NTMAIL - List Server

There are two mail drops that need to be set up for the list server. These are the "list manager" and the "list" itself. In this part of the documentation we will create a list that can be joined and mail to by anyone.

1. Example: Global List

To complete a list specification, you will need four text files and two entries in the registry. The first entry in the registry will define the "list manager". This list manager will be used by the two other examples described later. It is the list manager that will analyse mail messages sent by users asking to leave a list, join a list and get help about a list. The list manager has a help file too.

1.1 The List Manager

The list manager has two parameters. The email name of the person to contact in case of problems and the name of the help file that will be sent to any user who requests it. The alias of the list manager is the name of the list manager - we will be unimaginative and use "list". This help file will also be sent if a user sends a command the List Manager cannot understand. A typical help file might look like this: -Subject: Internet Shopper's Mail Lists Thankyou for requesting HELP about the list services we provide. This list server will accept one of the following commands: HELP This help file. HELP list_name Return a description of a particular list. JOIN list_name Join a list (the command SUBSCRIBE may also be used). LEAVE list_name Leave a list (the command UNSUBSCRIBE may also be used). The command must be in the FIRST line of the message that you send to the list sever otherwise it will be ignored. The following lists are avaiable: NTMAIL-UPDATE Details about NTMAIL product updates. DISCUSSION A test mail list which will send mail to anyone who is on it. DEV Development mail list. This is a moderated list. You may join the list but must send email to moderator@net-shopper.co.uk for inclusion. If you have any problems with this list server, please contact NTMAIL@NET-SHOPPER.CO.UK. This file (D:/ALLHELP.TXT) tells the user what commands the list server will accept and what lists may be joined. When it is sent by NTMAL, the subject will be "Internet Shopper's Mail Lists" - see the
Reference Page for details on changing the header fields.

Our completed registry entry (say M10) will look like this:

Xlist D:/ALLHELP.TXT,root

1.2 The List Definition

The list definition contains all the details about a particular list and all the email addresses of every member of the list.

Here we will set a list that can be joined by anyone and allow anyone to send mail to it. The list manager will be the root user and we will display three different messages when people request help about this list, first join the list and leave the list. In addition we will have a message displayed in every piece of mail sent by the list server, telling people how to leave and containing a special, unique character sequence so that intelligent mail clients can automatically file mail sent.

The three files will typically answer the following questions:

For this set of requirements we have an alias of "DISCUSSION" - the list name. The parameters part has the following entries:

Combining this into one registry entry (say M11), we would have: Ldiscussion root,list,"Mail list@net-shopper.co.uk for help. DISC", *,*,D:\DISCHELP.TXT,D:\DISCJOIN.TXT,D:\DISCGO.TXT (note this is all one line in the registry but has been slit up here so that it can be seen easily).
webmaster@net-shopper.co.uk (15th April 1995)