![[T-Hall]](/Graphics/Campus-Pics/thall.icon.gif){kind=icon}
Administrative comments to:
cwis.admin@unh.eduHow you create a local distribution list depends upon the mail program you use. The following briefly describes how to create such lists using popular electronic mail programs at the University of New Hampshire.
OurGang" that can be used to
send e-mail to everyone in your office.
To do this, start up the Pine program and from the main menu select the
ADDRESS BOOK menu item. The menu that will appear
at the bottom of the screen will
show the commands available while accessing your
Pine personal address book.
To create a list called OurGang, you would enter:
s - to create a new distribution list,
Phrenology Office Staff - the full name of
the distribution list,
OurGang - the nickname you want to use when
sending e-mail to everyone in the office, then finally
c_bump@PhrenSys.unh.edu - start adding each
of the addresses pressing the [RETURN] key after each.
Note that the address you enter can be one of your own local aliases already defined in your address book, or can even be another list.
When your new list in place, you can now use just "ourgang" as an e-mail address, Pine will understand that you actually mean the "Phrenology Office Staff" distribution list and will send a copy of your message to each of the addresses on your list.
Of course it is possible you may have made a mistake in entering one or more of the addresses. Try sending a test message using the new list to make sure that it works.
Finally be aware that there is a known problem with Pine mailing lists. Any error in even just one of the addresses can have a cascading effect resulting in the message being delivered to only a small fraction of the addresses on your list. To make matters worse, the bounced mail error message you will receive will not allow you to reliably determine which addresses did or did not receive your message.
Even if you are very careful to verify the addresses added to your list, your list can still be put in jeopardy at any time because of circumstances beyond your control. For example, an address can `go bad' because it is no longer valid (i.e. the person's account has been removed), or because of an error with that person's account (such as running out of disk space or an incorrect forwarding address). For sensitive lists or large lists (say, over 50 addresses), you may want to consider using a global (i.e. list server) list instead. While more trouble to set-up and manage initially, a list server managed list tends to be more robust in this regard.
MAIL or EMAIL commands.
As an example of creating a local distribution for VMS MAIL, let's
say you wanted to create a list called "OurGang" that can
be used to send e-mail to everyone in your office. This would be done
by creating a VMS MAIL "distribution file" in your directory for that
list. The name of
the file will be the name of the list.
In your login directory, create a file named
OURGANG.DIS using a text editor such as EVE.
+-----------------------------------------------------------
| $ set default sys$login:
| $ eve ourgang.dis
|
Note that the ".DIS" extension is special to VMS MAIL and while not
required, it will make your list easier to use.
For each address you want on your list, enter a single line in the following basic format:
address ! last name, first
For example, to add Chris who has an Internet address, you would enter:
SMTP%"cbb@PhrenSys.unh.edu" ! Chris Cross
In other words, you would enter the address just as you would when
sending e-mail to Chris using VMS MAIL. Likewise, to include a
VMS address, you would enter:
CUFSU1234 ! Pat E. Kake
Again, the address is entered just as it would be within the VMS MAIL
program. You can also use any local aliases you have defined within
your personal ALIAS.COM
file as well.
After entering your list addresses, exit from the editor which will save the file in your directory. Here's is what a finished distribution list might look like:
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| ! Distribution list for the Phrenology Office Staff |
| |
| SMTP%"cbb@PhrenSys.unh.edu" ! Chris Cross |
| CUFSU1234 ! Pat E. Kake |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
Note that any text following an exclamation point (!) is
considered a comment by VMS MAIL and will thus be ignored, as are
blank lines. These comments, of course, are optional and are used
only as an aid for your remembering what the list is about and who is
on it.
To use your distribution list, within VMS MAIL, do:
+-----------------------------------------------------------
| $ email
| MAIL> send
| To: @ourgang
| CC:
| Subject: Please get your time sheets in by Friday!
|
Note that we did not have to type "@ourgang.dis"
since VMS MAIL
already assumes that
a distribution list file has an extension of ".DIS" as
part of its name. Note that if you commonly use subdirectories,
and if you are in a subdirectory while using VMS MAIL, you will need to
use the command:
@sys$login:ourgang
instead in order for VMS MAIL to find your distribution file in your
home directory.
When you use a distribution list, VMS MAIL will first read the entire list and will attempt to validate each address before prompting you for the rest of the mail message. Thus there may be a slight delay between when you enter the distribution file name, and when VMS MAIL returns to prompt you for the next item. It is at this time that VMS will report any errors found with VMS addresses and will give you a choice of either aborting the message, or proceeding with the knowledge that these individuals will not receive your message.
Internet addresses, on the other hand, cannot be pre-check in this manner, so you will receive no advanced notice if you made a mistake in entering an Internet address. You will, however, receive a message bounce when VMS MAIL finds that it was unable to deliver your mail to that address. You can then forward the bounced message to the correct address, and, of course, make the appropriate correction to your distribution list!
Administrative comments to:
cwis.admin@unh.edu