File: "LISTFAQ MEMO" FROM :LISTSERV@UA1VM.UA.EDU LISTSERV historical documentation, release 1.7c ----------------------------------------------- Copyright Eric Thomas 1992 Last update: April 19th, 1992 ********************************************* * Frequently asked questions about LISTSERV * ********************************************* Thank you for having ordered this document instead of posting your question to a mailing list. This is a good start - now you will learn how to find the answer to your questions by yourself. There is no file with frequently asked questions and answers, because nobody has had time to prepare one, and it would become obsolete pretty fast unless it was regularly updated. There is, however, a process which allows you to find up-to-date answers to frequently asked questions: the database functions of LISTSERV. Most of the questions about LISTSERV you might ever have to ask have been answered already on the LISTSERV discussion list (LSTSRV-L), which held about 6,500 messages at the time this document was written. You can search this database on any of the following hosts: BITNET nodeid Internet hostname ------------- ----------------- SEARN SEARN.SUNET.SE (Stockholm, Sweden) UGA UGA.CC.UGA.EDU (Georgia, USA) Before you start shaking your head and wondering where on earth I got such a silly idea for a FAQ file, let me give you an example. Let's say you want to find out the exact syntax of netwide unsubscription requests. Here are the results of an actual search: ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > search netwide in lstsrv-l --> Database LSTSRV-L, 195 hits. > index Item # Date Time Recs Subject ------ ---- ---- ---- ------- 002062 88/02/07 20:43 75 Global deletion feature (...) 006466 92/04/17 09:27 14 Re: Netwide deletion ------------------------------------------------------------------------- That's right, one hundred and ninety five messages are related to your question, and the first one dates back to 1988. That first message contains a description of the facility, complete with syntax and a sample job file. It is now obsolete in some respects, but still mostly applicable, and it probably does answer your question. You will probably object that this is a rather generic question, and that yours is, quite to the contrary, very specific indeed: you got an "Internal error number 2013" while posting to a list, and want to know what to do about it. Fine, let's try it... ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > search 2013 in lstsrv-l --> Database LSTSRV-L, 11 hits. > index Item # Date Time Recs Subject ------ ---- ---- ---- ------- 003838 89/09/13 11:09 19 Database error (...) 006018 91/11/21 15:27 42 Error processing file ------------------------------------------------------------------------- A search like that takes at most 5 minutes when you are familiar with the database functions, and gives you a comprehensive answer if there is one. You will not have to thank 20 people individually for having taken the time to answer you by private mail. You will not irritate the subscribers of the list, who want to talk about more interesting things than the syntax of netwide deletions. You will not embarass yourself by having asked a question that invariably comes up once a week, or one whose answer should have been "obvious" if it hadn't been so late or you hadn't had a cold or... People often apologize for having asked such questions, which further adds to the traffic on the mailing list, but I have yet to see someone apologizing to a computer for having wasted its time on a database search. No matter how you look at it, you win. The only cost to you is time - both to learn how to use the database functions, and to perform the actual search if the network is slow or if you are not yet familiar with the database system. But the more you try it, the more efficient you will become and the less you will be slowed down by network delays: you will soon be able to find the information you want in 2-3 "batch" searches, which you can send and forget about until the answer comes back. Granted, you will not get the answer until the network has delivered the file, but the same is true with any question posted to the list via mail - it's the same destination, after all. A well-trained "searcher" with a couple EXEC's/COM files/scripts to assist in sending requests via mail and good connectivity to one of the archive sites can easily obtain an answer from the computer in less time than a human being could type a new one, unless of course the answer is very short (like "No, this cannot be done"). But there is much more to the database functions than a system to answer questions about LISTSERV, which in itself might not be worth the learning investment. Answering questions about LISTSERV is but one of the countless uses you can put your searching knowledge to. LSTSRV-L is but one mailing list out of the 3,000+ there are on BITNET - and it's up to you to explore the others as well. A well-trained searcher can obtain the answer to almost any question about any academic topic in some 15 minutes, by tapping the archives of one of these mailing lists - find the right list with LIST GLOBAL or with the LISTS database, then find the answer as usual. There are lists about the biology of bees and camels, about the best type of bacteria to use in brewing beer, about holography, early music, boats, all kinds of social and scientific subjects, and, of course, about anything closely or remotely related to computers. All this wealth of information is available through a SINGLE interface, so what are you doing reading this when you could be learning about it now? Bibliography: - Send an INFO DATABASE to LISTSERV for a copy of the database manual. Do not worry too much about the date - there have been so little changes since the original version that the documentation did not need to be updated. - Release notes (descriptions of the changes from one release of LISTSERV to the next one) are available from LISTSERV@SEARN as 'Vnnt RELNOTES' (for instance, V17B RELNOTES describes the changes introduced in 1.7b). You can also find this sort of information via the database, but it will be scattered across a number of separate messages over a rather long period of time; if you want to know "What's new?", these files and the archives of the LSTSRV-M list (also at SEARN) are the best place to look. - You may want to subscribe to the LDBASE-L list and read the archives, if you have BITNET connectivity and your system runs VM or VMS.