ListProc makes use of a number of text files during the course of its operation. Some files, such as the list's config file, are changeable via commands to ListProc and are not editable, but others can be requested from ListProc using the EDIT command, edited, and replaced using the PUT command (see EDIT and PUT in the command section below). These seven files all have filenames starting with a dot "." and are .aliases, .ignored, .info, .news, .peers, .subscribers, and .welcome. When requesting any of these files for editing from ListProc you do not include the dot in the filename in the command line, so the discussion below will not include the dot in the filename in order to avoid confusion.
The alias file allows the list owner to rewrite incoming e-mail addresses. Due to the wide variation in the manner in which different hosts are set up, it is possible that e-mail can come in to listproc with a different return address than the sender's real address. For example, if mail comes in from BITNET there is no way of knowing which gateway will be used for the mail. The mail may come in as user%node.bitnet@interbit.cren.net on one occasion and from user%node.bitnet@pucc.princeton.edu on another occasion. A user can likely get back a error message saying that he/she is not subscribed to a particular list. In order to get the ListProc to accept the address user@node.bitnet no matter what gateway it comes through an alias can be set up in the alias file.
The ignored file filters out messages sent by certain users. You may, for example, want to prevent error messages coming from postmaster@anywhere.org from being posted to your list. Or perhaps you have a particularly annoying individual whose messages you want filtered out. By putting these addresses in the ignored file you prevent anything coming from these addresses from going out to your list.
Two very important files are the welcome and info files. The welcome file is a message automatically sent out to all new subscribers to a list. The info file is sent out to anyone requesting information from ListProc about your list. Both files should give the list name, names and e-mail addresses of list owners or moderators, purpose of the list, and any special rules and regulations pertaining to the list. The welcome file should additionally contain some welcome message.
The subscribers file contains a list of all subscribers to a list, their e-mail addresses, names, and switches for their subscriptions such as concealed, ack, noack, digest, etc. The subscribers file is one file that can be EDITed or can be modified by using ListProc's internal commands such as ADD, DELETE, SET, etc. The subscribers file must be in a specific format. If you chose to edit that file and then replace it with an edited version and if your text editor makes a minor reformatting such as word-wrap or if you make a small error in one character in your editing, then the newly placed subscribers file will not only not work, it will cause ListProc to crash. For this reason it is important that you not try to edit the subscribers file, but instead use ListProc's commands to modify the subscribers file.
Lists can be gatewayed to newsgroups; that is, postings to a particular
newsgroup will be forwarded to a mailing list and postings to the mailing
list will be placed in the newsgroup. One way gateways are also possible
in which postings to the list go to the newsgroup but no postings to the
newsgroup will go to the list. Or the opposite one way gateway can be set
up allowing only postings from newsgroup to list. The news file contains
the information necessary for establishing the gateway between newsgroup
and list. Peer lists are mailing lists that are subscribed to one or more
mailing lists at local or remote sites. They handle local distribution
of messages just like any other list and also distribute messages that
originate in the peer lists. The peers file is a special file which coordinates
the peering of lists. The syntax and use of peer files and news files is
beyond the scope of this owner manual and can be found in the ListProcessor
site manager manual. It is suggested that the peers and news files should
be edited only by the ListProc system manager, not by list owners.
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