CERN Accelerating science

• Sign in
• Directory

This website is no longer maintained. Its content may be obsolete. Please visit http://home.cern/ for current CERN information.

ATTENTION all PAST and PRESENT CERNVM MAIL Users

  Olivier Martin CN/CS and Judy Richards CN/DCI

CERNVM will be shutdown on June 30, but there is still heavy mail traffic to and from CERNVM. Apart from users who still haven't moved, there are some well known reasons for this:

• Users who migrated off CERNVM a long time ago and took care to set the right auto-forward but forgot to set their preferred electronic mail address in EMDIR to their new address.
• The fact that people tend to stay on external distribution lists with their old addresses, i.e. user@cernvm.cern.ch sometimes even user@cernvm.BITNET.
• Distribution lists that have not yet been moved.

If one of these applies to you, you must do something about it before CERNVM goes.

The ``Ghost of CERNVM''

 

In order to ease the migration process we plan to provide a ``CERNVM ghost'', namely an automated way to deliver mail sent to user@cernvm.cern.ch to the preferred mail address registered in EMDIR. In this way we expect the migration to be essentially transparent to the outside world. However the service will not be continued ``for ever'' and it is a good practice and also a good insurance against slow mail deliveries, mail losses, etc. to inform external people about your new electronic mail address as soon as possible. To help you in this we will soon start adding an additional header to mail sent to CERNVM, warning you that you need to inform the sender of your new e-mail address.

To profit from the CERNVM ghost once CERNVM is switched off, it is essential that your EMDIR address be updated to your new e-mail address.

You can do this from any of the central computers using the command emdir. Look at the function key descriptions at the bottom of the screen for guidance. Be sure to commit the change you make using function key 6. If you are a beginner in Unix, beware that in the Unix version, the function keys that you should use are those at the top of the keyboard, not those on the numeric keypad that you could use on CERNVM. You may in fact find it easier to do this as one of your ``final acts'' on CERNVM!

Update your address on mailing lists NOW!

As far as external distribution lists are concerned, it is extremely important to unsubscribe your CERNVM address - which can ONLY be done from CERNVM - and to re-subscribe with your new address (which should preferably be done from your preferred mail host). Note that this does not apply to CERN Listserv lists that have been moved to Listbox and are normally configured to be automatically updated (see Listupdate: a New Feature of the Listbox Service). Otherwise you will be unable to leave the list by yourself after CERNVM has gone (you will then depend on the goodwill of the list owner), which can be quite a pain for high volume lists.

For Listserv lists which are usually global lists in the sense that every Listserv knows about all the other non-confidential lists there is a global unsubscribe command:

UNSubscribe list-name | * <(NETWIDE>

which can be sent to the nearest Listserv by Mail (one command per message) or via a TELL command, i.e.:

from Unix send a mail like the following:

 Date: Mon, 13 May 1996 21:46:31 +0200 (METDST)
 From: Judy Richards <judy@mail.cern.ch>
 To: listserv@cernvm.cern.ch
 Subject:      

 UNSubscribe * (NETWIDE

on CERNVM type the command:

 TELL LISTSERV UNSubscribe * (NETWIDE

This will have the effect of cancelling your subscriptions to the 250 or so Listserv around the world who cooperate in sharing the distribution load. In return you will get one message confirming your removal from the actual List Servers handling your subscription(s). If you want to re-subscribe, note the name of the Listserv host.

To re-subscribe from your new mail address you then need to send mail to Listserv@host.domain with a one line message containing the command:

SUBscribe list-name <full-name>

There are other kinds of Distribution List Servers on the Internet, for example the Majordomo-based ones like the Listbox service at CERN where the unsubscribing must be done by sending mail to majordomo@host.domain, e.g. majordomo@listbox.cern.ch in the CERN case. (Note that at CERN you can also use the generic address, listbox.server@cern.ch). The mail should contain a one line message with the command

unsubscribe <list> [<address>]

This will unsubscribe yourself (or <address> if specified) from the named <list>. If your message contains the single line

help

it will send you a synopsis of all the commands you are allowed to use.