Lists contains the list of active and public lists on your TULP system. Some lists may be hidden and thus not appear if this file. The contents of the file are a set of text lines, each line describing a particular list. It is recommended to use the alphabetic order when filling this file. The indicated data is only informative and used when a user issues a LISTS command sent to TULP. Each line is divided into two comma separated fields:
name,description
The first field is the name of the list. The maximum length of this field is the maximum length of a filenam on your system, minus 2. Thus it is strongly advised not to use names longer than 12 characters, in order to be Posix compliant. If you wish a greater compatibility with Bitnet LISTSERV's, the length should not exceed 8 characters. The name of the list should correspond to the name of the alias where messages to the list have to be sent.
The description field is a few words (30-40 characters) describing briefly the list.
Listname.u is the list definition file (where listname is to be replaced by the real name of the list) for a mailing-list. This file is divided into two sections: the comments/flags, and the list of subscribers.
The first sections, called header, is either comments or special flags describing the behavior of the list. A comment line must not begin with one of the reserved flags given below. All lines within the header must begin with a # sign.
The format of flags is as follow:
# flag = value
The equal sign car be preceeded or followed by zero or more spaces or tabulations. Case is not significant. The possible values for flag and value are:
The second part of the description file contains the list of subscribers given in following format:
user@host.away.domain (First Lastname)
Where the first field should be a valid email address and the second (between parenthesis) the comment associated to the subsriber, typically the name of the person.
Exemple of list description file (file sample.u):
# List "Sample list" # # Contributions: <sample@host.dom.ain> # Commandes: <listserv@host.dom.ain> # # Owner = Christophe.Wolfhugel@host.dom.ain # Owner = Kimmo.Suominen@host.dom.ain # Send = Private # Review = Public # Subscription = Owner # Reply-To = List,Respect # chris@there.fr (Christophe Wolfhugel) kim@this.fi (Kimmo Suominen) pb@mati.fr (Patrice Bere)
This file might be edited manually only when TULP is not running, in order to avoid possible access conflicts and damage to the file.
This file is mandatory and must be unique for each list you are hosting (wether it's described in the file lists or not).
Listname.w is the welcome message that is to be sent to each new subscriber. There are no restrictions on its contents, but it's a good idea to remind the newcomer at least how to get off the list.
This file is also mandatory.
Listname.n when existing is the counter for the X-Sequence field to be added to each forwarded message. It has to be created containing the first sequence number to be used, minus 1. If unexisting, then no X-Sequence header will be added.
Listname (directory) All messages sent to the list will be archives if, and only if, this directory exists. The name of the log file will be logyymm where yy is the current year and mm the current month. Exemple: test-list/log9207.