How do I get Listserv services?

Subscribing is just one of many services Listserv provides. Remember, whenever you are asking for a service (as opposed to participating in the email discussion), you must send mail to:

LISTSERV@host-address

For services relating to lists that are local to the University, this would be:

LISTSERV@listserv.umd.edu

Keep in mind that there is no "E" at the end of Listserv, and that you are writing to a machine for service, not a person, and it will ignore the Subject: line of your message. Therefore, you may leave the subject line blank.

Your specific request for service, in the form of a Listserv command, goes in the message-text portion of your email message. Throughout this document, we will illustrate this service-request process with:

Send a mail message to: LISTSERV@host-address
Subject:(none)
Message-text:listserv-command

How do I subscribe to a list?

When you are subscribing to a list, use the Listserv SUB command in the message-text of the request for service, along with the listname and your first and last names (not your email address).

To subscribe to a list that is local to the University, send mail to listserv@listserv.umd.edu. Use the SUB (subscribe) command in the body of your mail message to the host computer (the machine connected to the network). You must also include the listname and your first and last names:

SUB listname FirstName LastName 

For example: 

SUB WMST-L Jane Doe

 Your name is important because that is what appears on a list of list members. You should not put your email address here.

You will receive an email acknowledgment of your subscription. Unless the list is one of the relatively few that require an additional confirmation from you (usually just a reply saying OK), all that you need to do to start participating in the discussion is to read and respond to your email.

How do I send mail to the list?

To send mail to the list, use the address:

  list name@listserv.umd.edu

For example, if your list name is "plasma-physics-grad", you would use:

  plasma-physics-grad@listserv.umd.edu

How do I contact the list owner(s)?

To send an email to the Listserv list owner(s), you can send mail to the address:

  list name-OWNER@listserv.umd.edu

Using the example above, to send to the owner of the "plasma-physics-grad" Listserv, you would use:

  plasma-physics-grad-owner@listserv.umd.edu

Here is a fairly complete reference for Listserv commands:

  Listserv Command Reference Card

NOTE: Not all commands are implemented on the Division of Information Technology Listserv system.