listowner(1) UWM listowner(1) NAME listowner - Unix Mailing List Processing Package - Listserv Owners Guide SYNOPSIS Listowner DESCRIPTION Listserv is a mailing list processing package. It allows mailing lists to be maintained be sending commands via mail to listserv. See listserv(1) for more details. OVERVIEW As the owner of a mailing list, you are the first contact when subscribers have problems with the list. You receive a copy of any error message gen- erated for the list. In addition, if the list is moderated or by approved subscription only you are responsible for filtering and forwarding the mail which is submitted. SETTING UP A MAILING LIST To create a mailing list, contact Dave Rasmussen at x5133, or email dave@csd to discuss how it is to be used, and dave will help decide whether you want the list to be moderated or other options set. Various options are available for any mailing list which is created. These options define such things as how public the list is, whether or not mes- sages are archived, and whether or not the mail to the list is moderated. More details on the options are available in listserv(8). MAINTAINING A MAILING LIST Once your mailing list is set up, you may need to make some changes to the list as the people on the list or the needs of the list change. These changes can be as simple as adding or deleting a subscriber, and as complex as changing the specification of the list itself. The next two sections describe the options available to perform basic maintenance tasks. The section after that describes changes which must be done by I&MT (help@csd.uwm.edu). BASIC OPTIONS The following are various actions that an owner of a listserv mailing list may wish to do. All of these commands are sent in the body of a mail mes- sage to listserv. The subject line is ignored, and is best left blank. The general format of a mail message to listserv is To: listserv Subject: command being sent Shown below is a subset of the available commands. This subset should meet most users' needs. More information about these and other commands can be found in listserv(8). Each of the commands is illustrated using an example listserv system with one mailing list called olympians. This list is restricted such that the owner must approve subscriptions but that anyone can post messages. It currently has two members, jjk (Jackie Joiner Kersey) who is the owner and bmelges (Buddy Melges). The password used by the owners for administrative commands is goldmedal. Subscribe a user to your list system #subscribe example: system olympians goldmedal kwitt #subscribe olympians Kater- ina Witt This will cause listserv to add Katerina to the olympians list using the email address kwitt. Listserv will then send a welcoming message to Katerina. You will not receive a reply message. Unsubscribe a user from a particular list which you own system #unsubscribe example: system olympians goldmedal bmelges #unsubscribe olympians This will cause Buddy Melges to be unsubscribed from olympians. List- serv will send a verification message to Buddy as shown below, but after that he will not get any more olympians mail. You have been removed from the list olympians@csd.uwm.edu. Thanks for being with us. You will not receive a reply message. Request that a subscriber get only a digest of all messages posted to your list system #set mail digest example: system olympians goldmedal jjk #set olympians mail digest This will cause Jackie to get only one mail message a week from this list. The message will contain all of the messages posted to the list during the past week. Other requests on behalf of a subscriber system # + Any request that a subscriber can issue, can also be issued by an owner using this format. The first part of the command (before the #) tells listserv that this is a command being issued by an owner on behalf of the user specified. The second part of the command is what the user would type issuing the command directly. These are useful for two reasons. First, if a user is new to listserv, it is possible to get them on the list without them having to deal with learning the system. Second, often times certain lists will have cer- tain commands disabled, such as unsubscribe so that the owner can approve such requests. In this case, it is possible for the owner to issue a system request to make the change. Get a copy of one of the lists files for editing edit example: edit olympians goldmetal subscribers This will result in listserv sending you a copy of the list of subscribers to the olympians list. This file includes the options each subscriber has for mail delivery, password, and concealment. It's for- mat is shown below. JJK DIGEST 57892459 NO Jackie Joyner Kersey KWITT ACK 47235 NO Katerina Witt This is useful, if you need to make many changes to the subscribers file and don't want to type all of the system requests. Also, other files (aliases, ignored, info, and welcome) can only be edited using the edit command. RESPONSES TO LISTSERV RELATED MAIL In some cases, a user will request a service for a list that needs to be approved by an owner. Instructions of what to do to cause various results are included in the message. The following illustrate two common scenarios which require the owner to respond to listserv. Approving a subscription to a list When a user requests to subscribe to a list for which the owner must approve the subscription, listserv sends the primary owner a message requesting approval. Example: Mark Spitz requests to subscribe to olympians. User mspitz has requested subscription to list OLYMPIANS If you approve, send the following request to listserv@csd.uwm.edu: system OLYMPIANS mspitz #SUBSCRIBE OLYMPIANS MARK SPITZ where 'password' is the list's password, as given to you by the manager of this system. Notice that the reply that you are sending back is simply a system command as shown in the previous section. There is no command to disapprove of a request. If you do not reply, the user simply will not be added. However, you may wish to contact the user and inform them of your decision and rea- soning. Approving a message posted to a moderated list When someone posts to a moderated list, listserv forwards the mail to the primary owner. Example: Assume the olympians list has been temporarily changed to moderated, and bmelges requests a list of current olympic sailors. This message was submitted by bmelges (Buddy Melges) to list olympians@csd.uwm.edu. If you forward it back to the list, it will be distributed without the paragraphs above the dashed line. You may edit the Subject: line and the text of the message before forwarding it back. If you edit the messages you receive into a digest, you will need to remove these paragraphs and the dashed line before mailing the result to the list. Finally, if you need more information from the author of this message, you should be able to do so by simply replying to this note. ----------------------- Message requiring your approval ---------- ------------ Sender: bmelges (Buddy Melges) Subject: current olympic sailors I am trying to get a list of all current olympic sailors, if you are a current olympic sailor or know someone who is please reply directly to me. Please include fleet competing in, if known. Notice that the reply to the message will go to the poster. For it to be approved it must be forwarded back to listserv. Here again, if you do not approve of the message the sender is not automatically notified. It is a good idea to inform senders of rejected and modified posts. Other Times To Contact A User You may also choose to interact with users whose attempts to use listserv resulted in error messages, especially if the error message is unclear or the cause of the message confuses many users. Some common mistakes you may see include: The mispelling of a command such as Recepients instead of Recipients. Trying to access an archive which does not exist (or is empty). CHANGES THAT REQUIRE ASSISTANCE Certain changes that you may wish for your list will only be able to be performed by I&MT. Some of these changes are shown below. Changing the type of the list, i.e Moderated, Open, etc Changing the defaults for new subsribers, i.e. mail mode, conceal mode. UNSUPPORTED FEATURES The following features detailed in listserv(8) are not supported here. Interactive connections. Newsgroup connections. Peer lists UW-Milwaukee Extensions The listserv here can have a .signature file associated with the list. You must contact dave to install this for you if you want a .signature file appended to each and every message. AUTHOR ListProc was written by Anastasios Kotsikonas. This manual page was written at UW-Madison. It was modified by Dave Rasmussen, UW-Milwaukee I&MT May 1996. Listproc has been renamed listserv at UWM. SEE ALSO listowner(1), listserv(8)