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Nathan Brindle <[log in to unmask]>
Wed, 11 Mar 1998 15:04:50 EST
text/plain (92 lines)
Yep.  The following is from the next edition of the Site Manager's Manual
(and note that a LISTSERV maintainer has to do this).

7.14. Changing the name of an existing list

Changing the name of an existing list on the same server as opposed to
migrating a list from another server is somewhat different.  Here is a
checklist of the basic steps involved in renaming an existing list.  For
the purpose of this example we will assume that the list is named
MYLIST-L and we want to rename it to JOESLIST-L.  Note that operations
that call for using OS-level commands are not performed by issuing
commands to LISTSERV, but rather by opening a console session and typing
the commands at your system's command prompt.

1. Find the mylist-l.list file.  LIST files are kept on LISTSERV's A
disk (VM) or in its A directory (non-VM).  The A directory for non-VM
servers is normally ~listserv/home for unix servers,
LISTSERV_ROOT:[MAIN] for VMS servers, and LISTSERV\MAIN for Windows
servers.

2. Copy (using your OS's command for copying files) mylist-l.list to
joeslist-l.list.  Note carefully that under unix you must name the file
in lower case. Copying the list file will preserve all subscribers and
all subscriber options.

3. If necessary, create the directory for joeslist-l's archives.  If you
had mylist-l's archives in ~listserv/lists/mylist-l, for instance, you
should create the directory ~listserv/lists/joeslist-l.  Once this
directory is created, you can copy the mylist-l archive notebooks over
to it, then rename any mylist-l.* file to joeslist-l.*.  Note that you
will want to copy the current notebook over again later, to make sure
you get all of the postings up to the time of the switch.  Note further
that it is not necessary (and probably not desirable in any case) to
copy the DBNAMES, DBINDEX, DBRINDEX, or -RAC files as they will be
rebuilt automatically by LISTSERV.  Also, you don't need to copy the
DIGEST or SUBJECTS files as we're going to take care of them later.

4. Again, if necessary, you should also copy over any files referenced
by the list's catalog or filelist and make a new catalog or filelist for
joeslist-l. You will also need to make an entry in site.catalog (non-VM)
or listserv.filelist (VM) for the new joeslist-l catalog or filelist.

5. If the list was available through the web archive interface, make a
joeslist-l directory for the web archive indexes (see chapter 5 for
details).

6. Issue a GET JOESLIST-L (HEADER NOLOCK command to get the header.
Make any changes you feel necessary, for instance, in the list's
description or in the comments which may or may not contain the old
list's name. You will also need to make changes to any keyword that
contains a directory reference, for instance the Notebook= and Digest=
keywords, so that they point to the right place.  PUT the list header
back on the server.  (Note that this PUT will cause LISTSERV to build
web archive indexes for the list.)

7. Issue a HOLD JOESLIST-L command to keep the list from processing any
postings from earlybird users :).

At this point you are finished copying the old list to the new list.
Now you need to do some housekeeping before notifying the users of the
change.

8. Issue a QUIET SET MYLIST-L NODIGEST NOINDEX FOR *@* command to
LISTSERV.  This will force LISTSERV to send out the accumulated MYLIST-L
digest and index issues to all users who had those options set.

9. Issue a HOLD MYLIST-L command to LISTSERV.

10. Copy the final MYLIST-L notebook archive file over to the JOESLIST-L
directory so that you have all of the postings up to the time you issued
the HOLD.

11. Get the header of the MYLIST-L list.  You can now add a "New-List="
keyword to the header to let people know that the name of the list has
been changed.  This requires that you remove all other keywords from the
header except "Owner=" and "Confidential=".  You can set

* New-List= [log in to unmask]
* Confidential= Yes

in the list header so that a) the list no longer appears in the global
List of Lists and in the CataList and b) so that all mail and inquiries
sent to the old list address will be forwarded on to the new one.  When
you've made the changes to the header, PUT it back on the server.

12. Issue a FREE JOESLIST-L command to LISTSERV.  (You should not need
to issue a FREE MYLIST-L command.)

Congratulations, you've finished renaming the list.  At this point you should
probably announce the change and let people know where to find the archives,
etc.

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