At 4:37 PM -0400 6/18/01, KEVIN ZEMBOWER is rumored to have typed:
My simple perl script appends their email address to a flat file that has one email address per line.
Why don't you have that perl script simply email a subscription request to SmartList, then it doesn't _have_ to muck directly with the dist list? Good grief, I think it's safe to suggest that we've all been using web forms for subscriptions for a while now, and although there _are_ other, more convoluted ways, this is the easiest and least amount of work. (Frankly, I think a bunch of us have, at one time or another, written our own web-based subscription routines almost as a "right of passage," only to later find a couple floating around the Net that are ready for use, including MailServ off the top of my head. But honest, having perl send email is just as simple as having it write to a file, so you could easily alter your existing script within a few minutes without having to modify SmartList's bounce handling.) What confused me was your earlier posting suggesting that, "My distribution list is kept in a flat file by another program that I have to continue to use," when in fact you certainly _don't_ need your perl script to muck with the database directly, and can _easily_ modify it to allow SmartList to handle subs as well as unsubs. And, natch, this aviods all your permission problems completely, since the SmartList user is the only one who needs to directly write to the dist file. I thought you were using some external process, like mySQL, to maintain your subscription database with additional subscriber information and such - had I realized, I would have suggested this simpler and more direct route earlier. BTW, this will also allow SmartList, when properly configured with the "confirm" routines, to confirm your opt-IN subscriptions, avoiding having your list used in mail-bomb attempts, and possibly having your posts to the list reported as spam. Just a suggestion, though...not my server. Just be prepared for problems down the road if you don't allow for subscription confirmation, and should explain why I am NOT recommending that you email subscribe X-Commands to your SmartList install.
I didn't realize that this was asking a lot.
It's not asking for, "a lot," but it _is_ asking for something that isn't really necessary...let SmartList handle the dist list without your perl script mucking with it, and everything will be happier (and simpler, too).
The dist file and my flat file are in the same format.
Obviously they are _not_ in "the same format," or you wouldn't be having this problem... I think what I'm trying to gently suggest is that you are working _way_ too hard to keep things the way they are, when you can easily change the script to send a subscribe email to SmartList. Instead of rewriting large sections of SmartList, why not just change the output of your perl script to email? Charlie