Mailing Lists

There are two main mailing lists for support of the Net-SNMP project:

Net-SNMP-Users

General discussions including configuring, installing and using Net-SNMP.
(including developing applications using the library and agent APIs).

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Net-SNMP-Coders

Discussions relating to improving, fixing, enhancing and extending Net-SNMP.
(i.e. working on the code of the project itself)

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Both of these lists automatically restrict posting to subscribers only. Attempts to send a query from a non-subscribed address will be held for manual approval. Note that it is not necessary to resubmit such queries. This mechanism is purely an attempt to filter out spam sent to the lists, and legitimate queries will usually be approved within 24 hours.

Before posting to either of these lists, please read the guidelines at the end of this page.

There is another list used for announcements of new releases and other significant information about the project:

Net-SNMP-Announce

New release announcements etc.

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Please note that this is not an appropriate place to direct queries.

There are also three administrative mailing lists, tracking activity in the project's Source Forge framework:

Net-SNMP-Bugs (read-only)

Monitor new bug reports, and comments on existing bugs.

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Net-SNMP-Patches (read-only)

Monitor new code patches, and comments on existing patches.

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Net-SNMP-CVS (read-only)

Monitor a log of all changes to the CVS code by the core developers.

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All three of these are effectively read-only. Please do not attempt to post to these lists. Use the Source Forge tracker interfaces instead.

Guidelines and List Etiquette

Please do NOT post the same message to both the user and coders lists (either cross-posted, or separately). See the descriptions above for the appropriate topic, and if doubt, just use the users list. Many people follow both lists and will see the question anyway. Posting to both lists is the one thing guaranteed to annoy the core developers. That and posting the same request repeatedly on the same list.

Posting several times or to both lists just increases the load on those who volunteer to support this software - none of whom are paid to do so. Insistency or impatience will not generate a quicker response, and may even make it less likely that your query will be answered. Repeated posting and posting to both lists are the two things guaranteed to annoy the core developers. That and contacting developers directly.

All of the developers have other calls on their time (both home lives, and their respective paid employment) - all of which may need to take precedence. Contacting a developer privately is effectively requesting free, private SNMP consultancy, with no regard for how busy that person might be at the time. If a guaranteed rapid response is important to you, perhaps you should consider paying a consultant!

These three examples of lack of consideration are the only things guarantee to annoy the core developers. That and meaningless subject lines.

Among the many things guaranteed to annoy the developers are:

• Posting the same query to both mailing lists (see above)
• Posting the same query several times (see above)
• Contacting developers privately (see above)
• Missing or vague subject lines
  • These lists are dedicated to providing SNMP support. A subject line such as "help" or "SNMP query" is no use at all. Please be a bit more informative - something like "snmpwalk sets my hair on fire" will help distinguish your query from all the rest.
• Changing the subject line
  • Having chosen a subject line initially, please post any followups using the same subject - ideally by replying to the original message. This helps group related messages together. The two lists each get about 300 messages a month, and it's extremely irritating to have to search through all this junk to find a previous message.
• Vague description of the problem
  • "It doesn't work" doesn't give us a lot to go on, and "I've tried everything" is no better (and is probably not true). Please tell us exactly what you have tried and what the error messages were. Cut-n-paste from your terminal if possible.
  • This makes it more likely that we'll be able to offer some useful advise straight away, rather than having to ask you what you've tried. That's bound to be the first question, so why not answer it ahead of time?
• Missing version information
  • The Net-SNMP suite runs on a variety of different architectures, and problems are often specific to a particular O/S (particularly problems with the agent). Please indicate the O/S and version that you are using.
  • Similarly, bugs are continually getting reported and fixed, so it's quite possible that a given problem may have been dealt with in a more recent release. So before even starting to think about your problem, we'll want to make sure it hasn't already been fixed. If you don't indicate the Net-SNMP version you're using, this will also be the first question you're asked, so why not answer that ahead of time as well.
• HTML mail
  • This is Just Plain Unnecessary.
  • HTML-formatted mail usually contains two copies of the complete message, plus all the markup junk - and it very rarely provides anything useful over Plain Text. It just clogs up the network, wastes disk space, and annoys the development team.

But apart from those few minor niggles, we're a pretty easy-going bunch, and are always ready to help.