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% -*- LaTeX -*-

\chapter {Distribution List Maintance.}

%modify options add, find, remove
%query options print, verify, help, create

%four forms of list, free, public, private, secret

%inline - unable to modify

PP provides an interactive tool for maintaining distribution lists,
\pgm{mlist}.
This tool allows you, the user, to view, modify and generally manage
the members of a given list. 
What you are allowed to do to a list, depends on the access rights
set on that list.

The access rights for a list are set when the one of the managers of that list
first uses \pgm{mlist} to manage the list.
There are four modes of access rights:
\begin{description}
\item [free] anyone can add or remove members of the list;
\item [public] anyone can add themselves to or remove themselves from
the list;
\item [private] only managers of the list can add or remove members;
\item [secret] only managers of the list can view or alter the members
of a list.
\end{description}
If you are a manager of a list, the access rights are bypassed and you
are given {\em free} access to the list.


\section	{What you can and can't do with \pgm{mlist}.}

For all modes of access except {\em free}, the maintainance of the
list is done via a series of questions.
For example,
\begin{quote}\small\begin{verbatim}
You (pac) are not in this list
Do you wish to be added ? [y/n]
\end{verbatim}\end{quote}

With {\em free} access, the maintainance is done via a menu of options
\begin{description}

\item [add] A list of possible mail addresses is expected with this option.
\pgm{mlist} checks that each address is a valid mail address and
that the address does not already exist in the list.
Address that pass both these tests are added to the list.

\item [remove] A regular expression is expected with this option.
Any address that matches this expression is a candidate
of removing from the list.
\pgm{mlist} asks the user whether each candidate should be removed.

\item [find] As with the {\em remove} option, a regular
expression is expected.
Any address that matches the expressions is printed out.

\item [verify] This option goes through the list
checking that each member is a valid mail address.
\end{description}

As well as these maintainance options, there are a few inspection
options
\begin{description}

\item [print] This option prints out all the information concerning
the list.
This information consists of  all the members of the list, the list
moderator's mail address, and the user ids of the moderators of the list.

\item [list] This option displays all the lists know to the local PP system.
Each list also has a short description of its purpose.

\item [help] This option displays all the options that are available
to you.

\end{description}

If the list you require does not exist, there is one further
option, {\tt create}.
This option prompts you for all the details of the list you require
and posts them to the postmaster.
If the postmaster decides to grant you this list, he or she will then
do the appropriate administration to create the list.
Once the postmaster has done this, you can use \pgm{mlist} to
manipulate the list.

If you have done this and the list you requested now appears in the
output of the \verb+list+ option but \pgm{mlist} still thinks it does
not know 
about that list, then it is possible that the postmaster overlooked
creating an empty file to contain the list when he or she was adding
the list to PP's tables.

\section	{How \pgm{mlist} can run.}

\pgm{mlist} takes each list specified on the command line in turn, and
enables you to modify them.
If no lists are specified on the command line, \pgm{mlist} enters a loop.
Within this loop, you choose the lists you wish to modify.
When you have finished modifying the required lists, you can choose to
{\tt quit} the loop and exit \pgm{mlist}.

\subsection	{\pgm{malias}.}

The \pgm{malias} tool is a passive version of \pgm{mlist}.
Using the \pgm{malias} tool, you can only view the members of specified lists.
You are unable to modify, in any way, the contents of a list.
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