At 7:12 PM -0400 5/21/01, David Bovill is rumored to have typed:

1) Is there any way to add a standard header of footer to a message posted to a list?

Read the SmartList FAQ at: http://www.hartzler.net/smartlist/SmartList-FAQ.html I think you'll find it answersd a whole lot of questions you'll to which you'll eventually want answers.

2) Also are there any remote tools for editing rc.Custom?

If you are asking, "Are there any web-based text file editors," the answer is, of course, yes, although why a telnet/SSH session and pico, joe, or vi won't do I couldn't imagine. If you're asking for some remote text file editor, well, you can load a remote file via FTP using BBEdit, a Macintosh application, and work with it as easily as if it were sitting on your local hard drive. (I see you're using Outlook Express for the Mac, which is why I bring it up.)

If not I think I'd like to write one...

By all means. Even if you're the only one who needs such a tool, it would be cool to write, and likely interesting to see.

3) rc.Custom format

Smartlist is installed as part of my ISP service, and I am not sure if the default rc.Custom files have been edited

They have, at least in your first example.

- but I have a problem understanding it...

He, he...everyone falls over this part. It's really simple when you understand what the single/double hashes are telling you.

#reply_to reply_to = "Reply-To: $listaddr" # uncomment (and perhaps change # it to "Reply-To") to force replies # to go to the list (discouraged) # why discouraged? see: # http://garcon.unicom.com/FAQ/reply-to-harmful.html

In the above I take it that the first "#reply_to" is just an informative header? And that the second "reply_to = "Reply-To: $listaddr"" is the line which has been uncommented and should therefore allow "reply-to-list" functionality?

Uh-huh...although it's almost never necessary, most people who don't know how to use their email client software _think_ the list owner needs to munge the Reply-To header field.

Now in this case:

#foreign_submit = yes ##foreign_submit # uncomment this line if you

is the second line just explanation? What are the options for the first line "yes/no"?

No...in this case, the first sets the var to yes, where the second unsets the variable (by assigning a null value, procmail makes the variable dissapear), which for this variable is the opposite of it being assigned "yes." (I _think_ this one checks for a "y" anyway, so I suppose "no" would work as well as blowing the variable, but anyway...) A single comment means that is the "default" setting for the variable (that uis, the one set in rc.init); a double-comment is the one that, if uncommented, will _change_ the default behavior. In your first example, the second line is double-hashed in the distribution version; your ISP has (foolishly, IMHO) decided to uncomment it and change SmartList's default behavior at the same time they make you _think_ that's the way it's supposed to be. Charlie