How to change my conference list -- PLEASE!?!

Jul 6 12:33 UTC 1994

This one is probably pretty simple -- now that the change program exists,
I can't type !change list to alter my conference list.  Problem is, when
I try to !es .cflist, I end up starting a new file.  Not what I had in mind.
So, now what?  Where is my conference list?  How do I change it?

Thanks for the help!

response 4 of 25:

Jul 8 22:28 UTC 1994

Aha!  It works!  Thanks!

response 6 of 25:

Sep 15 15:41 UTC 1994

ARGGGH! I meant, I created a .cfdir   (where is that script that enters
what I'm thinking rather than what I type?).

response 8 of 25:

Sep 15 16:14 UTC 1994

No, the problem is stated in #5 (substitute .cfdir for the first .cflist).
I've had a .cflist, and it worked fine, until I moved it and all other
.cf files into .cfdir.

response 10 of 25:

Sep 15 17:35 UTC 1994

Bingo! Permitting .cfdir read all did not itself solve the problem, but it
prompted me to permit .cflist 644, rather than 600, which it had been, and
that did the trick. Apparently .cflist being 600 is OK in a home
directory, but not in a.cfdir subdirectory. Thanks, Dave. 

response 12 of 25:

Sep 16 05:43 UTC 1994

I have discovered the source of my problem. When I copied all the cf files
in my directory into the subdirectory .cfdir, all the read perms to others
were removed. I did not know that would happen.  What is the general rule
for this, and can the file be copied with original perms? (You say, RTFM?)

response 14 of 25:

Sep 16 17:45 UTC 1994

Thanks, Dave. I couldn't think of the move command at the moment B^\.

response 18 of 25:

Nov 16 06:22 UTC 1994

I just tried:  :.#;! and ,  The last (,) was ignored by Picospan
and the rest caused a "cannot access" error for the conference.  If
the magic comment character exists for .cflist, it must be something
else.

response 22 of 25:

Oct 1 08:15 UTC 1995

It also seems to be very picky indeed.  I just fixed the longstanding problem
of my .cflist not being read by one of two final changes: I deleted the copy
of my .cflist not in my .cfdir, and changed my group permission to +x on my
.cfdir (somehow, I suspect it was the former twiddle that caused the fix, but 
I'm not about to test it on the "It Aint Broke..." principle), while all other
perms remained the same.
        I do marvel that it is considered necessary to make picospan ("bbs")
both sgid (which is normal) and suid (which is most emphatically NOT).  This 
both creates the problem that Picospan cannot read any files which it's user 
wishes to keep private from the rest of the world, and on the security end of
compromise of /usr/local/bin/bbs gives full control to all files owned by cfadm
A far more sensible approach would be to make /usr/local/bin/bbs sgid, and have
an external program (which was only readable/executable by things in the cfadmg
group) which could be used by Picospan to create directories/files with the 
proper ownership (since all else can be handeled seamlesly with sgid).  This 
would mean that Picospan could read/write files owned by the user, and would be
the user at all times when not creating an item (and only for brief moments
then).

response 24 of 25:

Oct 2 00:49 UTC 1995

I'll take your word that he did, but that doesn't mean that his reasons
resulted in the best solution.
 :)