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Listserv v2.92 (06/21/96) - by Pete Nelson Terminal One BBS (510) 689-9528 Author: pete@terminal-one.com Listserv is a wcCODE application that will let you run Internet mailing lists from your Wildcat BBS. Listserv can run several types of mailing lists, can automatically handle subscription or unsubscription requests, can store and send out an archive of messages on the list and comes with Listutil for easy management of your mailing lists and does a bunch of other really cool stuff. * What is a listserv? * A listserv is a program that runs mailing lists on Internet. People send e-mail to the listserv address, and the listserv program sends that e-mail out to the other subscribers. The Listserv .WCX works in the same manner. People send e-mail to the address you set up, and when you run the Listserv program, it sends out the messages to the subscribers. Listserv will only send and receive messages in the conference you specify in the configuration file, which must be your conference for Internet e-mail. Do not set up a conference in Makewild or wcGATE for your mailing list. From what I can tell, it won't work. wcGATE was only written to handle incoming messages from a mailing list, and wasn't designed to host one. If MSI is smart, they'll add this feature to wcGATE so I won't have to work on Listserv anymore, although it is kinda fun! :) * Installation * Listserv can be run as an event, but can also be set up as a menu choice for the sysop to run at his/her discretion. You need to copy the following files into your main Wildcat directory: LISTSERV.WCX - Compiled Listserv program. Set this up as a menu option for the sysop or as an event. This is the program that checks and processes your Internet mailing lists. LISTUTIL.WCX - Utility to let to add/view/remove mailing lists, and to add/drop/view subscribers to those lists. Run this only as a menu option. LISTSERV.CFG - Contains configuration info needed by Listserv. Put the conference number on the first line. Put the path where the Listserv files resides. All files should be in this directory except for the LISTSERV.WCX, LISTUTIL.WCX and LISTSERV.CFG. Your LISTSERV.CFG should be in the main Wildcat directory. Example of LISTSERV.CFG: 11 C:\WILDCAT\LISTDATA\ Y Y Y ------------ Line 1 is the number of the Internet E-Mail Conference Line 2 is the path to the Listserv files, include the trailing backslash! Line 3 is Y or N - Should Listserv dump skipped messages to a file? Line 4 is Y or N - Should Listserv send the .HLP file for messages addressed to listserv@ that it can not process? Line 5 is Y or N - Should Listserv filter any "To:" information out of the first five lines of each outgoing message If you answer Yes to line 3, Listserv will dump a copy of any message that is skipped to a file called LISTSERV.DMP. This will let you review any messages that are getting passed over during processing. Messages that get dumped would be: A) Someone trying to post and is not allowed (List types 2, 4 or 6) B) An address that matched in the LISTSERV.SKP file This is a good way to find out if messages are bouncing due to an unknown address or domain name. If you answer Yes to line 4, Listserv will reply back with the .HLP custom help message when it can not process a message addressed to listserv@. This would happen if an unknown mailing list name was used when trying to subscribe, or if some other unknown command is put in the message body. LISTSERV.PTR - Stores the high message pointer for your Internet E-Mail conference, default is 0. Be SURE to change this number when you first install or when you renumber your Internet e-mail database, as it could drastically affect your mailing list. If this file does not exist, create it and put the number zero on the first line. When you first install it, whatever number you out in there is the first message that Listserv will process. If you have thousands of messages in your e-mail conference, Listserv will have to process those the first time it runs. It's a good idea to put the high message number of your e-mail conference instead of 0. LISTSERV.DAT - Stores info on all the mailing lists you host. This will not be present in the ZIP file. It will be created when you make your first mailing list. LISTSERV.FLT - Filter file: This file, if it exists, can be used to filter out certain lines on outgoing messages. It should contain the exact text of the line you want filtered out. This file need only exist if you have problems with messages looping back to your mailing list address or wcGATE is not exporting messages that are sent out by your mailing lists. Example: To: wildcat-l@terminal-one.com To: aliens-l@terminal-one.com With the v4.10 upgrade of Wildcat, wcGATE will not export messages addressed to your own domain. Since incoming messages for the mailing list have a 'To: listname@domain.com' in the header, that is sent back out on the messages for the mailing list. wcGATE sees that and thinks it's for your domain and won't export it. If you have problems with wcGATE not exporting messages, try putting the exact 'To:' line from the header in the LISTSERV.FLT file You may have to put a few different lines in there depending on any variations that would be in the header. For example: To: wildcat-l@terminal-one.com To: wildcat-l@terminal-one.com (Wildcat-L) However, with v4.11, if wcGATE sees a message from your system that is addresses back to your system, it will strip out the domain name and send a copy back to your domain. If you run into Listserv looping messages around, try putting that 'To: ' line in the filter file. This 'feature' of wcGATE can cause major problems. Listserv should automatically filter these lines out, but I have encountered one system where it wasn't, so this file may be needed. LISTSERV.LOG - Listserv's log file. This is added to every time Listserv runs. It will give you some stats on the messages sent out and the messages that were skipped. This will be stored in the main Wildcat directory. LISTSERV.HLP - Custom Help File. If a message is sent to LISTSERV with a subject of 'HELP' or 'HELP is put on a line in the message body, this file will be sent back if it exists. You can put anything you want in this file, such as a list of the mailing lists you host or commands that are used to subscribe to your mailing lists. LISTSERV.SKP - Skip File. If your having problems with messages getting bounced back and forth between a mail daemon or postmaster and the Listserv program, put that mailing address in here. Any messages that are addressed to a mailing list will be skipped if the From address is in this file. When Listserv compares a line from the skip file and the From address of the message, it will do a 'contains' check, i.e., it will check the entire From address for the existence of that string. Example: If you put 'daemon' in the skip file, Listserv would skip messages from 'daemon-server' and 'mail-daemon', etc. This file is optional. * Creating a new Mailing List with Listutil * Be sure to create the LISTSERV.CFG file first. Also, please be aware that Listserv will only send and receive messages in one conference - your Internet E-Mail Conference. It is not designed to support mailing lists in different conferences. I only stress this because people often get confused about this. The next thing you need to do is run Listutil and create your first mailing list. Choose the option to Create a new Mailing List. First it will ask you for the name of your mailing list. Choose a name that is suited to your mailing list. I run a Wildcat mailing list, so I called mine Wildcat-L. Type in the name of your mailing list, minus your domain name. It will then ask you for the file name to use. Let me explain how the file naming works. Suppose you ran a mailing list called WILDCAT-L, and the file name was WILDLIST. Your file names for that mailing list would be: WILDLIST.DAT - Subscriber list. Binary file WILDLIST.ADD - Message sent to new subscribers. Text file WILDLIST.DRP - Message sent to people that unsubscribe. Text file WILDLIST.SIG - Text Signature added to outgoing messages on the mailing list. WILDLIST.NOT - Message sent to people that try to post on the mailing list when they're not a subscriber or they're not authorized to post on that list or try to retrieve an archive of the messages when they are not a subscribed. Text file WILDLIST.CLS - Message sent on a closed list to users that try to subscribe automatically. Text file WILDLIST.LST - List of users authorized to post on the mailing list. MUST exist for type 5 and 6 mailing lists. It does not affect types 1 through 4. Text file WILDLIST.OLD - List of all addresses that have unsubscribed from the mailing list. Text file Every file for that mailing list is based on the main file name. Listserv will automatically create the .DAT file for you when someone subscribes or when you add a subscriber. The other files are standard text files you can create. If the .ADD, .DRP, .NOT, .CLS or .SIG files are not present, then that message or .SIG will not be sent. Listserv supports six types of mailing lists: 1) Automatic subscriptions, anyone can post 2) Automatic subscriptions, must subscribe to post 3) Must e-mail host to subscribe, anyone can post 4) Must e-mail host to subscribe, only subscribers can post 5) Automatic subscriptions, must be authorized to post 6) Must e-mail host to subscribe, must be authorized to post For type 5 and 6 lists, you MUST create a .LST file. This is an ASCII file, and on each line of the file you would list the addresses that are authorized to post on that list. Example: Pete Nelson John Doe pete@terminal-one.com president@whitehouse.gov A name without a domain name (Pete Nelson) would be your user name on the BBS. This way you can post locally to your own mailing list. When you post locally to the mailing list, be sure to enter the listname without the domain name. You will also be asked some other questions while creating a new mailing list. "Number of archived messages to store" allows you to define the number of messages Listserv holds on to for archive requests. For example, if you entered '5', Listserv would save to disk the last five messages sent out on the mailing list. If you enter '0', then no messages will be saved. "Can non-subscribers request archived messages?" Answer No to this if only subscribers can receive archived messages. Also, this will send the ".NOT" file if a non-subscriber requests the archived messages. Answer Yes to this question if anyone can receive the archived messages. "Should Listserv send a confirmation reply when a message gets posted?" Answer Yes to this if you want the sender to get a confirmation that their message was posted to the mailing list. Answer No if no confirmation is to be sent out. "Should Listserv allow users to request a list of subscribers?" Answer Yes if you want to allow people to retrieve the current subscriber list for this mailing list. "Can only subscribers to the list retrieve a list of subscribers?" Answer Yes if you only want subscribers to be able to retrieve the current subscriber list. Answer No if anyone, including non-subscribers, can retrieve the current subscriber list. "Should Listserv save all the addresses that unsubscribe?" Answer Yes if you want the e-mail addresses of all the people that unsubscribe saved to a text file (.OLD). "Use Sender's Name or List name on outgoing messages?" Answer "S" to use the original sender's name in the from field on outgoing messages. Answer "L" to use the mailing list name. For example, if the list is set to use the sender's name, a message may look like this when received: From: pete.nelson@terminal-one.com To: john.doe@foo.bar.com Subj: New Listserv If it is set to use the list name, it may look like this: From: listserv-distrib@terminal-one.com To: john.doe@foo.bar.com Subj: New Listserv "Should Listserv include a subscriber count in confirmation replies?" Answer Yes to add one line to confirmation replies that lists the current number of subscribers. Answer No if no subscriber count should be listed. You will also need to make a user account for each mailing list so incoming messages don't get bounced back. Make sure this account has full access to your Internet e-mail conference. Give the account name the same name as your mailing list, minus your domain name. Example: If the mailing list address is WILDCAT-L@TERMINAL-ONE.COM, make a user called WILDCAT-L Also, be sure to create an account for the LISTSERV@ address. The easiest way to make these accounts is to do so through wcPRO or the User Database in the Sysop Menu. Just add a user with the name of LISTSERV. * Adding or Dropping subscribers manually * Run Listutil, and choose the option to Add Subscribers or Drop Subscribers. Enter the name of the mailing list, then enter the address you wish to add or remove. When dropping a subscriber, you can type in a partial name and Listutil will find a match on that name. You will be asked to verify the address when adding and dropping subscribers. Once they are added or dropped, you will also have the option of sending the .ADD or .DRP file if they exist. * Removing a Mailing List * Run Listutil and choose the option to Remove a Mailing List. Enter the name of the mailing list you wish to remove. *NOTE* When you Remove a Mailing List via Listutil, it does not delete the data files the list was using. You need to delete the files manually if you remove a mailing list, otherwise the files remain in case you removed a list accidentally. * Moderating a mailing list * Listutil has a feature that will let you scan the message database for any unprocessed mailing list messages. Listutil will check from the last time Listserv was ran. It will check each message to see if its for the 'listserv' address or one of your mailing lists. If it is, it will display a short message header and the message body. You are then given an option to delete the message or go on to the next unprocessed message. Hitting [ENTER] for the default answer will go on to the next message. Once the message is deleted, Listserv will skip over that message when it runs. This is how you can moderate your mailing lists! * Editing the custom mailing list messages * Listutil has a feature that will let you edit the custom mailing list messages right from the BBS. You can edit the .ADD, .DRP, .SIG, .NOT and .CLS files using the internal Wildcat full-screen editor. It's a simple and easy! * Subscribing/unsubscribing from the mailing lists. * Users who wish to sign up to the mailing list should send e-mail to the list (ex: wildcat-l@terminal-one.com) and use for the subject either the word 'subscribe' or 'unsubscribe'. Users may also send e-mail to listserv@domain.name.com (ex: listserv@terminal-one.com). In the body of the message, they can put their subscription requests in as 'subscribe listname' or 'unsubscribe listname'. When someone subscribes to the mailing list, they may add their real name after the mailing list name. To unsubscribe, they would put 'unsubscribe listname' in the message body. Be sure that the real name is not used here, as Listserv won't recognize it. Using the listserv@ address is the recommended way of adding or dropping from a mailing list. Example of acceptable add/drop commands in the message body: subscribe wildcat-l subscribe wildcat-l Pete Nelson unsubscribe wildcat-l When someone unsubscribes from a mailing list, it will fill that address with "<BLANK>". This makes it easy for any 3rd party developers to determine if a record has been used or is available. If you are writing any programs that would remove a subscriber from a mailing list, fill sublist.name with "<BLANK>". * Archiving Messages * Listserv will keep an archive of up to a defined number of messages sent out on a mailing list. This will be saved as the main list filename plus a number as an extension, starting at one, such as WILDLIST.1, WILDLIST.10, etc. The lowest numbered message will be the oldest (.1) and the highest numbered one will be the newest. If you need to delete a message, keep the messages in a consistent numerical order, i.e. don't have it jump from '.4' to '.6'. People can retrieve the archived messages by sending e-mail to the listserv@ address. Put the words 'archive listname' in the message body. Listserv will reply by sending out the archived messages to the requester. If your list is set up so that only subscribers can request messages, the they must be a subscriber to the mailing list. If a request comes in from a non-subscriber, the will be sent the ".NOT" file as a reply. * Retrieving Subscriber Lists from a Mailing List * Subscribers on your mailing lists can retrieve a current list of subscribers if allowed. Send e-mail to the listserv@ address, and put in the message body 'REVIEW LISTNAME'. This will send that person back a list of subscribers with one address on each line. If someone wanted a subscriber list for Wildcat-L, they would send e-mail to listserv@terminal-one.com and put 'REVIEW WILDCAT-L' in the message body. If the list is set up to not allow review requests or that person is not a subscriber and the review command is only open to subscribers, then Listserv will send back the ".NOT" file as a reply. * Purging Old Sent Messages * Listutil has an option that will let you purge message sent by a mailing, which will help keep your e-mail conference free of old messages. Choose option 'X' on the Listutil main menu. It will prompt for the mailing list to purge messages for. It will then prompt for the number of days old a message has to be before being purged. For example, if you put '7' in here it would delete messages from that mailing list that were seven days old or older. This will start at the first message in the conference and scan through all the messages in that conference. Depending on how many messages are in your Internet E-Mail conference, this may be a short or lengthy process. The other alternative would be to use wcPRO and set up an event to do the same kind of delete. * Importing/Exporting Subscriber Lists * Option 'U' in Listutil will take you to the Misc. Utilities Menu. From here, you can import or export a list of subscribers. When importing a list, it should have one e-mail address per line. You can also put the subscriber's real name after the e-mail address. If the e-mail address is for a local user or subscriber, put "<L>" in front of the name, followed by their user name on your BBS. When exporting, Listutil will create the same type of file. Importing Example: president@whitehouse.gov Bill Clinton pnelson@value.net weasel@ccnet.com sysop@terminal-one.com Pete nelson john.doe@somewhere.org <L> Pete Nelson <L> Michele Long Note: When you import local subscribers with <L>, Listutil will put their name as both the e-mail address and the real name * Packing your Data Files * The Pack function in Listutil will remove deleted record in your data files. Removing deleted records may help speed up the processing of your mailing lists. * Using separate configuration files * Listserv and Listutil allow you to specify the configuration file to use. The default is LISTSERV.CFG, and in most cases you would not need to specify a different configuration file. However, say you had two or three users on your BBS that want to do the maintenance on your mailing list, but you don't want them to have access to each others mailing lists. You can do this by passing a config file name to Listserv or Listutil when you run them. This file is in the same format as LISTSERV.CFG, but you would specify a different directory to the data files. Listserv will use only the data files in that directory when running now. This way, each user does not have administrative access to the other mailing lists, and Listserv will not process messages for any of the other lists. Since it stores the message pointer file in each directory, processing one set of lists will not affect any other sets of lists. (Are you following me?) One exception is the LISTSERV.HLP file. Requesting this will send the LISTSERV.HLP in the data directory specified by the current config file. To run Listserv or Listutil with a specific configuration file, set up an option in Makemenu to run a WCX, and put the config file name as well. Example: LISTSERV.WCX LIST1.CFG LISTUTIL.WCX LIST1.CFG LISTSERV.WCX MYLIST.CFG LISTUTIL.WCX MYLIST.CFG You can probably also create a wcCODE program and use the Run or Chain command to do this. However, I was unable to get wcCODE to run the .WCX with a parameter. * Special Info on using wcPACK * Right now, Listserv uses the number stored in the pointer file to file to find the next message to check, but wcPACK can cause this to become incorrect. I may try to add support so it checks the high message number for the current conference for the mailing list account (WILDCAT-L, for example). That way the high message number will get updated when wcPACK does its high message number update. So for now, if you want your mailing list to work correctly, don't use wcPACK on your Internet e-mail conference. You may also want to check the high message pointers before you run Listserv. I currently run it as an option on my sysop menu, and I always check things before I run it. However, I've found that using wcPACK on the Internet e-mail conference generally does not cause problems when running with Listserv. I would do some testing to be sure, and I always run wcPACK on my Internet e-mail conference manually. As long as there is one message higher in the conference than the highest message number in Listserv pointer file, then you shouldn't run into problems. Your mileage may vary. * Bounced Messages * One of the problems with running a mailing list is what to do with the bounced or rejected messages. I had been adding support to have Listserv look for certain subjects (HOST UNKNOWN, WARNING FROM UUCP, UNDELIVERABLE). With the release of v2.03, Listserv can skip messages sent by non-subscribers. None of the Postmaster, UUCP, mail daemons or other automatic mail handlers on different hosts are usually signed up to a mailing list, therefore any returned messages from them are skipped, unless your mailing list allows anyone to post on it. However, if you have the .NOT file present, Listserv will reply back and you may get a message stuck in a loop. Check the section on the LISTSERV.SKP file for ways to solve this. If you also run into problems with Listserv looping messages back and forth on a mailing list, try putting the mailing list name (minus your domain) in the skip file. This tells Listserv to skip any messages that are from the mailing list and that are addressed back to the mailing list. * Overview of Listserv Commands * Here is an overview of the commands that can be used when sending e-mail to your listserv@ address. These are not case sensitive, and "list-name" should be replace with one of your mailing list names. subscribe list-name Firstname Lastname (Subscribe to a mailing list) unsubscribe list-name (Unsubscribe from a mailing list) archive list-name (Sends all archived messages) review list-name (Sends a list of subscribers, if allowed) help (Sends the LISTSERV.HLP file) lists (Send the LISTSERV.LST file) * SAMPLE.ZIP * The SAMPLE.ZIP file contains three sample files; the filter file, the skip file and the config file. These may help in getting your mailing lists operating. * Listserv Data Records * It occurred to me that I should post the records for the data structures so other coders out there can write utilities for Listserv if they needed to. Here they are, including remark lines so you may cut and paste: // This is the data type for the list of subscribers of each list // The "name" would be the e-mail addresses of the subscriber // The 'date_subscribed' added in v2.40 is the date that the address // subscribed to the mailing list. Added on 6-9-95 // real_name is the real name of the subscriber. Added in v2.80 type sublist_rec name as string*70 date_subscribed as date real_name as string*30 end type // This is the data type for the master list of mailing lists // found in LISTSERV.DAT. The 'name' would be the name of the mailing // list address (ex: wildcat-l). The 'subfile' would be the set of // data files used by that mailing list (ex: WILDLIST.DAT, WILDLIST.SIG, // WILDLIST.ADD, etc) // The 'type' would be the list type, specified as 1 through 6. This was // added with the v2.20 release on 2-8-95 // The 'max_archive', 'send_nonsub_archive' and 'send_confirm' were added // with the v2.30 release on 4-10-95 // 'max_archive' is an integer from 0 to 999, number of archived messages // to store. // 'send_nonsub_archive' is either "Y" or "N" Used to determine if // non-subscribers can get archived messages. Yes if they can, No if not. // 'send_confirm' is either "Y" or "N". Yes if a confirmation reply is sent // when someone posts a message, No if not. // 'review_allow' is either "Y" or "N". Sets whether or not this list // allows retrieval of subscriber lists // 'review_must_subscribe' is either "Y" or "N". Sets whether or not // someone must be a subscriber to retrieve the current subscriber list // 'save_unsubscribers' is either "Y" or "N". Sets whether or not any // addresses that unsubscribe get saved to the .OLD file. // 'messages_sent' stores the number of messages sent by this list // Note: this only counts normal list traffic, and does not count add/drop // requests, etc. // 'message_count_start_date' stores the date this lists started to keep // track of the messages sent // 'add_count_to_confirm' is either "Y" or "N". Sets whether or not // a current subscriber count gets added to confirmation messages // 'subscriber_or_list_name' is either "S" or "L". Sets whether outgoing // messages on a mailing list use the list name or the original sender // in the "From:" field // type list_record name as string*70 subfile as string*8 type as integer send_nonsub_archive as string*1 send_confirm as string*1 review_allow as string*1 review_must_subscribe as string*1 save_unsubscribers as string*1 messages_sent as long message_count_start_date as date add_count_to_confirm as string*1 subscriber_or_list_name as string*1 end type // End of data types for Listserv * Listserv and Wildcat Mailing lists * I run a Listserv mailing list, and I suggest you sign up for this. I use that mailing list to send out the new versions of Listserv. Sign up using 'subscribe listserv-distrib' in the message body. We also host some other mailing lists. E-mail listserv@terminal-one.com and puit the word 'help" in the message body. If there is anything missing in the docs, please tell me! Writing documentation is not my strong point, and if I'm leaving something out then I'd like to get it added. * Where to get Listserv * The latest versions of Listserv should be available at the following locations: BBS: Terminal One (510) 689-9528 MSI HQ (805) 873-2400 WWW: http://www.ecis.com/~weasel Or sign up for the Listserv-Distrib mailing list and you will always get the latest version! You can e-mail me at pete.nelson@terminal-one.com or weasel@ecis.com. If this version of Listserv is older than a few weeks, chances are that there is a newer version. All Listserv archives are compressed with PKZip and should uncompress with AV verification, # OQF192. If the AV file has been tampered with, get an authentic version from one of the above sources. If all else fails, feel free to e-mail me and I'll send you the latest version as a message attachment. * Registration * Listserv is a free program and does not require payment. However, I would like anyone that uses the program to register just so I know who is using it. Registration is easy and free! Run Listutil and choose 'E', then 'R' to register. I will send you back a registration number. Be sure to tell me what kind of mailing list(s) you run! Once you have that number, make a file called "LISTSERV.KEY" in your main Wildcat directory, and put that number on the first line. Next time you run Listserv or Listutil, you'll see that it's registered! (Yeah!!) If you still feel compelled to pay me, you may do so. Heck, I'm not going to turn down money when someone offers it! :) My mailing address is: Pete Nelson 1647 Willow Pass Rd. #225 Concord, CA 94520 I will also accept large amounts of Peach Iced Tea Snapple, Mountain Dew, Yoo-hoo, Lifesaver Lollipops (preferred), gift certificates for Outback Steakhouse or fully paid trips to BBS conventions. Also, XXL, black, 100% cotton t-shirts will do, preferably Blackbird aviation shirts. "ONE BBSCON will be in San Francisco at the Moscone Center..." Scratch that. I won't be attending this year because: 1) The horrendous price, $295 if you sign up before May 1st. Already too pricey for me, and it only goes up as it gets later in the year. 2) It's no longer ONE BBSCON, it's ONE ISPCON. While it's great that they're gearing their focus towards ISPs, I'm not one and I'm not planning on being one. I run a BBS, and I'd rather go to a BBS convention. 3) Mustang Software won't be there. What fun would that be? However, I will be at DefCon in Las Vegas this year. July 26-28 at the Monte Carlo. Check their web page for more info. http://www.defcon.org * Revision History * v2.92 - (06/17/96) Fixed a bug where Listser was not checking the Skip List on messages addressed to LISTSERV. - Added a "LISTS" command to Listserv. When Listserv sees that command in the message body, it will send back the file LISTSERV.LST in the message body. v2.91 - (04/18/96) Made several changes in the log file reports. It will now report the action that occured rather than just saying it sent a message. It will also report the message numbers it processed. - Added some extra debugging info to the dump file in case I need it to solve a bug. v2.90 - (04/03/96) Fixed a bug where some subscribers would get the mailing list name used as their real name if they did not use a real name when subscribing. Check your recent subscribers to see if the mailing list name as anyone's real name. v2.89 - (03/18/96) When adding or editing a subscriber, you now have the ability to send a custom message as well as the standard new subscriber message. v2.88 - (03/08/96) Fixed some bugs with the import subscribers function in Listutil. v2.87 - (02/28/96) Made importing of local subscribers work correctly. When you have a list of subscribers, put "<L>" in front of each e-mail address that is a local susbcriber on your system. Example: pete@terminal-one.com weasel@ecis.com <L> Pete Nelson <L> John Doe someone@somewhere.org This way Listutil can tell that it is a local address and will no longer try to put the first name as an e-mail address and the last name as the real name. - When Listutil exports a list of subscribers, it will now add the "<L>" flag for local addresses. v2.86 - (02/14/96) Made the "To:" filtering a configurable option. - When adding, dropping or editing subscribers, you can now search on real name as well as e-mail address. - Added an option to send the .ADD message after you edit a subscriber's record. v2.85 - (02/13/96) Fixed a very serious bug introduced in v2.84 where Listserv would only send the first five lines of the message. My fault for not testing it well enough. v2.84 - (02/12/96) Fixed a bug where the last subscriber in a list would not get messages if the previous subscriber in the list was blank. - Fixed a bug where some addresses were not recognized as valid subscribers. - Listserv will now check the first five lines of a message and remove any line that starts with "To:". I don't forsee this as a problem to most people, but it's always a possibility. v2.83 - (01/31/96) Fixed a bug where if you had more than 32,767 messages, the Change Pointer option showed the wrong last processed message number. - When exporting a subscriber list, you can now also export the subscriber's real name. - Added a new option to the Subscriber Menu - Edit Subscriber This will let you change the subscriber's e-mail address or their real name. v2.82 - (01/16/95) Added a new feature in Listutil that will let you send out a certain number of archived messages from a mailing list. It prompts for the number of messages and an e-mail address to send them to. If you chose ten messages, it would send out the last ten messages from the list. This new option is on the Misc Utilities menu. - When importing a subscriber list, you have the option to either append to or overwrite the current list. v2.81 - (01/08/95) Fixed a bug where Listserv was not recognizing some subscription requests. - When you add or import a mailing list, you can also add the subscriber's real name. - Reviewing the mailing list subscribers will include the real name in the subscriber list. v2.80 - (01/05/96) Added a Real Name field to the subscribers list. When subscribing to a mailing list via listserv@, put the real name after the mailing list. Ex: subscribe wildcat-l Pete Nelson v2.77 - (11/10/95) The Drop Subscriber function will stay in that function until you hit Enter to exit it. - When a local mailing list message is archived, message headers will get added to the archived message. - Added automatic filtering for those annoying "To:" lines on outgoing messages. Here's how it works: If Listserv sees "To:" at the beginning of the line and also sees the mailing list name somewhere else in that line, then it gets filtered out of the outgoing message. Although the filter file will still be checked, this should cover all instances. - Fixed an Assertion Failed: Gosub Overflow error when Listserv received several Help message requests. - When e-mailing the author from Listutil, it will set the From address to the sysop name in Makewild. Previously, it was using the current user's name, and would not work correctly when running Listutil from the command line. (ex: Wildcat /r listutil.wcx) - Fixed a bug where a list that needed a .LST file and did not have one would cause an error in Listserv when a message was received for that list. v2.76 - (10/31/95) Fixed a bug where the Delete Message function in Listutil would not return to the conference that was selected at startup. v2.75 - (10/24/95) Fixed the missing options to edit Listserv files and custom mailing list messages. - When adding subscribers, you no longer need to choose the mailing list name for each subscriber. Listutil will continue to add subscribers to the same mailing list until you exit that list. - When searching for subscribers, you can continue to search without having to re-enter the search function. v2.74 - (10/20/95) When importing a subscriber list, you have the option of sending the .ADD message (if present) to the addresses that are imported. - Did a major clean-up of the Listutil Main Menu. All functions are grouped in the appropriate sub-menu now. - The Registration option no longer lets you edit your BBS name as it appears in MakeWild. v2.73 - (10/09/95) Fixed some minor bugs when trying to perform operations in Listutil when you had no mailing lists or no subscribers. - Changed the time statement in the confirmation messages and the log file. - Log file no longer records 0 message activity if no activity takes place when Listserv does it's processing. v2.72 - (10/02/95) Changed the search subscribers and drop subscribers function. When searching or dropping, it no longer asks for a mailing list name. It will instead search all of your mailing lists for a match. I'm glad this was suggested to me, as I like it better than the previous search & drop routines. - Changed the Rebuild Data Files function to a Pack Function, which is a more accurate term. Running this will now pack all data files in one sweep. All this does is remove deleted entries from the LISTSERV.DAT file and the .DAT subscriber files. - This time, I really did fix the subscriber count bug! v2.71 - (09/29/95) Fixed the bug where the subscriber counts in the confirmation requests were not getting reset for each message. v2.70 - (09/26/95) Outgoing messages can show the From field as either the message sender's name or mailing list name, configurable via Listutil. - Current subscriber count can be added to the confirmation replies, configurable via Listutil. v2.63 - (09/18/95) Fixed a bug where sending the LISTSERV.HLP file from Listutil would add it to the current conference rather than the e-mail conference. - Added a message counter to the Purge function in Listutil. v2.62 - (09/11/95) Fixed a bug where archive requests for an invalid list name were going through as a valid list name. v2.61 - (09/08/95) Recompiled with v4.10. My fault - I installed 4.11 on our network and the path statement was changed to access the BBS, which also caused me to be using v4.11 of the compiler. Sorry! v2.60 - (09/07/95) When either an invalid list name or unknown command is sent to the listserv@ address, it will respond with the LISTSERV.HLP file; configurable in LISTSERV.CFG. - You can now send the LISTSERV.HLP file directly from Listutil, under the Miscellaneous Utilities option. - Listserv will now keep count of the messages sent. It only counts normal traffic that is sent out to all subscribers and does not count add/drop requests, etc. - Listserv can now save to a text file all e-mail addresses that unsubscribe from your mailing lists; sysop configurable via Listutil. - Added the pause prompt to the "View Mailing List" option in Listutil. - Made a slight change to the message counter while Listserv is running. - Added a message counter to the Moderate command in Listutil. - Hitting Escape while running the Moderate command in Listutil will stop the message scanning. v2.53 - (08/25/95) Added a message counter that is displayed when Listserv is scanning the e-mail conference. - Added support for different configuration files. This is only needed if you plan to have different people operate different lists and don't want them to access each others mailing lists. See documentation above for more information. - Listserv will check for the LISTSERV.PTR before running. Previously, it would exit out with a system error if it did not exist. v2.52 - (07/31/95) Accidentally compiled with v4.11. Recompiled with v4.10. v2.51 - (07/29/95) Added the ability to edit the mailing list parameters in Listutil. If you need to change something, you no longer have to remove and recreate the mailing list. - Retrieving the Listserv Help file can be done now by putting 'HELP' in the message body. Previously, you had to put it as the subject. v2.50 - (07/24/95) Added the ability for users to retrieve current subscriber lists for your mailing lists. To retrieve a subscriber list, send e-mail to the listserv@ address, and put 'REVIEW LISTNAME' in the message body. v2.48 - (07/19/95) Added Import/Export capability for subscriber lists to Listutil. - Fixed a bug that would cause Listserv requests that were preceded by spaces to be ignored. - Changed the way Listserv and Listutil did screen updates. Previously, I was using the 'Delay' command to pause for a moment in order to make screen displays smooth. I changed all Delay commands to the UpdateScreen command. It still displays smooth, but operates much faster now. v2.47 - (07/13/95) Hopefully fixed the problem with messages looping back and forth to the mailing list. Here's the fix; if the message is addressed to a mailing list, it will check the From and To addresses. If they match, then it will skip that message. From what I can tell, there is probably a certain order of messages that get processed that causes one message to go back to the list. I haven't been able to duplicate the problem, but this should fix. v2.46 - (07/10/95) If set in the config file, Listserv will dump any skipped messages to a dump file. This file will be called LISTSERV.DMP, and will be saved in the same directory as all the other Listserv files (the directory set in your config file). - Listutil will let you view or kill the Listserv dump file. - Fixed a spelling error in the Purge Messages function in Listutil. - My sunburn is almost gone. v2.45 - (07/06/95) Added a feature to Listutil that will let you purge messages sent by a mailing list. - I have a very bad sunburn. Ouch! v2.44 - (06/28/95) You can edit the other Listserv files (.HLP, .FLT, .SKP) right from Listutil. - You can view and delete the Listserv log file right from Listutil. - Fixed a small bug with some registration keys. v2.43 - (06/19/95) Hitting Escape while Listserv is running will stop its processing. Be aware that aborting the processing will not update the pointer file. - You can now edit the .LST from Listutil. - If you try to edit a .LST or .CLS file for a mailing list that does not use it, it will not let you edit the file. - You can e-mail me directly from Listutil to get your registration code. - The Listserv WCX compiled to exactly 14,400 bytes (14.4k). Weird! :) v2.42 - (06/14/95) Changed the registration key information. - Changed the way the LISTSERV.SKP file works. Previously, it would check for an exact match between the each line in the file and the From address. Now, it does a 'contains' match. Example: If you put 'daemon' in the skip file, Listserv would skip any messages that came from 'mail-daemon', 'daemon-server', etc. v2.41 - (06/13/95) Added a function to edit the custom mailing list messages directly from Listutil. - When a subscriber is added/dropped manually, you have an option of sending the .ADD or .DRP file. v2.40 - (06/09/95) Added support for a defined path for the Listserv files. Helps keep your main Wildcat directory less cluttered. - Added a 'Date Subscribed' field in the mailing list subscriber file. - Any addresses that unsubscribe or get removed from a mailing list will fill that address with "<BLANK>". Previously, it was storing a " " (space) for a blank address. This should make it easier for any 3rd party programs to drop subscribers from a mailing list and to recognize blank fields. - Listutil: The 'Change Message Pointer' option will now display the number of the last message processed by Listserv and the high message number in the Internet E-Mail Conference. v2.35 - (06/02/95) Fixed the spelling error in the Listserv tagline. v2.34 - (05/16/95) I talked to Richard Bash at Combat Arms BBS last night, and he had a problem with messages getting compressed since the filter file had an extra carriage return at the end, so those carriage returns were getting filtered out of the message. As I was explaining how to get around it, it occurred to me that it would be easier for Listserv to ignore the extra carriage returns at the end of the filter file. Now it does just that - ignores any blank lines or extra carriage returns at the end of the filter file. v2.33 - (05/09/95) Added an optional LISTSERV.SKP file. Any addresses in this text file will be skipped over by Listserv. This should fix any problems with messages bouncing back and forth between Listserv and any mail daemons or postmasters. v2.32 - (05/03/95) Fixed a bug that was causing messages to local users to have the wrong user ID. - Fixed a bug where the program would return to conference 0 upon exit rather than the conference it had originally been started from. v2.31 - (04/13/95) Removed a line of code I had added for debugging and forgot to remove (Confirm Y, Confirm N). Oops! :) - Listserv no longer skips over messages with blank subjects v2.30 - (04/10/95) Made the following items sysop configurable: * Number of archived messages to save (0-999) * Sending of confirmation replies when messages are posted * Archive message requests can be restricted to subscribers only v2.26 - (04/04/95) Fixed a rather boneheaded bug on my part where the archived messages were saved using the mailing list name rather than its main file name. - Fixed a bug in the outgoing addressing of archive requests v2.25 - (04/04/95) Added support for archived message storage and retrieval. See the Archiving Messages section for more info. - Fixed a 'File Already Open' bug - Listutil: Added an option to e-mail the author. (Hey, that's me!) v2.24 - (03/13/95) When a message is sent out on the mailing list, Listserv will send a confirmation message back to the author of the original message. The format of the message is: Your message 'This is the subject' was sent out to LISTNAME on 03/13/95 at 01:45:23 pm. - When Listserv receives a message addressed to LISTSERV with a subject of 'help', it will send back a file called LISTSERV.HLP if it exists. You can put anything in here that you want, such as a list of your mailing lists, how to subscribe, etc. - Fixed a very minor bug in Listutil - Listutil will now display the total number of subscribers when listing or searching a subscriber list. - The rebuild function in Listutil now trims any leading or trailing spaces off the subscriber's mailing address. I noticed some e-mail addresses were being added with a leading space and it was annoying me, so I changed it. :) v2.23 - (03/01/95) Now creates a LISTSERV.LOG file that shows the message counts each time Listserv runs. - Added an option in Listutil to rebuild a mailing list subscriber file. - New computers at work - wcCODE compiles and runs really fast on a Pentium 90! v2.22 - (02/10/95) Added the ability to the Moderate function to edit the message body or subject v2.21 - (02/09/95) Added a feature to Listutil that will search for messages that have not been processed by Listserv. It will check each message to see if it is addressed to 'listserv' or one of your mailing lists. If it is, it will show you a message header as well as the body of the message. You are then given an option to delete the message or to go on to the next message. Once the message has been deleted, Listserv will skip over it when it runs. - Thanks to MSI support, Listserv now does a different (correct) method of checking to see if a message has been deleted. According to the Addendum text, a flag of 200 signifies a deleted message. So I tried using the FlagIsSet command to test for it, but didn't have much luck. Called MSI support. They said the FlagIsSet command is broken. They said you can do this to test for a flag: If (Msg.Flags and 0x0200) <> 0 Then Print "Flag is set." If (Msg.Flags and 0x0200) = 0 Then Print "Flag is cleared." This should work for any of the bit-masked flags you need to check! Thanks MSI! v2.20 - (02/08/95) Listserv now supports six types of mailing lists! These will be set up through Listutil. Be sure to read the UPGRADE.DOC file! Here are the new types of mailing lists: (1) Anyone can subscribe, anyone can post (2) Anyone can subscribe, only subscribers can post (3) Must e-mail host to subscribe, anyone can post (4) Must e-mail host to subscribe, only subscribers can post (5) Anyone can subscribe, must be authorized to post (6) Must e-mail host to subscribe, must be authorized to post Listserv will send out a custom message for a type 3, 4 or 6 message when someone tries to subscribe. It will also send out a message for a type 5 or 6 if an unauthorized person tries to post. - Fixed a bug where Listserv would skip some messages to the LISTSERV address when the Subject contained a subscribe or unsubscribe message. This should work more reliably now. - (Wow... I've more than doubled the size of the code since v2.00!) v2.13 - (02/06/95) Fixed a bug where Listserv would exit when someone that was not a subscriber tried to send a message to the list. - The "From: username@domain.com" that was added to each message has been removed. The incoming message header always has the From address anyway (unless you sent the message locally), so it was kind of redundant. - Each message will now have a "Processed with Listserv v2.13", or the current version number, added to the end v2.12 - (01/30/95) Added support for a registration key file. People that register will now get a key file saying that they have a registered copy of Listserv! - LISTUTIL: As my wcCODE programming knowledge expands, I optimize my code a little more. All the Yes/No prompts in Listutil now use a standard one or two lines of code using InputYesNo, rather than the six or seven lines of code using an Inkey command I had been using. v2.11 - (01/09/95) The first revision for the new year! Added support for a custom message (LISTSERV.NOT) that is sent out to people that try to send a message out on the mailing list when they are not a subscriber. - Fixed some spelling errors in the docs. :) v2.10 - (12/22/94) Modified the way Listserv does its displays so it runs smoother rather than "blocky", although it now runs slightly slower. If this is a major problem I will change it back to its original display method. - LISTUTIL: A few minor bug fixes v2.09 - (12/19/94) Fixed a bug where Listserv would send a blank message if no filter file existed. This has been fixed, and why I didn't catch this when I released v2.08 is beyond me! Guess it was just one of those days. :) - Released the data structures in the docs. - LISTUTIL.WCX: Added an option to reset the high message pointer v2.08 - (12/12/94) Added a feature to let the sysop filter out certain text on outgoing messages. The optional file LISTSERV.FLT should contain the lines you want filtered out of outgoing messages. See the documentation in the above text on how it should be formatted. v2.07 - (12/01/94) The feature to skip deleted messages added in v2.06 was causing Listserv to skip all new imported messages. This should now be fixed. v2.06 - (11/29/94) Listserv will now skips messages flagged as deleted. This way you can add some sort of basic moderation to your mailing list. - Fixed a bug that would cause Listserv to start at the first message if the last message pointer (in the LISTSERV.PTR file) was pointing to a non-existent message. Example: Say the last message was 870, and that message had been marked as deleted and wcPACK was run to remove it. Message 870 no longer exists, so Listserv can't find it and starts at the beginning of the list. v2.05 - (11/16/94) Listserv now supports a LISTSERV@ address. Users can now send a message to listserv@domain.name.com, and put the 'subscribe listname' and 'unsubscribe listname' in the body of the message. - Fixed a bug that occasionally happened when Listserv reached the last record in it's subscriber list and would hang if the last record was blank. v2.04 - (11/15/94) Not released due to a bug v2.03 - (11/10/94) Messages sent by a non-subscriber are skipped and not sent out on the mailing list. - Fixed a bug where Listserv would send/process one message and then exit. v2.02 - (10/31/94) Recompiled to work with Wildcat v4.01 - Messages with a subject of HOST UNKNOWN are now skipped - Fixed a bug where Listserv was sending out messages with blank subjects. Listserv now skips such messages. v2.01 - (10/7/94) Turned off the Pause prompt - Messages with a subject of EXECUTION FAILED or a blank subject are now skipped and not sent out on the mailing list v2.00 - (10/6/94) Support for multiple mailing lists added! Yeah! - Custom messages for each mailing list - Listutil now handles the support for adding/removing mailing lists - When using Listutil, you can type in a full or partial name, and it will come of with a match. IE: WILD would find WILDCAT if it existed. This works in both the mailing list and subscriber areas. - Messages with a subject of SUB or UNSUB are now treated as subscription/unsubscription requests. - Listserv will change back to the original conference it was launched from v1.06 - (9-29-94) Messages that contain a subject of WARNING FROM UUCP, UNDELIVERABLE or UNKNOWN ADDRESS are skipped. This way bounced messages are not sent back out on the mailing list. - Fixed a bug that would give a "file already open" error when an unsubscription request was immediately followed by a subscription request. v1.05 - (9-22-94) Messages with the a subject of SUB, UNSUB or blank are now considered invalid subscription requests. A custom message is sent out (INVALSUB.MSG) when Listserv gets one of these messages. (Thanks to steve.henry@ambassador.com for the suggestion) - All messages sent out on the list now show the From name as the mailing list name. This makes it easier to send replies back to the mailing list rather than the original sender. (Thanks to sysop@guildnet.org for the suggestion) v1.04 - (9-12-94) Fixed a bug that was causing wcGATE not to export the outgoing messages. Here's what was happening: There is a field in the Message Header record called Network Name. My Internet provider is Holonet, and I wrote a small WCX to have it display all the Network Names in the messages in my Internet E-mail conf. Well, all the ones that were imported said HOLONET, and all the local ones added by the system, straight Wildcat and not the wcCODE program, were blank. When Listserv got a message from Internet, the Network Name was already set to HOLONET, and when it saved an outgoing message, the Network Name was still set to HOLONET, hence wcGATE thinks that the message had already been imported so it didn't export it again. All I did was reset the Network Name to blank before the message was saved so wcGATE will export the message. v1.03 - Fixed a bug that was causing messages to be saved as public rather than private. All outgoing messages created are now private. (Thanks to Steve at MSI for sending me the message flags info!) - Added support for custom messages that are sent when people subscribe and unsubscribe from the list - Added a utility that lets you add/drop/list subscribers in the mailing list. v1.02 - Added support so users already signed up for the list cannot get signed up again - Added/changed come of the colors - Added support for a customizable tagline (.sig) for each message. - Fixed a bug where it put the mailing list name as the "From" name - Turned off the "More" prompt. v1.01 - Sends a reply when you subscribe or unsubscribe from the list. - Included in docs how to actually subscribe/unsubscribe to the mailing list! Ooops, slight oversight. v1.0 - Initial Release. I can't believe I've written so much documentation for this program! :)