Listserv Commands for List Owners

Important Notes

When sending commands to update or review your list, please read and adhere to the following admonishments:

You must send update commands to the server in plain text format. Messages to the list may be sent in any format, including attachments.

Important note for Microsoft Outlook users: The Outlook/Exchange duo typically defaults the message line width to 72 characters, and this can cause commands containing myportal.montana.edu or other long addresses to wrap to a second line. Since the command must be contained on one line, the workaround is to use the Alternate Command Interface to the list server.

Important note for Microsoft Outlook users: If you are using a newer Outlook, select "Plain Text" from the "Format" menu. If you are using an older Outlook, follow the "Tools" menu to "Options" to the "Mail Format" tab. Ensure that the "Message Type" is set to "Plain Text".

Important note for all other mail client users: Ensure that the message type that your mail client is sending is plain text and not another encoding like HTML or Rich Text. Messages not in plain text will be unrecognizable to the list server, and you will receive error messages. There is an excellent article to read, Configuring Mail Clients to Send Plain ASCII Text, if you are having problems composing plain text messages.

Quick Start

For a quick start see the Comprehensive Example.

Sending Commands

Commands must start on the first line of the message body. Multiple commands may be sent to the server in one message, but each command must be on a separate line. Be sure that no signature text is included at the end of the message body, or that the last command line is the word quit.

If the subscriber name contains a period (.) or any other character from the set < > @ , ; : ( ) [ ] the name must be surrounded by quotes. Quoted strings or comments surrounded by paired parentheses may be included in the subscriber name without quoting the name.

By default the server sends subscribe or unsubscribe notification messages to the subscriber when the add or remove commands are executed. Use /nonotify with add or remove if you wish to suppress the notification messages or with remove if the subscriber address is not valid.

You will not receive any response from the server to your add or remove commands. Use the review command to verify that changes have been successfully applied to the list.

List Server Address

Send all commands to listserv@listserv.montana.edu, unless you wish to use the Alternate Command Interface for shorter commands.

Examples

In all of the following command examples replace the listname parameter with the name of your list.

Example Commands to Add a Subscriber

add listname Joe User <joeuser@montana.edu>
add/nonotify listname Joe User <joeuser@montana.edu>
add listname "Joe M. User" <joeuser@montana.edu>
add listname Joseph "Joe" User <joeuser@montana.edu>
add listname Joe User (MSU-Bozeman) <joeuser@montana.edu>

Example Commands to Remove a Subscriber

remove listname <joeuser@montana.edu>
remove/nonotify listname <joeuser@montana.edu>

Command to Review the List of Subscribers

review listname

Comprehensive Example

Using a list name of ducks, four members are added, one is removed, and a review is done to check the list. The new members will each receive a notification message, but the removed member will not be notified. The results of the review will be returned by e-mail. The quit command is used so that any signature text appended by the mailer will not be processed by the list server. The commands are sent to listserv@listserv.montana.edu. 
add ducks Huey Duck <huey@thepond.com>
add ducks Dewey Duck <dewey@thepond.com>
add ducks Louie Duck <louie@thepond.com>
add ducks "Donald D. Duck" <ddduck@thepond.com>
remove/nonotify ducks <scroogemcduck@pondscum.com>
review ducks
quit

Related Information

For related information about list services, see the following README.HLP articles:

Help

Please contact MSU List Help (listhelp@montana.edu) for additional assistance.

Updated January 14, 2008