glfs/introduction/welcome/maillists.xml

<sect1 id="intro-welcome-maillists" xreflabel="Mailing lists and archives">
<?dbhtml filename="maillists.html" dir="introduction"?>
<title>Mailing lists and archives</title>

<para>The linuxfromscratch.org server is hosting the following publicly 
accessible mailing lists:</para>

<itemizedlist>

<listitem><para>blfs-support</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>blfs-dev</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>blfs-book</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>lfs-chat</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>lfs-support</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>lfs-dev</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>lfs-announce</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>lfs-book</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>lfs-security</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>alfs-discuss</para></listitem>

</itemizedlist>

<sect2>
<title>blfs-support</title>

<para>The blfs-support list is for the BLFS Book and beyond.</para>

<para>It includes requests for help following the BLFS Book,
requests for help with packages not (yet) in
either the LFS Book or the BLFS Book,
and other requests and discussion concerning software
that might be installed on an LFS system.</para>

<para>It does not include topics such as
the price of beer, what hardware to buy,
or GNU versus BSD or Microsoft versus Linux flame wars.
These belong on lfs-chat,
and since blfs-support is high traffic,
please follow this rule strictly.</para>

</sect2>

<sect2>
<title>blfs-dev</title>

<para>The blfs-dev list is for discussion of BLFS Book development.</para>

</sect2>

<sect2>
<title>blfs-book</title>

<para>The blfs-book list is used for coordinating
the BLFS Book's maintenance.
Traffic on it is mostly Bugzilla and CVS commit messages.
It is important that all development discussion
of interest to the Book's users take place on blfs-dev, not here.</para>

</sect2>

<sect2>
<title>lfs-chat</title>

<para>The lfs-chat list is the place for community chatter.
It's a place where anything goes, nothing is off-topic.
You can discuss the price of beer or what hardware to buy.
Even GNU versus BSD and Microsoft versus Linux flame wars
are okay in lfs-chat.</para>

</sect2>

<sect2>
<title>lfs-support</title>

<para>The lfs-support list is the place to get help
following the instructions in the LFS Book itself.</para>

<para>If you're finished with the LFS Book, use blfs-support instead.</para>

</sect2>

<sect2>
<title>lfs-dev</title>

<para>The lfs-dev list is for discussion of LFS Book development.</para>

</sect2>

<sect2>
<title>lfs-announce</title>

<para>The lfs-announce list is a moderated list for those who want
notification of new stable releases
without the higher traffic of lfs-dev.</para>

</sect2>

<sect2>
<title>lfs-book</title>

<para>The lfs-book list is used for coordinating the LFS Book's maintenance.
Traffic on it is mostly Bugzilla and CVS commit messages.
It is important that all development discussion
of interest to the Book's users take place on lfs-dev, not here.</para>

</sect2>

<sect2>
<title>lfs-security</title>

<para>The lfs-security list discusses security issues.
Vulnerability alerts, configuration questions, 
security related packages, and other things to do with secure systems
are appropriate on this list.</para>

</sect2>

<sect2>
<title>alfs-discuss</title>

<para>The alfs-discuss list is for discussion of ALFS development.</para>

</sect2>

<sect2>
<title>Mail archives</title>

<para>All these lists are archived and can be viewed online at
<ulink url="http://archive.linuxfromscratch.org/mail-archives"/> or downloaded
from <ulink url="&ftp-root;/mail-archives"/>.</para>

</sect2>

<sect2>
<title>How to subscribe?</title>

<para>Any of the above-mentioned mailing lists can be subscribed to by
sending an email to <ulink 
url="mailto:listar@linuxfromscratch.org">listar@linuxfromscratch.org</ulink>
and writing <emphasis>subscribe listname</emphasis> as the subject
header of the message.</para>

<para>Multiple lists at the same time can be subscribed to by using
one email. This is done by leaving the subject blank and putting all the
commands in the body of the email. The email will look like:</para>

<blockquote><literallayout>To: listar@linuxfromscratch.org
Subject:

subscribe lfs-dev
subscribe blfs-support
subscribe alfs-discuss</literallayout></blockquote>

<para>After the email is sent, the Listar program will reply with an
email requesting a confirmation of the subscription request. After
this confirmation email is sent back, Listar will send an
email again with the message that the user has been subscribed to the
list(s) along with an introduction message for that particular
list.</para>

</sect2>

<sect2>
<title>How to unsubscribe?</title>

<para>To unsubscribe from a list, send an email 
to <ulink url="mailto:listar@linuxfromscratch.org"/> and 
write <emphasis>unsubscribe listname</emphasis> as the subject header of 
the message.</para>

<para>Multiple lists can be unsubscribed at the same time
using one email. This is done by leaving the subject header blank and
putting all the commands in the body of the email. The email will look
like: </para>

<blockquote><literallayout>To: listar@linuxfromscratch.org
Subject:

unsubscribe lfs-dev
unsubscribe blfs-support
unsubscribe alfs-discuss</literallayout></blockquote>

<para>After the email is sent, the Listar program will reply with an
email requesting a confirmation of the unsubscription
request. After this confirmation email is sent back, Listar will
send an email again with the message that the user has been unsubscribed
from the list(s).</para>

</sect2>

<sect2>
<title>Other list modes</title>

<para>The modes that can be set by a user require sending an email to
<ulink
url="mailto:listar@linuxfromscratch.org">listar@linuxfromscratch.org</ulink>.
The modes themselves are set by writing
the appropriate commands in the subject header of the message.</para>

<para>As the name implies, the <emphasis>Set command</emphasis> tells
what
to write to set a mode. The <emphasis>Unset command</emphasis> tells
what to write to unset a mode.</para>

<para>The listname in the example subject headers should be replaced
with the
listname to which
the mode is going to be applied to. If more than one mode is to be set
(to
the same list or multiple lists) with one email, this can be done by
leaving the subject header blank and writing all the commands in the
body of
the message instead.</para>

</sect2>

<sect2>
<title>Digests</title>

<literallayout>
Set command: <emphasis>set listname digest</emphasis>
Unset command: <emphasis>unset listname digest</emphasis>
</literallayout>

<para>All lists have the digest mode available which can be set after a
user
has subscribed to a list. Being in digest mode will
cause you to stop receiving individual messages as they are posted to
the list and instead receive one email a day containing all
the messages posted to the list during that day.</para>

<para>There is a second digest mode called digest2. When a user is set
to this
mode he will receive the daily digests but will also continue to
receive the individual messages to the lists as they are posted. To
set this mode, substitute <emphasis>digest</emphasis> for
<emphasis>digest2</emphasis> in the command.</para>

</sect2>

<sect2>
<title>Vacation</title>

<literallayout>
Set command: <emphasis>set listname vacation</emphasis>
Unset command: <emphasis>unset listname vacation</emphasis>
</literallayout>

<para>If a user is going to be away for a while or wishes to stop
receiving
messages from the lists but doesn't want to unsubscribe, he can change
to vacation mode. This has the same effect as unsubscribing,
but without having to go through the unsubscribe process and
then later through the subscribe process again.</para>

</sect2>

</sect1>