Commands and Methods

OK, you've subscribed to a mailing list... Now what do you do with it?

In general, the answer to this question depends on whether the list you have joined is moderated or unmoderated. For moderated lists, only list moderators may send messages to the list: other subscribers, even members, cannot send mail directly to the list. Moderated lists are useful for low-volume announcement lists, or in cases where the subject matter sent to the list needs to be scrutinized before posting.

In the normal case, however, the list will be unmoderated, which means that subscribers can manage their own subscriptions to it by sending commands to the Mercury Mail Server via e-mail.

Commands affecting list membership or operation can be managed through the Web pages, or can be commands sent through e-mail to the mail server address: maiser@sobac.com

Maiser is not a mailing list name - it is a kind of alias handled in a special way by the server itself. Sending a message to maiser tells Mercury that the message body contains commands that it needs to process, rather than mail that needs to be delivered. Multiple commands can be included in a single message, one line per complete command, and command processing terminates as soon as Mercury encounters a blank line or an EXIT command. The subscriber who sends the message will receive a short message back indicating the success or failure of the commands he has issued.

For mailing list management, the following commands are recognized by the mail server:

SUBSCRIBE <list-name> [Full name]
Add the sender's address to the list (also SUB <list-name> [Full name])
UNSUBSCRIBE <list-name>
Remove the sender's address from the list (also UNSUB <list-name>, or SIGNOFF <list-name>)
ENUMERATE <list-name>
Return the list membership (also REVIEW <list-name>). This may be disabled for some lists.
LIST
Returns the lists available at this host
SET <list-name> DIGEST
Set your list subscription to digest mode
SET <list-name> NODIGEST
Turn off digest mode for a list.
SET <list-name> MAIL
Turn on delivery from a list
SET <list-name> NOMAIL
Turn off delivery from a list
SET <list-name> VACATION X
Temporarily turn off delivery from a list for X days
SET <list-name> REPRO
Receive copies of your own postings to the list
SET <list-name> NOREPRO
No copies of your own postings to the list.
STATUS <list-name>
Get current subscription information for a list

Other mail server commands

As well as providing automated control of mailing lists, Mercury's mail server also recognizes the following commands; to use these commands, send a message to the Mail Server account maiser@sobac.com with the message body containing the commands you want it to execute, one per line. The Mail Server will process commands until it encounters a blank line or an EXIT command.

HELP
Returns the helpfile to the sender.
BOUNCE
Returns the message to the sender, headers intact.
LOOKUP <string>
Searches the local system for subscriber names matching <string>, which can contain '*' and '?' wildcards. This may be disabled on some systems.
VERIFY <address>
Returns a message indicating whether the address specified is valid on the local host.
INDEX
Sends the file INDEX.TXT from the "files to send" directory (identical to the command SEND INDEX.TXT). This lists the available archives files on this server.
SEND <filename>
Sends the named archive file from the "files to send" directory.
EXIT
Stop processing commands from the mail message.

Moderator commands

ADD <list-name> <address> [Full name]
Add a user to a list
REMOVE <list-name> <address>
Remove a user from a list
MSET <user> <list> <option>
Change a user's subscription options
- option can be MAIL, NOMAIL, DIGEST, NODIGEST VACATION, REPRO or NOREPRO
MSTATUS <list-name> <user>
Get a user's subscription status
PASSWORD <password>
Supply the password for moderator commands