[Mailman-Developers] Renaming a list

[Mark Sapiro]

On 10/23/2017 05:02 PM, Abhilash Raj wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 23, 2017, at 08:59 AM, Barry Warsaw wrote:
>> On Oct 23, 2017, at 11:48, Aurelien Bompard <aurelien at bompard.org> wrote:
>>>
>>> I wanted to rename a list (only the list_name, not the list_id) and I
>>> figured I would make the transition smoother by adding an "AcceptableAlias"
>>> with the old name. I did that and realized that the acceptable aliases are
>>> not added to the postfix_lmtp file, as a result emails sent to the old
>>> address are just bounced at the Postfix level.
>>> Is this the intended behavior ?
>>
>> It is.  The thinking is that whatever email addresses end up funneling to
>> a list is really outside of Mailman’s control.  That’s really part of
>> your MTA’s configuration, and acceptable aliases are just a way of
>> telling Mailman to expand its implicit address logic.
> 
> As I understand, AcceptableAliases are defined as regular expressions,
> what if Mailman put the values that are a valid list name to
> transport_maps? Converting regex to a listname doesn't sound like a
> straight forward thing to me though.


I think that's going to be too complex and error prone.


> This most definitely adds some complexity for unique checks of
> Listnames. I am not sure if we already check acceptable alias rules for
> existing mailing lists to make sure they don't match any new list
> created. We'd have to do it if we start putting acceptable aliases in
> transport maps.


We don't and it doesn't matter for what acceptable_aliases is intended
to be used for.

The background is a list can be configured (and is by default) to
require_explicit_destination. which is intended as an anti-spam measure.
 I.e. it requires the list posting address to appear in To: or Cc: of
the message and stops "To: undisclosed recipients:;" type of mail.


> As a feature, it could be helpful to have multiple posting addresses for
> a single List. Are there any major downsides to doing this?


You can, either by aliases, .forwards or other MTA type configurations.
And that's exactly what acceptable_aliases is for - to accept those
alternate posting addresses as valid explicit destinations.

But, I think it should be up to the installation to configure their MTAs
or whatever for this. I don't thing we should be trying to generate MTA
configurations for alternate list names bases on acceptable_aliases.

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