Thanks, Jose Maria.
 
>>(2) Be distributed to all servers that so request, by a *new* tag - *not* the
>>    "backbone" tag. I have  serious reasons why I would not  put my server in
>>    the backbone.
>
>Have you  considered :backbone.YES DISTRIBUTE(NO)?  Or you really  can't apply
>updates in time, or let them be applied automatically?
 
I have no problem with updates. My problem is commitment to availability.
I can't guarantee *any* predetermined uptime rate. To start with,
my server is down for over 36 hours every week. I would not like it
to participate in any DIST job or LISTS DB or anything of the sort.
I simply want to keep it updated.
 
This is why I offered a new tag. If I say YES on this tag, then keeping
LISTSERV uptodate becomes *my* problem. If it crashes due to bad maintenance
level, then it's *my* problem.
 
Alternatively, perhaps a "shortcut" method to subscribe my server to the
"full" distribution of control files will be good enuf. Say, some command
to a backbone server which will tell it to distribute the control files
it gets to my server too (a special AFD, I guess). But it is mandatory
that such command be generic, so that if tomorrow there's a new type
of control file that's distributed to backbones, my server will get it
too, automatically.
 
Doron