Although this is clearly documented in chapter 15.11 of the Site Manager's Operations Manual for LISTSERV, we reproduce the procedure below.


For security reasons, LISTSERV does not have an explicit command for deleting lists, although lists can be deleted through the web administration interface.  If you prefer to delete a list via the web interface, log into the web interface as a LISTSERV administrator and choose "Server Administration", "Mailing Lists", and then "List Deletion" from the menu.  You will be prompted to select a list, after which the list header will be displayed and you may delete it by clicking the "Delete" button at the bottom of the page.  Please be aware that this operation is final and the list, once deleted, cannot be recovered.


For those who prefer to delete lists the old, manual way, the LISTSERV administrator simply deletes the list file from the system command prompt with the appropriate file system command (CMS ERASE for VM, DEL for VMS, ERASE for Windows, rm for Unix). A suggested procedure for deleting an established list (one with archives and so forth) follows:


1.Back up any files you wish to keep, such as notebook archives. 


2.For a digested list, you may want to send a QUIET SET listname NODIGEST FOR *@* command. This will cause LISTSERV to send out its accumulated digest to those who were set to DIGEST mode. If the list hasn't been active or if it's not digestified, you don't need to take this step. 


3.Delete the listname.list file with the appropriate file system command. 


4.If the list has web archives, delete the /archives/listname.html file and the /archives/listname/listname.ind* files. You can also remove the /archives/listname directory at this time. 


5.Although it is not absolutely necessary, stopping and restarting LISTSERV will complete the procedure. If you do not stop and restart LISTSERV, LISTSERV will fairly quickly notice that the list is gone, and will take care of this on its own.