RFC 1429 (rfc1429) - Page 3 of 8

Listserv Distribute Protocol

RFC 1429              Listserv Distribute Protocol         February 1993


      Finally, make sure that the "Master nodes file" is not older
      than 2 months: there are a handful of sites which never update
      their tables due to staffing problems. They cannot be prevented
      from running LISTSERV, but you will certainly want to avoid them.

   c. How big is your workload? If you are planning to use the service
      for more than 10,000 daily recipients, you should get permission
      from the LISTSERV administrator, both as a matter of courtesy and
      to hear about any restrictions or regularly scheduled downtime they
      might have. For instance, some universities might not allow large
      distributions during prime time, or they may have several
      DISTRIBUTE machines and will want to make sure you use the "right"
      one.  Send mail to "owner-listserv" at the host in question and
      give an estimate of the amount of daily messages and recipients you
      would like to submit. If your message bounces back with "No such
      local user" or the like, it means the server did not pass the above
      test (b) and you don't want to use it anyway.

   An index of sites/hosts which have the required configuration, good
   connectivity, keep their tables up to date and have generally agreed
   to provide this service to anyone in their topological area will be
   published separately in the future.

2. Physical delivery of the DISTRIBUTE request

   The distribution request is delivered via SMTP to the e-mail address
   obtained in step 1 (for instance, ). In fact,
   as long as you can somehow get mail to the server's host, you can use
   the service; SMTP is just the most convenient way of doing so.

2.1. Contents of MAIL FROM: field

   You should set the MAIL FROM: field to the address of the person who
   maintains your mailing list or, generally speaking, to the address of
   a human being who can take action in case the message fails to reach
   the DISTRIBUTE server's host. This is a very rare occurrence.

2.2. Contents of RCPT TO: field

   The RCPT TO: field points to the server's address (for instance,
   ).

2.3. Contents of the RFC 822 header

   After the DATA instruction, you must supply a valid RFC 822 header
   with a "From:" field pointing to the mailbox that should receive
   notification of delivery problems, bounced mail, and so on. This can
   be the same as the MAIL FROM: field, an address of the type "owner-



Thomas