On Wed, 26 Aug 1998 20:28:20 -0400, George Buckner <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

>
>Quite simply, if I subscribe one of my non-owner addresses to the list,
>and send a message from that address, the problem appears if I address
>the message to the alias specified in LIST-ID parm.  The problem does not
>appear if I send the message to the actual (full) list name.  It really
>is that straightforward.

Thank you for bringing up this anomaly.  I did some tests on your test list
and was able to duplicate your results.  I also tested on 2 different servers
here at L-Soft.  I believe it is a mail routing issue in your case.  You are
using LISTSERV on OSF1-4.0 and PMDF as your mailer.  PMDF, like a traditional
unix sendmail requires you to create the necessary mailer aliases for all
lists and ancillary addresses (listname-Request, listname-subscribe-request,
etc.) on your LISTSERV Server.  Our LSMTP mailer (soon to be available for
unix) and the built-in SMTP Listener program do not require you to create
alaises, this is handled automatically.

I don't know the details of your server but I presume when you inspect all the
aliases, there is some alias rule set such that anything *@listserv.uh.edu not
specifically routed otherwise goes to the LISTSERV@... command address and
thus produces the error you observed.  On the L-Soft servers, I get a '550 no
such list' error, unless I specifically create an alias set to the List-ID
value.

That being said, we have updated the documentation on the List-ID= header
keyword to fully explain this keyword and how it can/should be used.  The next
version of the manual will say this:

List-ID= name

This keyword is not available in LISTSERV Lite, and is technically obsolete
on all ports of the software except for VM.

On VM systems, this keyword allows the list owner to specify a long list ID
in addition to the normal 8-character list name. This is particularly useful
for peered or gatewayed lists that have names longer than 8 characters. On
non-VM systems, if the normal list name is longer than 8 characters and the
list is being migrated from a VM system, it may be a good idea to specify
the first 8 characters of the list name in this keyword, at least temporarily.
This way subscribers who were used to the old 8-character name can continue
to use it on the new system.

Non-VM systems may use this keyword for aliasing. However, today there is
really no good reason to use this keyword on non-VM systems, as it is
possible to define lists on such systems with native file system names
longer than 8 characters. L-Soft's recommendation is that this keyword be
used only if you are migrating a list from VM that was known by both its
"short" name and its "long" List-ID= name. (On unix you can avoid this by
simply specifying an extra set of aliases in /etc/aliases for the "long"
name that point to the same places as do the ones for the "short" name.)

In any case a list owner should not set a value for List-ID= without first
consulting with the LISTSERV maintainer, since it will be necessary to add
appropriate system mailer aliases before the name specified in List-ID=
will work.

List-ID= will not work properly on NT systems running with the SMTPL
"listener" because the "listener" has no way to know that the list ID
specified in this parameter is a valid local address.

List-ID= will work on NT and VMS systems running LSMTP, but you must
first configure a route in LSMTP for the List-ID= name so that LSMTP
will know to deliver mail addressed to the List-ID= address to LISTSERV
(as opposed to POP or SMTP, etc.).

Under VMS and unix, it is necessary to add the appropriate aliases to the
mailer's aliases file in order for List-ID= to work, since mailers such
as sendmail and PMDF otherwise have no way to know that the name specified
in List-ID= is a valid address. This means that lists that have the List-ID=
keyword specified need two complete sets of aliases defined (unless List-ID=
is identical to the list name, in which case it should not be implemented to
begin with).

Starting with LISTSERV 1.8d, if you do use List-ID= to specify a "long"
name for a list with web archives, LISTSERV will create an HTML page for
both the long and short names. Here again, however, on non-VM systems
L-Soft does not recommend the use of List-ID= .