Scott Race wrote:

Would the workaround you describe involve setting:

convert_html_to_plaintext = 1 and filter_mime_types = [add html/text] ?

Not exactly. the workaround may be to just add text/html to filter_mime_types, but it depends if there is anything in pass_mime_types. If you have the default setting of

multipart/mixed multipart/alternative text/plain

in pass_mime types, you will already remove everything that isn't text/plain if you just turn on content filtering. Also, in 2.1.5, even if both filter_mime_types and pass_mime_types are empty, meaning nothing gets removed, a multipart/alternative part will still get replaced by it's first alternative (this is a setting - collapse_alternatives - in later versions, but in 2.1.5 it is always done).

Thus, to do the minimal filtering that will avoid this bug, set

filter_content = 1 filter_mime_types = [] pass_mime_types = [] convert_html_to_plaintext = 0

One other question about upgrade/new install - I have read that upgrading an existing installation is rather difficult and might involve downtime, so the preferred method is to bring up a new server and move the lists over. Is that correct?

Upgrading from 2.1.5 to any more recent version is easy. It is much easier than bringing up a new server and moving lists. There are potential caveats regarding Python versions. See the FAQ at <http://wiki.list.org/x/pYA9>. Other than that, it depends how your original Mailman was installed. If from source, the upgrade process is to run configure with the same options as before (can be found in config.log if you still have the original) and make. Then if all went OK, stop Mailman, backup your current installation just in case, run make install and start Mailman. I've done this dozens of times on a production system without problems. It only takes a few minutes.

Upgrading from a packege should also be easy, but the details depend on the package.

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

Scott Race wrote:

Would the workaround you describe involve setting:

convert_html_to_plaintext = 1 and filter_mime_types = [add html/text] ?

Not exactly. the workaround may be to just add text/html to filter_mime_types, but it depends if there is anything in pass_mime_types. If you have the default setting of

multipart/mixed multipart/alternative text/plain

in pass_mime types, you will already remove everything that isn't text/plain if you just turn on content filtering. Also, in 2.1.5, even if both filter_mime_types and pass_mime_types are empty, meaning nothing gets removed, a multipart/alternative part will still get replaced by it's first alternative (this is a setting - collapse_alternatives - in later versions, but in 2.1.5 it is always done).

Thus, to do the minimal filtering that will avoid this bug, set

filter_content = 1 filter_mime_types = [] pass_mime_types = [] convert_html_to_plaintext = 0

One other question about upgrade/new install - I have read that upgrading an existing installation is rather difficult and might involve downtime, so the preferred method is to bring up a new server and move the lists over. Is that correct?

Upgrading from 2.1.5 to any more recent version is easy. It is much easier than bringing up a new server and moving lists. There are potential caveats regarding Python versions. See the FAQ at <http://wiki.list.org/x/pYA9>. Other than that, it depends how your original Mailman was installed. If from source, the upgrade process is to run configure with the same options as before (can be found in config.log if you still have the original) and make. Then if all went OK, stop Mailman, backup your current installation just in case, run make install and start Mailman. I've done this dozens of times on a production system without problems. It only takes a few minutes.

Upgrading from a packege should also be easy, but the details depend on the package.

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