Tips for List Owners

This page contains quick reference material for owners of Listserv mailing lists at the University of Illinois.

This is a quick guide to the use of Listserv here at the University of Illinois, For more detailed information, please refer to lsoft.com's quick start online manual and owners manual.

All commands should be sent to listserv@listserv.illinois.edu. The commands are included in the body of the message. Listserv ignores the subject line.

User commands

Command Description
subscribe a-list full-name Subscribe yourself to the list 'a-list' using this email account.
signoff a-list Unsubscribe yourself from a-list.
set a-list digest Receive your messages as digests. (Digesting allows you to get multiple messages in one posting.) With rare exceptions, most campus listserv digests are compiled from all the messages sent to that list in one day.
set a-list mail Change from digests to receiving each posting as a separate piece of mail.
set a-list norepro Cancel getting copies of the messages that you send to a mailing list.
query * Find out which lists served by listserv.illinois.edu you are subscribed to.
query a-list Find out the subscription options that you have selected for a-list.
review a-list Get info about the list, including (if allowed) a list of the subscribers to the list.
lists Get a list of the listserv.illinois.edu mailing lists that you are allowed to see.
index a-list Get a directory of archive files (if the list is archived). This will show you what files/archives are available for a-list.
help Retrieve a help message from LISTSERV. The output of help is shown below.

Owner commands

Most lists on listserv.illinois.edu require a password to be given for these commands. Please add pw=password to the end of the following commands.

For example, to remove a user from a-list, you would send the following command in the body of an email with a blank subject line:

quiet del a-list user@uiuc.edu pw=list-password

Command Description 
add a-list user@node full name
Add a user to a-list. You may replace first name and last name with a *, giving them the name "no name available". 
quiet add a-list user@node full name
 Add without telling the user. 
del a-list user@node
 Delete user from a-list 
quiet del a-list user@node
 Delete with out telling the user 
get a-list (header
 Get a copy of the list header info so the info can be updated and sent back 
get a-list (nolock
 Get a copy of the list to look for hidden subscribers, but not to update 
get a-list
Get a copy of the list (header and and list of subscribers). Puts a hold on the list 
put a-list
 Update a list from changes made to the file returned by a get command. 
set a-list mail for user@node
 Send list messages in email form rather than digest form to user@node. 
quiet set a-list mail for user@node
 Do the above without telling the user. 
set a-list digest for *
 Send list messages in digest form to all subscribers.

Listserv's help command

If you send a help request to listserv, you will receive the following information:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LISTSERV version 1.8b - most commonly used commands (output from help 12/1/98)

Info <topic|listname> Order documentation
Lists <Detail|Short|Global> Get a description of all lists
SUBscribe listname <full name> Subscribe to a list
SIGNOFF listname Sign off from a list
SIGNOFF * (NETWIDE - from all lists on all servers
REView listname <options> Review a list
Query listname Query your subscription options
SET listname options Update your subscription options
INDex <filelist_name> Order a list of LISTSERV files
GET filename filetype Order a file from LISTSERV
REGister full_name|OFF Tell LISTSERV about your name

There are more commands (AFD, FUI, PW, etc). Send an INFO REFCARD for a comprehensive reference card, or just INFO for a list of available documentation files.

For more information on this topic, contact the CITES Help Desk (consult@illinois.edu).