Just thought I'd let folks know I wrote a small helper script for list administrators. I've tested it on my own lists and it seems to work. I'd appreciate any bug reports and other feedback. Send them to mhelsley _at_ linux _dot_ you see L A _dot_ eee dee you.
Description: This is a command line helper script which allows a list administrator to quickly handle a large queue of messages pending approval on a given list.
Messages are matched using a regular expression applied to either the subject field, from field, or both. Subject and From fields must match in the case of both regular expressions being provided. To do an 'or' operation execute the script twice -- once with each regular expression applied appropriately.
When a message is found that matches the description provided, it can either be approved, rejected, or discarded.
Usage: list_handle_pending <listname> [-s <regex>|-f <regex>|--subject=<regex>| --from=<regex>] (-a|-r|-d|--approve|--reject|--discard)
Here's a link to the script: http://linux.ucla.edu/~larva/projects/list_handle_pending
I found it necessary to write this script when a list I managed received 300 copies of nearly identical messages in the pending queue. The list in question was the destination of some cron-triggered script-generated error reports intended for a group of system administrators.
Manually scrolling through the pending queue page and discarding the messages would have been much too tedious. Hopefully this might be of use to other mailman (list) administrators.
Regards, -Matt Helsley