Mailman 3 February 2003 - Mailman-Developers

feature idea
by David Champion 21 Feb '03

21 Feb '03

Forgive me if this is already in there and I haven't noticed, but occasionally there's a situation where I think it would be useful for Mailman to support an address that would expand to all addresses currently listed as mailing list administrators. (It wouldn't be obligatory; you could just disable or overload that address if you don't want to support it, or there could be a config option.) Today I got a message at mailman-owner saying "we will be switching to EM for the new year, please send me information on the new listserve." Often I can figure out which of our 1600 lists something like this is for, but today I can't. It would be handy if mailman-owner could write to a list-owners address and ask if anyone recognizes the concept at work and knows what list they're looking for. Just an idea for the indefinite future. -- -D. dgc(a)uchicago.edu NSIT University of Chicago "The whole thrust of the text adventure was one picture was worth a thousand words and we would rather give you the thousand words." - Dave Lebling, Implementor

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Using mailman via an ISP
by Ross Boylan 20 Feb '03

20 Feb '03

Because I don't have access to an always connected server I can control, I've pursued the slightly eccentric strategy of trying to use mailman via a dial-up ISP. This ISP allows me to receive mail at rbrobot+xxxx(a)earthlink.net for arbitrary xxx, and I've hooked up exim on my Linux system to process it appropriately from there. Obviously, the web interface is usable only by me in this setup. I'm writing for several reasons: 1. I've done this by modifying mailman to put an arbitary prefix before the list name. If I ever get that working adequately, would there be interest in incorporating it into the main mailman? I will not be offended if the answer is "No, too esoteric." But I thought I'd ask as long as I'm doing it. 2. If anyone has any advice along the lines of don't abuse mailman to do this, use x instead, I'm all ears. Even better would be sites that would host some fairly low volume non-profit lists for free :) (One reason I'm looking into this is that I've been using topica, but their registration process has become increasingly intrusive.) 3. I have a number of specific questions about the code. a) Originally I found a few methods in MailList.py centered on getListAddress; I thought a change here would be enough. It's since become clear it's not, and judging by the number of uses of internal_name there may be a lot of code to change. I did not want to change internal_name directly because I was hoping to keep the undecorated name for some purposes (e.g., directory names on disk, program's own use, some identification). Seeing all the uses, I'm considering changing the code at internal_name() rather than trying to track down all the uses. Comments? b) I added DEFAULT_EMAIL_PREFIX to mm_config, with a default of an empty string. Is that an appropriate name for the variable? c) How do I make the prefix show up in the through the web pages, and how do I categorize it onto one of those pages? d) Am I going to get into trouble declaring the list to be in a domain different from the one I'm running on? (That is, I've told the list its DEFAULT_EMAIL_HOST is earthlink.net, though my local machine is in my own made up domain). e) Way down the line I might worry about eliminating references to the web site, since it's only usable by me. Short-term I just plan to put a welcome message saying "Don't try to use this over the web; it won't work." Is there any magic shortcut fixing that up? FYI I've also noted that the VERP regexps need to be massaged to compensate for the extra "+" in the email address. There is probably a clever way of quoting the prefix and incorporating it into the regexps automatically, but for now I did it manually.

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Documentation for 2.1
by Terri Oda 20 Feb '03

20 Feb '03

I've spent the past few days fighting with outdated Zope documentation and I got to thinking... has Mailman got updated docs for 2.1, or are people learning Mailman for the first time now suffering from the same "but that option doesn't exist in this version!" problems I'm having with Zope docs? A quick look at list.org only turned up 2.0 documentation last updated a few years ago, although at least the FAQ looks more recent. Are newer docs in the works, or are we waiting for volunteers? Because if it's the latter, I've got some time right now that's not being spent fighting with Zope, and I don't mind volunteering to write some up-to-date stuff for 2.1. I'm more of a coder than a writer, normally, but I've been doing a fair bit of writing lately and I've had to explain Mailman stuff to my list admins and users enough times that I should be good at this by now. :) I'd really hate for anyone to get the sort of negative impression of Mailman that I've gotten of Zope thanks to the documentation. So if none of this is already happening... where would be best to start? I'd guess the user guide would be the first step, since I know as an admin I'd like to be able to point my users at a guide. :) Terri PS - If anyone wants to point me to more up-to-date Zope docs, I'd be much obliged. :)

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Mail Architecture Issue
by Tony.Oger＠devoteam.com 20 Feb '03

20 Feb '03

Hi and thanx to help me if you can. Here is my architecture Relay SMTP Architecture. | INTERNET | | ------------------------------------| FW |---- | | ------- | | LVS | | ------- | | | --------------- | | | | --------- --------- |-------------- | Relay | | Relay | | | SMTP | | SMTP | ------------ --------- --------- | Lotus | | internal | | mail | ------------ The LVS is a load-balancer that load-balance incoming ou outgoing SMTP traffic between each SMTP Relay Real Servers. system on both Relay SMTP : Exim 4 under linux There are routers and directors configured on those MX Relay Servers to relay Mail to my internal Mail Server (back office where are all the mailboxes) for all the domains it owns. (Winnt + Lotus Domino) I would like to install a Mailing List software because the one in Lotus Domino isn't very clean and easy to use. What i would like to do is to install for example mailman config which can dialog with the Domino LDAP Server to get all users list in the domains. My Problem is that i do not know where to install the mailman framework. Actually, it would be a bad idea to install it on SMTP Relay Server, i think, because, the database containing users list must be shared between those Servers and all configuration files need to be install as the software (as the aliases files) on each server. (Bad idea regarding administration). Do you have any architecture issue ? My intention was to create the mailing list in an other domain or sub-domains and on my relay smtp server just add a director to relay message to @ml.domain.com to another internal server running exim or postfix and mailman. In this case only one linux server has to be installed, and message addressed to the mailing lists will be forwarded to this mail server. What do you think of this architecture and your ideas to prevent isntalling mailman on each smtp relay server and as i cannot install it on the internal mail server which runs lotus ? Thanx Tony

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subscriber file
by JKeilholz＠news-record.com 19 Feb '03

19 Feb '03

Hello All! I am trying to track down the file that contains the list of all subscribers. If some one can email me what name the file should have, I can track it down through SSH. Thanks! Have A Great Day! Joe Keilholz Online Technology Coordinator News & Record Interactive (336) 373-3488 http://www.gotriad.com http://www.news-record.com http://www.triadstyle.com

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Unsubscribe & Admin Password
by Manuel "SiMaR" Rodriguez 19 Feb '03

19 Feb '03

I fix!! i modify de cmd_unsubscribe.py and this work ok now. I can unsubscribe members with de admin password SiMaR --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.449 / Virus Database: 251 - Release Date: 01/27/2003

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Admin Password & Unsubscribe Command
by Manuel "SiMaR" Rodriguez 19 Feb '03

19 Feb '03

Why i can't unsubscribe members ?? like in previous version ( 2.0.13 ) In previous version i send a mail to list-request(a)domain.com whith the follow command i the subject unsubscribe adminpassword address(a)domain2.com i try in this version unsubscribe adminpassword address=address(a)domain2.com and don't work PS: Sorry for my bad english SiMaR simar(a)rodriguezmanuel.com.ar --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.449 / Virus Database: 251 - Release Date: 01/27/2003

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Message Encoding traceback fault 2.1.x
by Danny Terweij 18 Feb '03

18 Feb '03

Hi, with version 2.1+ and 2.1.1, I have some message encoding problems. This messages are stuck in /qfiles/shunt/ Logfile: Feb 09 19:34:15 2003 (2229) Uncaught runner exception: unknown encoding Feb 09 19:34:15 2003 (2229) Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/local/mailman/Mailman/Queue/Runner.py", line 105, in _oneloop self._onefile(msg, msgdata) File "/usr/local/mailman/Mailman/Queue/Runner.py", line 155, in _onefile keepqueued = self._dispose(mlist, msg, msgdata) File "/usr/local/mailman/Mailman/Queue/IncomingRunner.py", line 130, in _dispose more = self._dopipeline(mlist, msg, msgdata, pipeline) File "/usr/local/mailman/Mailman/Queue/IncomingRunner.py", line 153, in _dopipeline sys.modules[modname].process(mlist, msg, msgdata) File "/usr/local/mailman/Mailman/Handlers/CookHeaders.py", line 75, in process prefix_subject(mlist, msg, msgdata) File "/usr/local/mailman/Mailman/Handlers/CookHeaders.py", line 262, in prefix_subject h.append(s, c) File "/usr/local/mailman/pythonlib/email/Header.py", line 243, in append s = s.encode(outcodec) LookupError: unknown encoding And this are only from a few users and always the same users! Other users doing fine.. The message is just a normal message from outlook express in HTML format (stationery's).. I dont get it why it goes in a shunt dir. After unshunting the message goes away with a subject line "NONE" So there is something changed between 2.1 and 2.1+ . Please change it back :) Danny Terweij

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Aliases with extra information
by Terri Oda 17 Feb '03

17 Feb '03

In 2.0, the mailman aliases used to include a little blob about who created the list and when it was made: ## tartparty mailing list ## created: 13-May-2002 terri But the new one doesn't do the second comment line... is there any reason for the change? It's hardly essential, but I found it handy to have that little bit of extra info auto-generated by mailman so my fellow sysadmins would just cut-and-paste it in. I'll probably just patch it in myself. I have to say, it's great that with an entire upgrade, that's the only little detail that irked me. :) Wish I could say that about all my upgrades! Terri

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[Mailman-Developers] Option to supress "msg has implicit dest" behaviour?
by mikel＠vintners.net 16 Feb '03

16 Feb '03

I would really like to see an option to disable the "message has implicit destination" behaviour. Here's why: I run several lists for each of several Internet domains. I do this by having each list having a specific name which includes the domain, eg.: domain1-members domain2-members My sendmail virtusertable then has an entry to redirect "members" to the list: members(a)domain1.org members-domain1(a)vintners.net members(a)domain2.org members-domain2(a)vintners.net Thus, the list members need not include the redundant domain name in the list name: members(a)domain1.org works, as well as: members-domain1(a)domain1.org (Perhaps there's a better way to achieve this configuration, where mailman is serving multiple domains -- please feel free to point me in the right direction.) In majordomo this configuration worked just fine as it wasn't smart enough to care. mailman on the other hand, does a better job protecting its lists, and rightly disallows implicit addressing. For some lists I run, this is desirable behaviour. However, as described above, I'm willing to accept the tradeoff of not doing this checking in order to allow aliasing for some other lists. So, my feature request would be to add a checkbox on a config. page that allows control of this checking. Thanks for listening! -- Mike Lempriere; http://vintners.net/~mikel/ WA State resident: junk email prohibited by law: RCW19.190 & RCW19.86

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