If you're impatient, you can skip right to the quick reference.

About LISTSERV

LISTSERV is the software that is commonly used to run mailing lists. It handles requests for subscribing and unsubscribing to the various mailing lists that it manages.

Penn State offers a LISTSERV server for the benefit of its users. The server currently manages more than 3,000 lists on all sorts of topics relating to Penn State interest groups.

The complete user's manual for LISTSERV subscribers is available in PDF format from the company that owns the software. You can download it from their website here. Since LISTSERV is so powerful, the manual is pretty large. Fortunately, most users only need to know about one or two actions, which are described here. If you want to know more, take a look through the manual.

The Server

The LISTSERV server software uses an email interface to communicate with its users and administrators. This is a little different than most other programs, which usually use a graphical user interface, a web interface, or command-line interface. In general, you email a request to the LISTSERV server, it takes the appropriate action (if any), and emails the response back to you.

You communicate with the Penn State LISTSERV server through the email address LISTSERV@lists.psu.edu. This address is only used for sending commands to the server (such as "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" requests). Mail sent to this address doesn't get read by a human, and it doesn't get posted to any mailing lists.

Subscribing

To start receiving mail from a mailing list, you have to subscribe to the list. You do this by sending a "subscribe" request to the LISTSERV server. Let's assume that you want to subscribe to the list "L-EXAMPLELIST@lists.psu.edu". To do this, you send an email to LISTSERV@lists.psu.edu with the message text:

SUBSCRIBE L-EXAMPLELIST YourFirstName YourLastName

(The subject line doesn't matter). The LISTSERV server will then reply to your request, asking you to confirm that you really want to sign up for that list. Follow the instructions in that email, and you will then start to receive any mail that is sent to the L-EXAMPLELIST mailing list.

Note that we never had to specify what email address should receive the mailing list postings; the server looks at what email address the request came from, and assumes that that's the one that should be subscribed.

Sending Mail to the List

Some mailing lists are one-way, where subscribers receive mail from the list, but they're not allowed to post to the list. This is useful for "announcement" or "newsletter"-type lists.

Other lists are "discussion" lists, where the subscribers can send and receive email from the list. Sending mail to the list results in everyone receiving a copy of that email. If you try to send email to a list that doesn't allow its subscribers to post messages, you'll receive an error notice and explanation from the server.

Let's say that L-EXAMPLELIST is a discussion list, and that we've already subscribed to it using the steps described above. To send mail to all of the people subscribed to the list, we use the address "L-EXAMPLELIST@lists.psu.edu". All of the subscribers will automatically receive your email. If you reply to an email that you received from the list, your reply will go to the list as well.

Note the difference between the two addresses we've mentioned so far! Both are @ lists.psu.edu:

• LISTSERV@lists.psu.edu is the one that you use to communicate with the Penn State LISTSERV server to subscribe and unsubscribe to Penn State mailing lists.
• L-EXAMPLELIST@lists.psu.edu (the name of a particular list) is the one that you use to send email to all of the subscribers.

Unsubscribing

The process for unsubscribing from a mailing list is very similar to the one you used to subscribe. Again, let's assume that you want to unsubscribe from the list "L-EXAMPLELIST@lists.psu.edu". To do this, you send an email to LISTSERV@lists.psu.edu (the server, not the list) with the message text:

SIGNOFF L-EXAMPLELIST

(the subject line doesn't matter). The server will unsubscribe you from the L-EXAMPLELIST mailing list and send you a confirmation email.

Again, since the server looks at what email address you used to send the request, you have to send the "SIGNOFF" request from the same email address that you sent the "SUBSCRIBE" request from. You can usually figure out which email address this is by looking at the detailed headers of one of the mailings from the list.

Contacting the List's Owners

If you need to get in touch with a human, specifically the humans who are in charge of a particular mailing list, send email to "L-EXAMPLELIST-request@lists.psu.edu", where "L-EXAMPLELIST" is the name of the list. This will go to the list's owners, rather than to the server, or to the list itself.

Summary

Quick reference for the imaginary list "L-EXAMPLELIST@lists.psu.edu":

• Subscribing to the list:

  To: LISTSERV@lists.psu.edu
  
  SUBSCRIBE L-EXAMPLELIST YourFirstName YourLastName
  

• Sending mail to everyone on the list:

  To: L-EXAMPLELIST@lists.psu.edu
  Subject: something appropriate...
  
  Your message to the people on the list...
  

• Unsubscribing to the list:

  To: LISTSERV@lists.psu.edu
  
  SIGNOFF L-EXAMPLELIST
  

• Getting in touch with the list's owners:

  To: L-EXAMPLELIST-request@lists.psu.edu
  Subject: something appropriate...
  
  Your message to the list owners...
  



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