The MOST's Mailing Lists
List Commands

You can send commands to the list server directly to accomplish the standard actions of subscribing, unsubscribing, getting digests, etc. This section describes the correct procedures to follow to issue the commands that our lists understand.

When sending a command to a list, no extraneous text should be included in the email. If possible, supress the inclusion of your sig line from messages that contain commands to the list. You may also send multiple commands in a single email. To do so, place each command on a separate line.

To avoid the most common cause of the errors that we are asked to assist with, remember to send commands to the appropriate '-request' address for the list.

Failure to follow that part of the procedure accounts for most of the problems that our users encounter when using our lists. Instructions for how to form the correct address for commands to each list are detailed in the next section.

The '-request' Address

The only tough part about this is remembering to do it :-). Subscribers to a list don't want to see the emails that people send to the list to subscribe, unsubscribe, etc. To keep this type of email from being sent to the other subscribers, all MOST mailing lists are set up with a secondary address for list commands. To send a command to a list, append "-request" to the name of the list and send it to the correct domain. Since we are currently hosted at "themost.org", that results in the following examples for the correct address to use to send commands to some of our lists.

To Send a Command To Use This Address

MOST-General MOST-General-request@themost.org

MOST-MacOS-Core MOST-MacOS-Core-request@themost.org

MOST-C MOST-C-request@themost.org

MOST-Misc-Help MOST-Misc-Help-request@themost.org

MOST-Webbers MOST-Webbers-request@themost.org

To Send a Command To	Use This Address
MOST-General	MOST-General-request@themost.org
MOST-MacOS-Core	MOST-MacOS-Core-request@themost.org
MOST-C	MOST-C-request@themost.org
MOST-Misc-Help	MOST-Misc-Help-request@themost.org
MOST-Webbers	MOST-Webbers-request@themost.org

Subscribing and Unsubscribing

Subscribing

To subscribe to any of The MOST's mailing lists send an email to the associated "-request" email address. The subject doesn't matter, but the body should contain the word "subscribe" (NOT in quotes) on the first line. The rest of the body should be blank.

After sending this note you will receive a confirmation message. You MUST reply to the confirmation message to actually become subscribed, but it doesn't matter what the content of the reply contains. Once you DO confirm the subscription you will receive a welcoming message that will contain the FAQ for that mailing list.

You may use our web-based mailing list command processor to subscribe to any of our lists.

Unsubscribing

To unsubscribe from any of The MOST's mailing lists send an email to the associated "-request" email address. The subject doesn't matter, but the body should contain the word "unsubscribe" (NOT in quotes) on the first line. The rest of the body should be blank.

The email that you send to unsubscribe from a list must come from the same email address from which you are subscribed to that list.

You may use our web-based mailing list command processor to unsubscribe from any of our lists.

Turning Mail On/Off

At times you may be away from your email system for an extended period of time and wish to avoid having messages accumulate from The MOST mailing lists. Or, you may just be too busy for a while to interact with a list for a while and wish to suspend receipt of mail from it. Although you COULD go through the trouble of unsubscribing from the list and then resubscribing later when you wished to resume interaction, it isn't necessary to go to that much bother.

The MOST's mailing lists support suspension/resumption of mail service while allowing an individual to remain subscribed to the list. Mail from the list may be turned on or off as often as desired (well, don't be silly about it) by sending the appropriate commands to suspend and resume mail delivery.

To suspend receipt of mail from any of The MOST's mailing lists send an email to the associated "-request" email address. The subject doesn't matter, but the body should contain the phrase "set nomail" (NOT in quotes) on the first line. The rest of the body should be blank.

To resume receipt of mail from any of The MOST's mailing lists send an email to the associated "-request" email address. The subject doesn't matter, but the body should contain the phrase "set mail" (NOT in quotes) on the first line. The rest of the body should be blank.

The email that you send to suspend/resume receipt of mail from a list must come from the same email address from which you are subscribed to that list.

You may use our web-based mailing list command processor to suspend or resume receipt of mail from any of our lists.

Receiving Mail in DIGEST Mode

If you are new to mailing lists then it might be good to receive emails from the lists in digest format. Days with intensive discussion can result in significant levels of traffic and it CAN be a bit excessive for newcomers. Lists that you set to "digest mode" will send you only a single message per day. That single message will contain each of the emails that were posted to the list for that day in chronological order of posting, but you'll receive the entire day's traffic in one message at the end of the day (EST) rather than receiving each message as it is posted throughout the day.

If you set a list to digest mode, you will still be able to post to it in the normal fashion, just as if you were receiving the postings as individual, in-coming E-mails. There will, of course, be an increased time lag between the submission of a posting by any subscriber (including yourself) and the time you will receive it as part of the day's digest - especially if it is posted shortly after the previous day's digest has been sent out. Mentors for class-related mailing lists are encouraged to NOT use digest mode for those lists to minimize their lag time in responding to questions.

To activate digest mode for any of The MOST's mailing lists send an email to the associated "-request" email address. The subject doesn't matter, but the body should contain the phrase "set digest" (NOT in quotes) on the first line. The rest of the body should be blank.

To deactivate digest mode for any of The MOST's mailing lists send an email to the associated "-request" email address. The subject doesn't matter, but the body should contain the phrase "set nodigest" (NOT in quotes) on the first line. The rest of the body should be blank.

Deactivation of digest mode for any of The MOST's mailing lists may result in loss of messages from the list. If the user is in digest mode when a message is posted the user will not receive the message at the time it is posted. If that user deactivates digest mode before the digest that contains that message is sent then the user will ALSO not receive the digest that contains the message. To ensure that no messages are lost, you can wait until the day after you decativate digest mode and manually request the digest for the day that you deactivated digest mode (and therefore didn't automatically receive the digest).

The email that you send to activate/deactivate digest mode for a list must come from the same email address from which you are subscribed to that list.

You may use our web-based mailing list command processor to activate or deactivate digest mode for any of our lists.

Receiving Back DIGESTs

Our lists are available in digest format. Each digest contains the entire traffic for a specific list for a single day. The lists all support automated retrieval of the digest for any desired day(s). This feature allows new students to review previous discussions in course related mailing lists, and/or (more frequently) assists the webbers with reconstructing the contents of email exchanges for inclusion on the web site.

Farokh has been archiving our lists since he started providing list services for us. I'm not sure how far back he will keep the archives, but so far they are complete for all of the lists.

Days on which there is no traffic on the list will not have digests available. To determine which days have digests of the list available for any of The MOST's mailing lists send an email to the associated "-request" email address. The subject doesn't matter, but the body should contain the phrase "digests" (NOT in quotes) on the first line. The rest of the body should be blank.

Shortly after sending the command, you will receive an email from the associated "-request" address. The email will be titled: "Re: List of 'list-name' digests". Listed in the body of the email, from most recent to least recent, will be the dates for which digests are available and a byte count for each digest. As an example, part of the reply from one of the lists is shown here:

---------------------- File List Follows ----------------------
[ ] Get digest "most-macos-core.1996-11-30"
    Size is 5850 bytes
[ ] Get digest "most-macos-core.1996-11-19"
    Size is 5187 bytes
[ ] Get digest "most-macos-core.1996-11-12"
    Size is 6022 bytes
[ ] Get digest "most-macos-core.1996-11-11"
    Size is 1839 bytes

You may use our web-based mailing list command processor to request a list of available digests for any of our lists.

Once you know the days for which digests are available, requesting one or more digests is easy, especially if you have actually received a digests list in the format shown above. To request digest(s) for any of The MOST's mailing lists send an email to the associated "-request" email address. The subject doesn't matter, but the body should contain a listing of the digests that you desire in the exact format shown above (with the addition of an 'x' in the [ ]) at one day per line. The rest of the body should be blank.

For example, to request digests from MOST-MacOS-Core for Nov 11 and Nov 19 (both of which are shown as available in the example above) i would enter the following two lines into the body of the email that i would send to "MOST-MacOS-Core-request@themost.org:

[x] Get digest "most-macos-core.1996-11-19"
[x] Get digest "most-macos-core.1996-11-11"

Seeing Who Is Subscribed

The MOST mailing lists allow any subscriber to a specific list to see who else is subscribed to that list. This command is different from the other list commands in that it must be placed in the subject line rather than in the body of the message.

To get the subscriber list for any of The MOST's mailing lists send an email to the associated "-request" email address. The subject of the email must be "return subscribers" (NOT in quotes), and the body should be blank.

Note: This facility is provided as a service to our subscribers, not as a way for self-serving individuals to obtain lists for spamming attacks.

Copyright © 1996, 1997, 1998. Last Update to This Page: 1998/04/22
This Page Maintained by: radar pangaean * * * Original Author: radar pangaean
The MOST web site is built and maintained by the voluntary efforts/donations of our members.

The MOST's Mailing Lists List Commands