On Wed, 22 May 1996 Chris Barnes said:
>I have several lists which have been keeping archives for several
>years now.  I would like to delete any archive older than 1994.
>How do I go about doing this (if it helps, I'm the listserv postmaster)?
 
Just delete them, along with <listname> DBNAMES and <listname> DBINDEX.
Then use LDBASE and give the command SELECT * IN LISTNAME to cause the
database to be rebuilt.
 
HOWEVER -- if any of these lists has the Index option enabled, the index
numbers for articles announced in recent index mailings will all be
wrong.  You should pay close attention to the number of records in the
old DBINDEX file before you delete it, and then examine the record count
in the rebuilt DBINDEX file.  The difference between these two numbers
must be applied as a correction to (i.e., subtracted from) any index
number announced before your purge.  You should send subscribers an
announcement to this effect.  I have done this with a 1000-member list
whose subscribers are primarily not technically oriented, and it appeared
to create no confusion.
                                             /b