Below is a list of commands with instructions. If you are in need of further instructions or
more information on a particular command, please visit one of the links below the commands
under "Where To Find More SmartList Information" or "Where To Find Basic
SmartList Documentation".
1. What does "uncomment" mean?
To uncomment a line in the file, remove the hashmark (#) from the front of the line (if there
are more than one, be sure and remove them all), and change the value if necessary. For
example, the moderate section in the standard distribution looks like this:
#moderated_flag
##moderated_flag= yes # uncomment this to make the list
# moderated (you must create a
# `moderators' file for this to work)
# set moderator_PASSWORD to get
# stricter checking
To turn your list into a moderated list, remove the two hash marks from the line that says
"moderated_flag = yes", so the section now looks like this:
#moderated_flag
moderated_flag= yes # uncomment this to make the list
# moderated (you must create a
# `moderators' file for this to work)
# set moderator_PASSWORD to get
# stricter checking
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2. How do I make replies go to the list instead of to the
sender?
In the rc.custom file, uncomment the line:
reply_to = $listaddr
and set it to something like this:
reply_to = "Reply-To: $listaddr"
Although for various reasons this is discouraged, many people want it this way anyway (For more
information on why this is discouraged, see
This link no longer works, we will attempt to locate the archive. If you happen find the correct link please let us know here
It was, at http://www.unicom.com/pw/reply-to-harmful.htm).
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3. How do I make the list Open/Closed?
To make the list closed subscription (i.e. the maintainer has to approve subscriptions),
uncomment the auto_subscribe line in rc.custom, and set it to read:
auto_subscribe = no
To make the list closed unsubscription, do the same thing with the auto_unsubscribe line.
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4. How do people subscribe/unsubscribe to the list?
By sending a message to the listname-request address with the message 'susbscribe' or
'unsubscribe' in the body of the mail, if the list is open they will be added to it, if it is a
closed list the request will be forwarded to the list maintainer.
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5. How do I subscribe/unsubscribe people to my list?
By using the subscribe and unsubscribe X-Command. (see list of X-commands)
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6. How do I get a list of the subscribers?
By using the showdist X-Command. (see list of X-commands)
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7. How do I use X-Command:?
By adding an X-Command: header to an email message and sending it to the request address for
your list, you can execute commands remotely, see the list of X-Commands for a list of possible
X-Commands.
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8. How do I change the admin password for my list?
The password is stored in the rc.custom file.
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9. How do I turn a non-digest list into a digest?
You can configure a list to send out digests of accumulated submissions. In order to do so,
simply uncomment the appropriate assignment to digest_flag in rc.custom. Digests are then sent
out every so often depending on size and age of the accumulated messages.
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10. How often do digests get sent out?
When it reaches a certain pre-set size limit (set in rc.custom), or it ages beyond the maximum
age (3 days).
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11. Can I force a digest to be sent every day, even if it is
small?
Yes, by creating a file called .digest.force in your list directory, a digest will be sent out
the next time that flush_digests is run, no matter how big it is (unless it is empty). You
should have a crontab entry that runs flush_digests every day (if you want to send out a digest
every day), if you want to force a digest every day, using .digest.force is not the way to go,
since the file is deleted every time that flush_digests is run, if you really want digests
every day, run flush_digests from cron with the -f (force) option.
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12. How can I add a message to the beginning of every
digest?
If you create a file named digest.admin in either the main directory of the digested list or in
the archive/latest directory belonging to it, it will be picked up by the next flush_digests
and included up front to the actual digest under the heading "Administrivia". The
archive/latest/digest.admin file digested list will be automatically removed after the digest
has been pushed out. The digest.admin file in the main directory of the digested list will not
be removed and is included in every digest.
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13. How can I restrict who can subscribe to my list?
There are four ways in which you can restrict who can subscribe to a list:
- You can put the addresses of unwanted subscribers on the so-called reject-list (the
`reject'-file).
- You can create a program (e.g. a shell script) called "subscreen". It must be
executable and will receive the mail address of the prospective subscriber as the first
argument. If subscription for that address is allowed, the program must return with exit code
zero. If subscription is disallowed, simply return with exit code one. A sample program is
provided in the examples directory.
- You can completely disable automatic subscription by uncommenting the appropriate
"auto_subscribe" line in rc.custom.
- You can completely disable automatic unsubscription by uncommenting the appropriate
"auto_unsubscribe" line in rc.custom.
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14. How can I restrict who can post to my list?
You can restrict submissions to people on the accept-list (the `accept'-file). Mail from anyone
else will be passed on to the maintainer instead of being submitted. To enable this you have to
uncomment the appropriate "foreign_submit" line in rc.custom. By default the accept
file is hardlinked to the dist file (i.e. if submissions are restricted, only subscribers can
do so). If you want to allow only an even more select group, delink the accept file and edit it
to taste. If you'd like to have both the dynamic accept file and a static one, create a new
file "accept2", it will be searched in addition to the regular accept file.
If, in addition to notifying the maintainer you want an automated reply to be generated to the
submitter which was not in the accept file, then you can accomplish this by simply creating an
accept.txt file. Its contents will (like the contents of the help.txt file) be returned to the
submitter.
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15. How can I automatically subscribe people who post to the
list?
Instead of rejecting submissions by people not on the accept (dist) list, you can enable
"force_subscribe". This will cause people submitting mails to the list to be
autosubscribed to the list if they were not in the dist file.
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16. How can I automatically send files to new subscribers?
You can create a file named "subscribe.files". It can contain any number of
archive-server commands. The results (i.e. the files requested) will be sent to the new
subscriber.
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17. How can I make my list moderated?
First create a file named "moderators", it should contain the fully qualified mail
addresses of all the moderators for this list (i.e. just local usernames are not sufficient, at
least include an @host or host! ). Then uncomment the appropriate "moderated_flag"
line in rc.custom.
From then on all mail that does not contain an "Approved:
the_address_of_one_of_the_moderators" field is forwarded to all the moderators.
One of the moderators should then resend the mail to the list after adding an "Approved:
his_own_address" field to the header (and possible editing the contents of the mail). It
will be no problem if several moderators resubmit the same submission concurrently, since the
mailing list will filter out duplicates anyway (i.e. only the first one will go out and be
archived).
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18. How do I enable 'auto help'?
By uncommenting the appropriate "auto_help" line in the rc.custom file the list will
respond to every undecipherable request message as if it requested help. Messages that will
still get through to the maintainer are those:
- that seem to come from a daemon.
- which look like a reply.
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19. How does someone access the archive server?
By sending email to your listname-request address, with a subject of 'archive'.
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20. How can I restrict who can access the archive server?
You can restrict archive access to people on the accept-lists (the `accept' and
`accept2'-file). Mail from anyone else will be passed on to the maintainer instead of being
passed to the archive server. To enable this you have to uncomment the appropriate
"restrict_archive" line in rc.custom.
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21. How can I prevent certain people from automatic
unsubscription?
Everything in the dist file preceding the line containing: '(Only addresses below this line can
be automatically removed)' is write protected from changes by multigram (i.e. these addresses
can never be automatically/accidentally unsubscribed).
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22. How can I disable automatic unsubscription?
By removing the line '(Only addresses below this line can be automatically removed)' from the
dist file, automatic unsubscription will be disabled.
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23. Can I add comments to the addresses in the dist file?
Yes, as long as the comments are one of the format:
Some sample entries:
(the preferred format):
joe@some.where
joe@some.where (some comment)
joe@some.where (some comment) (some more comments)
Depreciated, but allowed:
<joe@some.where>
<joe@some.where> some comment
<joe@some.where> (some comment)
Not allowed:
(some comment) joe@some.where
some comment <joe@some.where>
The email address must be the first thing on the line, and must be separated from the comments
by a space.
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24. How can I tell smartlist to notify me when someone
subscribes/unsubscribes?
By setting the cc_requests or cc_unsubrequests variables in the rc.custom file to yes (making
sure to uncomment it).
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25. How can I change the messages that smartlist sends to
people?
The messages that smartlist sends out are in the ~slist/listname directory, and can be edited
using any available file editor. The files that it sends and their uses are:
| help.txt |
Sent as a response to a help command, or if anything
smartlist doesn't understand is sent to the listname-request address. |
| subscribe.txt |
Sent to new subscribers. |
| unsubscribe.txt |
Sent to someone who just unsubscribed. |
| archive.txt |
A description of how to use the archive server, and the
commands it understands. |
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26. How can I add "[listname]" to all of the
mailing list messages for easy filtering?
In your rc.custom file, uncomment the line that reads "RC_LOCAL_SUBMIT_10 =
rc.local.s10", and make a file called "rc.local.s10" in your list directory, in
that file put this:
---- Cut Here ----
SUBJ=`formail -zx Subject:` # extract the subject
:0fw
* ! ^Subject:.*\[listname\]
* ! ^Subject:.Re: *
| formmail -I "Subject: [listname] $SUBJ"
---- End Here ----
Be sure to replace "[listname]" with what you would like to be at the beginning of
the subject line.
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27. How can I add a short message file to the top of all of
the mailing list messages?
Uncomment the line "RC_LOCAL_SUBMIT_20 = rc.local.s20" from your rc.custom file, and
add the following to your rc.local.s20 file:
#
# Adding a disclaimer in front of every mail:
#
:0 fhw
| cat - header.txt
You will also need to create a file called header.txt, which contains the text to add to the
message (this file can be empty though, so you can create the files, but only fill them in when
you need to add something)
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28. How can I add a short message file to the bottom of all
of the mailing list messages?
Uncomment the line "RC_LOCAL_SUBMIT_20 = rc.local.s20" from your rc.custom file, and
add the following to your rc.local.s20 file:
#
# Appending a disclaimer to every outgoing mail:
#
:0 fbw
| cat - footer.txt
You will also need to create a file called footer.txt, which contains the text to add to the
message (this file can be empty though, so you can create the files, but only fill them in when
you need to add something)
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29. How can I keep the automatically added messages from
multiplying when people quote them all the time?
A small refinement here: if you add something like this:
#
# Appending a disclaimer to every outgoing mail:
#
:0 fbBw
* ! to unsubscribe
| cat - footer.txt
then (assuming that the phrase "to unsubscribe" appears in your footer.txt file), the
footer won't be repeated if some bozo list member quotes an entire message without trimming the
footer.
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^ 30. How can I add a custom header to
all of the mailing list messages?
Uncomment the line "RC_LOCAL_SUBMIT_20 = rc.local.s20" from your rc.custom file, and
add the following to your rc.local.s20 file:
#
# Adding some custom headers (although it will work, this is not
# needed for Reply-To related headers, see the reply_to variable in
# rc.custom):
#
:0 fhw
| formail -i "X-Subliminal-Message: SmartList is great" \
-I "X-Mailer: procmail, which is great too :-)"
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31. How can I remove some headers from all of the mailing
list messages?
Uncomment the line "RC_LOCAL_SUBMIT_20 = rc.local.s20" from your rc.custom file, and
add the following to your rc.local.s20 file:
#
# To get rid of some headers:
#
:0 fhw
| formail -I X-Mailing-List: -I X-Mailer:
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32. How can I remove all of the X- headers from all of the
mailing list messages?
Uncomment the line "RC_LOCAL_SUBMIT_20 = rc.local.s20" from your rc.custom file, and
add the following to your rc.local.s20 file:
#
# To get rid of all X- fields:
#
:0 fhw
| formail -I X-
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33. Where can I get smartlist/procmail?
The latest version of Procmail and Smartlist can be found at:
ftp://ftp.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/pub/packages/procmail/
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34. Is there a smartlist mailing list?
Yes, to subscribe send a message to smartlist-request@Informatik.RWTH-Aachen.DE with the word
"subscribe" in the body of the message.
There is also a digested version of the mailing list, which can be subscribed to by sending a
message to smartlist-d-request@Informatik.RWTH-Aachen.DE, with the word "subscribe"
in the body of the message.
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35. Where can I find more SmartList information?
SmartList Utilities and Patches - send email to alan.stebbens@software.com
with the subject "send smartlist library".
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36. Where can I find basic SmartList documentation?
The smartlist distribution comes with a rather detailed manual in the main directory.
Download it here
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37. Can SmartList do subscriber confirmation?
Subscriber confirmation usually consists of a message that is sent to anyone who wants to
subscribe to the mailing list, this message must be returned in order to subscribe to the list,
thus verifying that the person who sent the subscribe command is the person that the message
will be delivered to, there are a few different subscription confirmation systems for
SmartList, which can be found at the following URL.
Werner Reisberger's confirm script
Command List
38. Is there an easy way to remove duplicates from the dist
file?
This script was contributed to the SmartList mailing list by mark Mark David McCreary, you can
run this from your list directory (where the dist file is located), and it will remove the
duplicates and sort the entries that appear below the "(Only addresses below this line can
be automatically removed)" line.
#! /bin/sh
:
#
# rc.dedup.list
#
# mdm 11/5/97 borrow code from David W. Tamkin, with additional
# suggestions from Martin Konold and Hal Wine
#
#
# This script will sort and remove duplicates from a Smartlist
# distribution file. Smartlist dist files contain a comment line
# that looks like this
#
# (Only addresses below this line can be automatically removed)
#
# Addresses above and including this line will not be sorted.
#
lockfile=lockfile # /usr/bin/lockfile
cat=cat # /bin/cat
rm=rm # /bin/rm
sed=sed # /bin/sed
# create lock file to discourage smartlist running a job
$lockfile -10 -l3600 -r11 -s30 rc.lock
$sed -e "1,/(Only addresses below this line can
be automatically removed)/{
;w slabove.$$
;d;
}
" dist | sort -fu -o slbelow.$$
$cat sl?????.$$ > dist
$rm -f sl?????.$$
$rm -rf rc.lock
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39. How can I keep people from sending htm/attachments/other
junk to the list?
Command List
40. Is there an archive of the mailing list?
This link no longer works, we will attempt to locate the archive. If you happen find the correct link please let us know here
It was, at http://www.cnr.berkeley.edu/~casterln/smartlist-arc/maillist.htm.
Command List
41. A list of X-commands.
The format for the X-Command header is:
X-Command: joe@somewhere.edu password command
"command" can be anything of the following:
| subscribe mailaddress |
Subscribe mailaddress to the list |
| unsubscribe mailaddress |
Unsubscribe mailaddress from the list |
| checkdist mailaddress |
To multigram-match mailaddress to the list (showing the
eight best matches) |
| showdist |
To list the distfile |
| showlog |
To list the log |
| wipelog |
To clear the log |
| help |
To show this command summary |
| info |
Ditto |
The exact fieldname defaults to "X-Command", but can customizedsed to whatever you
want.
The "joe@somewhere.edu" is always the mail address of the maintainer. Note that this
has to match what was specified on the command line of "createlist" when the list was
created.
Note that the X-Command: field has to be part of the header, when it's in the body of the mail,
it has no effect.
Anytime an X-Command: mail has been processed, the results will be mailed back to the
maintainer of the list, and the X-Command: field will have been renamed to X-Processed:.
Although this remote-facility is convenient, some might argue that it presents a security hole.
Well, in order to make this hole as small as possible, you can keep the password secret. Also,
the exact mailaddress of the maintainer might not be publicly known. You can simply change the
X-Command field into something else like X-MyCommand. Above all, since faking mail is a well
known possibility it would be ridiculous to take more precautions than these. Besides, if
someone indeed manages to sneak in a bogus X-Command:, it will never go unnoticed since the
mailing list maintainer (and only the maintainer) will always receive the X-Processed: mail.
Command List