Release 1.7f will introduce an automatic digestification function
allowing subscribers who do not have the time to read large numbers of
messages as they arrive to subscribe to a digestified version of the list
instead. The list owner decides whether digests are available or not, the
frequency at which they are issued and the day of week or time of day
when the digest should be distributed. The digests conform to RFC1153
with an accepted deviation from the recommended subject line (verified
with the RFC author).
Users sign up for digestified rather than immediate delivery with 'SET
listname DIGests', which is an alternative to MAIL and NOMAIL. This
command is rejected if digests are not available for the list, however if
the option is accepted and the list owner subsequently turns digests off,
it will be treated like NOMAIL.
The list owner controls the availability and frequency of digests through
the new "Digest=" list header keyword, which defaults to "Digest= No" for
lists without an archive and "Digest= Yes,Same,Daily" for archived lists.
It is not necessary for the list to be archived to keep a digest,
LISTSERV simply attempts to enable digests (by default) for as many lists
as possible, but without ending up having to store large amounts of
digest data on its A-disk. Because the default frequency is daily, the
additional cost in disk space is very low (but might still not have fit
on the A-disk once multiplied by 100 lists).
The syntax of the keyword is "Digest= Yes,where,frequency,when", or then
"Digest= No". The second parameter is a disk or directory specification,
just as with the "Notebook=" keyword, or "Same", which means that the
digest must be stored on the same disk as the list archives. The third
parameter is either "Daily" (the default), "Weekly" or "Monthly". The
last parameter is optional and specifies when the digest is to be
actually distributed. For daily digests, specify 'hh:ss' or just 'hh'
(with the understanding that distribution will not occur at the exact
time you specified). For weekly digests, specify a weekday (eg
"Tuesday"). For monthly digests, you may specify a number from 1 to 31
corresponding to the day of the month when the digest will be
distributed, although this is not recommended. The purpose here is to
make it possible for digests to be issued at mid-month - if you code a
number larger than 28, you may not get a digest every month.
You can already start coding "Digest=" keywords for the lists you own.
The code will be made available shortly for beta-testing.
Eric
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