Using the mailing-list epc@listes.epfl.ch

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General principle

Messages sent to the address epc@listes.epfl.ch are transmitted to all the list's subscribers.

Subscription to epc@listes.epfl.ch

To subscribe to the mailing-list epc@listes.epfl.ch and receive the messages sent to it, just send an E-mail (its content is unimportant) to the address:

epc-subscribe@listes.epfl.ch

The software managing the list will answer with a message containing a text along these lines:

To confirm that you would like

    your_name@xx.yy.zz

added to this mailing list, please send an empty reply to this address:

    epc-sc.950281983.mgoifceebaalgongomon@listes.epfl.ch

Your mailer should have a Reply feature that uses this address automatically.

This confirmation serves two purposes. First, it verifies that I am able
to get mail through to you. Second, it protects you in case someone
forges a subscription request in your name.
To confirm your subscription, you should answer with an E-mail (again, its content is unimportant) to the given address. In the example above, it is epc-sc.950281983.mgoifceebaalgongomon@listes.epfl.ch, but the 950281983 and mgoifceebaalgongomon parts will be different in each particular case. This makes forged subscriptions virtually impossible.

The software tries to determine your E-mail address and tells you what it think it is (it would be your_name@xx.yy.zz in the above example). It may happen that you would like to use another address (e.g. because it is your physical address user@machine.epfl.ch and not your logical address firstname.name@epfl.ch). You can do it by changing the @ sign to a = sign in the address you would like to use and putting this before the @ sign of the subscription address. As an example, to use the address firstname.name@epfl.ch, you would send a message to:

epc-subscribe-firstname.name=epfl.ch@listes.epfl.ch

The access to epc@listes.epfl.ch is restricted

Subscription to the epc@listes.epfl.ch list is restricted. This means that after the subscription process just outlined, the list's owners must agree to your being a member before you start receiving the list's messages (you will get an E-mail confirming that this has happened).

Moreover, only members of the list are allowed to send messages to the epc@listes.epfl.ch list, the control being based on the sender's e-mail address (to submit messages to the list, you should therefore be careful to use the same address you used to subscribe to the list.)

Unsubscribing from epc@listes.epfl.ch

The procedure to stop receiving epc@listes.epfl.ch's messages is pretty much the same you had to use for your subscription: just send an E-mail (content doesn't matter) to the address:

epc-unsubscribe@listes.epfl.ch

In case you subscribed with an explicit address (e.g. firstname.name@epfl.ch), you would use instead:

epc-unsubscribe-firstname.name=epfl.ch@listes.epfl.ch

Just as in the subscription procedure, you will receive an answer requesting that you confirm your wish to unsubscribe by sending a message to a a complicated address. The purpose of this is again to avoid being removed from the mailing-list by a malicious person.

Software

The mailing-list epc@listes.epfl.ch is managed by Dan J. Bernstein's ezmlm software. This uses some specific functionalities of the mail program qmail (also by Dan J. Bernstein). Qmail is also in use on the main mail servers at the EPFL.