>Well unless you are looking to do this the hard way, the documented way to
>accomplish this is
>
>  GET listname (HEAD NOLOCK
>
>Which will return the Header with the list in a 'unlocked' state.

I know this command and I use it quite often, but this is not the problem.

From my point of view, the problem is the unpredictable behavior of
our LISTSERV when a sequence of

   GET listname (HEADER
   UNLOCK listname

is sent by one of our list owners. At least one list owner has done this and
got puzzled by the result.

Siegfried