Listserv, Listproc, and Majordomo are different software applications that do essentially the same thing: administering e-mail "lists." (Revised) Listserv, written by Eric Thomas, is the oldest, most powerful, and most-used list-processing software, and the archetype which Listproc and Majordomo both emulate. Originally developed for IBM mainframes during the Bitnet era (mainly the 1980s), it has now been rewritten to work on the UNIX and other operating systems.

Listproc, written by Anastasios C. Kotsikonas, was the first UNIX-based option, written at a time when Listserv only ran on IBM's VM operating system. Listproc is also widely-used, though somewhat less so than Listserv. Commands for Listserv and Listproc are similar, but slightly different in order to avoid copyright infringement. Thus instead of "listserv" (with the idea of 'serving' a list of e-mail addresses) one has "listproc" (with the idea of 'processing' a list of e-mail addresses).

Majordomo is the 'newest' list-serving software, also for UNIX systems, written by Brent Chapman. Majordomo is public-domain software (whereas the full versions of both Listserv and Listproc are commercial). It is somewhat less powerful, and primarily used for smaller-scale list processing situations (i.e. less than several thousand subscribers, whereas Listserv is powerful enough to easily accommodate tens of thousands of subscribers). As Majordomo is the youngest of the three listservers, with no other synonyms based on "list..." available for its name, Chapman chose the slightly-humorous 'majordomo' reference to a 'butler or steward in charge of a great, royal or noble household'.

What Does a 'List-server' Do? — (Top)

Listserv, Listproc and Majordomo all 'serve' or 'process' subscriber 'lists' of e-mail addresses. A 'list owner' will set up a 'mailing list' using the software available at his/her institution (most universities will have one of the three installed). Each list has a distinct subject. In the case of the FAST lists, for example, they serve different courses within the FAST program, with FAST-L a general announcement list for the entire program and the others specific to individual courses. With almost all e-mail lists, anyone who is interested in the subject of the list may subscribe to the list, e.g. add his/her own e-mail address to the 'list' of other e-mail addresses already 'on' the list.

Once individuals with a common interest are joined by the e-mail list, rapid e-mail communication may take place among them. An e-mail message sent to the list name (e.g. to FAST-L@uta.fi or to PK5-L@uta.fi) will be relayed almost instantly by the list-server software to all e-mail addresses which are on the list. The result is rapid wide-scale communication, where one e-mail note sent by one individual can be relayed within seconds to all of the different subscribers to the list — often tens of thousands of subscribers in countries around the world.

Common uses of lists are to exchange specialized information among people with common interests. In such cases, e-lists may often be the most useful reference resource one has, especially if the list interest is highly specialized, available print references are scarce or inadequate, and there are no knowledgeable colleagues nearby. An example of such a list would be the ADS-L list of the American Dialect Society which includes hundreds of language teachers, linguists, lexicographers and others worldwide who share a common interest in American language.

Those who join a list agree to respect a common 'list user policy' as defined by the list owners, for example that the list may not be used for commercial or postings which are not relevant to the list's basic purpose. The user policy also specifies restrictions which may have been set; for example all FAST e-mail lists (see list settings) have been configured to NOT relay 'attachments' or 'HTML mail'. [Instead list users should put the documents online in their personal or other webspace and send a link to it in the list posting.]

The list-server's "commands" relate to its basic functions, e.g. the different things one can do with a mailing list. Sending e-mail to all on the list is only one example. One can also retrieve a list of all the subscribers to a list, useful if you want to find out an individual's e-mail address (if [s]he is on that list) or find an e-mail address for any person at a particular institution, or city, or country, for example.

List-server software also maintains an archive of all past messages circulated to the list, which can be retrieved automatically from the list-server software so one can see what has been discussed in the past on a certain list. Some list archives also include reference files put there especially for retrieval by list members. Listserv further provides limited 'filtering' of e-mail messages relayed through its 'topics' feature, which allows users to set Listserv to send them only messages on certain sub-themes of the total list traffic.

Following is a brief guide to basic list commands, including all of those on the PK5 exam. Remember to always send these commands to the list-server software, and NOT to the list itself (e.g. commands must always go to an address like <listserv@listserv.uta.fi> rather than to a list-name like <PK5-L@uta.fi>).

Revised Listserv — (Top)

• For further detail on Listserv and its commands, see also An Introduction to Listserv Commands (specifically for the FAST lists) and the presentation on 'Introduction to Listserv and E-Mail Lists'.

• List Global. Formerly, sending the command list global to a full-service Listserv such as <listserv@searn.sunet.se> would return a list of every Listserv-based list worldwide, inasmuch as one of Listserv's unique strengths is the global interconnection of all servers running listserv software, so that any one server also knows about all the listserv-based lists running on any other listserv server. This feature is not available for Listproc or Majordomo.

  However, in recent years the global number of listserv lists has grown so large that a single file of all lists is impractically large. Therefore the list global command now produces only directions for how to send key words to listserv to search for certain types of lists, information on which listserv would then return to you.

  As an example, the command LIST GLOBAL TRAN would search all Listservs worldwide for lists with 'TRAN' as part of their name. This should return a file of several dozen lists, of which several will be on various language "Translation" topics. However, also included will probably be lists on 'organ transplants', 'Transylvania University', 'Trans-gender Spirituality', '[electric] Transformers', 'Transcendental Meditation' the 'ForTRAN' programming language, and so on).

  One learns from such experiments to consider what would be the most explicit search-string: in the above instance, for example, TRANSLAT would have been better.

  An alterate way to search for Listserv lists would be through the web-based "CataList" interface.

  Note that the list global command will NOT work when sent to <listserv@listserv.uta.fi> (the Tampere University listserv). This is because Tampere's listserv is presently implemented as a "standalone" version which does not interact with other Listservs worldwide. As an alternative, try <listserv@searn.sunet.se>, which is the nearest regular globally-interactive version.

  Note also that there is no LIST GLOBAL equivalent command for either Listproc or Majordomo. To search for lists using these two software packages you will need to use one of the web-based directories of internet e-mail lists from the paragraph above.

• The SUBSCRIBE [listname] [your own name] , for example subscribe fast-l John Hopkins sent to listserv@listserv.uta.fi would subscribe you to the FAST-L list. The UNSUBSCRIBE [listname] command sent to the listserv would remove you from the list. These two commands are the same in Listserv, Listproc and Majordomo.

  However, some listserv lists — instead of subscribing new users automatically — have been set up to first send a coded 'response' back to the subscriber address, which the subscriber must 'confirm' within 48 hours in order to be added to the list. This is done especially on very large lists, in order to check in advance possible invalid addresses or e-mail routings.

• The command REVIEW [listname], for example review eaie-l, sent to listserv@nic.surfnet.nl will send back in return a list of all subscribers to the list, sorted by e-mail address. A more practical variation of this command would be review eaie-l by country which would send back a list of all subscribers sorted alphabetically by country, or review eaie-l by name which would produce a list sorted by subscriber last names. Note that it does not make any difference whether you use capital or small letters.

• The command INDEX [listname] will return a list of all files in the list's electronic archive. These (almost) always include 'logs' of all the past e-mail communication via the list, broken down into periods of a week to six months in length, depending on the volume of list traffic. The command index pk5-l sent to listserv@listserv.uta.fi would send you back the archive file of the PK5-L list.

• The command GET [filename filetype] [listname] would be used to retrieve a file from a list archive, after you have learned what the file name is by using the INDEX command. These include archive logs, and possible other archives files which have been placed there by the list owner.

  For example to get the file named LOG0103 from the PK5-L archive one would send the command get pk5-l log0103 to listserv@listserv.uta.fi. The syntax says that you want to 'get' a file from the "PK5-L" archive, which is at 'listserv@listserv.uta.fi', where the file is named 'log0103 ' (the "log" from the year 2001 [01] and the month of March [03]).

  One can use such logs to (a) check what past discussion on a list has included; (b) retrieve information you know had been sent to a list in the past, but where you've lost your copy or forgotten the exact details; (c) catch up on list discussion over a vacation period if you'd set the list to NOMAIL (see next command...) while you were gone; etc.

• To temporarily suspend mail from a listserv list, use the command SET [listname] NOMAIL, sent to the respective listserver. To resume mail again, use the command SET [listname] MAIL. Note that the commands for this function in Listproc are different.

• Listserv also offers a "Topics" feature to filter incoming mail by various list sub-themes which have been defined by the list owners. Only Listserv offers this, although it has not been implemented on all Listserv lists.

• If you are subscribed to a high-volume e-mail list, you may wish to get your mail in 'digest' form instead of individual messages. If you send the command set [listname] digest instead of getting many separate e-mail messages daily from a particular list, you would get only one 'digest' file at the end of each day which has all of that day's messages together in 'log' form.

• If you have an automated 'signature file' set up for your e-mail, you will not want this to go as part of your 'commands' to the list-processing software, as it would not understand these strange 'commands' and would return an error message. While both Listproc and Majordomo have thought about this and supplied commands ("quit" and "end", respectively) that you can enter after your commands and before your signature file, there is no equivalent command in Listserv. You need to delete your signature file before sending the command message to Listserv

Listproc — (Top)

• The SUBSCRIBE and UNSUBSCRIBE commands are the same with Listproc as with Listserv and Majordomo

• To see who is subscribed to a list, the official Listproc command is recipients. However, in many cases, an alias has been installed so that Listproc also understands the review [listname] command used by Listserv.

• To check a list's archives, the index command is used, just as with Listserv. However, rather than the combined LOG files produced by Listserv, Listproc usually lists individual e-mail notes files, identified by numbers that correspond to the date the note was circulated.

• The commands for temporarily stopping and then re-starting e-mail during a vacation or other absence are different in Listproc. Instead of the Listserv syntax, use set [listname] mail postpone, i.e. to temporarily stop your listproc mail coming, you would send a note to listproc@domain saying set [listname] mail postpone. When you wish to resume the mail, you would then use the command set pk5-l mail ack [NB: This is not a misprint; the command is "ack" — short for 'acknowledge' — and not "back"].

• If you use a 'signature file', when sending a note to listproc insert the word "quit" after the list of your commands and before the top of your signature file. This tells Listproc to "quit" processing commands so it will ignore your signature file and not send you back an error message.

Majordomo — (Top)

Majordomo has fewer command options than Listserv or Listproc, since it is a simpler package, and most of its commands are the same as the other two use. Basic commands which are different are:

• To find out who is on a list, instead of using REVIEW or RECIPIENTS, use the WHO command. The command syntax would be who [listname], sent to a Majordomo list-server address in the form majordomo@somewhere.com

• The Majordomo equivalent to the Listproc "quit" command is end. Insert the word "end" after your list of commands and before the top of your signature file. This tells Majordomo to "end" the processing of your commands so it will ignore your signature file and not send back an error message.