I  have  just created  a  new  list, UDD-L@CEARN,  to  discuss  the UDD  (User
Directory  Database)  functions of  LISTSERV.  The  list  is open  for  public
subscription  and archived.  People interested  in the  LISTSERV UDD,  be them
LISTSERV maintainers or end-users  (preferrably with some background knowledge
of EARN/BITNET), are invited to join the list.
 
The policy for UDD-related topics is the following:
 
- This will be the last UDD-related message on LSTSRV-L.
 
- All  "final" announcements  will  be  sent to  LSTSRV-M,  as  usual, but  no
  discussion will take place on that  list. A copy of these announcements will
  be sent to UDD-L.
 
- All other messages will be sent to UDD-L only.
 
I planned to have  a beta-test version available by yesterday,  but I caught a
cold on tuesday and it took me 3 days to write a mere 600 lines of buggy code.
The  user functions  and netwide  database synchronization  are now  ready for
beta-test, but the "UDD management" code (ie the stuff that will automatically
explode subscribers when new servers join  the UDD backbone, that will allow a
site  to  withdraw  from  this  backbone,  etc)  has  only  been  alpha-tested
yesterday, and some 20% of it remains  to be written (it's the most easy part,
though). It ought to  be ready this evening (the cold is  almost gone by now),
but I plan to make a "larger scale" test with some 1000 test entries picked up
from the  NETSERV UDS  and spread  over 3  LISTSERVs this  weekend. Hopefully,
alpha-test should be finished by monday morning.
 
Further discussions on UDD-L only.
 
Regards, Eric