Subscribing to Mailing Lists at Pitt using Majordomo

Our mailing lists are managed by individual "list administrators" assisted by a program called Majordomo. This program distributes the e-mail sent to the mailing list, handles much of the routine subscribing to and unsubscribing from the list, and answers basic information requests about the list.

In order to subscribe to one of our mailing lists, first find out its name (see the "lists" command below). Then send mail to Majordomo@list.pitt.edu. The subject doesn't matter, but the text should say subscribe listname, substituting the name of the list for listname, e.g. subscribe test-list. Similarly, if later you want to unsubscribe to the list, send mail saying unsubscribe listname to Majordomo@list.pitt.edu, again substituting the name of the list for listname. Continue to substitute the name of the list wherever you see listname later in the document; substitute the appropriate e-mail address wherever you see address.

In order to send mail to be distributed through the mailing list, simply send the mail you want to be distributed to listname@list.pitt.edu. Mail sent to that address will automatically be picked up by a program called Majordomo and redistributed to the list of subscribers Majordomo has.

There are a number of other commands that you can give Majordomo. It is important that all commands to Majordomo be phrased and spelled exactly the way they are given here. Because Majordomo is a computer program, it is very literal-minded and can only understand commands which exactly match the ones it was taught.

Here's a list of the things you can tell Majordomo to do. You send it these commands by sending mail to Majordomo@list.pitt.edu, leaving the subject line blank, and including each command as a separate line of text.

The e-mail message says:: What Majordomo does when it receives the command. (Go to example, if applicable)
help: Majordomo replies with a list of commands
subscribe listname: Majordomo subscribes the sender to the named list. (Example)
subscribe listname address: Majordomo subscribes the address given to the named list.
unsubscribe listname: Majordomo unsubscribes the sender from the named list if the sender sent the mail from exactly the address he was subscribed to. (Example)
unsubscribe listname address: Majordomo unsubscribes the address from the named list.
which: Majordomo sends back a reply including a catalogue of the mailing lists the sender is subscribed to at the address he sent the mail from.
which address: Majordomo sends back a reply including a list of the mailing lists the address given is subscribed to.
lists: Majordomo sends back a reply including a catalogue of the mailing lists which Majordomo handles, with a half-line description of each list. (Example)
info listname: Majordomo sends back the summary information about the list that the list owner may have provided. (Example)
intro listname: Majordomo sends back the welcome messagefor the list that the list owner may have provided.
who listname: Majordomo replies with a roster of the e-mail addresses which are subscribed to the named list.
index listname: Majordomo replies with an index of the filenames for the archive of the named list.
get listname filename: Majordomo sends the specific filename requested.
end: Majordomo ignores anything in a letter which comes after the command end instead of trying to treat it as a command. If you have a signature or other text at the end of your letter use end as the last command.

Not all of these commands are necessarily usable for any given list; the administrator for that list can turn these commands off. The command which most often gets turned off is subscribe the list owner can tell Majordomo to require a password before letting people get subscribed to the list--in which case a subscribe command is forwarded to the list owner (administrator). Similarly, Majordomo can be told not to give out information about the list without the owner's password, or not to resend the mail sent to listname@list.pitt.edu to the subscribers without the owner's approval. If Majordomo can understand a request but has been told not to obey it without a password, Majordomo will forward the request to the list owner; the owner can then approve or deny the request.

Sometimes list subscribers may need to reach a person instead of the Majordomo program. The Majordomo program will automatically forward mail that needs password approval to the list owner. However, if you need to contact your list owner directly, you can send mail to the owner of a list by sending mail to owner-listname@list.pitt.edu.

Examples:

A subscription request will look something like this:

To      : Majordomo@list.pitt.edu
Cc      : 
Attchmnt: 
Subject : 
----- Message Text -----
subscribe test-list

This example is a depiction of the "pine" compose screen. The composition facility of your mail program might look different; the important point here is that the message is addressed properly and that the commands to be executed by Majordomo occur as the only thing in the body of the message. For messages sent to Majordomo itself, the content (if any) of the "Subject" header is meaningless.

Majordomo's response will look something like this:

From: Majordomo@list.pitt.edu
To: droopy+@pitt.edu
Subject: Welcome to test-list

--

Welcome to the test-list mailing list!

If you ever want to remove yourself from this mailing list, send the
following command in e-mail to
"test-list-request@list.pitt.edu":

unsubscribe

Or you can send mail to "Majordomo@list.pitt.edu" with the
following command in the body of your e-mail message:

unsubscribe test-list droopy+@pitt.edu

Here's the general information for the list you've

subscribed to, in case you don't already have it:

"test-list@list.pitt.edu" is the e-mail address of
the Majordomo testing mailing list.

A request for information about a list will look something like this:

To      : Majordomo@list.pitt.edu
Cc      : 
Attchmnt: 
Subject : 
----- Message Text -----
info test-list

Majordomo's response will look something like this:

From: Majordomo@list.pitt.edu
To: droopy+@pitt.edu
Subject: Majordomo results: info

--

>>>> info test-list
[Last updated on: Thu Jul 20 17:46:13 1995]

"test-list@list.pitt.edu" is the e-mail address of
the Majordomo testing mailing list.

An unsubscription request would look something like this:

To      : Majordomo@list.pitt.edu
Cc      : 
Attchmnt: 
Subject : 
----- Message Text -----
unsubscribe test-list droopy+@pitt.edu

Majordomo's response will look something like this:

From: Majordomo@list.pitt.edu
To: droopy+@pitt.edu
Subject: Majordomo results

--

>>>>
unsubscribe test-list droopy+@pitt.edu
Succeeded.
>>>>

A request for a catalogue of lists would look something like this:

To      : Majordomo@list.pitt.edu
Cc      : 
Attchmnt: 
Subject : 
----- Message Text -----
lists

Majordomo's response would look something like this:

From: Majordomo@list.pitt.edu
To: droopy+@pitt.edu
Subject: Majordomo results: lists

--

>>>> lists
Majordomo@list.pitt.edu serves the following lists:

example-list    An example list for this document.

test-list       The testing list for Majordomo.

Use the 'info <list>' command to get more information about a
specific list.

There is an another form of (un)subscription request, based on mailing listname-request@list.pitt.edu:

To      : test-list-request@list.pitt.edu
Cc      : 
Attchmnt: 
Subject : 
----- Message Text -----
subscribe OR unsubscribe

Majordomo takes the name of the list from the address mail is sent to so that the reader need not mention the list's name.

Managed Mailing Lists at Pitt

This document is based heavily on one from the University of Chicago Networking Services group, which has kindly given us permission to use and modify their document for our server.

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