The LISTSERV server can provide a diverse range of information to the general user. This includes help files, release levels of the server and important configuration files, statistics and information pertaining to the EARN/BITNET network. When sending these commands to LISTSERV, they must be addressed to the server and not to any mailing lists it may manage.

Commands for INFORMATION

The following LISTSERV commands enable general users to request information from servers. For those commands that result in files being sent to the requestor (for example the Info command), the format and class of the file can be specified by the optional command keywords F= and CLASS= in the command text (see the LISTSERV Command Keywords section for more information).

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Help     Receive a brief summary of commands
Info     Retrieve a help or informational file from LISTSERV
RELEASE  Displays information about a LISTSERV server
SHOW     Displays diverse information

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Help

Use this command to get a brief description of the most commonly used LISTSERV commands and also the name and e-mail address of the server's postmaster. The format of the command is:

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Help

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Info

Use this command to get an informational (or help) file from a LISTSERV server. The format of the command is:

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Info  < topic >  < F= format >  < CLASS= class >

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Where the topic option should specify the topic for which an informational file will be sent to you. You may get a list of valid topics by sending the Info command with no parameters to your nearest (or any) LISTSERV.

 

RELEASE

The RELEASE command may be used to display information about a LISTSERV server. This includes its version, release and fix levels; the date and time stamps for important configuration files; and the name and e-mail address of the server's postmaster. It has the format:

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RELEASE

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SHOW

Use the SHOW command to display a variety of information about a LISTSERV server and the EARN/BITNET network. The command format is:

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SHOW  show-option

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Where show-option must be one of the following:

NADs node-list

Display the e-mail addresses of the registered node administrators for one or more computer nodes given in the node-list parameter. This information is taken from the BITEARN NODES file.

ALIAS node-list

Show the different names by which one or more nodes (given in the node-list parameter) are known. This is useful for obtaining the domain style address of a node (or vice versa).

VERSion

This option is a synonym for the RELEASE command.

FIXes

Display information about the LISTSERV program fixes installed on a server.

BITEARN

Display technical information about the BITEARN NODES (network definition) file.

NETwork

Display general information about the BITEARN NODES (network definition) file.

NODEntry node-list

Displays the information held in the BITEARN NODES file about the one or more EARN/BITNET computer nodes given in the node-list parameter.

LINKs node-list

Display information about all the EARN/BITNET network links defined for one or more computer nodes given in the node-list parameter. This information is taken from the BITEARN NODES file.

PATHs s-node node-list

Show the network path taken between one computer node (given in the s-node parameter) and one or more different nodes (given in the node-list parameter). You will be given a diagram showing each of the computer nodes on the path and a speed (or link resistance) value associated with each of these links.

DPATHs node-list | *

Show the path chosen by one LISTSERV server when delivering mail via the DISTRIBUTE algorithm to one or more nodes given in the node-list parameter. You will be shown a list of (backbone) LISTSERV servers that will be used for this distribution. If you use the '*' (asterisk) character in place of a node-list parameter, the distribution paths to all other known LISTSERV servers will be given. This output is extremely long, so if you issue this command via interactive messages, you should also use the MAIL prefix if you are sending commands interactively (see the Trouble-Shooting section for more information).

DISTribute

Show statistics of outgoing and incoming DISTRIBUTE jobs processed by a LISTSERV server.