Mailing lists and archives

The linuxfromscratch.org server is hosting the following publicly accessible mailing lists:

lfs-support

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

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

lfs-dev

The lfs-dev list is for discussion of LFS book development.

lfs-announce

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

lfs-book

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.

lfs-chat

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.

lfs-security

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.

alfs-discuss

The alfs-discuss list is for discussion of ALFS development.

blfs-dev

The blfs-dev list is for discussion of BLFS book development.

blfs-book

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.

blfs-support

The blfs-support list is for the BLFS Book and beyond. 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. 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.

Mail archives

All these lists are archived and can be viewed online at http://archive.linuxfromscratch.org/mail-archives or downloaded from http://ftp.linuxfromscratch.org/mail-archives or ftp://ftp.linuxfromscratch.org/mail-archives.

How to post to a list

The post address for a list is in the format of [email protected] where listname is one of the above lists names. Example post addresses are [email protected] and [email protected].

How to subscribe?

Any of the above-mentioned mailing lists can be subscribed to by sending an email to [email protected] and writing subscribe listname as the subject header of the message.

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:

To: [email protected]
Subject:

subscribe lfs-dev
subscribe blfs-support
subscribe alfs-discuss

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.

How to unsubscribe?

To unsubscribe from a list, send an email to [email protected] and write unsubscribe listname as the subject header of the message.

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:

To: [email protected]
Subject:

unsubscribe lfs-dev
unsubscribe blfs-support
unsubscribe alfs-discuss

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).

Other list modes

The modes that can be set by a user require sending an email to [email protected]. The modes themselves are set by writing the appropriate commands in the subject header of the message.

As the name implies, the Set command tells what to write to set a mode. The Unset command tells what to write to unset a mode.

The word "listname" in the example subject headers below should be replaced with the listname to which the mode is going to be applied. 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.

Digests


Set command: set listname digest
Unset command: unset listname digest

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.

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 digest for digest2 in the command.

Vacation


Set command: set listname vacation
Unset command: unset listname vacation

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.