Users interact with Sympa, of course, when they send messages to one of the lists, but also indirectly through administrative requests (subscription, list of users, etc.).

This section describes administrative requests, as well as interaction modes in the case of private and moderated lists. Administrative requests are messages whose body contains commands understood by Sympa, one per line. These commands can be indiscriminately placed in the Subject: or in the body of the message. The To: address is generally the Sympadomain alias, although it is also advisable to recognize the listservdomain address.

Example:

  From: pda@prism.uvsq.fr
  To: Sympa@cru.fr

  LISTS
  INFO Sympa-users
  REVIEW Sympa-users
  QUIT

Most user commands have three-letter abbreviations (e.g. REV instead of REVIEW).

• HELP
  Provides instructions for the use of Sympa commands. The result is the content of the helpfile.tt2 template file.
• INFO listname
  Provides the parameters of the list specified (owner, subscription mode, etc.) and its description. The result is the content of ~welcome[.mime].
• LISTS
  Provides the names of lists managed by Sympa. This list is generated dynamically, using the visibility parameter (see Visibility). The lists.tt2 template defines the message returned by the LISTS command.
• REVIEW listname
  Provides the addresses of subscribers if the run mode authorizes it. See the review parameter for the configuration file of each list, which controls read authorizations for the subscriber list. Since subscriber addresses can be abused by spammers, it is strongly recommended that you only authorize owners to access the subscriber list.
• WHICH
  Returns the list of lists to which one is subscribed, as well as the configuration of his or her subscription to each of the lists (DIGEST, NOMAIL, SUMMARY, CONCEAL).
• STATS listname
  Provides statistics for the specified list: number of messages received, number of messages sent, megabytes received, megabytes sent. This is the contents of the stats file.
  Access to this command is controlled through the review parameter.
• INDEX listname
  Provides index of archives for the list specified. Access rights to this function are the same as for the GET command.
• GET listname archive
  To retrieve archives for list (see above). Access rights are the same as for the REVIEW command. See the review parameter.
• LAST listname
  To receive the last message distributed in a list (see above). Access rights are the same as for the GET command.
• SUBSCRIBE listname firstname name
  Requests sign-up to the specified list. The firstname and name parameters are optional. If the list is configured with a restricted subscription (see the subscribe parameter), this command is sent to the list owner for approval.
• INVITE listname user@host name
  Invites someone to subscribe to the list specified. The name parameter is optional. The command is similar to ADD, but the person specified is not added to the list but invited to subscribe to it in accordance with the subscribe parameter.
• SIGNOFF listname [ user@host ]
  Requests unsubscription from the specified list. SIGNOFF * means unsubscription from all lists.
• SET listname DIGEST
  Puts the subscriber in digest mode for the listname list. Instead of receiving email from the list in a normal manner, the subscriber will periodically receive it in a digest. This digest compiles a group of messages from the list, using multipart/digest mime format. The sending period for these digests is regulated by the list owner using the digest parameter. See the SET LISTNAME MAIL command and the reception parameter.
• <BOOKMARK:set_summary>SET listname SUMMARY
  Puts the subscriber in summary mode for the listname list. Instead of receiving email from the list in a normal manner, the subscriber will periodically receive the list of messages. This mode is very close to the DIGEST reception mode, but the subscriber only receives the list of messages. This option is available only if the digest mode is set.
• <BOOKMARK:set_nomail>SET listname NOMAIL
  Puts subscriber in nomail mode for the listname list. This mode is used when a subscriber no longer wants to receive email from the list, but nevertheless wishes to retain the possibility of posting to the list. This mode therefore prevents the subscriber from unsubscribing and subscribing later on. See the SET LISTNAME MAIL command and the reception parameter.
• SET listname TXT
  Puts subscriber in txt mode for the listname list. This mode is used when a subscriber wishes to receive emails sent in both format, txt/html and txt/plain only, in txt/plain format. See the reception parameter.
• SET listname HTML
  Puts subscriber in html mode for the listname list. This mode is used when a subscriber wishes to receive emails sent in both format, txt/html and txt/plain only, in txt/html format. See the reception parameter.
• SET listname URLIZE
  Puts subscriber in urlize mode for the listname list. This mode is used when a subscriber wishes not to receive attached files. The attached files are replaced by a URL leading to the file stored on the list site. See the reception parameter.
• SET listname NOT_ME
  Puts subscriber in not_me mode for the listname list. This mode is used when a subscriber wishes not to receive back the message that he/she has sent to the list. See reception parameter.
• <BOOKMARK:set_mail>SET listname MAIL
  Puts the subscriber in normal mode (default) for the listname list. This option is mainly used to cancel the nomail, summary or digest modes. If the subscriber was in nomail mode, he or she will receive email from the list in a normal manner again. See the SET LISTNAME NOMAIL command and the reception parameter. Moreover, this mode allows message topic subscription (see Message topics).
• <BOOKMARK:set_conceal>SET listname CONCEAL
  Puts the subscriber in conceal mode for the listname list. The subscriber will then become invisible during REVIEW on this list. Only owners will see the whole subscriber list. See the SET LISTNAME NOCONCEAL command and the Visibility parameter.
• <BOOKMARK:set_noconceal>SET listname NOCONCEAL
  Puts the subscriber in noconceal mode (default) for the listname list. The subscriber will then become visible during REVIEW of this list. The conceal mode is therefore cancelled. See the SET LISTNAME CONCEAL command and the Visibility parameter.
• QUIT
  Ends acceptance of commands. This can be useful when the message contains additional lines, as for example in the case where a signature is automatically added by the user's email program (MUA).
• CONFIRM key
  If the send parameter of a list is set to privatekey, publickey or privateorpublickey, messages are only distributed in the list after an authentication phase by return mail, using a one-time password (numeric key). For this authentication, the sender of the message is requested to post the CONFIRM key command to Sympa.
• QUIET
  This command is used for silent (mute) processing: no performance report is returned for commands prefixed with QUIET.

Some administrative requests are only available to list owners. They are essential for all procedures in limited access mode, and to perform requests in place of users. These comands are:

• ADD listname user@host firstname name
  Add command similar to SUBSCRIBE. You can avoid user notification by using the QUIET prefix (i.e.: QUIET ADD).
• DELETE listname user@host
  Delete command similar to SIGNOFF. You can avoid user notification by using the QUIET prefix (i.e.: QUIET DELETE).
• <BOOKMARK:cmd_remind>REMIND listname
  REMIND is used by list owners in order to send an individual service reminder message to each subscriber. This message is made by parsing the remind.tt2 file.
• REMIND *
REMIND * is used by the listmaster to send to each subscriber of any list a single message with a summary of his/her subscriptions. In this case, the message sent is built by parsing the global_remind.tt2 file. For each list, Sympa tests whether the list is configured as hidden to each subscriber (parameter lparam visibility). By default, the use of this command is restricted to listmasters. Processing may take a lot of time!

These commands can be prefixed with QUIET to indicate processing without acknowledgment of receipt.

If a list is moderated, Sympa only distributes messages enabled by one of its moderators (editors). Moderators have several methods for enabling message distribution, depending on the send parameter.

• DISTRIBUTE listname key
  If the send parameter of a list is set to editorkey or editorkeyonly, each message queued for moderation is stored in a spool (see queuemod), and linked to a key. The moderator must use this command to enable message distribution.
• REJECT listname key
  The message with the key key will be deleted from the moderation spool of the listname list.
• MODINDEX listname
  This command returns the list of messages queued for moderation for the listname list. The result is presented in the form of an index, which supplies, for each message, its sending date, its sender, its size, and its associated key, as well as all messages in the form of a digest.