LISTSERV - Instructions for List Owners

For detailed descriptions of all of the commands mentioned here, see the LISTSERV Owner's Manual.

Managing Your List Through E-Mail

  1. Create a password
  2. Review your "welcome" message
  3. RETRIEVE configuration options
  4. Modify list's configuration
  5. PUT modified list back on the server
  6. Managing subscribers
  7. Subscribing lists to lists
  8. Daily Threshold
  9. How do I configure a list to accept duplicate messages
  10. Archiving a List
  11. Changing access to archives
  12. How do I restrict sending to a list based on domain?
  13. How do I edit my archives?(LSoft Article)
  14. How do I remove those ugly List- headers?
  15. How do I add text to the subject?
  16. How do I allow the Helpdesk to send mail to my private list?
To Create a PASSWORD

  1. Send an e-mail message to listserv@fnal.gov
  2. Leave the subject line blank
  3. Type "PW ADD yourpassword" (without the quotation marks) in the body of your message.

The LISTSERV server will ask you to confirm your password request via an e-mail message.

WELCOME MESSAGE

The "welcome" message is sent to each new subscriber to your mailing list. You can use it to provide new subscribers with information about the purpose and policies of your list, how to contact the list owner, etc.

When mailing lists were moved from the FNAL mail server to the new mailing list server, the welcome messages were moved as well.

You should review your mailing list's welcome message to make sure that the information it contains is correct and current. (For example, some of the welcome messages refer to commands that were specific to the old mailing list software.)

To View the WELCOME MESSAGE for your list

  1. Send an e-mail message to listserv@fnal.gov
  2. Leave the subject line blank
  3. Type "GET MYLIST.WELCOME" (without the quotation marks) in the body of your message.
Note: If there is currently no welcome message for your list (some of the mailing lists on FNAL did not have one), you will get a message from LISTSERV saying, in part:

File "MYLIST.WELCOME" is registered in LISTSERV's file catalog, but the physical file is not present.

To Create WELCOME MESSAGE

  1. Send an e-mail message to listserv@fnal.gov
  2. Leave the subject line blank
  3. Type "PUT MYLIST.WELCOME PW=XXXX" (without the quotation marks) in the body of your message.
  4. Type your welcome message here.
Note: Replace the Xs with your password before sending the message.

To Edit WELCOME MESSAGE

  1. Reply back to the email message received above with the GET command
  2. Leave the subject line blank
  3. Type "PUT MYLIST.WELCOME PW=XXXX" (without the quotation marks) in the body of your message.
  4. Edit your message as you see fit.
Note: If your e-mail client is configured to add a quoting character (such as ">") in front of each line of a message you reply to, you will need to remove the quoting characters before you send the message. You will also need to remove any signature that is automatically added to your outgoing messages.

To Retrieve CONFIGURATION OPTIONS

  1. Send an e-mail message to listserv@fnal.gov
  2. Leave the subject line blank
  3. Type "GET MYLIST (HEADER" (without the quotation marks, closing parenthesis not necessary) in the body of your message.

Note: When you GET a list, the list will be locked until you PUT the list back or issue an UNLOCK command. While a list is locked, no one will be able to subscribe or unsubscribe to the list or change their personal options.

To UNLOCK a List

  1. Send an e-mail message to listserv@fnal.gov
  2. Leave the subject line blank
  3. Type "UNLOCK MYLIST" (without the quotation marks) in the body of your message.

Note: Use the UNLOCK command only if you do not want to make any changes to the list configuration after viewing it with the GET command. If you do make changes, use the PUT command (described below) instead.

To MODIFY a List

  1. Send an e-mail message to listserv@fnal.gov
  2. Leave the subject line blank
  3. Type "GET MYLIST (HEADER" (without the quotation marks) in the body of your message.

The LISTSERV server will send you an e-mail message with the configuration options for your mailing list. Here is an example:

PUT MYLIST LIST PW=XXXXXXXX
*
* MYLIST Mailing list
*
* Validate= Yes,Confirm
* Auto-Delete= Yes,Full-Auto
* Confidential= No
* Errors-To= Owners
* Default-Options= Repro
* Owner= USER1@FNAL.GOV
* Owner= USER2@FNAL.GOV
* Send= Private
* Subscription= By_Owner
* Reply-To= Sender

Use your e-mail client's "REPLY" function to edit the configuration and prepare to send it back to the mailing list server.

Here is an explanation of each line of the configuration:

PUT MYLIST LIST PW=XXXXXXXX
is the command that will update your mailing list configuration on the server. You will need to replace the Xs with your password before sending your message.

* MYLIST Mailing list
is the title of your mailing list.

The remaining lines consist of list control "keywords" and "values". Keywords control the behavior of your mailing list. A keyword is always followed by an equals sign, with the values for the keyword after the equals sign. The values define what options are set for the keyword.

(Follow the links for each keyword for detailed information from the LISTSERV Keyword Reference.

* Validate= Yes,Confirm provides security for your mailing list's configuration. The "Yes" value causes the mailing list server to require a password from the list owner for changes to the list. The "Confirm" value will cause LISTSERV to send a confirmation message to your e-mail address to which you must reply for the changes to take effect.

* Auto-Delete= Yes,Full-Auto allows LISTSERV to automatically removed invalid or expired subscriber e-mail addresses from your mailing list.

* Confidential= No means that the list will appear on the list of available mailing lists in response to a "lists" command.

* Errors-To= Owners tells LISTSERV to send any error messages about the mailing list to the list owner(s).

* Default-Options= Repro indicates that new subscribers to the mailing list will receive copies of the messages they send to the list. You can use the Default-Options keyword for any options that you want to apply to all new subscribers.

* Owner= These lines show the e-mail addresses of the mailing list owners. You, as a list owner, can add others as owners of the list without intervention from the Fermilab postmaster.

* Send= Private means that only members of the mailing list are able to send messages to the list. Change this to "* Send= Public" if you want to allow anyone to send to your mailing list.

* Subscription= By_Owner will cause LISTSERV to send all subscription requests to the mailing list owner. If you want people to be able to subscribe themselves to your list without your intervention, change the line to "* Subscription= Open".

* Reply-To= Sender allows list subscribers to reply to the sender of the message (by choosing "Reply" in their e-mail clients) or to the whole mailing list ("Reply to All"). Without this keyword, replies go to the whole list.

There are many other keywords available for configuring your mailing list. You can find them, along with detailed descriptions of how to use them, in the LISTSERV Keyword Reference.

To PUT a List Back

  1. Once you have made changes to your list's configuration, replace the X's PUT MYLIST LIST PW=XXXXXXX line with your password and send the message to listserv@fnal.gov
  2. If your e-mail client is configured to add a quoting character (such as ">") in front of each line of a message you reply to, you will need to remove the quoting characters before you send the message.
  3. You will also need to remove any signature that might be added automatically to your outgoing messages.

Managing Subscribers

NOTE: When adding subscribers to your list, be careful about subscribing mailing lists to other mailing lists. If you have nested lists more than two levels deep, members of the lower-level lists will not receive messages sent to the top-level list.

To ADD a New Subscriber to your List

  1. Send an e-mail message to listserv@fnal.gov
  2. Leave the subject line blank
  3. Type "ADD MYLIST User@FNAL.GOV Firstname Lastname" (without the quotation marks) in the body of your message.
Note: MYLIST is the name of your mailing list, USER@FNAL.GOV is the e-mail address of the person you wish to subscribe to the mailing list, and "Firstname" and "Lastname" are the subscriber's first and last names.

If you prefer not to include the subscribers first and last name, use this command:

  1. Send an e-mail message to listserv@fnal.gov
  2. Leave the subject line blank
  3. Type "ADD MYLIST User@FNAL.GOV  * " (without the quotation marks) in the body of your message.

Note: If you don't include the first and last names and also omit the asterisk, you will receive an error message in response to your command.

To REMOVE a subscriber from your mailing list

  1. Send an e-mail message to listserv@fnal.gov
  2. Leave the subject line blank
  3. Type "DELETE MYLIST USER@FNAL.GOV" (without the quotation marks) in the body of your message.

To VIEW a list of the subscribers to your mailing list

  1. Send an e-mail message to listserv@fnal.gov
  2. Leave the subject line blank
  3. Type "REVIEW MYLIST NOHEADER" (without the quotation marks) in the body of your message.
Note: If you omit NOHEADER, you will see your mailing list's configuration as well as the list of subscribers.

Below is an example response from LISTSERV to a VIEW request: user1@fnal.gov
user2@fnal.gov
user3@fnal.gov
*
* Total number of users subscribed to the list: 3
* Total number of local host users on the list: 0

To VIEW the options that are configured for each user

  1. Send an e-mail message to listserv@fnal.gov
  2. Leave the subject line blank
  3. Type "QUERY MYLIST FOR *@*" (without the quotation marks) in the body of your message.

Note: The "*@*" syntax uses wildcards to get a list of all the lines containing an "at sign", which will be the e-mail addresses of your subscribers. Here is an example response:


> QUERY MYLIST FOR *@*
Subscription options for USER1@FNAL.GOV, list MYLIST:

MAIL           You are sent individual postings as they are received
FULLHDR        Full (normal) mail headers
REPRO          You receive a copy of your own postings
NOACK          No acknowledgement of successfully processed postings

Subscription options for USER2@FNAL.GOV, list MYLIST:

MAIL           You are sent individual postings as they are received
FULLHDR        Full (normal) mail headers
REPRO          You receive a copy of your own postings
NOACK          No acknowledgement of successfully processed postings

Subscription options for USER3@FNAL.GOV, list MYLIST:

MAIL           You are sent individual postings as they are received
FULLHDR        Full (normal) mail headers
REPRO          You receive a copy of your own postings
NOACK          No acknowledgement of successfully processed postings

3 matching entries found.

Summary of resource utilization
-------------------------------
 CPU time:        0.000 sec
 Overhead CPU:    0.063 sec
 CPU model:         2-CPU 533MHz Pentium II (1024M)
 Job origin:      USER@FNAL.GOV

You can change options for individual users or for all users. For example, the REPRO and NOACK options mean that a subscriber to the mailing list will receive a copy of each message he or she sends to the list but will not receive an acknowledgement from LISTSERV that his or her message has been sent to the mailing list.

If you would like to reverse these options (so that a subscriber does not get a copy of each message he or she sends to the list but instead gets an acknowledgement message from LISTSERV that the message has been sent to the list)

  1. Send an e-mail message to listserv@fnal.gov
  2. Leave the subject line blank
  3. Type "SET MYLIST ACK NOREPRO FOR user1@fnal.gov" (without the quotation marks) in the body of your message.

To SET the same options for all users

  1. Send an e-mail message to listserv@fnal.gov
  2. Leave the subject line blank
  3. Type "SET MYLIST ACK NOREPRO FOR *@*" (without the quotation marks) in the body of your message.

To SUBSCRIBE a List to a List (nested lists)
To subscribe list1 to list2 (named list2)

  1. Send an e-mail message to listserv@fnal.gov
  2. Leave the subject line blank
  3. Type "ADD LIST2 LIST1@LISTSERV.FNAL.GOV" (without the quotation marks) in the body of your message.
Note: It is advisable to nest lists only 1 deep. If list1 has nested lists and is subscribed to list2. List1's nested lists may not receive the intended messages.

Daily Threshold

Daily Threshold keyword limits the number of postings that may be processed by the list in a calendar day (midnight to midnight, server time), and, with the addition of a (new) optional second parameter, limits the number of postings that may be accepted from any individual user per calendar day (midnight to midnight in the server's local time zone).

The default is Daily-Threshold= 300. When the value of the first parameter is reached, the list is automatically placed on hold. The list maintainer must issue a FREE listnamecommand.

  1. Send an e-mail message to listserv@fnal.gov
  2. Leave the subject line blank
  3. Type "FREE listname" (without the quotation marks) in the body of your message.

Duplicate Messages

By default Listserv will not accept duplicate messages. This is by design to prevent a broken mail client from posting duplicate messages to the list. If you would like to change this behavior the Loopcheck keyword must be modified.

By setting

    Loopcheck= NoCRC,NoBody
the list will accept duplicate messages. Only set this option if necessary.

Archive Access

By default list archives are created with access only for the list members. This can be changed when the list archiving is requested or by the list owner after the list has been created by editing the list header.

For example you are an owner of the list mylist and you didn't specify public access to the archives when the list was created and would like to have that now. In the list header you'll see a line like this:

     Notebook= Yes,d:\listserv\archive\mylist,monthly

As shown the list archives will only be available to list members after presenting their listserv username and password. To make it a public list add the public access keyword.

     Notebook= Yes,d:\listserv\archive\mylist,monthly,public

The LSoft manual has more details on Notebook settings.


How do I restrict sending to a list based on domain?

Here is what you have to do.

Add the following to the header for the list

Local=fnal.gov,*.fnal.gov
Service=Local
Send=Service

There will be another Send= keyword. That one has to be deleted.

Note� there is no white space between the comma and the asterix.

Once you do this mail from user@fnal.gov or user@host.fnal.gov will work but nothing else will. The offsite sender will get mail back like this

You are not authorized to send mail to the TEST list from your user@host.net
account. You might be authorized to send to list from another of your accounts,
or perhaps when using another program which generates slightly different
addresses, but LISTSERV has no way to associate this other account or address
with yours. If you need assistance or if you have any questions regarding the
policy of the TEST list, please contact the list owners: TEST-request@LISTSERV.FNAL.GOV.


How do I remove those ugly List- headers?

The upgrade applied on March 9th, 2006 to resolve a secuirty issue added a few new features. One of them is support for RFC2369 which adds List- headers to list messages. These headers look something like this:

    List-Owner: <mailto:mylist-request@LISTSERV.FNAL.GOV>
    List-Subscribe: <mailto:mylist-subscribe-request@LISTSERV.FNAL.GOV>
    List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:mylist-unsubscribe-request@LISTSERV.FNAL.GOV>
    List-Archive: <http://listserv.fnal.gov/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=mylist>
    List-Help: <http://listserv.fnal.gov/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=mylist>,
    <mailto:LISTSERV@LISTSERV.FNAL.GOV?body=INFO mylist>

These headers are meant to add some useful information to each message. If you want to disable this behavior on any lists that you manage add

    Misc-Options= NO_RFC2369

to the list configuration file.


How do I add something to the Subject of the message?

Listserv allows you to add list specific text to the subject of the message. This is done by using the Subject-Tag list option. In the list configuration add

    subject-tag= Test_List Default-Options= SUBJ

and save the configuration. This will add [Test_List] to the subject line for all messages sent to the list. There can not be any spaces in the text that is added to the subject. The Default-Options line enables this option for all future subscribers

To enable this feature for the current subscribers send the following to listserv@fnal.gov:

    quiet set list-name SUBJ for *@*

Where list-name is the name of the list whose configuration you have modified.

How do I allow the Helpdesk to send mail to my private list?

There are several lists on the Fermi Listserv that are for application or OS support and questions submitted to the Helpdesk are routed to them. However some of these lists (linux-users is one) are Private (you must be a list member to send to them) so unless the Helpdesk wants to see all the mail on the list it can't send to them.

The solution is very simple. Add ServiceDesk@fnal.gov to the list as a member. Then, using the list management page, edit the ServiceDesk@fnal.gov subscription. Scroll down to Miscellaneous and set it as shown here:

ServiceDesk@fnal.gov can now send to the list as it needs to but not have to read all the mail associated with it


There are many other options your can set for the subscribers to your mailing list. You can find them, along with detailed descriptions of how to use them, in Section 5 of the LISTSERV Owners Manual.




last modified July 24th, 2018    email ServiceDesk@fnal.gov

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