type "help@lists" to get started
Date: Fri, 15 Oct 1999 12:30:32 -0700 (PDT)
From: Jason Mendelson <spiderj@leland.Stanford.EDU>
Sender: spiderj@leland.Stanford.EDU
To: Jason Mendelson <spiderj@leland.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: LIST SETUP: pippin-staff (fwd)
Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.3.96.991015123028.17922A-100000@elaine35.Stanford.EDU>
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 15 Oct 1999 09:11:01 -0700 (PDT)
From: list-request@lists.Stanford.EDU
To: spiderj@leland.Stanford.EDU, lists@lists.Stanford.EDU
Subject: LIST SETUP: pippin-staff
Fri Oct 15 09:10:34 PDT 1999
----------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to the Distributed Computing Group majordomo mailing
list service!
The services accessed via the host lists.stanford.edu have been set
up
to serve as a mailing list hub for the Stanford community.
Majordomo is a mail list management program that automates the routine
administration of Internet mailing lists with little human
intervention. It was written by Brent Chapman of Great Circle
Associates, is supported by a group of volunteers and freely made
available. (Thanks Brent and others!) This mail list manager
allows
people to "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" themselves to particular
mailing lists via email to the address "majordomo@lists.stanford.edu".
Depending on the type of mailing list, the list owner either approves
each operation or merely monitors them as they are automatically
approved. Majordomo also automates response to certain other
common
queries from users, such as a listing of all existing public mailing
lists, getting list archives if available, etc. The majordomo
server
at lists.stanford.edu has been modified for the local Stanford
environment.
This document is broken down into the following sections:
A Service Overview and Your List
General Policy Statements
Additional Related List Addresses
Where to Go for Documentation
on How Majordomo Works
Issues Concerning Managing A Mailing List With Majordomo
The Password
Subscription Control
List Information File
A Service Overview and Your List
---------------------------------
We've been running the majordomo server since March 1993 (and the
current version running has been in test since the spring of 1995).
We are now offer a limited production service. This is a general
mailing list server based on UNIX. This is not BITNET LISTSERV.
Also, at the moment consider this to be a "best-effort" service.
We're a small group and unable to provide 7-day x 24-hour coverage.
Odds are good that if something breaks on Saturday it may not get
looked at until Monday. However, we do have a vested interest
in the
service; it is running our mailing lists as well as yours. If
you
find you need a more reliable production service (like 7x24 coverage),
we ask that you contact Tim Torgenrud, UNIX Workstation Support Team
Manager, 3-3940, torg@netserver so he can let his management know the
importance you feel this "best-effort" service should be given
when resource allocation is being done.
The details of how the service works are described below and in the
following
pages.
In your particular case, we've set up the list address
pippin-staff@lists.stanford.edu
Your password for pippin-staff@lists.stanford.edu is currently set to
Feel free to change it. In fact, PLEASE change it. (Further
pointers
on this are discussed in the Issues for Managing A Mailing List With
Majordomo section.)
General Policy Statements
-------------------------
We reserve the right to refuse to set up and/or to shutdown a mailing
list using these services.
If abusive behavior is being exhibited by a list member, we will place
the
onus of first contact on the owner of the list. We reserve the
right to
limit a person's posting ability and list membership if the list owner
is
unable to deal with the list member.
We reserve the right to remove a list from the mailing list server if
it
becomes party to unreasonable or inappropriate usage of resources
(unreasonable or inappropriate as defined by the staff maintaining
this server
guided by the Computer Usage Policy) and discussions with the list
owner
prove fruitless.
Additional Related List Addresses
----------------------------------
Each list has several additional addresses involved with it. These
addresses deal with requests, ownership, and item approval for the
list. The address owner-pippin-staff has orignally been set up
to direct
all mail errors with the list to the address[es]:
spiderj@leland.stanford.edu
Typical errors that are routed to the owner are the "bounced" (i.e.,
returned)
mail with a secondary address due to an erroneous subscription entry
or the
bouncing of mail with an address that no longer exists.
The requests that come in to the address pippin-staff-request are routed
through the majordomo server and returned to the user with instructions
on how
to communicate with the majordomo server. For this address, you
should need
to do nothing but be aware of its existence. This address exists
for
historical reasons mostly.
Any approval requests are forwarded from the majordomo server.
Actions that
change the status of the list are sent by the majordomo server to the
address
pippin-staff-approval. pippin-staff-approval is simply an alias
for the pippin-staff-owner address.
Approval notification is sent for subscriptions, alternate address
subscriptions, and unsubscriptions. If the list is a closed list
(meaning
that no one is added without approval), then the notification is also
a
request for action. As the approval person for the list, you
would need to
send an approval command back to the majordomo server if you approve
of the
person's request. If you don't wish to approve their subscription
you don't
have to do anything, but common courtesy suggests you should send a
note back
to the requestor.
Where to Find Documentation on How Majordomo Works
---------------------------------------------------------
The mailing list services including how to send commands to the
majordomo server at majordomo@lists.stanford.edu is documented
via the world-wide web at
http://lists.stanford.edu/
You can also send electronic mail to majordomo@lists.stanford.edu with
the message body of "help" and further information about using the
help system built into majordomo will be e-mailed back to you.
A generic version of this file (with the list specifics in a generic
format) is available via ftp from ftp.stanford.edu at
/pub/mailing-lists/New.List.Owner.Message
Some quick notes about majordomo and your list:
Majordomo operates by taking command lines out of the message text in
a
standard mail message. [NOTE WELL: majordomo will NOT be happy
to receive
NeXTmail! If you use a NeXT system, make sure that you are sending
an ASCII
file.] The subject line is never examined. Multiple commands
should start on
independent lines in the message text.
Your "listname" is pippin-staff and is what should be used for the
majordomo commands. To send mail to the addresses subscribed
to
pippin-staff, send mail to pippin-staff@lists.stanford.edu, the "address"
of the list.
Depending upon the command issued, the majordomo server will either
respond
with information concerning lists or itself, or it will do a subscription
action and tell the user the results.
Issues for Managing A Mailing List With Majordomo
-------------------------------------------------
There are several critical portions to managing a majordomo-controlled
mailing list once the nuts and bolts are in place. Issues highlighted
here are the list password, subscriptions, the list information
file, and the list configuration file.
1. The Password
---------------
There is a separate password set for each majordomo-controlled list.
This
password is need for approval of subscriptions in closed lists, for
changing
the information in the info file sent to users querying about a list,
to
reconfigure the list options, and, of course, to change the password
itself.
To change the password use the command
passwd <mlist-name> <old-password> <new-password>
For example to change the password for "testlist" from "testing" to
"super-password", issue the following command:
passwd testlist testing super-password
2. Subscription Control
-----------------------
If your list is an open list, then you will get notices of subscription
and
unsubscription actions and majordomo will note that "No action is required
on
your part." If, however, you are in charge of a closed list,
majordomo will
send you notification and ask you to send an APPROVE command to the
majordomo
server (it will even give you the full command except that you'll have
to
replace PASSWORD with your list's password). The syntax for the
approve
command is
approve <password> {subscribe|unsubscribe} <mlist-name> <address>
If someone corners you in your office and just asks to be added to the
list, you can send this command right away and not have to wait for
the
subscribe request to be rerouted to you. [There is also an "approve"
Perl script that can be run if you use MH as your mail reader - mail
majordomo-owner@lists for more information.]
3. List Information File
------------------------
There is a pippin-staff.info file maintained by the majordomo server
(based on what you give it, of course) for the purpose of telling
users what the list is all about. Initially this is one line
that
simply says "This information to be supplied by the list owner."
You
should create a replacement file that describes the purpose of your
list and anything you want people to know about it. This is done
with
the newinfo command described below. This file can be requested
by
users at anytime (indeed, even by users not on the list unless it is
a
private list) and is sent to users when they first subscribe.
When you issue the newinfo command to majordomo, it must be the last
command in the message or you must mark the end of your newinfo
message by putting the word "EOF" on a line all by itself after the
last line of the new information note. "EOF" should be at the
beginning of the line. All text after the message is assumed
to be
part of the new info message (yes, even an \"end\" command is
ignored) unless you mark it with EOF. The command syntax is
newinfo <mlist-name> <password>
<body of new informational text
.
.
that continues until the
.
.
end of your mail or EOF>
4. List Configuration File
--------------------------
There is a pippin-staff.config file maintained by the majordomo server
for the purpose of controlling posting and presentation options for
the list. Intially, this config file is built based on options
supplied
when the list setup was requested. These options were:
SUBSCRIPTION SETTINGS: closed, any address may attempt
ACCESS SETTINGS: open to the world
ADVERTISING SETTINGS: visible to all addresses world-wide
POSTING SETTINGS: allowed by only addresses subscribed, owner addresses
To change these options, a list owner would use the "config" command
to retrieve a current copy of the configuration file, "newconfig" to
return an editted configuration file as the new list configuration,
and "writeconfig" to make sure that the configuration file lists all
options currently known to the server.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Other commands that list owners will want to look into are "who" and
"which." In general, be sure to browse over the Web pages at
http://lists.stanford.edu/.