On Sun, 5 Jul 1998 13:55:38 -0400, Eric C Oosting <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >I am managing a listserv site, that has many lists. One group that has >about 40 or so lists requires a change in ownership in each list. My first >thought was to edit each blah.list file doing a search and replace and >making sure that the new owner and editer's address is padded with spaces >so that the replacement is exactly the same size as what is replaced. >(This is of course after a full backup tar of the effected lists is taken. >:) > >The question is this: How bad is this? listname.LIST files are binary files and should NEVER be edited manually. Doing so is almost certain to cause them to crash. GET/PUT is the only supported method of making such changes. >Is there a better way to do it? This seems to happen to me about every 3-4 >months that I have to change the ownership or over several dozen lists. >The first time I attempted to send the request via the mail and then edit >the mails and send them back, but there must be a better way of making >repetative changes like this. University sites, with many 'class' lists should study the 'Clone Lists' in sec 7.12.9 of the Site Mgr Manual. This allows you to create a 'skeleton' list framework and have LISTSERV 'copy' it to all related lists, greatly reducing your maintenance in these cases.