Using the E-mail Interface
For those who prefer dealing with all things E-mail through the medium of E-mail, instead of using a state-of-the-art web browser, Post.Office supports such an E-mail interface. For the mailing list manager portion of Post.Office, the E-mail interface is similar to Majordomo, a popular UNIX-based mailing list manager created by Brent Chapman.
The Post.Office User’s Manual has a complete description to the mailing list-related commands available to all users, with instructions for submitting them. We’ll skip all of the background information here so that we can focus on commands used exclusively by list owners. If you want to know the finer points of the mailing list manager E-mail interface for end users, refer to the Post.Office User’s Manual.
The following table lists the commands available for performing list owner activities via the E-mail interface. Parameters shown between [square brackets] are optional, while parameters shown in italics must be replaced by an appropriate value.
If the request message is sent to the Request Address for a specific mailing list, you do not have to specify the List Name as a command parameter. However, if the request message is sent to the system’s general list management account (list.manager@host.domain), the listname parameter shown in the table below becomes a required parameter.
The subscribe command can be used by anyone to request subscription to a mailing list. As a list owner, you can also use this same command to add users to the subscriber list, and approve subscription requests that have been sent to you for moderation. In both cases, users added to the subscriber list are sent the mailing list’s welcome message (if your list has one).
Technically, anyone – not just the owner of the list – can attempt to subscribe other users to a mailing list, since all users can submit a subscribe command that includes an E-mail address other than their own. However, these subscription requests are all subject to verification and moderation, so this isn’t the same as your ability to put multiple users straight onto your subscriber list, as you can with the Subscriber List Form shown in Chapter 2.
To add users to your mailing list, create an E-mail message addressed to the Request Address of the list, and in the body of the message, enter the following text:
set password yourpassword
subscribe address
subscribe address
...
For yourpassword, enter your Post.Office login password. For each address, specify the E-mail address of the each user being added to the list. By default, the subscribe command requests the immediate mode of delivery, so if you want the new subscribers to use the digest mode of delivery, include the flag digest at the end of the command line:
set password yourpassword
subscribe address digest
subscribe address digest
...
After you have entered the appropriate values, send the request message to subscribe all of the specified users. Because you have supplied your list owner password, these users are put straight onto your subscriber list and do not have to go through the verification and/or moderation steps.
Approving subscription requests referred to you for moderation via E-mail also involves the use of the subscribe command. The syntax for subscription approval is identical to that of adding users to the subscriber list as described above.
To approve a subscription request, follow the directions in the notification message that arrived in your mailbox to alert you to the request. The information that you include with the subscribe command should include the address of the user as given in the request, as well as the digest flag if the user requested the digest mode of delivery.
The body of your response will look like the following:
set password yourpassword
subscribe listname address
If you receive multiple subscription requests, you can approve (or reject) them all in a single message, like:
set password yourpassword
subscribe listname address
subscribe listname address
...
The notification message may not ask you to include the List Name, which is a required parameter only if your response message is sent to the system-level list management account (list.manager@host.domain). Notification messages are sent from whatever account the subscription request was submitted to, so you’ll be sending approval commands to both the Request Address for your list and to the system list management account, depending on where users send their requests.
Again, follow the directions in the notification, which tells you where to send your approval commands and what to include in them. Refer to Chapter 3 for examples.
The unsubscribe command can be used by anyone to request unsubscription from a mailing list. As a list owner, you can also use this same command to remove users from the subscriber list, and approve unsubscription requests that have been sent to you for moderation. In both cases, users removed from the subscriber list are sent the mailing list’s farewell message (if your one exists for your mailing list).
As with subscription, anyone – not just the owner of the list – can attempt to unsubscribe other users from a mailing list, since all users can submit a unsubscribe command that includes an E-mail address other than their own. However, these unsubscription requests are all subject to verification and moderation, so this isn’t the same as your ability to immediately remove multiple users from your subscriber list, as you can with the Subscriber List Form shown in Chapter 2.
To remove users from your mailing list, create an E-mail message addressed to the Request Address of the list, and in the body of the message, enter the following text:
set password yourpassword
unsubscribe address
unsubscribe address
...
For yourpassword, enter your Post.Office login password. For each address, specify the E-mail address of the each user being removed from the list.
After you have entered the appropriate values, send the request message to unsubscribe all of the specified users. Because you have supplied your list owner password, these users are immediately removed from your subscriber list are do not have to go through the verification and/or moderation steps.
Approving unsubscription requests referred to you for moderation via E-mail also involves the use of the unsubscribe command. The syntax for unsubscription approval is identical to that of removing users from the subscriber list as described above.
To approve an unsubscription request, follow the directions in the notification message that arrived in your mailbox to alert you to the request. The information that you include with the unsubscribe command should include the address of the user as given in the request.
The body of your response will look like the following:
set password yourpassword
unsubscribe listname address
If you receive multiple unsubscription requests, you can approve (or reject) all of them in a single message, such as:
set password yourpassword
unsubscribe listname address
unsubscribe listname address
...
The notification message may not ask you to include the List Name, which is a required parameter only if your response message is sent to the system-level list management account (list.manager@host.domain). Notification messages are sent from whatever account the unsubscription request was submitted to, so you’ll be sending approval commands to both the Request Address for your list and to the system list management account, depending on where users send their requests.
Again, follow the directions in the notification, which tells you where to send your approval commands and what to include in them. Refer to Chapter 3 for examples.
The rejectuser command is used to reject both subscription and unsubscription requests that are moderated via E-mail. The syntax for rejection is similar to the approval commands discussed in the previous sections.
To reject a subscription or unsubscription request, follow the directions in the notification message that arrived in your mailbox to alert you to the request. The information that you include with the rejectuser command should include the address of the user as given in the request.
The body of your response will look like the following:
set password yourpassword
rejectuser listname address
If you receive multiple unsubscription requests, you can reject (or approve) them all in a single message, like:
set password yourpassword
rejectuser listname address
rejectuser listname address
...
The notification message may not ask you to include the List Name, which is a required parameter only if your response message is sent to the system-level list management account (list.manager@host.domain). Notification messages are sent from whatever account the subscription/unsubscription request was submitted to, so you’ll be sending rejection commands to both the Request Address for your list and to the system list management account, depending on where users send their requests.
Again, follow the directions in the notification, which tells you where to send your rejection commands and what to include in them. Refer to Chapter 3 for examples.
The newinfo command is used to change the Long Description of a mailing list. This is the information returned by the info E-mail command.
To change your mailing list’s Long Description, create an E-mail message addressed to the Request Address of the list, and in the body of the message, enter the following text:
newinfo yourpassword
(text of new description)
The new description begins with the line following the command, and continues until the end of message or until a line containing only the word EOF is encountered. Your login password must be included as an argument with newinfo.
After you have entered the appropriate values, send the request message to submit the changes to the Long Description.
Note once again that this command can also be sent to the system-level list management account instead of your list’s Request Address. However, sending commands to this address requires you to include the list name as a command parameter, like the following:
newinfo listname yourpassword
(text of new description)
Both methods of submitting the new description perform identical functions.
The mkdigest command is used to force distribution of the digest of a mailing list. Note that this functionality is not available in the web interface.
To send out your list’s digest, create an E-mail message addressed to the Request Address of the list, and in the body of the message, enter the following text:
mkdigest yourpassword
Send the request message to force a distribution of the digest, which will be immediately sent to all subscribers using the digest mode (assuming you include your correct password, of course).
Note once again that this command can also be sent to the system-level list management account instead of your list’s Request Address. However, sending commands to this address requires you to include the List Name as a command parameter, like the following:
mkdigest listname yourpassword
Both methods of submitting the command work identically.
The approvemail command is used to approve messages submitted to a mailing list that is using the Web and E-mail mode of moderation. Moderating messages for mailing lists using the E-mail only mode of moderation is described in Chapter 3.
To approve a message, follow the directions in the notification message that arrived in your mailbox to alert you to the posting. You should reply to the notification with your password, the approvemail command, and the number of the message as given in the notification.
The body of your response will look like the following:
set password yourpassword
approvemail #
Note that you do not include of copy of the original message when using this command, only the approval (or rejection) command and the message number. Because the message is not included, you cannot modify the contents of the message via E-mail when using the Web and E-mail method of moderation.
Refer to Chapter 3 for examples of message moderation using the approvemail command.
The rejectmail command is used to reject messages submitted to a mailing list that is using the Web and E-mail mode of moderation. Mailing lists that use E-mail only moderation do not require a rejection command; simply ignoring the message effectively rejects it.
To reject a message, follow the directions in the notification message that arrived in your mailbox to alert you to the posting. You should reply to the notification with your password, the rejectmail command, and the number of the message as given in the notification.
The body of your response will look like the following:
set password yourpassword
rejectmail #
Refer to Chapter 3 for examples of message moderation using the rejectmail command.
Post.Office ©Software.com, Inc. 1994-1998
