OS/2 Shareware BBS: 35 Internet/35-Internet.zip/major13.zip/major.INF

OS/2 Help File | 2002-04-03 | 30KB | 820 lines

ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Introduction ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Major Major is a mailing list manager.  It allows you to set up one or more
mailing lists, and it allows people to subscribe to those lists.  When mail
comes in for the list, Major Major sends a copy to everyone on the list.

It is distributed as optional shareware.

This documentation is for version 1.3.

Disclaimer of Warranty

      This Product is provided "as-is", without warranty of any kind, either
      expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied
      warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.  The
      entire risk as to the quality and performance of the Product is with you.
      Should the Product prove defective, the full cost of repair, servicing,
      or correction lies with you.

 The author of Major Major is Peter Moylan, [e-mail].

 The latest version of Major Major is normally kept at
 ftp://eepjm.newcastle.edu.au/software. Information about other software on
 this site may be found at http://eepjm.newcastle.edu.au/os2.

 Getting information about new versions

 You can, if you wish, join a mailing list for announcements about new releases
 of my software.  There are two lists: software-announce, which is purely for
 such announcements, and majormajor-list, which is a general forum for
 discussions and questions about Major Major.  To join one or both of these,
 send an e-mail to [e-mail].  The subject line is not
 important and may be anything.  In the body of the message, put the lines

         subscribe software-announce
         subscribe majormajor-list
         end

 (To join only one of the two lists, use only one "subscribe" command.)  To
 have yourself removed from a list, send a similar e-mail but using the command
 "unsubscribe" instead of "subscribe".


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2. Registration ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 Registration

This software is "optional shareware".  What this means is that you decide
whether you want to register as a paid owner of the software. The software is
not crippled in any way, and I will continue to provide support and free
releases of new versions to all users, whether or not they are registered, for
at least the short-term future.

If you decide that this software is worth supporting, you have the following
payment options.

Payment through BMT Micro

This is likely to be the most convenient method for most people, because BMT
Micro has a number of different payment methods, including credit cards.  It
also has agents in several countries.  For full details, see the file
register.bmt included in the Major Major distribution. The price is $20 (US
dollars).

From Europe

This works best for people living in the European Union.  (Warning: check first
whether your bank is going to charge you transfer fees.) You have two options:

     Transfer ΓòÆ20, or the equivalent in Belgian francs, to the following bank
      account

           Marion Gevers
           Account number 220-0586389-60
           GВnВrale de Banque (Belgium)
           Mention: Major Major

      and send an e-mail to [e-mail] to confirm that you've
      done it.

     Send a Eurocheque for ΓòÆ20, or the equivalent in Belgian francs, to

           Marion Gevers
           91 Harriet Street
           Waratah, NSW 2298
           Australia

 Payment directly to me in Australia

 This is a more attractive option for people in Australia.  From other
 countries, it's not a good idea because of the bank charges on international
 transfers.  (Please don't send non-Australian currency to an Australian bank,
 because then I get hit with exorbitant bank fees.) You can do it in either of
 two ways.

     Send a cheque, or equivalent, for $25 (Australian dollars) to

           Peter Moylan
           91 Harriet Street
           Waratah, NSW 2298
           Australia

     Transfer the amount of $25 (Australian dollars) to the following bank
      account.

           Marion Gevers
           Account number (06 2831) 00626468
           Commonwealth Bank
           University of Newcastle, Australia


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3. How it works ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 What is a mailing list?

A mailing list is similar to a newsgroup, except that it uses e-mail rather
than Usenet to transport the messages.  People join the list by mailing a
"subscribe" command to the mailing list manager.  If they later want to leave
the list, they send in an "unsubscribe" command.

The name of the list is an e-mail address.  That is, it has the form
"listname@domain", where "domain" is the mail domain for the mail server that
receives mail for the list.  You send a message to the list by mailing it to
that address.  When it is received, the list manager sees it and sends copies
to everyone who is subscribed to the list.  In other words, when you send an
e-mail to the list you are actually sending it to multiple people.

Major Major and its interaction with the mail server

A mail server consists of two parts.  (These might be two separate pieces of
software, or they might be integrated in a single package.) One part is the
SMTP software, which is the software that looks after transferring mail between
the source and destination machines.  The other part is the "Post Office"
server, through which users pick up their mail after it has arrived.  Major
Major assumes that the Post Office server is a POP3 server, which at least for
now is the most common kind of Post Office server.

One way to implement a mailing list manager would be to make it an integral
part of the mail server software.  I haven't done it this way, however, because
I dislike large integrated software packages. Rather than have one giant
program that does everything, I prefer to have many small programs, each of
which does one thing and does it well.  That gives a cleaner design, with less
chance of undetected software errors.  It also means that the users can "mix
and match" their software, according to their own preferences, without having
to get it all from the same supplier.

As a result of this, Major Major is not itself a mail server.  It assumes that
a mail server is already installed, and it interacts with that mail server.
When mailing list mail arrives at the Post Office machine, Major Major gets it
from the POP3 server.  Then Major Major decides who it should be forwarded to,
and it sends it back to the SMTP server to be delivered.

When you set up a mailing list, you specify to Major Major how often it should
check for mail.  Most mailing lists don't need a rapid response, so it would be
sufficient to check them once an hour or even once a day.  In the case of a
discussion list that has lively back-and-forth discussions, you might want to
cut the sampling interval down to a few minutes.  In an extreme case you might
even reduce it to a few seconds; but that is not recommended, because it puts
an extra load on your processor.

Major Major can handle multiple mailing lists, and you can set different
sampling intervals for different lists.

Special case: the interaction with Weasel

If you are using the Weasel mail server, and it is running on the same machine
as Major Major, a shortcut is possible.  In this case, Major Major doesn't need
to use the POP3 and SMTP protocols to send and receive mail.  Instead, it looks
directly into the disk directories where Weasel stores the mail.  This removes
some overhead from the operation, because you don't have as much network
traffic.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4. Installation ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Installation

See also De-installation

You should have received this package in the form of a zip file. The first step
is to unzip the file into a directory of your choice. (Presumably you've
already done this.)  You will find that you have executable files Major.exe and
Admin.exe, and a few other files.

Admin.exe sets up the configurable parameters, so you should run it first.  The
required settings should be obvious.  If they're not, you can refer to the
configuration section of this manual.

Major.exe is the actual mailing list manager, and you leave it running all the
time.  Ultimately you will probably want to run it minimized or detached, but
initially it's a good idea to run it directly on your desktop, so that you can
verify that it's doing what you expect.

If you need to stop Major.exe, type CTRL/C.  A process killer, e.g. the second
button in the WarpCenter, will also work, but CTRL/C is preferred because it
makes Major Major tidy up and exit cleanly.

The command file MakeFolder.cmd is optional.  If you run it, it will create a
desktop folder to let you work with Major Major without having to open the
directory in which it's installed.

Of course, Major Major is not going to do anything interesting until you've
created one or more mailing lists, and this includes creating the e-mail
accounts for those lists.  Those details are covered in the following sections.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5. De-installation ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

De-installation

Major Major does not tamper with CONFIG.SYS or with other system files. If you
decide that you don't want to keep Major Major, simply delete the directory
into which you installed it.

You should probably also go to your mail server and close down the e-mail
accounts that you were using for Major Major, unless of course you still need
those accounts.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6. Setting up the e-mail accounts ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Setting up the e-mail accounts

Major Major needs one e-mail account for itself, plus one account for each
mailing list it is managing.  The account that Major Major reserves for itself
is the one that receives the administrative commands such as "subscribe" and
"unsubscribe".  The other accounts are the ones that receive the mailing list
traffic.

To provide these accounts, you have basically two choices.

     You can use an existing e-mail server, and ask the manager of that server
      to create the accounts for you.  You might have to pay for these
      accounts, depending on your service provider's rules.

     Alternatively, you can become your own postmaster by installing a mail
      server on your own computer.  To do this, you must of course have enough
      network connectivity to send and receive mail.

 Major Major does not have to be physically on the same machine where the mail
 server is running.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 7. Configuration ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

The program called Admin.exe is what you use to configure Major Major.  When
you run Admin.exe, you get a notebook with the following pages.

     Basic - some overall program settings.

     Admin - settings for the Major Major administrator.

     Messages - the file names for some standard messages

     Lists - creation and deletion of mailing lists.

     About - identifies the program version.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 7.1. Basic settings ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Basic settings

Changes made on this page will not have any effect until you restart Major
Major.

Server and domain

The first thing you have to specify on this page is whether you are using the
Weasel mail server, running on the same machine as Major Major, as your mail
server.  You do this by selecting one of two radio buttons.  If you choose
"Weasel on this machine", Major Major will send and receive mail by direct
manipulation of the Weasel mail directories.  If you choose "Other mail
server", Major Major will use the SMTP and POP3 protocols to send and receive
mail.

The mail domain name is what comes after the '@' sign in the e-mail address
used by Major Major.  Commonly this is just the hostname of the machine on
which the mail server is running, but it is also possible for a single mail
domain to have multiple mail servers; in this case the mail domain name is, in
effect, an identifier for the group.

The main use for this field within Major Major is in constructing the
"Reply-To" header line that is part of every e-mail sent out.

Root directory for mail

This is needed only if you have selected the "Weasel on this machine" option.
It should specify the full path name of the disk directory that Weasel uses for
storing mail.

SMTP and POP3 servers

These must be specified if you have selected the "Other mail server" option.
The SMTP server is used for sending mail out, and the POP3 server is for
incoming mail.  Often these are on the same machine, but this is not
compulsory.

For each server you have to specify a hostname and a port number.  The standard
port number for an SMTP server is 25, and the standard port number for a POP3
server is 110.  Do not use different port numbers unless the postmaster tells
you to.

For the SMTP server, you also have the option of using POP-before-SMTP
authentication. To enable this, select the checkbox under the SMTP hostname
field.

Logging

If you want to keep a log of the Major Major operations, select one or both of
the checkboxes in this section.  You can choose to have the log written to the
screen, or to a disk file called MAJOR.LOG, or to both.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 7.1.1. POP-before-SMTP authentication ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

POP-before-SMTP authentication

As a protection against system abuse, the operators of most mail servers put
restrictions on who may send out mail via their servers.  The usual arrangement
is that an ISP will accept mail for forward delivery only from its own
customers.  That means that it must apply some sort of "legitimacy" check on
the sender of mail to be forwarded.  Obviously this will include a check on
mail sent to it from Major Major.

The most common form of legitimacy check is a check on the IP address of the
sender.  If this is what is being done in your case, and Major Major is running
on a machine that the server considers to be legitimate, you can ignore this
section.  The mail from Major Major should be going out without problem.

An alternative approach, used by some mail servers, is to require the client to
do a POP login before sending out mail.  This is because a POP login requires a
correct password, whereas the SMTP protocol does not use passwords.  Normally
this is not an inconvenience to the clients, who would most likely be checking
for incoming mail anyway at the time when they're sending mail out.  It does,
however, require you to be aware that the POP login is necessary.

When you enable the "POP before SMTP" checkbox, a new dialogue is shown where
you have to enter four details: the hostname of the machine on which the mail
server is running; the POP port (normally 110) and the username and password
for one of your POP accounts on that server.  Major Major will then log into
that account, and then log out without fetching any mail, before sending any
outbound mail.

If you later want to change these details, click on the "POP before SMTP"
checkbox twice: once to disable it, and once more to enable it again.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 7.2. Admin ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Admin: settings for the Major Major administrator

The administrator is the part of Major Major that receives and processes
commands such as "subscribe".  Changes made on this page will not have any
effect until you restart Major Major.

E-mail account for the administrator

Here you specify the username and POP3 password for the e-mail account that
receives mail for the administrator.  (Note: this refers to the "administrator"
component of the Major Major software, not to a human administrator.) Enter the
details here as specified by your postmaster.  These fields might or might not
be case-sensitive, depending on the mail server.

The default assumption is that the username is "MajorMajor", but you can choose
some different name if you prefer and/or if your postmaster requires it.

     Special case 1: If you have selected "Weasel on this machine" as your
      mail server, the password is not needed.

     Special case 2: Some multi-domain POP servers require you to log in with
      a string of the form "username@domain" as the username.  If so, you
      should include this complete string in the username field here, and you
      should leave the mail domain field on the Basic page blank.

 Time between checks

 This specifies how often the Major Major administrator will check for new mail
 for itself.  (This has nothing to do with the times for checking the mailing
 lists.  The time is set independently for each list.)  Typically this is not
 urgent mail, so you don't need frequent checks.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 7.3. Messages ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Messages: names of files containing some standard messages

Each entry on this page contains the name of a file.  The file contains a
message that will be e-mailed as a reply to certain operations.  You can choose
to use the default messages in the "Canned" subdirectory, or you can write your
own versions.  If you write your own, give them file names or directories that
are different from the default file names; otherwise, you risk having your
modifications overwritten when you install a new version of Major Major.

Message when non-subscriber attempts to post

This file should contain the reply that will be sent to someone who attempts to
send a message to a list that they're not allowed to write to.  The first line
is normally a "Subject:" line.  After this you can add more header lines if you
wish.  After the header lines there should be a blank line, and then the body
of the message.

Response to HELP command

This file should contain the text that will be sent back to a user in response
to a HELP command.  There are no header lines.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 7.4. Lists ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Lists: creation and deletion of mailing lists

The listbox on this page lists all the mailing lists that are currently
defined.  Changes made on this page will take effect immediately; it will not
be necessary to restart Major Major.

Adding a new mailing list

To create a new list, click on the "Add" button.  You will be asked to enter a
name for the list.  Type in the name, finishing with the <Enter> key.  You may
then proceed to edit the list properties.

Editing the properties of an existing mailing list

To edit a list, first select that list (e.g. by clicking on its name with the
left mouse button), and then click on the "Edit" button. Then proceed as
described in the section on editing the list properties.

Instead of selecting the "Edit" button, you may also double-click on the list
name.

Changing the name of an existing mailing list

To rename a list, first select that list (e.g. by clicking on its name with the
left mouse button), and then click on the "Rename" button. You will then see a
small entry box where you can edit the name. Type the <Enter> key when you have
finished.  This operation changes only the name of the list, and therefore its
e-mail address.  All other properties of the list are kept unchanged.

Deleting an existing mailing list

To delete a list, first select that list (e.g. by clicking on its name with the
left mouse button), and then click on the "Delete" button.

Warning: there is no way to undo this operation.  As a safety measure, it is a
good idea to use the DumpINI utility to create a backup copy of your data.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 7.5. About ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

About

The function of the "About" notebook page is to identify the author, and to
tell you what version of the program you have.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 8. Defining the properties of a mailing list ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Defining the properties of a mailing list

You reach this point by going to the "Lists" page in the Admin notebook and
choosing the "Add" or "Edit" option.  This opens up a new notebook with the
list properties.

The book has the following pages.

     Basic settings

     Options

     Messages

     Members

     Owners

 Any changes you make will come into effect once you close the list notebook.
 It is not necessary to restart Major Major.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 8.1. Basic settings ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Basic properties of the list

The settings on this page define some basic properties of the list.

 POP3 password
           This is the password that is needed to log in to the POP3 server and
           fetch mail.  It will have been assigned to you by the person in
           charge of the mail server.  In the special case where you have
           specified "Weasel on this machine" as your mail server, a POP3
           password is not needed.

 Abbreviated list name
           Here you can specify an abbreviation for the list name, up to eight
           characters long. This will appear in brackets at the beginning of
           the "Subject:" line when mailings are distributed to the list
           subscribers.

 Check for new mail
           Specify here how often the POP3 server is to be checked for new mail
           to this list.  Making this time too short can put an unreasonable
           load on your processor.  A time in the range 1 to 10 minutes is a
           reasonable compromise.  If list messages are not particularly urgent
           you could even reduce this to once per day.

 Mail from non-subscribers
           Here you have to decide whether people not subscribed to the list
           should be able to post messages to the list.  Choose "Accept" if you
           want to permit this.  Choose "Reject" if you want to refuse the
           message and send an error message back to the sender.  Most commonly
           you will want to choose "Ignore", which is like "Reject" except that
           no error message is sent back.  This is because a lot of junk mail
           software takes a reply as a confirmation that this e-mail account is
           active and able to receive more junk mail.

 Error messages
           Error messages will be produced by the receiving SMTP servers when,
           for example, somebody subscribes to the list with an invalid
           address. You can specify "discard" to say that these messages should
           be ignored, or you can specify an e-mail address to receive such
           messages.  The address will typically be the same as the one of the
           list owner addresses on the "Owners" page, but does not need to be.

 Filter
           The entry in the "Filter" field, if present, should be the name of
           an executable program or of a Rexx script that will filter the
           incoming messages.  The filter takes one parameter, which is the
           name of a file that contains the incoming message.  The filter may
           modify the message, but it should not change the file name.  If the
           reply code from the filter is zero, the (possibly modified) message
           will be delivered to all subscribers to the list.  If the reply code
           is nonzero, the message will be deleted and not delivered.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 8.2. Options ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Option settings for this list

Moderated list

If you tick the "List is moderated" box, this list becomes a moderated list.
In a moderated list only the list owners may post messages to the list.  (You
should make sure that the "Owners" page for this list contains at least one
entry.) If anyone else sends mail to a moderated list, that mail will be sent
to the list owners rather than to the whole list.  It is then up to the owners
to decide whether to re-post the message to the list.

Controlled commands

Certain commands that may be sent to Major Major are "controlled" in the sense
that you decide, by checking the appropriate options on this page, whether the
commands will be considered legal.  The list owners are always allowed to send
controlled commands, regardless of the settings on this page. Other people can
use a controlled command only if it has been enabled by a check-mark on this
page for that command.

In the present version of Major Major, the following commands are controlled:

   subscribe
           This is the basic "please subscribe me to this list" command. If you
           do not enable this command, nobody except the list owners may
           subscribe by sending an e-mail to Major Major.  Everyone else has to
           be subscribed manually.

   subscribe, long form
           This refers to subscription requests of the form

                           subscribe listname emailaddress

           where the person being subscribed is not necessarily the person who
           has sent the command.  If you disable this command then the list
           owners can subscribe other people, but nobody else can.

   unsubscribe, long form
           This is similar to the previous case, but for unsubscribing.

   who
           The "who" command allows anyone to find out who is already
           subscribed to the list.  You might or might not want to enable this,
           depending on whether you consider the list of subscribers to be
           confidential.

 Note that the short form of "unsubscribe" cannot be disabled.  Major Major is
 not intended to be used for sending junk mail, therefore it is always possible
 for recipients to remove themselves from the mailing lists.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 8.3. Messages ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Messages for this list

This page is for specifying the file names of message files for use with this
list.  All of these are optional.  Leave the name blank if you do not want to
use the option.

 Welcome message
           This is the name of a file that contains a message that will be sent
           to all new subscribers to this list.  (That is, it will be sent
           whenever a 'subscribe' command is successful.)  The message should
           start with a "Subject:" line, plus any other optional header lines
           you want to add.  Then there should be a blank line, followed by the
           text of the welcome message.

 Footer file
           This file contains a message that will be appended to all list
           messages as they are sent out.  It would normally contain a
           signature line, or a message saying how to unsubscribe from the
           list, or something similar.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 8.4. Members ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Subscribers to this list

Normally the subscribe/unsubscribe operations are handled by the list members
themselves.  They send an e-mail to put themselves on the mailing list or to
remove themselves from the list.  There might, however, be times when you want
to make changes manually.

Adding a new member

Click on the "Add" button, and type in an e-mail address.  Finish with the
Enter key to confirm your entry, or with the Esc key to cancel the operation.

Changing an existing entry

Click on the entry to be changed, click on the "Revise" button, and edit the
e-mail address.  Finish with the Enter key to confirm your entry, or with the
Esc key to leave the original entry unchanged.

Deleting an existing member

Click on the entry to be deleted, then click on the "Delete" button.

Double-clicking on a list entry has the same effect as selecting the "Revise"
button.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 8.5. Owners ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

The owners of the list

The owners of the list, who might or might not also be members of the list,
have two special functions.

   1. They are allowed to use the  controlled commands, even those that are
      disabled for ordinary users.

   2. If the list is a moderated list, the list owners are the moderators.
      They receive the mail submitted to the list, and decide whether it should
      be sent out again.

 If you don't need either of these features, then you can leave the "Owners"
 list empty.  For a moderated list, it is of course essential to have at least
 one owner.  In most cases a single owner (moderator) is sufficient, but we
 allow for multiple owners to handle lists where the job of moderating must be
 shared among several people.

 Adding another owner

 Click on the "Add" button, and type in an e-mail address.  Finish with the
 Enter key to confirm your entry, or with the Esc key to cancel the operation.

 Changing an existing entry

 Click on the entry to be changed, click on the "Revise" button, and edit the
 e-mail address.  Finish with the Enter key to confirm your entry, or with the
 Esc key to leave the original entry unchanged.

 Deleting an existing owner

 Click on the entry to be deleted, then click on the "Delete" button.

 Double-clicking on a list entry has the same effect as selecting the "Revise"
 button.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 8.6. Archive ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Creating an archive of the list

If you want to keep copies of messages sent to this list, check the "Create
archive for this list" checkbox on the Archive page of the list notebook. You
also have to specify how many days must pass before the current archive file is
closed and a new archive file is started. If, for example, you specify 28 days
then each archive file for this list will contain a four-week collection of
messages.

The archive files are stored in the file repository for this list. The file
names are constructed from the date, to make it easier to keep them in order.

An archive file is just a concatenation of messages that have been sent to that
list, except that some of the "uninteresting" header lines have been deleted.
The file archives\separator contains some text (usually just a dotted line, or
something similar) to go in between the messages. You may edit that separator
file if you want a different separator.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 9. The file repository ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

The file repository

Optionally, a list may have a file repository associated with it. If such a
repository exists, list subscribers may use the 'index' command to find out
what files are in the repository, and the 'get' command to fetch files from the
repository.  In the present implementation, these must be text files.

Physically, the repository is simply a disk directory.  To create a repository,
you can create a subdirectory under the directory 'archives' in the Major Major
directory.  (If the 'archives' directory does not exist, you should create it
as a subdirectory of the directory that contains Major.exe.)  The subdirectory
name should be the same as the list name.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 10. Commands to the list administrator ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Commands to the list administrator

List subscribers and potential subscribers interact with Major Major by sending
it an e-mail message.  The "Subject:" header of the message is not important,
because Major Major ignores everything in the header except the "From:"
address.  The body of the message contains one or more commands, which are
explained on this page.  Whitespace (empty lines or space characters before the
commands) is ignored.

Note that some of these commands can be disabled, by removing the appropriate
checkmarks on the Options page for a list.

  subscribe listname emailaddress
           This is how you subscribe someone to a list.  The first parameter is
           the name of the list, and the second parameter is the e-mail address
           of the person to be subscribed.

  subscribe listname
           This is the same as the above, except that the e-mail address of the
           new subscriber is taken from the "From:" line of the request.

  unsubscribe listname emailaddress
           This is how you remove someone from a list.  The first parameter is
           the name of the list, and the second parameter is the e-mail address
           to be removed from the subscriptions.

  unsubscribe listname
           This is the same as the above, except that the e-mail address to be
           removed is taken from the "From:" line of the request.

  help
           This command causes a help message to be sent back to the person
           sending the mail.

  lists
           This returns a list of all mailing lists on this server.

  index listname
           This returns a listing of the files held in the file repository for
           this list.  If the list has no file repository, an empty listing is
           returned.

  get listname filename
           Returns a copy of the text file 'filename' from the file repository
           for this list.

  which
           This returns a list of all mailing lists to which the person sending
           the request is subscribed.

  who listname
           The result of executing this command is that a list of list members
           is sent back to the person sending the mail.

  end
           Specifies that there are no more commands.  This ensures that Major
           Major does not try to process things like signature blocks.  If the
           'end' command is missing, processing stops either at the end of the
           e-mail or at a line starting with a '-' character, whichever comes
           first.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 11. The DumpINI and LoadINI utilities ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

All of the configuration data for Major Major, including details such as the
list of all e-mail addresses for a mailing list, are kept in a binary file
called MAJOR.INI.  The two programs described on this page allow you to save
this data in "plain text" form for backup purposes. This also gives you the
possibility of manually editing the data, for example when trying to create a
mailing list from an address book in your e-mail software.

DumpINI

The DumpINI program reads MAJOR.INI and creates a new file called MAJOR.TNI.
This new file contains the same data, but in human-readable form.

LoadINI

The LoadINI program reads MAJOR.TNI and loads the information back into the
main INI file called MAJOR.INI.  It is possible to use this when MAJOR.TNI
contains only a subset of the data, because existing entries in MAJOR.INI are
not deleted except when they are superseded by new information in MAJOR.TNI.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 12. Who was Major Major? ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 Who was Major Major?

Major Major's full name was Major Major Major.  He was given that name by his
father.  Here is a quote from the novel Catch-22, by Joseph Heller.

      A lesser man might have wavered that day in the hospital corridor, a
      weaker man might have compromised on such excellent substitutes as Drum
      Major, Minor Major, Sergeant Major, or C. Sharp Major, but Major Major's
      father had waited fourteen years for just such an opportunity, and he was
      not a person to waste it.

 When Major Major grew up, he joined the Army.  Four days later, he was
 promoted to the rank of Major by a computer error.

 Catch-22 is one of the great books of 20th century English literature.  If you
 haven't yet read it, try to find a copy.