[Mailman-Users] Backing up list settings

[Mark Sapiro]

Matthew Newton wrote:
>
>In my system scripts, before I remove a list, I would like to backup the
>list including all settings and the mail archives.
>
>The machine is backed up every night, so this is "just in-case".
>
>Would the following be the right sort of thing? (To restore I guess I
>would create a list with the same name, stop Mailman, and then untar.)
>
>---8<---
>#! /bin/sh
>
>LIST=$1
>
>BACKUP="/var/lib/mailman/lists/$LIST"
>BACKUP="$BACKUP /var/lib/mailman/archives/private/$LIST"
>BACKUP="$BACKUP /var/lib/mailman/archives/private/$LIST.mbox"
>if [ -e "/var/lib/mailman/archives/public/$LIST" ]; then
>  BACKUP="$BACKUP /var/lib/mailman/archives/public/$LIST"
>fi
>
>tar zcvf - $BACKUP
>---8<---
>
>Usage something like:
>
>  ./backup-script listname > list-backup.tar.gz

Yes, This would back up everything you would need to restore the list
and its archives. It ignores the problem of partially processed
messages still in a queue, but this is not usually of much concern,
especially if you're shutting down the list.

One thing to add - to restore, you don't need to first create the list.
Just stop Mailman, untar and start Mailman. If you are really careful,
you could also shut down web access during the restore. This and the
stop/start are not mandatory, but temporary errors could occur if
messages or web activity came against the restored list when it was in
a partly restored state.

--
Mark Sapiro <msapiro at value.net>       The highway is for gamblers,
San Francisco Bay Area, California    better use your sense - B. Dylan