Thanks for the quick response. Two more questions interspersed below. >>I'm not clear on how autodelete works: >> >>In Auto-delete=yes,semi-Auto,delay(4),max(10): >> >>how does "delay" work. I assume the number is number of contiguous >>days. When the first bounce occurs, an entry is made into the >>listname.autodel file so they can be monitored. Then what? > >It sounds like you understand it. An address starts being monitored >when LISTSERV receives a bounce (in a format it understands) for the >address in question. > >If four consecutive days pass without another bounce being received, >the address is no longer monitored. > >If another bounce is received on day #4 the address is removed. Hmm. But this would be only the second bounce. Still removed? > >If ten bounces are received in a four-day period the address is >removed after the 10th bounce. (So for instance if ten bounces are >received on the first day the address would be removed immediately; >LISTSERV wouldn't wait another three days to do it.) > >Because of the way this works, an An Auto-Delete= setting of the type >you quote tends to work best for discussion mailing lists. For >announcement mailing lists you generally have to make some >adjustments for this to work well. > >>1. Is this entry removed from the autodel file on the 4th day if no >>more errors have happened. That is, does monitoring stop 4 days >>after the most recent bounce? > >Yes. > >>2. Suppose one error happens every day for the next 3 days. Is the >>subscriber removed from the list on the 4th day. > >No. hmm - but this would be 4 bounces in 4 days. One for the first day, one each on the next 3 days. Want to take back your "No"? > >>3. Suppose 12 errors happen on the next day. Is the subscriber >>removed based on the "max(10)" setting? > >Yes. > >>4. Suppose an error happens every 5th day. The subscriber will >>never get removed, right? > >Right. > >>5. So on a list that gets one message per week, if you want to >>remove a subscriber if they bounce two weeks in a row, you should >>code delay(8) or perhaps delay(9) in case the bounce message takes a >>while? > >Sure. Something like the following: > > Auto-Delete= Yes,Full-Auto,Delay(8),Max(2) > >would work OK for a weekly announcement mailing list; if two bounces >(which hopefully correspond to two consecutive mailings bouncing) are >received in eight days then the address is deleted, otherwise not. >Alternatively you could just set the mailing lists to remove bouncing >addresses immediately. > >Thanks, >-- >Jacob Haller, Technical Support >L-Soft international, Inc >http://www.lsoft.com/ -- One big advantage to telling a clean joke is that there is a good chance no one has heard it. Bill Verity - 814-865-4758 Fax: 814-863-7049 215A Computer Building - Center for Academic Computing, Penn State University At the office - on my Mac, of course ;-)