The LISTSERV file system is generic. You can define any file and give anyone the right to GET or not GET it. In principle you give list owners full access to a filelist attached to their lists and you give them access to the MAILTPL file, but this can all be overridden or done differently. LISTSERV can't make assumptions like "the list owner can always modify the MAILTPL file, and he also has full access to this or that filelist". Sometimes it simply isn't the way it is set up. So, if you want to imbed a file of arbitrary name LISTSERV needs to make a full file access verification, which means it needs a single userid against which to check the access and to which complaints will be sent if access is denied. Eric