Re: Difference between Email Lists...

[Richard Welty <rwelty@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

someone asked in private, and i thought you all might appreciate knowing
how it works:

if you send to bmw-digest@domain.elided, the email is automatically forwarded
to bmw@domain.elided behind your back. this triggers a group of programs that
are distributed as part of the majordomo package.

mail sent to the address bmw@domain.elided goes through the following process:

the message is sent through a program named resend. resend cleans up the
headers and passes it on.

one of the places the cleaned up message is sent is the list of readers who
have asked for individual message format

another place the cleaned up message is sent is a program named digest,
which deposits it in a directory where messages are queued for the digest
(/var/spool/digest/bmw-digest is the directory, for the unix types who care
about these details.) if the digest program notices that the size or age
threshold has been crossed, it generates a digest (the size threshold is
how most digests are generated; the age threshold is rarely crossed.) the
digest goes to those who have asked to receive the list in digest format.

richard

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