|
Date: |
Thu, 3 Jul 1986 16:09 SET |
Subject: |
|
From: |
Eric Thomas <ERIC@FRECP11> |
Sorry I didn't explain what NOTIFY actually was -- I thought I had previously
done so in this list but it was in a private mail. Well, the main problem when
"linking" LISTSERVs together is that they tend to send either an acknowledge-
ment or a copy of the mail file (in the BITNIC-type case) back to the sender.
If the sender is a distribution list, guess what will happen to the mail? It
will get distributed... Hence a second acknowledgement, which gets distributed
again, etc, etc. :-( My LISTSERV does not send back a copy of the original mail
but an acknowledgement mailfile with "Subject: Ack: original_subject"; and it
will NOT distribute anything with a subject starting with "Ack:". However, this
does not cover the problem of linking BITNIC-type listservs to FRECP11-type
ones, not to mention the unnecessary network load caused by the acknowledge-
ment. Hence the NOTIFY userid@node ON | OFF command, which allows the postmas-
ter to suppress notification mail (of all kind -- this includes ADD and DELete
acknowledgements) to the specified userid. That way a FRECP11-type LISTSERV
linked to a BITNIC-type one as "listener" will not send back anything. Linking
it as "speaker" is tricky because the BITNIC-type LISTSERV will send back a
copy of the mail to the LIST userid. Therefore any mail file with a filename of
"LISTSERV" and destined for distribution is transferred to the postmaster for
manual verification ( :-( ); he can CP CHANGE it NAME X MAIL and TRANSFER it
back to the server if needed. There is of course no problem with two FRECP11-
type LISTSERVs since the mail file comes from the list userid itself.
Eric
|
|
|