[Mailman-Users] Length limit of list names

Richard Barrett r.barrett at openinfo.co.uk
Thu Aug 7 18:49:23 CEST 2003


Begin forwarded message:

> From: Richard Barrett <r.barrett at openinfo.co.uk>
> Date: Thu Aug 7, 2003  5:45:27  pm Europe/London
> To: "Chinn, Hindy" <hchinn at hillel.org>
> Cc: mailman-user at python.org
> Subject: Re: [Mailman-Users] Length limit of list names
>
>
> On Thursday, August 7, 2003, at 05:18  pm, Chinn, Hindy wrote:
>
>> Thanx for your reply..
>>
>> So why wouldn't these listnames work?
>>
>> Alumni-hbispring03
>> Alumnihbispr03
>>
>
> There is no reason why, with a standard MM installation, that these  
> two mailing list names will not work.
>
> To try and confirm this I have just created and sent messages through  
> two lists with these names on my test system. This server is running  
> Suse Linux 7.3, Sendmail 8.11.6 and MM 2.1.2
>
> When you say the list names did not work what do you mean. How does  
> the 'not working-ness' manifest itself.
>
> The problem is probably not inherently a Mailman one but maybe your  
> MTA is imposing restrictions of some sort.
>
> What type and version of OS. MTA and Mailman are your running?
>
>> But this did...
>> Alumhbis03
>>
>> hindy
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Richard Barrett [mailto:r.barrett at openinfo.co.uk]
>> Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2003 12:15 PM
>> To: Chinn, Hindy
>> Cc: mailman-users at python.org
>> Subject: Re: [Mailman-Users] Length limit of list names
>>
>>
>>
>> On Thursday, August 7, 2003, at 04:33  pm, Chinn, Hindy wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> What are the do's and don'ts of list names? Limit number of
>>> characters? Can there be spaces, dashes, underscores in name?
>>>
>>
>>
>> I am not aware of any explicit length limits but I wouldn't write an
>> essay in a list. Long list names can be inconvenient for users to type
>> when posting etc
>>
>> Mail list names have to function as valid mail aliases, as a directory
>> name and as part of file names in the server's file system so you have
>> several  constraints to consider.
>>
>> To complicate life, there is a set of mail aliases associated with any
>> given list; for instance for the list called 'testlist' the menagerie
>> is.
>>
>> testlist
>> testlist-admin
>> testlist-bounces
>> testlist-confirm
>> testlist-join
>> testlist-leave
>> testlist-owner
>> testlist-request
>> testlist-subscribe
>> testlist-unsubscribe
>> owner-testlist
>>
>> You want to avoid like the plague having a list whose base list name
>> ends/begins with any of the suffices/prefixes. This will cause  
>> problems
>> for instance if one list's -admin alias is another list's base name!
>>
>> Although mail aliases are notionally case sensitive, that way lies
>> insanity, and few MTAs will distinguish mail aliases that are
>> differentiated by case alone. Mailman treats all list names as case
>> insensitive and the directory/file names associated with a list in the
>> file system and in MM's web GUI interface URI's exclusively use the
>> lower-case version version of the list name.
>>
>> Various characters other than a-zA-Z0-9 are entirely legal in mail
>> aliases but will cause grief when used in file names. In some case  
>> they
>> may also break code that decomposes mail aliases in a simple-minded,
>> maybe even incompetent, way. There is little point in exploring the
>> outer-reaches of such code's capability unless you are a masochist.
>>
>> I would suggest you stick to a-zA-Z0-9 and hyphen as characters in  
>> list
>> names.
>>
>>> Thanx
>>> hindy
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ----------------------------------------
>>> H I N D Y   C H I N N
>>> Asst. Director of Information Technology
>>> Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life
>>> phone: 202-449-6542   fax: 202-449-6442
>>>
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
>> -
>> Richard Barrett                                
>> http://www.openinfo.co.uk
>>
>
>





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