listproc(1) UWM listproc(1) NAME listproc - Unix Listproc Mailing List Processing Package SYNOPSIS Listproc DESCRIPTION LISTPROC a mailing list processing package. It allows mailing lists to by maintained be sending commands via mail to listproc. Each list has an owner, but most of the maintanence is automated. Poten- tial mailing list owners should consult listowner(1) for more information. MAILING LISTS A mailing list is a set of email addresses. A message can be sent to each person on the list by sending one message addressed to the list rather than many individual messages. Mailing lists are useful, since they allow a group of people to communicate with each other without each person needing to keep an alias in each of their own alias files for the group. Mailing list tools such as listproc enhance mailing lists with features such as digests, archives and subscription checking. Some of these features are described below, while information on others can be found in related manual pages. OVERVIEW There are two basic aspects of listproc: the listproc processor and a set of mailing lists. Mail can be sent to either of these entities, but each is only capable of handling a subset of the types of messages sent. Listproc Mail Mail should be sent to listproc to request various services that are managed by listproc, for example subscribing to a list, getting an archive of messages posted to a list, or getting a list of all lists that are defined. See BASIC OPTIONS for the available commmands. Since these commands are interpreted by a machine, they must follow certain formats. If a command does not match a known format, listproc will send an error message to the sender informing them that the command is unrecog- nized. Mailing List Mail Mail should be sent directly to a mailing list, if and only if it is to be sent to each member on the list. Depending on the definition of the list to which the mail has been sent, the message will either be distributed immediately, held for later distribution, or forwarded to the list owner for approval and/or editing before distribution. DEFINITION OF TERMS The following terms relate to listproc mailing lists. Subscriber: A person who receives mail sent to a mailing list. Poster: A person who sends mail to a mailing list (they may or may not be a sub- scriber). Subscriber lists: A list of email addresses, names, and options for each person subscribed to the list. Primary Owner: The person who is primarily in charge of the list. They will receive copies of any error messages generated for the list, and have privileges to issue some administrative commands. They are also the person you should contact first if you have any problems with the list. See listowner(1) for details. Secondary Owner: A person who can issue some administrative commands for the list, but does not receive copies of the error messages generated for the list. See lis- towner(1) for details. Info Message: A mail message which a subscriber or potential subscriber can request to get information about a specific list. Welcome Message: The mail message sent to a new subscriber. It informs the new subscriber of the address of the list and the address of the primary owner. It may also contain other list specific information. Digest: A set of mail messages posted to the list as individual messages, but sent to the subsriber as one message. These can be used by a subscriber who wants to get all of the messages posted to a list, but does not want the messages filling up thier mailbox. The time and/or size of the digests is set on a list by list basis by the primary list owner. Archive: A copy of mail messages which have been posted to a list and distributed to its members. These are useful for new members of a list that may wish to see what has been posted recently. They are also useful, so that a sub- scriber has copies of old messages available without having to save each message themself. The calender length of an archive is set on a list by list basis by the primary list owner. Configuration Specification: A set of rules defining the behavior of the list. These can include who is allowed to subscribe, who is allowed to post, whether or not copies of mail messages are archived for later reference, and the default mail modes and protections of users. BASIC OPTIONS The following are various actions that a user of listproc mailing lists, either a subscriber or a poster, may wish to do. All of these commands are sent in the body of a mail message to listproc. The subject line is ignored, and is best left blank. The general format of a mail message to listproc is To: listproc Subject: command being sent More than one command may be sent in a single mail message. Each new command must begin on a new line. However, if a command is found to be incorrect, the rest of the commands in the message will be ignored. 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 listproc(8). Each of the commands are illustrated using an example listproc 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). Get a list of defined lists: lists Listproc will send the following return message: Here is the current active list of the 1 mailing lists served by this server: olympians@uwm.edu Mailing List For Olympians - Past and Present Get a description of a particular list: information example: info olympians Listproc will send the following return message: This mailing list is intended as a discussion platform for issues relating to being an olympic althete. Only past and present Olym- pic athletes are allowed to subscribe to the list. However, anyone may post to it. Digests are available on a weekly basis. Mail is archived on a weekly basis, archives for the first two weeks already exist. Subscribe to a particular list: subscribe example: subscribe olympians Katerina Witt From: kwitt This will first result in kwitt getting the following message. Subscription requests are not automatic for this list. Your request has been forwarded to jjk@uwm.edu for approval. Once the subscription is approved listproc will add Katerina Witt to the olympians list using the email address kwitt. Listproc will then send a welcoming message. If the request is not approved Katerina will not receive the second message. However, the owner may send her mail explaining the decision. Note that it is not necessary for Katerina to supply an email address. Listproc will get this information from the mail message itself. Also note that some lists do not require the subscription to be approved by the owner, in this case only the second message would be sent to Katerina. Unsubscribe from a list: unsubscribe example: unsubscribe olympians From: bmelges This will cause Buddy Melges to be unsubscribed from olympians. List- proc will send a verification message as shown below, but after that he will not get any more olympians mail. You have been removed from list olympians@uwm.edu. Thanks for being with us. Get a list of messages in a particular archive index example: index olympians Listproc will send the following message: Archive: olympians (path: restricted/olympians) -- Files: olympians.week1 (1 part, 34763 bytes) -- olympians.week2 (1 part, 43285 bytes) -- Note, if the archive is password protected, you will have to include the password after the list name in your mail message to listproc. Get a copy of a specific message in an archive get example: get olympians olympians.week1 Listproc will send a return message containing all of the messges posted during the first week of list activity. Request to get messages sent as a digest set mail digest example: set olympians mail digest From: jjk 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. Request to get each message off a list instead of as a digest set mail ack example: set olympians mail ack This will cause Jackie to go back to receiving each message posted to the list as an individual mail 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 and Aug 2001. Listproc has been renamed listproc at UWM. SEE ALSO listowner(1), listproc(8)