I can't believe that it would be that hard to write a shell script under
Unix that would emulate the ( strictly finite ) number of operations that
LISTSERV supports, applying the documented syntax in search of the docu-
-mented set of possible commands and generating LISTSERV-like messages on
those occasions when the command violates the constraints of the syntax.
 
Set up a mail address, which, in Unix, would evaluate to an entry in the
aliases database, possibly a password entry to allow account management,
and a file for mail to accumulate in. Write the script to read the file
once every so often, read each message, act appropriately, zero the file
and split. Add some mechanisms to keep the script from zeroing the file
when it's being accessed by the mail delivery agent. You're done.
 
Once the script works, turn it into a *simple* C program. Runs faster,
less likely to crash.
 
If there is an Internet group meeting on the topic of LISTSERV, I would
predict that they are meeting to agree on a common command syntax so that
all LISTSERVs behave identically, much as FTP and telnet behave identically
under diverse operating systems. The actual implimentation of a LISTSERV
is trivial, IMHO.
 
-- richard
 
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-- richard childers		[log in to unmask]		1 415 506 2411
         oracle data center  --  unix systems & network administration
 
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