If all the lists were archived, there wouldn't really be a problem.

C. David Young
Central Systems Support
University Of Texas At Arlington
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Voice: (817) 272-3666
Fax: (817) 272-5796


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Raymond Ayers [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Thursday, September 16, 1999 9:40 AM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      Re: List expiration?
>
> On Thu, 16 Sep 1999 09:36:27 -0500 David Young said:
> >I've been thinking about doing something like what you're asking about to
> >deal with lists created each semester for courses.  I haven't really
> found a
> >simple solution, though.  The Change-Log feature (Change-Log= Yes) helps,
> >but the files take up quite a bit of space for very active lists.  It
> would
> >be really handy if Listserv could keep a "last post" date accessible via
> a
> >SHOW command for easier checking.  I currently keep an archive of list
> >requests which sometimes contain a termination date and use that
> information
> >to periodically clean up my lists.  I hope you find a solution.
> >
> IF your lists are archived the date of each file making up the archives
> for
> a list is a very good indicator of the 'last used' date.
>
> While I am doing this from VM on the mainframe, the same technique should
> work on other platforms. I have an exec (script) that runs weekly and
> pulls
> a list of the current lists, parses their headers for basic info and
> updates
> an info file with new lists. Since our standard for list headers requires
> the keyword pharse: "CLASS LIST FOR xxxxxxxx" I can distinguish the class
> lists
> from the others. The date the record is created (first time list is seen)
> and a keyword identifying the list as a class list, then allows me to run
> another script after semester's end to generate delete commands for the
> archive
> files. I leave the list defined and our support staff does deletes after
> the
> next term starts.