Listproc List Owner Quick Reference

What is listproc?

Listproc is the e-mailing list service offered by UIS. More specifically, it's also the name of the specific mailing list processing software we use (others are MajorDomo, ListServ, etc).

Unlike an exploder list, which is just an alias that points to several people, mailing lists allow for advanced configuration options such as

• Only subscribers of the list can send messages
• All messages must be approved by a specified moderator
• All messages can be added to a "digest" which is sent periodically, instead of the individual messages

UIS' listproc service is specifically created for use by Central Adminstration Departments. Although non-Central Admin people may subscribe to the lists, they must be administered by Central Admin affiliates, and serve Central Admin purposes.

As an example, the Office of Human Resources could create a list open to all University Members with which to disseminate benefits information. However, a staff member at OHR could not set up a list for his friend the Professor who wants to start an academic discussion list.

Requesting a list:

Only the designated local support contact for a department may request a new Listproc mailing list. To request a new list, call the UIS Helpdesk at 6-2001, or send an e-mail message to uis_helpdesk@harvard.edu with the following information:

• Preferred list name: This may be modified by the list manager to conform with current naming conventions. Generally, the list name will begin with the department and words are separated by dashes (ex. uis-helpdesk-all)
• List owner's name and e-mail address: This is the person who will be maintaining the list.
• Owner subscriptions or open subscriptions: indicate whether subscriptions should be processed automatically by Listproc or if subscription requests should be sent to the owner for approval.

List Owner Procedures

List setup and maintenance:

List setup and maintenance can be performed by sending e-mail to listproc@camail1.harvard.edu

• Listproc requires requests to be sent in a standardized format, and will reject any requests not in this format.
• Listproc commands are not case-sensitive. Passwords are case-sensitive.
• The email must be sent from the owner's e-mail account. The message should have no subject, and no additional text before or after the Listproc command.
• The messages must have no more than 80 characters per line. New lines must be joined by an ampersand with a space before and after (# = space):

  quiet add uis-helpdesk-all listpass00#&#
  {username@harvard.edu User Name}#&#
  {username@harvard.edu User Name}
  

Configuring list preferences:

 

Configuration requests are submitted in this form:

CONFIGURE [listname] [owner password] [option] [argument]

For example, to reset the password on uis-helpdesk-all, where the password is currently listpass00:

CONFIGURE uis-helpdesk-all listpass00 PASSWORD newpass

Subscription commands:

 

[quiet] is an option that can be used when adding or deleting users. This will supress the default message that is sent to the user when these changes are made. In the examples below, the [quiet] option is used when adding or deleting several subscribers at once.

Adding users:

Single:
quiet add uis-helpdesk-all listpass00 &
username@harvard.edu User Name

Multiple:
quiet add uis-helpdesk-all listpass00 &
{username@harvard.edu User Name} &
{username@harvard.edu User Name} &
{username@harvard.edu User Name}
Deleting users:

Single:
delete uis-helpdesk-all listpass00 username@harvard.edu

Multiple:
quiet delete uis-helpdesk-all listpass00 username@harvard.edu &
username@harvard.edu username@harvard.edu &
username@harvard.edu

Reviewing a list:
Sending a review request will return a message including the current configuration of the list and current subscribers. The command to review a list is:

rev listname [password]

If the list is set to open-review, no password will be necessary.

Troubleshooting Listproc errors:

When Listproc encounters an error while processing a request, you should receive a message with error information. Most often, the error is caused by a misspelling, incorrect password, or misconfiguration of the request. Review the error message, make the appropriate corrections, and try again. You may want to check the CREN documentation to make sure that your request is in the proper format.

If a request has been sent but no acknowledgement has been received from Listproc regarding the success or failure of the request, it may have been rejected with a checksum error. Checksum is a utility that guards against multiple copies of the same message being sent to Listproc. The checksum is based on the number and type of characters in the message. If you suspect that your request has been rejected due to a checksum error, try sending the same message with additional characters (***/###) at the end of the text.