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The Smartlist mailing list manager

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4. SmartList: Subscribing an Existing List

I already have a list of addresses for my mailing list. How can I subscribe the entire list?

The 'dist' file is the distribution list -- the list of recipients. To add a pre-existing list of recipients, copy it into the dist file:

/home/username/domainname-mail/listname/dist

You can add a short list by hand or by cut-and-paste. For a really long list, you may want to download the dist file, edit it using a word processing program, save it as text or ASCII, and then upload the edited file.

The following conditions apply:

One subscriber per line.
Empty lines are allowed.
The mail address of the subscriber must be the first word on the line.
Comments may follow the address (but separated from the address by at least one whitespace character).
Everything preceding the line containing:
(Only addresses below this line can be automatically removed)
is write-protected from changes (i.e. these addresses can never be automatically/accidentally unsubscribed).
If the line:
(Only addresses below this line can be automatically removed)
is not present at all, automatic unsubscriptions to this list are impossible.
New subscribers will always appear on the line immediately following the last filled entry in the dist file.

Some sample entries (the preferred format):
joe@some.where
joe@some.where (some comment)
joe@some.where (some comment) (some more comments)

Depreciated, but allowed:

some comment
(some comment)

Not allowed:
(some comment) joe@some.where
some comment

Note: adding to the dist file for a list automatically adds to the accept file as well, unless you have turned off foreign submissions.


Updated: January 4, 2001

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