Refresher course on listserv commands.

Rick Walker (walker@hpl-cutt.hpl.hp.com)
Wed, 13 Jan 93 11:29:54 PST

>From Michael:

> Huomenta (Good morning),
>
> somehow it got into my mind, probably I have read some contributions
> posted to our listserver, that I should be able to request a cp.seller-
> list and various other things at our listserver.
> I am interested to do that and I think other people might not be aware
> of this possibility, either. I would be glad if you could post this
> valuable piece of information to our listserver.

Here's a refresher on how the listserver works.
(Oldtimers can quit reading here...)

There are two address involved:

1) cp@hpl-opus.hpl.hp.com
2) listserv@hpl-opus.hpl.hp.com

Any mail sent to the first address is automatically forwarded to all
of the cp list subscribers.

Mail sent to the second address is used to make requests of the server
program. It is usually never read by a human, and must be in a precise
format.

Your request should be put in the body of the mail message. Multiple
requests per message are allowed, but they should be one request per
line. If the server encounters an invalid request, it will abort
processing at that line and send an error message back to the requester.

If you put a signature on the end of your message, the server will treat
this as an invalid request.

Here is a list of the requests that the server will recognize.

Everything appearing in [] below is optional; everything appearing
in <> is mandatory.

help [request]
--------------
Without arguments, this file. Otherwise get specific information on the
selected topic. For example, if you wanted help on unsubscribing, you
could send the one-line message: "help unsubscribe".

set CP [<option> <value>]
-----------------------------
Without the optional arguments, get a list of all current settings for
the specified list. Otherwise change the option to the new value for that
list. The only options currently supported are:

"set CP mail ack" Will send acknowlegement copy of current
message back to the original sender.

"set CP mail noack" Will not send a copy of current message back
to the original sender. This is the default
for new subscribers.

"set CP mail postpone" Save up, but do not send any messages to the
particular subscriber until he changes
status again. This would usually be used
before leaving on an extended vacation. To
restart mail, use "set CP mail noack".

subscribe CP <your name>
----------------------------
The only way to subscribe to a list.

unsubscribe CP (or: signoff CP)
---------------------------------------
Remove yourself from the specified list.

recipients CP (or: review CP)
-------------------------------------
Get a list of all people subscribed in the specified list.

information CP
------------------
Get information about the specified list.

statistics CP [subscriber email address(es)]
------------------------------------------------
Get a list of subscribers along with the number of messages each one
of them has sent to the specified list. If the optional email addresses
are given, then statistics will be collected for these users only.

lists
-----
Get a list of discussion lists that are served by this server.

index [archive]
---------------------------------------------
Get a list of files in the selected archive, or the master archive if
no archive was specified. For example, to get the CP archive you
would use: "index CP". Here is the current CP index:

-----------------------------------------------------------------
file: info (1 part) General Info about CP mailing list
file: cp.90 (2 parts) CP discussions for 1990
file: cp.91 (5 parts) CP discussions for 1991
file: cp.92a (8 parts) CP discussions for 01/92 to 08/92
file: cp.92b (3 parts) CP discussions for 09/92
file: cp.92c (3 parts) CP discussions for 10/92
file: cp.92d (2 parts) CP discussions for 11/92
file: cp.suppliers (1 part) Robert Allen's list of CP suppliers
file: cp.growlist (1 part) Merged CP growlist for our group
file: cp.sellerlist (1 part) Merged 1992 Commercial Price Lists
file: jans.rtf (5 parts) Jan Schlauer's Nomenclatural Synopsis \
(in RTF form, compressed and uu-encoded)
-----------------------------------------------------------------

get <archive> <file> [parts]
----------------------------------------------------------
Get the requested file from the specified archive. Certain subparts may
be obtained by specifying them as optional arguments. For instance,
To get Jan's World List you would send the one line message:
"get CP jans.rtf". If you wanted only part 3 of the CP.91 file, you
would use: "get CP cp.91 3".

release
-------
Get information about the current release of this listserv system.

which
-----
Get a listing of discussion lists to which you have subscribed. Most
servers support multiple mailing lists. You may be subscribed to
any number of these lists.

Good Luck,

--
Rick
(walker@hpl-opus.hpl.hp.com)