David Andrews writes:

I want to delete some lists, but would like to save the archives. Pipermail saves by month, as I have it configured. Is there a way to obtain an entire archive at once? Are there tools to convert the MBOX format to something non-technical people can deal with easily?

Exactly what is your use case? What do you mean by "obtain"? What do you mean by "non-technical people deal"?

I suspect "obtain" means something you don't need to do, and "non-technical people deal" means "click to read". If so, the answer is basically "delete the list, don't delete the archive". That's easiest for the users since they just go to the same place. Best of all the site admin doesn't have to do much of anything besides delete the list configuration file, and possibly edit the MTA config.[1] Note that this can create backscatter (mail rejection notices to third parties0, but that's no different from any other non-existent address at your server.

The only problem is if the archives are "members only", because deleting the list would also delete their credentials. Since in an important sense the membership database *is* the list, in that case, you don't want to delete the list, you want to disable delivery and access to the administrative interfaces. There are several ways to do those things, and some vary according to the MTA. They have subtly different consequences for what happens if somebody tries to post to the list or subscribe to it. The one you're most likely to care about is "the post disappears into a black hole and the member is distressed," but some of them can create backscatter in the case of spammers.

Footnotes: [1] In the usual configuration for Exim4, Exim checks for lists/$NAME/config.pck, and if it's there, routes mail for $NAME to Mailman. Nothing to do once you delete config.pck. Postfix OTOH usually needs you to run a script to update the aliases.