[Mailman-Developers] Re: [Mailman-Users] Backing up Mailman list installations

[Jon Carnes]

Cool scripts.  I used to do something similar, and then I moved over to
using "ncftp" to drop the tarball off on my backup-server.  A matter of
preference, but I like that better than mailing myself the tarball.

Jon Carnes
----- Original Message -----
From: "J C Lawrence" <claw@kanga.nu>
To: <Mailman-Users@python.org>
Cc: <mailman-developers@python.org>
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2001 12:34 AM
Subject: [Mailman-Users] Backing up Mailman list installations


>
> <<Reply-To: set>>
>
> A moderately frequent request on these lists has been, "How can I
> back up my Mailman lists/membership/etc?"  I happened to be in the
> area today touching up the scripts I use.  Please feel free to adapt
> freely.
>
> Note: You'll need to have a reasonably recent version of nmh
> installed as the scripts rely on the MH tools to build a MIME
> message:
>
>   http://www.mhost.com/nmh/
>
> The scripts:
>
>   ~/bin/mimemail:
>     --<cut>--
>     #!/bin/bash
>     #set -x
>
>     subject=$1
>     file=$2
>     addr=$3
>
>     echo "To: ${addr}
>     From: nobody
>     Subject: ${subject}
>
>     #application/octet-stream [${subject}] ${file}
>
>     " | /usr/bin/mh/mhbuild - > /tmp/mimemail.tmp.${$}
>     /usr/lib/mh/post -verbose -watch /tmp/mimemail.tmp.${$}
>     rm /tmp/mimemail.tmp.${$}
>     --<cut>--
>
>   ~/bin/mailman.backup
>     --<cut>--
>     #!/bin/bash
>     #set -x
>
>     datestr=`date +%Y%m%d`
>     host=`hostname -f`
>     file=mailman.lists.${datestr}.tar.gz
>     filepath=~/backups/${file}
>     sendto="root"
>
>     cd /var/lib/mailman
>     tar zcf ${filepath} lists
>     cd ~/backups
>     mimemail ${file} ${filepath} ${sendto}
>     #rm ${file}
>     --<cut>-
>
> Yeah, there are some hard coded paths in there.  Sue me.  I never
> said they were pretty, merely that they worked.  Brief explanation:
>
>   mimemail takes three arguments: the Subject: of the message its
>   going to send, the file it is going to send, and the address it is
>   going to send it to.  mimemail depends on the nmh tools to build
>   the MIME message.
>
>   mailman.backup takes no arguments.  It creates a compressed
>   tarball of ~mailman/lists in the file
>   ~/backups/mailman.lists.YYMMDD.tar.gz
>
>     eg: mailman.lists.20011128.tar.gz
>
>   And then uses mimemail to send that file to root@localhost
>   (edit/change if you want) before deleting it.
>
> To use drop them in a cronjob something like:
>
>   0 6 * * 0 /home/archiver/bin/mailman.backup
>
> A sample execution should look something like:
>
>   $ ./mailman.backup
>    -- Posting for All Recipients --
>     -- Local Recipients --
>     root: address ok
>    -- Recipient Copies Posted --
>   Message Processed
>
> The result will be that every time the cronjob runs it will send you
> (in this case root@host.dom) a message looking something like:
>
>   Subject: mailman.lists.20011128.tar.gz
>   From: nobody@kanga.nu
>   Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2001 21:12:55 -0800
>   To: root@kanga.nu
>
>   <MIME attachment application/octet-stream>
>
> Where the MIME attachment is the tarball constructed by
> ~/bin/mailman.backup.  Edit the value of sendto in mailman.backup if
> you want them going somewhere else.
>
> I've added this to FAQ at:
>
>   http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py?req=show&file=faq04.006.htp
>
> --
> J C Lawrence
> ---------(*)                Satan, oscillate my metallic sonatas.
> claw@kanga.nu               He lived as a devil, eh?
> http://www.kanga.nu/~claw/  Evil is a name of a foeman, as I live.
>
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