From: rick@vsystem.wimsey.bc.ca (Rick Vandenberg)
Newsgroups: comp.bbs.waffle
Subject: Re: V-MailServer 1.22
Date: Fri, 01 Jan 93 16:02:06 PST
Organization: Vandenberg Systems Research, Vancouver BC

tichauer@valpso.hanse.de (Manfredo Tichauer) writes:

> 
> A couple of days ago a friend installed V-MailServer ver.1.22 in my PC,
> because I wanted to make two mailing-lists (one in German and the other
> one in Spanish). At the moment I have 15 email adresses for each list
> and now I have a problem with the site from where I poll. Since the 
> administrator uses UNIX (Interactive), he is used that if somebody has
> a mailing list, he can send ONE mail for MANY users, for example 10 or
> more users at once:I have to send ONE MAIL for EACH member of each mail-
> list. Is there a way to do it like in UNIX? I understood that in UNIX it
> is possible to use up to 512 columns in a row, e.g: 
> 
> user1@aaa.AAA,user2@bbb.BBB,user3@ccc.CCC,user4@ddd.DDD, etc.
> 
> up to 512 characters.

Version 2.0, slated for release in February, handles multiple
addresses, up to 128 characters in length.  This is an MSDOS limitation.
I cannot use the longer Unix command line, because V-MailServer doesn't
queue files directly in the Waffle spool queue. Instead it calls RMAIL
to handle the delivery of the messages.  V-MailServer is designed to
work with any MSDOS UUCP software - Waffle, UUPC, whatever.  To allow it
to create the actual spool files would for me to write code to support a
half-dozen different UUCP packages.  Their format could change at any
time, and would cause be no end of grief.

> 
> What also is a little annoying is that if somebody sends any command to
> my mail-server (e.g. subscribe ABCD-L), everyone on the mailing list
> receives it also. Is there also a way to eliminate this?

This should _not_ happen.  The aliases file should have different
entries for mailing lists, the mail-server, and any AFS addresses.

Example:

; mailing list
vmail-l             c:\waffle\bin\vmail.exe -t vmail-l

; mail server
mail-server         c:\waffle\bin\vmail.exe -t mail-server

; AFS address
vmail-info-request  c:\waffle\bin\vmail.exe -t vmail-info-request

; The 'MAILSENDERNAME' - in case a message comes
; back, due to delivery problems
vms-daemon        | tichauer


I don't know why the mailing list would receive the subscribe request
also, except that maybe the mail-server alias points to both the
mail server _and_ the mailing list.  By the way, the necessity to use
the "-t" option above is eliminated in Version 2.0.  In the meanwhile,
users of version 1.22 are strongly encouraged to use it.  The reason is
that version 1.22 only looks at the To: header to determine the address,
if "-t" is not used.  Any message that comes in with a different
address, or one that is in the Cc: header, will be seen as a message to
the mail server, as opposed to a mailing list or AFS address.  Version
2.0 looks at the "-t" parameter, the Received: header, and the To: and
Cc: header, in that order.


> It would be nice that there is a way to spare band width with mail-lists
> and I hope that somebody has a solution for it. I wish all of you a Happy
> New Year (it will start here in another 5 hours)

Mailing lists can cause a _lot_ of traffic, especially for a small site.
There is almost no way around it.  Multiple addresses help to reduce the
traffic to about 1/3 of the volume, but can cause problems of their own.
Some sites seem to have a problems with messages sent to them with
multiple addresses.  I still don't know exactly what causes the problem.

You should subscribe the the vmail-l mailing list, because it might
provide you with a few tips.  Send the command 'SUBSCRIBE vmail-l', to
mail-server@vsystem.wimsey.bc.ca.  You can also obtain some application
notes from this address.  Use the command 'INDEX' to find out what files
are available.

Rick

--
Rick Vandenberg             rick@vsystem.wimsey.bc.ca
Vandenberg Systems Research For more information about V-MailServer
204 - 2255 West 5th Ave.    send a blank e-mail to
Vancouver, BC V6K 4K1       vmail-info-request@vsystem.wimsey.bc.ca
Newsgroups: comp.bbs.waffle