Mailman 3 May 2004 - Mailman-Developers

Bindings, preferences, storage engines, oh my!
by Michael Chang May 21, 2004

May 21, 2004

The title says it all, no? Folks, I've peeked and poked around the mailing-list archives as well as the Zope Wiki, and I haven't yet seen anything that substantially fulfills what I'm looking for. I've been using Mailman for a few years now, and as far as a mailing-list engine, it's great stuff. However, when the time came for me to integrate it with other pieces of software, it left me high and dry. The abbreviated version of what I need to do is this: write my own adminitrative front-end for global, per-list and per-user preferences; be able to store said preferences in an LDAP server. I think it would be great to be able to access all of the preferences through any one of a number of common languages (Perl, C, C++, Java). That way, people could use the language that they feel most comfortable using. As well, it would be a boon to be able to store and retrieve preference data in any format that one might choose (or choose to implement). In order for both of the above to work, Mailman is going to need to access said preference data through plug-ins which sit atop a generic, "virtual data preferences" layer which can access the preference data in an administrator-defined way. Upon installation, the administrator will edit a configuration file that defines how the virtual preferences will talk to the plug-ins -- essentially, the configuration file glues the "virtual" to the "real." The "real" can be anything from named pipes to sockets to shared libraries to native Python classes. Both the Mailman engine itself and the out-of-the-box command-line utilities that come with it will rely upon said glue file in order to access global-, list-, and user-preference information. +--------------------------+ | preference modules* | (3) ---------------------------- ^ [ configuration directives ] ^ (2) +--------------------------+ ^ | generic/virtual prefs | ^ (1) +--------------------------+ 1.) maintained by the Mailman developers 2.) a configuration file (possibly in XML format) that maps the generic methods (by name, I suppose) to preference modules. If the preference module is code, then just map the MemberAdaptor method names to get/set methods supported by the preference module. 3.) can be a socket, pipe, shared library, Python class, etc. (Can Python bootstrap .so libs and call the functions within them? Also, can Python talk to Perl scripts or Java bytecode?) I think that once the above is taken care of, the storage method will be a moot point, since there exist numerous libraries with numerous language bindings for BerkeleyDB, various SQL servers, LDAP servers, etc. Putting the two together will allow people to be able to write their own front-ends; additionally, it will relieve the Mailman developers of having to develop and maintain any storage and retrieval code -- they'd only have to take care of the virtual layer. I suppose it would be like Apache modules are to the Apache server, or how SNMP modules are to the net-snmp suite where one can bind an OID to a shell script, a Perl script, a C library, etc. While I'd be willing to write my own preferences backend for the current Mailman as it is, I'd be worried about the code changing from underneath me within the next x release(s), thus forcing me to modify code just to get things working again. Any thoughts? Has any work gone into this sort of thing yet? Is there any room in Mailman's plumbing to fit such a virtual preferences layer? Michael -- /* BEGIN SIG * * "Afraid of change, afraid of staying the same, * when temptation calls, we just look away." * - Barenaked Ladies * *----------------------------- * Michael Chang * miranda [at] uranus dot com * AIM: Solempathe * http://www.syndetic.org/ */

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Re: [Mailman-Users] Moderated mailing list not working...
by Brad Knowles May 20, 2004

May 20, 2004

At 2:17 PM +0200 2004/05/20, Brad Knowles wrote: > From the "NameError: global name 'True' is not defined" error at the > bottom, I have to wonder what version of Mailman you have installed, and > what version of Python you are using. If you search the archives, you > will see that some older versions of Python apparently don't have > "True" predefined, which can cause problems with newer versions of > Mailman. Actually, I decided to go ahead and put this issue into the FAQ. See <http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py?req=show&file=faq04.042.htp>. -- Brad Knowles, <brad.knowles(a)skynet.be> "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania. SAGE member since 1995. See <http://www.sage.org/> for more info.

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Re: [ mailman-Patches-957054 ] Strip arbitrary headers from postsbefore delivery
by Lloyd Tennison May 20, 2004

May 20, 2004

Can't anyone spell "Receipt?"(I before E except after C!) For it to really work it needs to be spelled correctly. >Patches item #957054, was opened at 2004-05-20 09:07 >Message generated for change (Comment added) made by tzs >You can respond by visiting: >https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=300103&aid=957054&group_i… > >Category: mail delivery >Group: Mailman 2.1 >Status: Open >Resolution: None >Priority: 5 >Submitted By: Colin Palmer (tzs) >Assigned to: Nobody/Anonymous (nobody) >Summary: Strip arbitrary headers from posts before delivery > >Initial Comment: >This patch adds an extra config option under Privacy >Options... / Header Munging that lets the list admin >specify arbitrary headers to be removed by CookHeaders. > >---------------------------------------------------------------------- > >>Comment By: Colin Palmer (tzs) >Date: 2004-05-20 14:41 > >Message: >Logged In: YES >user_id=658762 > >This version should work a little better. >Warning: messes with Defaults.py and versions.py and could >cause nasty things to happen to any existing mailing list >you have. > >---------------------------------------------------------------------- > >You can respond by visiting: >https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=300103&aid=957054&group_i… > >_______________________________________________ >Mailman-coders mailing list >Mailman-coders(a)python.org >http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/mailman-coders >

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Re: [Mailman-Developers] How to remove X-Confirm-Reading requests from mail headers distributed by Mailman?
by Andrzej Kasperowicz May 19, 2004

May 19, 2004

> If you want something done, and there isn't anyone who has the time, > skills or inclination to do it for you, then you either knuckle down and And how could I know that there isn't anyone, huh? > do it yourself, or forget about it. You don't keep hounding someone else > to do it. You are rude. Look what you've just written. You seem to have contempt for users of the program, and that's a very bad thing. Is the mailman for the users or the users for the mailman? There are developers, and users, users can make their wishlist, and developers could see what they can do. If someone can do a patch himself, that's good, but if someone cannot, then telling him to shut up, because he cannot do it himself is just rude and silly. ak

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trad-lang
by Fil May 19, 2004

May 19, 2004

Hi, a while ago we talked about the translation script we develop and use for SPIP (www.spip.net); there was some interest on this list, so here's a small update: trad-lang now has its own webpage, at http://eledo.com/download/trad_lang but the best news is that there's a demo: http://www.eledo.com/demo-trad-lang/trad-lang/trad_lang.php log in as demo/demodemo The next release will be able to export files in any format (.po among others). -- Fil

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Mailman IRC room
by Mark Duffy May 19, 2004

May 19, 2004

are there any other IRC rooms other than #mailman on freenode mark --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.677 / Virus Database: 439 - Release Date: 04/05/2004

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Re: RELEASED Mailman 2.1.5
by The Anarcat May 19, 2004

May 19, 2004

> On Sat, 2004-05-15 at 19:22, Barry Warsaw wrote: > >>This version also contains a fix >>for an exploit that could allow 3rd parties to retrieve member >>passwords. It is thus highly recommended that all existing sites >>upgrade to the latest version. > > Could you be more specific about the exploit? Is there a CVE or CAN open > against it? I assume given the public announcement this is not an > embargoed security exploit, or is it? Also: what versions of mailman are affected? A.

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archive redirect
by Leo, John May 19, 2004

May 19, 2004

We upgraded to 2.1.5 and the links to all our archives changed to our Outlook web URL/pipermail/listname. Has anyone seen this? John Leo Manager, Application Development YMCA of the USA 312-419-8938 At the YMCA, we build strong kids, strong families and strong communities Find any YMCA in the USA at www.ymca.net

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Setting up mailman
by Mark Duffy May 17, 2004

May 17, 2004

hi there i am new to the linux server operating system and i need to urgently set up a mailman system for a website, i have been trying for the past week with no luck and have come to ask for some assistance i would give remote access so that you could configure it if you cant could you point me to someone that can btw is there anIRC channel for system administrators mark --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.677 / Virus Database: 439 - Release Date: 04/05/2004

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[Fwd: Re: [Mailman-Developers] RELEASED Mailman 2.1.5]
by Ricardo May 17, 2004

May 17, 2004

ok just talking to myself seems a bit silly :-) -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: [Mailman-Developers] RELEASED Mailman 2.1.5 Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 20:05:23 +0200 From: Ricardo <ricardo(a)rixhq.nu> Organization: RiXHQ To: Ricardo <ricardo(a)rixhq.nu> References: <1084663372.1350.356.camel(a)anthem.wooz.org> <40A8FC80.8000600(a)rixhq.nu> > I think it > has something to do with my version of python (2.1 from Debian Stable) > not having True/False booleans by default. The weird thing is that it > does seem to work correctly in other scripts, but ListAdmin.py generates > an error: > File "/usr/local/mailman/Mailman/ListAdmin.py", line 113, in __nextid > while True: > NameError: global name 'True' is not defined > I tried adding the True/False defines on top of ListAdmin.py like I saw > in some other mailman scripts, but that doesn't seem to work... any idea > what is going on? I can answer my own question... after adding the defines to ListAdmin.py *and* stopping/starting with mailmanctl, the arrival of moderated mail seems to work again. I guess all the posts are losts? Well that's what I get for upgrading without doing enough checking :( Anyway I'll file it as a bug on sf.net Ricardo.

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