Examples of Valid Listserv Headers

This is not meant to be a complete list of all possible Listserv list keywords, or their uses. This is just a small set of the major keywords and definitions. For a complete list of Listserv list keywords, please see the appendix to the List Owner's Manual.

Most commonly used List keywords

• Listname - The name of the list (part of the email address the list will have). The name will end in -l. There is no limit on the length of the name, but your subscribers will get tired of typing if you have it 25 characters long (letters, numbers, and the hypen are the only legal characters). The listname is actually part of the put command at the top of the list, and not really a part of the list header.
• List description - Note that this is not really a keyword, but a description is required nonetheless. This is a short (60 characters max) description of the purpose of the list. The description must accurately describe the intent of the list - ie. generic descriptions are not allowed.
• REVIEW - Who can look at who is subscribed to the mailing list.
  PUBLIC ==> anyone anywhere can look at the members on your list (default if the keyword is missing)
  PRIVATE ==> only list subscribers can look at other subscribers.
  OWNER ==> only this list owner can look a the members on the list. (default at UIUC)
  
• SUBSCRIPTION - Who can join/be on your list?
  OPEN,CONFIRM ==> anyone can add themselves to your list as long as they have a valid email address, and you don't have to do anything.
  BY OWNER ==> all subscription requests are forwarded to the list owner.
  CLOSED ==> all subscription requests are rejected without you being notified.
  
  Subscriptions can also be limited by the service area. Using the Service key word, you can restrict subscriptions to only addresses in the service area. See SERVICE below.
• SEND - Who can send a mail message to the people on your list?
  PUBLIC ==> anyone anywhere can post to your list.
  SERVICE ==> anyone in the service area can post to your list.
  PRIVATE ==> only list subscribers can post to your list. This can be a problem, if your users use more than one email address for posting. For example if your user signs up as joe@uiuc.edu, but uses her departmental machine in, for example, music and her real address is joe@music.uiuc.edu, then you need to either add her twice (joe@uiuc.edu and joe@music.uiuc.edu making one of the addresses not receive mail) or make the SEND keyword different.
  OWNER ==> the owner(s) are the only ones allowed to post.
  EDITOR, HOLD ==> all posts are forwarded to the editor who along with all owners are the only ones who may post. The old parameter allows the editor to use the OK mechanism to approve posts.
• EDITOR - Defines the list editor(s). If you use SEND = EDITOR, then you need to specify who the editor(s) is(are) using the EDITOR keyword. See the manual for the specifics of what happens to the second editor and what moderater(s) is(are).
• REPLY-TO - The value to be placed in the email header sent out with posts. This value can automatically cause their replies to go to the original poster, back to the list, or what is in the "Reply-to:" tag.
  LIST, Respect ===> Replies will go back to the list, unless there is a "Reply-to:" tag which will be respected.
  SENDER, Respect ===> Replies will go back to the original sender, unless there is a "Reply-to:" tag which will be respected.
  
• NOTIFY - When someone subscribes or unsubscribes from your list, Listserv can send you a mail message informing you. YES is the default. Set to NO if you don't want pestered about it.
• DEFAULT-OPTIONS - Any of the options listed in the LISTSERV MEMO user's guide can be set as a default option. These are the default options for new subscribers. At UIUC we use ACK,NOREPRO, which means you get an acknowledgment of your post, but don't get the post itself.
• CONFIDENTIAL - Will your list show up when someone uses the LIST command? Valid options are: YES, NO (default if the keyword is missing), and SERVICE (default at UIUC) (see below).
• AUTO-DELETE - Will LISTSERV automatically delete subscribers for you whose account has expired or whose system has permanently disconnected? At UIUC we use the following as a default: yes,semi-auto,delay(4),max(50) which means the user gets 50 bad attempts and up to 4 days before s/he gets cut off. This is a tricky option, please read the manual before you change it.
• RENEWAL - Will the user be asked to renew their subscription every so often? Users have trouble with this one. LISTSERV sends them mail asking if they would like to remain on the list. If they don't respond, they are removed from the list. When this Keyword is used at UIUC we often use the following parameters: 6-Monthly,Delay(15) which means that the renewals go out every 6 months and the users have 15 days to respond.
• SERVICE - Who is served by your list? Valid values are:
  
  • LOCAL (ie. only addresses ending in uiuc.edu)
    
  • GLOBAL (default if keyword is omitted) everywhere in the Internet
    At UIUC we generally set up the service area to be: *.UIUC.EDU,*NCSA.*,*UILLINOIS.EDU.
• DIGEST - Digests allow for people to get all of the posts over a over a period of time as a single mail message instead of a lot of small messages. Note that simply setting this option to "yes" does not make everyone receive a digest - it only makes this ability available (if you want to make digest the default, you must use the DEFAULT-OPTIONS keyword, explained earlier). Each subscriber can then decide on their own whether they would prefer to get their posts via individual mail messages or as in digest format. The format of the Digest keyword is:
  
  
  Yes|No,Disk,Frequency,Time,Size(sizelim)
  
  
  These mean, in order:
  • Do you want to allow Digests? YES is the default if the list has archives, NO is the default if the list does not have archives.
  • Disk is set by the Listserv administrator.
  • How often do you want the digest distributed? Valid values are: DAILY (default), WEEKLY, and MONTHLY.
  • When do you want it distributed? Values are:
    • If Daily ===> 'hh' in the usual 00-23 scale
    • If Weekly ===> a weekday such as "Tuesday".
    • If Monthly ===> specify a number from 1 to 28 corresponding to the day in the month when the digest will be distributed. Don't use a number greater than 28. (1 is the default).
  • What is the maximum size the digest can be (in lines)? If the digest length gets over this limit, the subscribers will get 2 digests on that day. The default is set at 10,000 lines, but a smaller size is preferable (1,000 works well).
  • UIUC uses: Digest= Yes,/var/spool/digests,Daily,06:00,800
• NOTEBOOK - Listserv will maintain an archive of every post sent to your list if you wish. CITES will keep up to a year's worth of posts in the 'archive', That way, if you want to go back and find a previous post, you can retrieve it. The format of this option is:
  
  
  Yes|No,directory,frequency,who
  
  
  These mean (in order):
  • Do you want an archive kept at all? (NO is default)
  • Directory is set by the Listserv administrator.
  • Frequency means how often to start a new file. Values used are: MONTHLY, and WEEKLY.
  • Who can get the archive? Values used are:
    PUBLIC ===> everyone with email access
    PRIVATE ===> only people subscribed to the list (default).
    
• OWNER - The person (or persons) responsible for maintaining the list. This needs to be a valid internet style email address and the person's name. This person will receive the error messages from LISTSERV. If there is to be more than one owner, or if you have more than one email address that you want to be able to use as an owner, then you should use the Owner= quiet: construct. Any owners listed after this line will not get mail from listserv about the running of the list but will have the privileges of being an owner.

Some example list headers

Sample 1: Standard

A 'standard' list (open to campus, no moderator, with private archives)

PUT SAMPLE-L LIST
* This is a sample of a 'standard' list
*
* Review= Owner
* Subscription= Open,Confirm
* Send= Service
* Reply-to= Sender,Respect
* Files= No
* Ack= none
* Stats= Normal,Private
* Notify= Yes
* Mail-Via= Distribute
* Errors-To= Owner
* X-Tags= Comments
* Validate= Yes,Confirm
* Default-Options= ack,norepro
* Confidential= Service
* Auto-Delete= yes,semi-auto,delay(4),max(50)
* SERVICE= *.UIUC.EDU,*.UILLINOIS.EDU,*NCSA.*
* Digest= Yes,/var/spool/digests,Daily,06:00,800
* Notebook= yes,/var/spool/notebooks/sample-l,Monthly,Private
*
* Owner= owner@uiuc.edu (Owner Name)
* Owner= quiet:
* Owner= owner@uiuc.edu (Owner Name)
*
* Description of list

*

Sample 2: Moderated public list

A public list, but moderated, with no archives

PUT SAMPLE-L LIST
* This is a sample of a moderated list
*
* Review= Owner
* Subscription= Open,Confirm
* Send= Editor
* Editor= mary@uiuc.edu
* Reply-to= List,Respect
* Files= No
* Ack= none
* Stats= Normal,Private
* Notify= Yes
* Mail-Via= Distribute
* Errors-To= Owner
* X-Tags= Comments
* Validate= Yes,Confirm
* Default-Options= ack,norepro
* Confidential= Service
* Auto-Delete= yes,semi-auto,delay(4),max(50)
* SERVICE= *.UIUC.EDU,*.UILLINOIS.EDU,*NCSA.*
* Digest= Yes,/var/spool/digests,Daily,06:00,800
* Notebook= No
*
* Owner= owner@uiuc.edu (Owner Name)
* Owner= quiet:

Sample 3: Various access restrictions enabled

A list that is configured as:

• open to only UIUC people
  
• subscription controlled
  
• list of subscribers not open to public
  
• only subscribers allowed to post to the list
  
• no archives are kept at all

PUT SAMPLE-L LIST
* This is a sample of an UIUC only list
*
* Review= Owner
* Subscription= By Owner
* Send= Private
* Reply-to= List,Respect
* Files= No
* Ack= none
* Stats= Normal,Private
* Notify= Yes
* Mail-Via= Distribute
* Errors-To= Owner
* X-Tags= Comments
* Validate= Yes,Confirm
* Default-Options= ack,norepro
* Confidential= Service
* Auto-Delete= yes,semi-auto,delay(4),max(50)
* SERVICE= *.UIUC.EDU,*.UILLINOIS.EDU,*NCSA.*
* Digest= Yes,/var/spool/digests,Daily,06:00,800
* Notebook= yes,/var/spool/notebooks/sample-l,Monthly,Private
* Confidential= Yes
* Service= *.UIUC.EDU,*.UILLINOIS.EDU,*NCSA.*
* Errors-To= Owner
*
* Owner= owner@address.tamu.edu Firstname Lastname
*