse.gov> 4.1.1 X.400 and X.500 addressing--Special Problems -------------------------------------------------- X.400 and X.500 addressing schemes can cause problems for the list owner who is trying to delete one. These addressing schemes use the "/" character to separate address elements, but to LISTSERV, "/" is a special character and you would not be able to delete one of these addresses by simply cutting and pasting it into a DELETE command. For instance, you might have an address like: /G=Joe/S=Randomuser/OU=403402ABD/O=SOME.CORP/@LANGATE.SOME.HOST.COM In order to delete this address, there are two issues. 1. The address may wrap to the next line once you add the DELETE listname command, and LISTSERV will not accept it. 2. The address contains characters that LISTSERV will reject as illegal (the "/" character). To get around both of these issues, the wildcard character ("*") can be used. You may not need the entire address in order to delete it, so you might just use DELETE MYLIST *G=JOE*S=RANDOMUSER*@LANGATE.SOME.HOST.COM which solves both the line wrap problem and the illegal character problem at the same time. 4.1.2. Adding users whose address and real name exceed 80 characters -------------------------------------------------------------------- This problem happens particularly with the X.400 and X.500 addressing schemes, but can happen as well with any system which allows users to have a very long "local part" (i.e., the part to the left of the "@") in their userid, or with users on systems that just have very long names, such as some of the hosts in the .US domain generally have. For instance, you might try to send the following ADD to LISTSERV: QUIET ADD MYLIST someone.with.a.real.long.userid.that.wraps@hishost.com His Name "His Name" wraps to the next line. If you send this to LISTSERV, LISTSERV treats the two lines as separate commands even though you did not hit RETURN after the user's address, and it responds: > QUIET ADD MYLIST someone.with.a.real.long.userid.that.wraps@hishost.com Please specify the FULL name of someone.with.a.real.long.userid.that.wraps@hishost.com, as in "ADD MYLIST JOE@XYZ.EDU Joe H. Smith". > His Name Unknown command - "HIS". Try HELP. To avoid this problem, set up your ADD command as follows: // QUIET ADD MYLIST someone.with.a.real.long.userid.that.wraps@hishost.com , His Name Without going into a lot of detail, the "//<space>" at the beginning of the command causes LISTSERV to look for a comma at the end of the first line and, if if finds the comma, to add anything following the comma on the second line to the end of the first line. Be sure to put a space before the comma at the end of the first line, as LISTSERV will not add the space for you. 4.2. Finding users who do not appear in the list ================================================ Sometimes the list owner will get a message from a subscriber who says, in essence, "I keep trying to (unsubscribe/change to digest/etc.) and LISTSERV says I'm not subscribed. Can you help?" This requires some detective work. There are a couple of strategies for figuring out what is wrong. List owners should first use the powerful SCAN command to search for a pattern anywhere in the subscriber list. The syntax is: SCAN listname search-text For instance, "SCAN TEST-L Nathan" might return: > scan test-l Nathan Nathan Brindle <nbrindle@INDYCMS.IUPUI.EDU> Somebody Else <nathan@LSOFT.COM> Jonathan Smith <jsmith@FOO.BAR.COM> SCAN: 3 matches. Note that SCAN is not case-sensitive. "Nathan", "NATHAN", and "nathan" all return the same results. Searches with SCAN should start out simple and become more complex as needed. For instance, if there are only three people in the list with the string "NATHAN" as part of their subscription record, it will be unlikely that you will need to make the search any more complex. If you are looking for "SMITH", however, it may be necessary to further qualify your search string, say to look for "JOE SMITH". Another reason it is important to begin with a simple search string is that your user may not be subscribed under the exact address the error is returning to you. For instance, say you don't have the user's id, but you have a host name. You can search for all occurrences of the host name, but note that the search: SCAN TEST-L MAIL.FOO.BAR.COM will not find the user jsmith@foo.bar.com. If you run the following search: SCAN TEST-L BAR.COM however, you will find Mr. Smith's subscription. Another possibility is that the subscriber may be using more than one address to work with his subscription. For instance, say the user's complaint to you came from JOE@SUN6.SOMEUNI.EDU. Looking at the list, you find a subscription for JOE@SUN8.SOMEUNI.EDU. LISTSERV has no way to know that JOE@SUN6 is the same person as JOE@SUN8, even though Joe and you know they are. The solution to Joe's problem above is for you to delete his SUN8 subscription and add his SUN6 address. Then Joe needs to be sure that he uses SUN6 in the future, if not for reading mail, then at least for managing his own subscription. Another strategy would be to submit a wildcard QUERY to the list. The drawback to this method is that it might require multiple tries to find the subscription, depending on the complexity of the wildcard query. Note also that not only can this sort of problem arise from a subscriber using more than one workstation to read mail, but it can also arise when a particular site changes its domain configuration, forwards mail from the old addressing scheme to the new addressing scheme, and doesn't inform its users of the change. In these cases, users often don't realize there is a problem until they try to unsubscribe or change personal options, because the change has been transparent to them. 4.3. Converting mailing lists to LISTSERV from other systems ============================================================ Note that these instructions will also work for bulk-adding users to existing LISTSERV lists. If you are moving a list from a non-LISTSERV site, you can quickly and easily convert the existing subscriber list to the LISTSERV format by following these instructions: 1. Have the LISTSERV maintainer at your new site create the new list header and install it on the machine. 2. Create an add job as follows: QUIET ADD listname DD=X IMPORT //X DD * internet-address1 internet-address2 /* where "listname" is the name of the new list, and "internet-address1", "internet-address2" and other users are the internet addresses from the original list that you want to add to the new list. Optionally, you can add the user's "real name" field, e.g., QUIET ADD listname DD=X IMPORT //X DD * internet-address1 full_name internet-address2 full_name /* You should remove any lines from the original list that do not actually identify subscriber addresses. If you are converting to LISTSERV from ListProc, note that LISTSERV will not convert ListProc user options to their LISTSERV equivalents; you must take a line like user1@somehost.com POSTPONE NEWLIST NO user's name and reduce it at least to user1@somehost.com user's name Otherwise, the ListProc options will become part of the full_name field. 3. Send the job to LISTSERV. The IMPORT option speeds up the operation of adding many subscribers "in bulk" at one time by causing LISTSERV to omit success messages and to relax syntax checking. 4.4. Using the QUIET option with commands ========================================= Prepending the command word "QUIET" before any LISTSERV command that you issue on behalf of a subscriber causes LISTSERV to suppress any notification to the subscriber of the changes you have made. This is particularly helpful when deleting subscribers whose accounts have expired and when setting subscribers with full mailboxes to NOMAIL, as it will help avoid another error message from the host when the notification message bounces. It is also helpful when adding subscriptions to the list that should not receive any welcome mail, such as redistribution lists and USENET newsgroups. Examples of the usage of QUIET include: QUIET ADD EXCEL-L comp.spreadsheets.excel@netnews.somenode.edu QUIET DELETE EXCEL-L Bouncemeister@somenode.edu 4.5. Dealing with bounced mail ============================== 4.5.1. What is a bounce, and what can typically cause one? ---------------------------------------------------------- A bounce is simply an undeliverable e-mail message. The term "bounce" is used to describe it because normally the system that discovers the delivery error "bounces" a copy of the message back to you with some sort of delivery error message. Sometimes these messages are easy to decipher -- "No such user at foo.bar.com" -- but uncomfortably often they are not that easy. Certain systems, as noted above, kindly format error notifications in a format that LISTSERV can understand, and if your list is configured for auto-deletion, these bounces will be the least of your worries -- in fact, they will not be worrisome at all. 4.5.2. What to do about several types of bounces ------------------------------------------------ Here are a few of the typical mail errors you will have to deal with as a list owner: 1. no such user at host Most of the time, this is authoritative and indicates that the user's access has been curtailed for some reason (graduation, no longer employed, etc.). A quiet delete (syntax: "QUIET DELETE listname userid@host") is in order unless you have reason to believe that the message is not authoritative. Variations on this message include "Recipient unknown" and "Ambiguous address: userid". The latter doesn't really mean the user doesn't exist, but it's almost as bad, and many list owners choose to classify it as "no such user". 2. no such host This is sometimes authoritative and sometimes not. If a host goes down or a gateway fails, often this message is returned by an intermediate host or gateway. If the user is bouncing a great deal of mail from a high-volume list, it is probably best to set the user to NOMAIL (syntax: "SET listname NOMAIL FOR userid@host") rather than to summarily delete him. This way, the error messages stop, the user is sent an automatic message telling him his personal options have been changed by the list owner, and the user doesn't have to go through the subscription process again if the problem has been solved in the interim. The problem is that some hosts go down on a regular basis and this error makes it impossible to tell if the host in question is gone forever or gone until the local sysadmin reboots his machine. After a while, you will begin to recognize the transient hosts and may elect to ignore them. If you choose to set the user to NOMAIL, you should send a message to the user just in case the system has come back up, and you should keep some sort of record of the users you've set this way so you can follow up later with another message. 3. no MX or A records for host Similar to "no such host". Comes from a different lookup system, and generally means the same thing. 4. Transient failure: cannot deliver for n days A host is experiencing periodic failures, and the gateway or intermediate host has not been able to deliver the message for n days. Usually the host will attempt redelivery. Usually there is nothing wrong with the user address, so it is a list owner decision as to whether it is worth waiting out the transient failure or going ahead and setting the user to NOMAIL. Unfortunately, by the time you get this message, the failure is n days in the past, the "transient failure" is very probably over, and you are likely to receive further error messages for n more days until the intermediate host's queue is exhausted. 5. mailbox full Self explanatory. This usually happens on systems with tiny user mailbox space, but it can happen on any system if a user subscribes to too many lists or goes on an extended vacation without setting lists to NOMAIL. The best solution is to set the user to NOMAIL yourself. Variations on this message include VMS's "file extend failed writing to [disk.user]MAIL.MAI". 6. unknown mailer error x This is a favorite Unix sendmail configuration bounce. NOMAIL or DELETE, according to your preference. Since it is a configuration problem, it is usually transient. One system sent the following under an "unknown mailer error 1" heading: binmail: /usr/spool/mail/userid: too big to accept new messages. It's size is 205735 bytes which is 935 bytes over quota. mail: cannot open dead.letter 554 <userid@node>... unknown mailer error 1 This is apparently a "mailbox full" error, as "userid's" mail spool is "over quota". It is also possible that it means your message would put the user over quota by 935 bytes. Either way, there isn't enough space in the user's mailbox to store your message (in this case, it was a daily digest). Note that "unknown mailer error x" does not always mean the user's mailbox is full -- what it always means is that sendmail cannot identify the cause of the error. 7. Bounced, but sent successfully This error comes from cc:Mail systems and is extremely misleading. It claims that the mail bounced to one address, but was sent successfully to another. While talking to smtp.ccabc.com: >> DATA << 554 I/O error to mailbox 554 MILLERT@smtp.ccabc.com... Service unavailable ----- Recipients of this delivery ----- Bounced, cannot deliver: MILLERT@smtp.ccabc.com Sent successfully: <MILLERT@ABC.COM> What this generally means (assuming that the mail hasn't gone through a redistribution list or a mirror site) is that you have a user MILLERT@ABC.COM on your list, and the server accepted the mail for that address successfully. However, that address actually maps to a different internal address (in this case MILLERT@smtp.ccabc.com) and for whatever reason, the server can't forward the mail on. This is the equivalent of a "user unknown" error for MILLERT@ABC.COM. A particularly annoying error you may have to deal with comes from Banyan networks and is of the form: LLONG@StarShip@Dora: Mailbox full Obviously this is not a properly-configured address (at least, not as far as LISTSERV is concerned), and if you SCAN or QUERY the list for it, you will get a negative response. If, however, you SCAN the list for LLONG, you may find a user such as: > scan test-l LLONG Bill Smith <LLONG%StarShip%Dora@BOONDOCK.TERTIUS.COM> SCAN: 1 match. This user can now be set to NOMAIL and the errors will stop after the Banyan host has emptied its queue. If you do not find the user on the first SCAN, try using another part of the address as your search text. Note that a user may have his mail forwarded from the account that is actually subscribed to an account on another machine where he reads his mail. If the second machine is bouncing the mail, it may not be immediately apparent from the bounce messages that the mail is actually being forwarded. It is important to check for variants of the userid in the bounce message as it may be related to the userid that is actually subscribed to the list. Note that there are many forms of error messages. Many mail systems do not conform to Internet "standards" (some of them even return non-English error messages!) and LISTSERV's auto-deletion feature will not always catch their bounces. 4.5.3. Redistribution and forwarding ------------------------------------ Perhaps the worst type of bounce is one that comes from a user who is "hiding" behind an account that redistributes mail (a "redistribution list"), or a user whose Internet address has changed slightly but who is still subscribed to your list under his original address. Redistribution lists typically (but not always) take some form of your list's name (such as "xxxxx-L-REDIST@foo.bar.com"), and thus their subscriptions tend to be easy to find. What is difficult is that you have no way of knowing which users (or how many users) are hidden behind this interface, nor any way of knowing what their userids are. Forwarded accounts generally fall into one of two categories -- those where the user has forwarded his own mail from one account to another rather than changing his subscription, and those where the user's system name has changed and the old address is still valid but is forwarding mail to the new address without the user being aware of it. Let's say that suddenly you are bombarded with delivery errors for someuser@baz.net. Your immediate reaction is to set this person to NOMAIL or (in some cases) to delete him/her altogether. You therefore send set xxxxx-L nomail for someuser@baz.net to LISTSERV. LISTSERV responds: "No subscription for someuser@baz.net in list XXXXX-L." In a best-case scenario, you can query the list for *@*.baz.net and find either a user like someuser@glork.baz.net (the address has changed and the local sysadmins didn't inform the user) or a redistribution-list account like xxxxx-L@baz.net. These are easily-fixed redistribution bounces. In the first case, you delete the user and let him or her resubscribe. In the second case, you can try sending a message to owner-xxxxx-l@baz.net with a cc: to postmaster@baz.net and inform them of the problem. If it persists, you could send a further message informing them that you are suspending the redistribution list's subscription until such time as they tell you the problem on their end is fixed, and simply set xxxxx-l@baz.net to NOMAIL. The worst-case scenario is as follows: baz.net may be bouncing the mail to you, but there may not be a single subscription for baz.net in your list. Here's where you have to do some careful sleuthing. First, run a wildcard query such as QUERY xxxxx-l FOR *@*baz* or QUERY xxxxx-l FOR *baz*@*. The former will find users at baz.com, for instance, where baz.net is a synonym for baz.com. The latter query may seem somewhat strange, but it's possible that the mail is being routed through a gateway and the actual subscription is for xxxxx-l%baz.net@cunyvm.cuny.edu or something of that sort. 4.6. Delivery error handling features ===================================== A new feature for 1.8c, automatic address probing, is documented in 4.6.2. LISTSERV supports several levels of automatic deletion based on error messages passed back to it in LMail format by certain remote systems. While auto-delete will not solve all of your bouncing mail problems, it has the potential to take care of most "permanent" errors (including "no such user" and "no such host"). However, note that auto-delete ignores "temporary" errors such as "host unreachable for 3 days", "system error", "disk quota exceeded", and so forth, such that users whose accounts generate "temporary" errors are not summarily deleted from the list. By default, lists running under LISTSERV 1.8b and higher generate a report which lets the list owner know what userids are causing problems, rather than deleting users at the first error LISTSERV understands. If the Delay() and Max() parameters are set to non-zero values for a list coded "Auto-Delete= Yes", LISTSERV will not take immediate action on mail delivery errors. You will receive an "auto-deletion monitoring report" daily to show you which subscribers are bouncing mail, what the error is, when it started, when the last error arrived, and how many errors have been received for the subscriber in total. By default, LISTSERV will wait 4 days (or for a maximum of 100 error messages per individual user) before deleting a subscriber. If you code "Delay(0)", LISTSERV will not wait to take action, but will delete the subscriber at the first error LISTSERV understands. By default, lists with "Validate= All" are set "Auto-Delete= No", while all other lists are set "Auto-Delete= Yes,Semi-Auto,Delay(4),Max(100)". Implementation of the "Auto-Delete=" keyword is discussed in detail in Appendix B, List Keyword Alphabetical Reference, under "Error Handling Keywords." 4.6.1. Auto-Delete considerations for holidays ---------------------------------------------- Making a big increase to the DELAY threshold to provide more leniency during a holiday may not be a good idea. While it will indeed disable the monitor for the duration of the holiday, switching back to the normal threshold when you return will cause the monitor to delete all the users that had been bouncing during the holidays. In general, you should avoid making temporary changes to the DELAY threshold, because it takes the monitor a while to adapt to the new settings. The best way to relax the rules during a long holiday is to leave the DELAY threshold unchanged but switch the monitor to passive mode ("Auto-Delete= Yes,Manual"). Noone will be deleted over the holidays, but the monitor's cycle will not be perturbed. When you return, you should wait about a week before switching back to automatic mode. This is because, after a long holiday such as Christmas, it usually takes about 2 working days for system administrators to solve all problems. In some cases, the problems will have caused bounces to remain undelivered. So, by fixing the problems, the system administrators may actually send a flood of new bounces corresponding to problems that have now been solved. Unfortunately, since the monitor only receives NON-delivery reports, it has no way to know that these problems have in fact been solved. As a rule of thumb, you will note that your daily delivery error reports are much longer than usual over the vacation. When you return, you should wait until they are back to their normal size before switching back to automatic mode. 4.6.2. Automatic address probing -------------------------------- (Please note that this feature is disabled in LISTSERV Lite.) "Renewal= ...,Probe" activates a new bounce processing feature, whereby the users are probed at subscription renewal time using the PROBE1 mail template. The "Probe" option makes subscription renewal passive rather than reactive; no "CONFIRM listname" response is needed from the user. In fact, the desired response from the user is to discard the message and do nothing, so even a certified idiot can manage. LISTSERV also probes addresses that return mail delivery errors, and the probe messages have a special signature in the return address that allows LISTSERV to uniquely identify any bouncing address, without having to understand the bounce itself. If the probe bounces, LISTSERV first sends the PROBE2 template with a copy of the bounce, to show the user (if the account actually works in spite of the bounce) what garbage his mail system is sending people. LISTSERV then schedules a new probe for the next day, or deletes the user immediately, depending on the auto-delete policy. Every failure triggers a new daily probe until the user gets deleted or the problem gets fixed. The user can also save his subscription manually by sending a CONFIRM listname command (this is explained in PROBE2). This doesn't solve the underlying problem, so eventually the user should get tired of confirming in an emergency and notify his system administrators that the system is generating bounces saying (for instance) "Your message was registered at the MORONICUS mail gateway. Press F1 for more information" that cause the problem in the first place. When used together with "Auto-Delete= ...,Full-Auto", the probe option deletes all delivery errors that LISTSERV can't understand. This means THE LIST OWNER NEVER EVER HAS TO SEE A SINGLE BOUNCE! Hurray! :-) The list, however, is kept clean because bad addresses are always detected. In fact, the biggest risk is that the users of the MORONICUS mail gateway will be deleted even though they do get their mail. Note that errors bounced by non-compliant mail hosts to the wrong address will still show up in your error queue. Since the bounce goes to the wrong address, LISTSERV nev