I am involved in moving a list from American University to another
site and had requested their assistance. I received a reply which
stated that the list owner and the new host site
"are able to issue all of the commands needed to make the
transition, and can do so with no intervention from AU."
I knew it could be done without their help; I had hoped to minimize
the inconvenience to the list owner and the downtime for the list.
Here is an overview of the steps required to move a list without
assistance from the current host site. See the LISTSERV documentation
<http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/1.8d/index.html> for additional
information.
Additions or corrections to this overview are not only welcome, they
are encouraged.
First, some caveats regarding interaction with LISTSERV by email:
* Command messages, including PUT/PUTALL, must be in simple ASCII text
with no attachments. Be sure to disable any options that cause your
messages to be sent with HTML, MIME, "styled text". This also applies
to the use of PGP or other authentication mechanisms which append a
keyed "signature" to an outbound message.
* The subscriber information lines in the list header file are longer
than the line-wrap break points in most email software. Be sure to
disable the line-wrap option, or you will lose subscribers' option
settings.
* If your email software is configured to automatically add a
signature, disable this option.
* If your email software is configured to automatically attach a
personal information file of any kind, disable this option.
* If your service provider automatically appends a banner to every
outgoing message, you will have problems.
Now, the process:
1. Find a new home and follow their procedures to start a new list.
When you are notified that the listserv administrator has done
whatever the listserv administrator needs to do, continue with the
steps listed below.
2. Send "HOLD listname" to the old home to prevent postings or
changes from being processed while you are moving the list.
3. Send "QUERY listname FOR *@*" to the old home to get a list of
all current subscribers with their option settings.
4. Send "GET listname" to the old home to get a copy of the list header
file, including the subscriber information. Save a copy; you will
need it later. Edit a second copy, make any changes needed for the
new home - probably just the archives location in the NOTEBOOK=
statement - and use PUT (or PUTALL) to store the list at its new
home. PUTALL is new in either 1.8c or 1.8d. To find out which to
use send "show version" to the new home, then check the LISTSERV
documentation.
5. Send "INDEX listname" to the old home to get a list of all files
associated with the list. The output will include welcome and
farewell messages, customized templates, and the archive log
files.
6. Use GET and PUT to retrieve the individual files from the old home
and store them at the new home.
7. Verify that the list is working at the new home. Query your (or
someone's) subscriber options and compare the results with the
output you received from the old home. Check the archives to
be sure they are accessible. Do whatever else you need to do to
assure yourself that the move was successful.
8. When you are sure that the list is working at its new home, send
"RELEASE listname" to the old home to release any pending postings
or command requests, then edit the list header you saved earlier,
insert a "New-List=" statement pointing to the new list address,
and use PUT/PUTALL (see previous discussion) to replace the header
at the old home. This will cause postings and commands sent to the
old home to be forwarded to the new home until the old home deletes
the list header file and/or list-related mail addresses.
9. Post a message to the list informing the subscribers that the list
has moved. Provide the new list and command addresses and the new
URL for the list archives, if they are web-accessible.
The PUT command can be used to store an empty file. You can use this
method to effectively delete the archives and/or other list-related
files from the old home. Do not do this unless/until you are sure you
no longer need those files.
You may wish to notify the LISTSERV administrator at the old site that
the list has been moved.
-- pdr
On Fri, 5 Nov 1999, George Frajkor <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> American is disntinuing all its listserv services to groups
> outside the university. Unortunately, they seem to have chosen to do
> so without notice, without giving much time to move the lists and
> without an outline of plans to help move lists membership rolls and
> archives.
> My own list Journet-L has apparently already been discontinued
> before I could evn reply on my efforts to find a new host. Which
> means I cannot even inform my members to prepare for a move.
>
> does anyone have some influence with the administrators at
> American? I cannot complain about the service they rendered us for a
> long time, but this latest move and the lack of replies from the
> administration saddens me a lot.
>
--
Paul Russell
Senior Systems Administrator
University of Notre Dame
http://www.nd.edu/~prussell/
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