>A request has come down the pipe to rename a list. I'm just starting out
>as a listserv admin, so I'm a little wet behind the ears.
>
>I have, so far, only figured out 1 way to rename a list without losing all
>the subscribers (thousands, in this case), and that is to basically copy
>listname.list to the newname.list, and add the entries into /etc/aliases
>manually.
This is essentially what I did for a mailing list at my site and it
appeared to work. To make the changeover smoother you may wish to
investigate the 'New-List' keyword; I've appended the relevent part of the
documentation to this message.
>I heard that there is some type of mass-add for users, but I haven't
>managed to find it yet in the webified manuals.
True, but there are problems with using it for this purpose, the main one
being that you'll lose everyone's mailing options (so all of your nomail
subscribers will suddenly start receiving mail again without warning).
If you have a list of addresses (call them address1, address2, etc...) you
want to add to the mailing list named listname-l, you can do so by issuing
the following command:
quiet add listname-l dd=whatever import
//whatever dd *
address1
address2
[etc.]
/*
I put "dd=whatever" and then "//whatever dd *"; I think that you can use
pretty much any string you want instead of 'whatever', but you will need to
use it in both places.
If you have the first and last names of the people in question you could
substitute
//whatever dd *
address1 Firstname1 Lastname1
address2 Firstname2 Lastname2
[etc.]
/*
for the corresponding section of the above.
>Any pointers or suggestions would be welcome, I'm sure this must come up
>occasionally.
>
>Oh, if there is a FAQ for this list, please point me to it.
There isn't a FAQ per se that I've seen, but there are many online
resources that can help you find the answers to your questions (one of the
key ones being a searchable archive of all messages sent to LSTOWN-L).
The following are the online resources that I have found useful and which
have answered many of my own queries:
LISTSERV's homepage, which includes links to download documentation or
browse through it online:
http://www.lsoft.com/listserv.stm
LSTOWN-L's archives, including a nifty search engine and interface:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/lstown-l.html
A nice explanation, with many examples, of LISTSERV 1.8c's built-in search
functions. (Can be useful in formulating searches for the above.)
http://www.mindspring.com/~jaredmarkw/search.htm
-jwgh
PS. Here's the explanation of the New-List keyword I promised before:
**************************
* New-List= <netaddress> *
**************************
When a list is moved to a different LISTSERV host, this keyword can be
added to the list header left on the original host. This facilitates
forwarding of administrative commands and postings from the original host
to the new host. Users posting to the old address will also receive a
short note in return listing the new address.
Note that success in setting the "New-List=" keyword is dependent on
whether or not you have deleted practically every other keyword other
than "Owner=" from the list header. Since the use of "New-List=" is
generally intended to be an automatic pointer to the new host and/or new
list name, no other keywords should be defined. Keywords that would cause
a problem will therefore generate fatal errors on a list PUT operation
and the list header will not be updated.
Further note that the old list's subscriber list cannot be modified once
the "New-List=" parameter is defined. The appropriate sequence of
operations is:
1. Create the new list
2. Move the subscribers to it
3. DELETE oldlistname *@*
4. Modify the header of the old list by deleting unneeded keywords and
adding the "New-List=" keyword with its pointer to the new list.
Should this sequence not be followed, note that by removing the
"New-List=" keyword, the old list will be unlocked and the subscriber
list can then be deleted if desired.
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