Q: How can I rename an existing email list and what should I consider before proceeding?

By Jacob Haller
Senior Support Engineer, L-Soft

Mailing lists in LISTSERV are generally not designed to be renamed, and there is no built-in command or web interface option for doing so. However, it is possible to rename a list by modifying its files on the server. This tech tip explains the process and walks you through the required steps.

Before You Start

If any of your mailing lists use the Super-List/Sub-List feature, or any other features that allow one mailing list to reference another in its configuration, then you should check to see if there are any other lists that reference the mailing list that you want to rename.

If you are using LISTSERV under Windows, then you can check this by issuing the following command from a Windows command line in the listserv\main\ directory, replacing "oldlistname" with the name of the mailing list that you want to rename:

find /i "oldlistname" *.list

Under Unix, the equivalent would be:

grep -i "oldlistname" ~listserv/home/*.list

This will identify any mailing lists that reference the name of the list that you want to rename. However, due to the format of the .list files, it might be difficult to find the settings or other lines that contain the mailing list's name. If that's a problem, then you can create a temporary directory (named "temp", or whatever you prefer) and output the .list file content to a more easily readable format using listview:

listview nameoflist.list > temp\nameoflist.txt

The command would have to be issued separately for each mailing list. You would then use the "find" command in the temp directory to see which settings or lines reference the mailing list that you want to rename.

Any list identified in this way will need to have its configuration updated after the mailing list has been renamed.

Renaming the List

To rename the mailing list, use the following procedure, replacing "oldlist" with the old name of the list, and "newlist" with the new one.

1. Collect the following information:

a) Navigate to "List Management" > "List Configuration" and find the mailing list's current "Notebook" setting. It should point to a particular directory. Make a note of it.

b) Go to "Server Administration" > "Site Configuration". There should be a WWW_ARCHIVE_DIR setting pointing to a particular location. This should be a different location than the "Notebook" directory mentioned above. Make a note of this location also.

2. Stop LISTSERV.

3. In the listserv\main\ (On Windows) or ~listserv/home/ (On Unix) directory, rename all oldlist.* files to newlist.*.

4. In the "Notebook" directory found in 1a above, rename all oldlist.* files to newlist.*. If the name of the directory has the same name as the mailing list, then change the name of the directory as well to reflect the new name.

5. In the WWW_ARCHIVE_DIR location found in 1b above, create a new subdirectory matching the mailing list's new name. Delete any files or directories in WWW_ARCHIVE_DIR that match the old name. Don't rename these files. It's better to let LISTSERV recreate the files from scratch.

6. Restart LISTSERV.

7. Go to "List Management" > "List Configuration" and verify that you can access the mailing list under its new name. If you renamed the "Notebook" directory in Step 4 above, then update the "Notebook" setting to match the new location.

8. Verify that you can still access the mailing list's archives using the web interface. Click to view individual messages, just to be certain.

9. If necessary, update the configurations of any other mailing lists with a setup that references the mailing list's old name (see the first section).

The "New-List" Setting

If you want, you can configure LISTSERV to forward commands and messages sent to the old mailing list name to the new one. To do this, create a new list using the old list name and configure it with the "New-List" keyword to point to the new list address. Note that the "New-List" setting must contain the full email address of the new list, not just the list name. More information about this setting can be found at:

https://www.lsoft.com/manuals/17.5/listkwd/kNewList.html

After this setting has been implemented, anyone sending a message or command to the old name of the list will get a message back based on the MSG_POSTING_FORWARD_NEWLIST mail template. If you wish to customize or suppress this message, you must do so before adding the "New-List" setting.

Use the web interface and go to "List Management" > "Mail Templates" to find and edit the template there. If you later want to customize it further, temporarily remove the "New-List" setting, make whatever customizations you need to the template and then add it back.

Note that a mailing list configured with "New-List" should generally have as few other settings as possible. I would recommend just having an "Owner" setting in addition to the "New-List" setting and nothing else.