On Wed, 2 Aug 1995 17:22:35 EDT Judith Hopkins said:
>Would it be possible for listserv to assign the item number BEFORE
>distribution and then to include it as part of the distributed message?
 
Dealing with VM/CMS at least:
But the item number would change if the archives (i.e. <listname> LOGxxxxx
files) were edited or deleted.  The item number is simply sequential starting
at 1 for the first item in the first log file and continuing on through to
the last item in the last notebook.
 
The <listname> DBINDEX contains one record for each posting, thus the number
of lines in DBINDEX is normally the last item number. (Unless the log files
are messed with by hand without a database refresh command being issued by
LISTSERV or yourself, in which case LISTSERV will rebuild the index
eventually...).
 
- --
Bill Gruber
City University of New York Computer Center