Mailman 3 November 2002 - Mailman-Users

Mailman archives and email addresses
by John Summerfield 01 Dec '02

01 Dec '02

It doesn't do a complete job of obscuring email addresses in archived email. 1. Some email clients use the users' email address as the base of the message-id. 2. Mailmain doesn't obscure email addresses in the body, so if this message were archived, then mailman-archival-error(a)computerdatasafe.com.au would appear in the archive and be accessible to so-called harvesters of email addresses. I would like the ability to perform a one-way transformation on _all_ email addresses. I fear that obfuscation techniques such as "mailman-archival-error(a)nospam.computerdatasafe.com.au" and "mailman-archival-error at computerdatasafe dot com dot au" are becoming well-known enough that writers of the harvesting software will code round it. However, removing email addresses from lines such as "MAILER-DAEMON(a)Computerdatasafe.com.au said:" is safe, and as a writer to numerous lists, my intended audience is those subscribed to the list; if archival copies are less complete that's fine by me. If I want someone to write direct to me, I will spell out the email address. Many people go to extraordinary lengths to reduce spam; the more mailing-list software does to help the better for all of is.

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Automating Gnu Mailman List Updates
by Jim Smith 01 Dec '02

01 Dec '02

Hi... I have a Perl-based organization data management system from which I will be exracting the e-mail address of individuals and assigning to various Gnu Mailman managed e-mail lists. This needs to be automated so that the e-mail lists are continually up-to-date with the data contained within the organization data management system. In order to do this I need either a Perl module that accesses Gnu Mailman list objects or a Command Line Interface to the Gnu Mailman system. Are either of these available? In general, is there a Gnu Mailman model for automating the updates of Gnu Mailman list objects, without using the Web Interface? Jim -- ------ Jim Smith Assistant Coordinator Information Technology Group College of Biological Sciences 247 Gortner Lab University of Minnesota 1.612.625.6208 - josjr(a)umn.edu <:BASS:< - Biology Application Server System ALDER - Acaptive Life Directory for Extensible Reporting BIRCH - Biological Information Resource for Career Help FERN - Florae Environment Resource Network (CBS Greenhouse) IRIS - Image Repository Information System WREN - Web-based Research Education Network

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Problem when subscribing
by Nicolas Cartron 01 Dec '02

01 Dec '02

All, i recently installed Mailman on my server and i just can't make it work ! Explanations: I installed the tarball, followed the instructions, everything's fine, i receive the mail when trying to subscribe, i reply to confirm, and then... nothing, no answer, not subscribed... I checked the /var/log/maillog : Nov 29 22:22:11 www postfix/local[73222]: DBD2015314A: to=<zia-ml-request_epitech42.net(a)ncartron.org>, relay=local, delay=1, status=sent ("|/usr/local/mailman/mail/wrapper mailcmd zia-ml") It seems it's ok, isn't it ? Nothing special in the logs. I'd really like to make it work ! :) Thanks in advance for any help. btw: i use freebsd 4.7 with postfix as MTA. -- Nicolas Cartron

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questions
by Tenant 30 Nov '02

30 Nov '02

We're still using Mailman 2.0beta6 and it's been fine for out announce-only list. We're also running Redhat 6.1. But we're looking to upgrade to Redhat 7.3 or 8.0, and also to a newer mailman, so I've got some questions that I hope some of the listmembers can answer. 1. Just how close to being released is Mailman 2.1? It seems like it's been forever. 2. Any difficulties with Mailman 2.1 when running Redhat 7.3 or 8.0? Can it be installed on RH6.1 (is a newer python required?) We might get to Mailman before we get to the OS upgrade. 3. Are there/will there be ways to minimize all those headers? Yes, I've heard why they're there, but IMHO some are not necessary and they take up a lot of room. 4. Will subscribers be able to ubsubscribe without passwords? This is the largest complaint we get from subscribers. 5. How difficult is installation and are there compatability problems with years of existing archives? Thanks for any insights. John Fisher ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The Tenant Network(tm) for Residential Tenants TenantNet(tm): http://tenant.net email: tenant(a)tenant.net Information from TenantNet is from experienced non-attorney tenant activists and is not considered legal advice.

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Authentication problem - fixed
by fish 30 Nov '02

30 Nov '02

I am sending this to the list mostly for the archives so that others who have the same problem will not have to search as long as I did for the solution. I also want to thank Richard for helping me by pointing me in the right direction so that I could "logic" out the rest. This is on a basic server intallation using Debian, Exim, Apache and Mailman The first problem that I was having was an authentication problem caused by a cron job. Nov 27 22:03:01 livingsky CRON[23330]: Authentication service cannot retrieve authentication info. This was resolved by updating the shadow passwords file /etc/shadow to make sure that the user "mailman" was listed in that file. The command I used to do this was "pwconv" at the promtp as root. This allowed me to update the shadow file without deleting and re-creating the user "mailman". Immediately after this, I started to get another permission problem > Traceback (most recent call last): > File "/usr/lib/mailman/cron/gate_news", line 222, in ? > main() > File "/usr/lib/mailman/cron/gate_news", line 198, in main > lock.lock(timeout=0.5) > File "/usr/lib/mailman/Mailman/LockFile.py", line 219, in lock > self.__write() > File "/usr/lib/mailman/Mailman/LockFile.py", line 350, in __write > fp = open(self.__tmpfname, 'w') > IOError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: > '/usr/lib/mailman/locks/gate_news.lock.fish.13366' Which, after some research through Google, I figured out that I had to update the cron jobs and thus had to run "crontab -u mailman crontab.in" in the /usr/lib/mailman/cron/ directory. Hope this helps if anyone else has these same problems. Robert Lydiate icon(a)accesscomm.ca

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Demime and Stripmime
by Karin Zirk 30 Nov '02

30 Nov '02

Has anyone tried using Demime or Stripmime to deal remove the AOL HTML portion of the email message? Karin

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add user from cmdline
by Keith 30 Nov '02

30 Nov '02

Is there a way to add users by command line through scripts? Keith Dowell Network Administrator / Programmer kdowell(a)waldenweb.com

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I have a PROBleM. HELP!!!!!!
by Andres H. Moreno 30 Nov '02

30 Nov '02

when i go to http://my.address.me/mailman/ I got this error: Access forbidden! You don't have permission to access the requested directory. There is either no index document or the directory is read-protected. If you think this is a server error, please contact the webmaster Error 403 fed.uh.cu jue 28 nov 2002 16:33:16 CST Apache/2.0.40 (Red Hat Linux) How I fix this litter problem. Andrew.

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Is Mailman right for my needs?
by Sherry Berne Wallack 30 Nov '02

30 Nov '02

Hello Mailman users. I am a Mac G3 user running OS 9.2.2 and Outlook Express which is too limited for my needs, as follows. Can anyone tell me if this is right for me? Hostway is hosting my domain name and email accounts. Thank you, Sherry FIRST, DOES MAILMAN RUN ON OS9.2...or just OSX? 1. I have a graphics rich .html email (no flash-nothing active) residing on my hard drive. I want to import it into the email box. Can be done with Mailman, easily? If it helps, I could place it on the server. 2. I'd like to be able to add a personal message above this graphic, like: Dear John, It was nice to meet you at the trade show. Here is my info below. Sincerely..... 3. I must be able to send to a group, as BCC: or other means so no one sees other names. 4. Maximum file size to send and receive? 5. Can I import a database of names and addresses into Mailman from another program and export the Mailman database to others? Which others will work with Mailman? Outlook? Palm? Excel? Currently, my lists only exist in Excel, as .csv files. It would be nice to make sales notes in these lists which I am using for prospecting. 6. What is the latest version and upgrades that I will need, of Mailman, for my system? 7. Can I ever speak with a tech support person at Mailman? Is there paid support?

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Web-based posting?
by Nicolas Steenhout 30 Nov '02

30 Nov '02

Hello, I've searched the archives and FAQ and I can't seem to be finding answer to my question. This may be that I'm rather inept at searching! :-) The host I'll be going with for my domain offers mailing list via mailman, which is a system I've used on another mailing list, as a user. Here's what I want to do, is it possible to do it? I want for the list to be restricted to registered users (no problem so far). I want user's registration to be approved by the admin before they can become active. I want users to be able to read the list on the web (no problem, archives, right?). Most importantly, I would like users to be able to POST to the list from the web. Any help would be appreciated, thank you Nicolas http://www.bmee.net "You must deal with me as I think of myself" J. Hockenberry

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