Scrubbing attachments only if over size limit - Umbrella list
I've spent almost 2 whole days reading the MailMan FAQ, Googleing and
testing theories/methods with a set of test-lists. I am using MailMan
2.1.12 installed at DreamHost.com. I do not have root access. Although
I can ssh into the server, I'm not good at writing shell scripts.
Sorry if this looks long or wordy, I'm trying to give enough info to
get some help.
What I am trying to do is allow list members to post plain text, or
html messages, and attachments up to a set size. Any attachments
larger than that size, I'd like to be scrubbed and a link url inserted
so the list members don't have to download some stupid cat video just
to unclog their mail delivery, but those who love cat videos can just
click the link and get it.
I understand the attachment scrubbing feature. It is useful. But it
will only scrub ALL messages not just those over a certain size. And
it takes out the html that people are using so much more than they
used to. Ideally, I would love to have the attachment scrubbing
feature operate only on messages larger than a certain size. That
would solve my entire problem.
One of the lists I admin includes decidedly non-technical people who
think nothing of forwarding 12 mb attachments. They don't understand
why this is not allowed, and I'm getting tired of explaining it again.
These same people are not interested (or capable) of uploading their
large attachment to a server and emailing a link to the list. So I'm
trying to help them, but without relaying huge attachments to the list.
So after much reading, I got the idea of using an umbrella list set to
scrub attachments to give users the option of sending their huge
attachments and it will auto-generate a link. Lovely. But I'm not
having success in implementation. Perhaps you can help me with this.
I made 2 MailMan lists:
- regular_list (restricted by size less than 2 mb). Has membership.
- big_list (no size restriction), set to scrub attachments. No
members, should send to/from the members of the regular list. Set to
be an umbrella list.
THEORY:
The way I expect this to work is the list member will send his huge
attachment to the regular_list, it bounces back, and tells him to try
sending it to the big_list instead. This ought to scrub the
attachment, leaving a URL instead, and lets the msg continue to the
regular_list where it will now be well under the size restriction and
pass through to all the members of regular_list.
Am I on track?
I just want 2 lists, with the exact same membership list, one to scrub
attachments, and the other to reject oversize attachments. Both should
only accept postings from list members.
The problem is that the regular_list is not accepting messages
addressed to the big_list. I searched the list archives and found some
interesting info, but maybe I've read so much that I can't see or
think straight anymore. I read the articles:
3.5. What is an Umbrella list - and why doesn't it do what I want?
3.69. How do I set up an umbrella list?
But I have not been successful in getting the umbrella list concept to
work.
What is the trick? Is this possible? Is there a better way? What needs
to be typed where?
Thanks, Dave
Dave Nathanson wrote:
I made 2 MailMan lists:
- regular_list (restricted by size less than 2 mb). Has membership.
- big_list (no size restriction), set to scrub attachments. No
members, should send to/from the members of the regular list. Set to
be an umbrella list.THEORY: The way I expect this to work is the list member will send his huge
attachment to the regular_list, it bounces back, and tells him to try
sending it to the big_list instead. This ought to scrub the
attachment, leaving a URL instead, and lets the msg continue to the
regular_list where it will now be well under the size restriction and
pass through to all the members of regular_list.Am I on track?
Yes.
I just want 2 lists, with the exact same membership list, one to scrub
attachments, and the other to reject oversize attachments. Both should
only accept postings from list members.The problem is that the regular_list is not accepting messages
addressed to the big_list.
Why? If they are held for "implicit destination", you need to put the big_list address in Privacy options... -> Recipient filters -> acceptable_aliases or turn off require_explicit_destination on the same page. This is covered in FAQ 3.69. If they are held for some other reason, what is the reason.
Also, do both lists actually have the same membership (presumably with delivery disabled for the big_list members) or do you have '@regular_list' in accept_these_nonmembers of big_list?
If the latter, that is fine, and you should be able to have the umbrella work the way you want with only regular_list as an actual member.
If you are actually syncing the membership of big_list with regular_list (which you can do easily with a shell script if you have permission), and you don't mind having big_list posts come to the members from big_list, you could forget the umbrella idea and have big_list deliver directly to the members?
To sync the membership you can use the pipe
bin/list_members -f regular_list | bin/sync_members -f - big_list
The problem with this is that new digest members of regular_list become regular members of big_list
You'd probably actually want to add "-w=no -g=no" to the sync_members options too. See "bin/list_members --help" and "bin/sync_members --help"
-- Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers, San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan
participants (2)
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Dave Nathanson -
Mark Sapiro