I've just deleted a list (we'll call it "deleted") and got the following error:


>Serious error occurred - traceback follows                                

>------------------------------------------                                

>>>> Error X'00000011' opening file /users/listserv/home/deleted.list <<<  

> -> Severity: Warning                                                     

> -> Facility: Generic error codes                                         

> -> Abstract: File/major entity not found                                 

> -> I/O mode: Record read + update


What's going on?


This has not actually been a problem since LISTSERV 1.8d, as the code was been changed to simply ignore files with spaces in the filename.  This error should not occur unless you are running an extremely old version of the software.  If you are running an extremely old version of the software that exhibits this problem, PLEASE upgrade.


If you are running with an HPO (High Performance Option) LAK and deleted the list while LISTSERV was running, this error is normal and will only occur once. This is due to an optimization that avoids unnecessary directory accesses, and just means that LISTSERV was surprised that the list was gone, but it recovers after the fact. If you did delete the list, there is nothing to worry about; if you did not, you will want to investigate further, as this error means "file not found".


OK, but I've even rebooted and this is still happening on my Windows machine, and the file it can't find is called "COPY.LIST". There's no such file in \LISTSERV\MAIN.


Look for a file in \LISTSERV\MAIN called "Copy of xxxx.LIST" where xxxx can be anything, but is likely the name of one of your lists. An errant drag-and-drop operation while using Windows Explorer could have created this file. Older versions of LISTSERV will read to the first space and assume that the file is actually called "COPY.LIST", which of course will fail because there is no such file.