ListProcessor

A Quick Start-up Guide for List Owners

Introduction

CCAT uses ListProc software to handle listserv discussions lists. This sheet is a quick reference for the most basic operations; more complete documentation is available from the SourceForge ListProc website.

Sending Commands to the ListProc

Interaction with ListProc is done completely through e-mail. As a new list owner, you should have received a list password by e-mail. If you do not know your password, please contact to obtain a password; just mention which list(s) you own for which you need a password.

To use the ListProc listserver on CCAT, send commands by e-mail to:

listproc@ccat.sas.upenn.edu

It's a good idea to leave the subject line blank or to put only a space in it. (Command words in the subject line cause ListProc to reject a message).

You can send more than one command at a time to listproc. Just put them on separate lines. Also, do not put anything but commands in your message. For example, don't add a signature at the bottom: listproc will try to interpret it as a command. If you're having trouble, try sending just one command at a time until you can isolate the problem.

The most important listproc commands are given below. The examples assume you have a list named "my-list" and its password is "xyz".

Getting the List of Who is Subscribed

review list

for example,
review mylist

where list is the name of your list
By return e-mail, ListProc will send you the list's configuration and subscribers.

Adding and Deleting Subscribers

add list password address name

for example,
add mylist xyz pat@sas.upenn.edu Pat Doe

 where list is the name of your list,
password is your list's password,
address is the subscriber's e-mail address, and
name is the actual name of the subscriber
Add a subscriber to the list. ListProc will notify the subscriber by e-mail.

Important! When you add an e-mail address, add it in the form the subscriber's computer uses. For example, a subscriber pat on mail.sas should be added in the form pat@sas.upenn.edu (rather than pat@mail.sas or pat@mail.sas.upenn.edu). Otherwise, the subscriber will not be able to use the list.

quiet add list password address name

for example,
quiet add mylist xyz pat@sas.upenn.edu Pat Doe

 where list is the name of your list,
password is your list's password,
address is the subscriber's e-mail address, and
name is the actual name of the subscriber

If you use the optional word "quiet" at the beginning of the command, ListProc will add but not notify the subscriber.

add list password {address name} &
{address name}

for example,
add mylist xyz {pat@sas.upenn.edu Pat Doe} &
{chris@sas.upenn.edu Chris Smith}

where list is the name of your list,
password is your list's password,
address is a subscriber's e-mail address, and
name is the actual name of the subscriber
You can use this form of the command to add several users to the list at one time. When you want to add more than one user, you must enclose each one in curly brackets {}. It's a good idea to put one subscriber on each line. Put an ampersand (&) at the end of each line to indicate that the command is continued on the next line. Do not put an ampersand at the end of the last line. If the optional word "quiet" is added before the command line, the user(s) will not be notified. ListProc will not add more than about twenty people at a time.

delete list password address

for example,
delete mylist xxx pat@sas.upenn.edu

 where list is the name of your list,
password is your list's password,
address is a subscriber's e-mail address.
Delete the specified subscriber from the list. Multiple addressess may be placed on one line. If the command spans more than one line an ampersand (&) must be placed at the end of each line to indicate that the command is continued on the next line. If the optional word "quiet" is added before the command line, the user(s) will not be notified.

Moderated Lists: Approving or Discarding Messages

approve list password tag-number
discard list password tag-number

If the list is set up as MODERATED-NO-EDIT (see "Configuration Settings," below) the message will be sent to the list moderator with a tag-number. The APPROVE and DISCARD commands will allow the moderator to discard or approve the message identified by the tag-number for posting to the specified moderated list.

Your List's Configuration Settings

You can check your lists settings by sending the command, CONFIGURATION, to listproc. As the owner, you may change those settings; the comprehensive list of settings is here.

Digesting Your List

The command to put your list entirely in digest form for daily delivery is:

configuration list password digest daily hh:mm

If you omit the hour and minute, the digest will be sent out at midnight.

Words That Send the Message to the Owner

If ListProc sees certain words in the subject line of a message, it will send the message to the owner of the list and will not send it to the subscribers. These words include: "help", "test", and "vacation".

Lists That Are Not Used

If you no longer need a list, please contact and let us know. We will remove it.

Twice a year, our system administrators check to see which lists have not been used in the previous six months. If a list has not been used, we e-mail the list-owners to determine whether we can remove the unused list.

Troubleshooting

Here's a checklist for avoiding common problems:

Full manuals for users and list owners are available at: http://www.cren.net/listproc/docs/

For assistance beyond this, contact

The new home of ListProc is Sound Forge: http://sourceforge.net/projects/listproc/


May 25, 2007