The list header contains configuration information for the list.  To edit it via email, use the GET listname (HEADER command, edit the header, and send it back to LISTSERV with the PUT listname PW=XXXXXXXX command.  For more details on this procedure, consult the List Owner's Manual for LISTSERV.

If you have the web archive and administration interface installed, the list header may be viewed and edited by accessing the administration access and choosing List Management/List Configuration, and then choosing one of the available options, depending on your preference. The options range from a full "wizard" to a completely manual editor window.

When editing by email only: Each physical line of the header must begin with an asterisk ("*", ASCII &H2A) as shown below in the examples.

When editing using the web-based manual editor:  The asterisk is always assumed by the software, and does not appear in the editor window.

Please note the following conventions and requirements for the content of the list header:

      • The first line of the list header must contain the list title, which must fit on a single line and not exceed 40-50 characters.
      • Succeeding lines hold list header keywords and their values, which determine the actual configuration of the list.
      • Any words in the list header followed by the "=" character are assumed to be keywords.
      • Following the list of keywords, you may add a few lines containing a brief description of the purpose of the list. (If editing by email, these lines must also begin with an asterisk ("*").

Please also note the following restrictions:

      • There is no "comment" character.  Every line of the list header is read and parsed for keyword settings by LISTSERV.  If you need to disable a particular setting for testing purposes or otherwise, and do not wish to remove the setting altogether (for instance, you may want to be able to revert the change later), you must change the setting so that LISTSERV does not read it as a keyword setting.  One way to do that is to change the "=" sign to something else, for instance, "*":

        Owner= userid@host.com
        Owner* otheruser@host.com

        In this case, LISTSERV will parse only the first owner line and the second owner line will be treated as plain text in the header.  Unfortunately, this leads to another restriction.
      • All text found in the header that is not part of a keyword setting will be treated as part of the list description text.  This includes keyword settings that you may have disabled as above.  This may lead to undesirable results when the list's web archive index page is viewed, as you may be expecting something like

        MYLIST-L

        The MYLIST-L list is a discussion list of things that are interesting to me.

        but LISTSERV actually displays

        MYLIST-L

        The MYLIST-L list is a discussion list of things that are interesting to me.Owner* otheruser@host.com

        or worse, depending on what else you have done in the list header.

        The way to fix this is to use the .HH ON and .HH OFF dot-commands as described below in the Hiding Header Lines section to "hide" the unwanted text from being displayed.  For instance, using the example from above, you could do

        Owner= userid@host.com
        .HH ON
        Owner* otheruser@host.com
        .HH OFF