I am an experienced user of Majordomo and am trying to get up to speed onMailman. My question has to do specifically with the Mailman EMAIL INTERFACE, not the WWW interface which seems to be pretty simple to use. However, the tech guy at the organization for which I am looking into Mailman wants to be able to use the EMAIL interface to (1) download a list of subscribers to a list and (2) add (not invite) subscribers to the list.
As to (1), I had no trouble getting the list of subscribers using a "who" email command once I figured out that I have to use the admin password in the message and place the command in the SUBJECT LINE of the email, as in Subject: who <admin password>
However, if I move the command from the subject line to the message body (leaving the subject line empty), as in:
Subject: <blank>
(and in the message body:) who <admin password> end
I get NO RESPONSE at all from the server -- neither an error message nor the correct result of the command, as if the my email is being discarded by the server. And if I do it this way:
Subject: who request
(and in the message body) who <admin password> end
THEN I do get a reply but it is an error message: "You are not allowed to retrieve the list membership."
which seems to me to indicate that the server is trying to interpret the subject line, sees the word "request" as an incorrect password, and then doesn't check the message body at all.
According to the mailman documentation the command should work if it is in either place in the email: "Commands can appear in the subject line or the body of the message." [1]http://www.list.org/mailman-member/node10.html
So that's my first question. What did I do wrong?
(2) As to subscribing (not inviting) subscribers via email, my understanding is that adding subscribers via email is not possible. Is that correct?
Thanks, Paul
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On 04/15/2017 08:53 AM, Paul Mosher wrote:
However, if I move the command from the subject line to the message body (leaving the subject line empty), as in:
Subject: <blank>
(and in the message body:) who <admin password> end
I get NO RESPONSE at all from the server -- neither an error message nor the correct result of the command, as if the my email is being discarded by the server. And if I do it this way:
I have to look at this some more, but you should get a 'The results of your email commands' response in any case.
Subject: who request
(and in the message body) who <admin password> end
THEN I do get a reply but it is an error message: "You are not allowed to retrieve the list membership."
which seems to me to indicate that the server is trying to interpret the subject line, sees the word "request" as an incorrect password, and then doesn't check the message body at all.
According to the mailman documentation the command should work if it is in either place in the email: "Commands can appear in the subject line or the body of the message." [1]http://www.list.org/mailman-member/node10.html
The most up to date version of this manual is at <https://wiki.list.org/DOC/Mailman%202.1%20Members%20Manual>. I just added a note to <https://wiki.list.org/DOC/Mailman%202.1%20Members%20Manual#A3.2_The_email_in...> about the body needing to be text/plain.
So that's my first question. What did I do wrong?
I'm a bit confused, but the message to this list to which I'm replying was sent as a text/html only message with no text/plain part.
Commands in the body of a message to the list-request address must be in the first plain text (text/plain) part of the message. Mt confusion is if there is no text/plain part, you should receive a 'Ignoring non-text/plain MIME parts' message in the 'The results of your email commands' response.
(2) As to subscribing (not inviting) subscribers via email, my understanding is that adding subscribers via email is not possible. Is that correct?
That is correct. The email interface for administrative tasks is limited to approving/discarding held posts about which the admin has received a notice.
-- Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers, San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan
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Paul Mosher