[Mailman-Users] List admin abandons a list

[Jon Carnes]

On Sat, 2003-12-06 at 22:16, Rod Neep wrote:
> In message <1070675160.3227.179.camel at localhost.localdomain>, Jon Carnes 
> <jonc at nc.rr.com> writes
> >On Fri, 2003-12-05 at 19:42, Rod Neep wrote:
> >> I have had a list admin (of three lists) *abandon* the mailing lists for
> >> which he was responsible.
> >>
> >> Unfortunately, he did this about three weeks ago without my knowledge
> >> and without any notice, and I only discovered the problem this evening.
> >>
> >> Moreover.... he just deleted his email address as list admin, leaving
> >> the field *blank*.
> >>
> >> Is there any way to prevent this happening again?
> >> For example, for the admin address to default to something else if left
> >> blank, or better still, for Mailman to inform me if an admin address is
> >> blank?
> >>
> >> Rod
> >
> >Sounds like a great job for a cron script!  Try the
> >~mailman/bin/list_admins command in a cron script and add a bit of
> >logic, and Viola!  You will never be caught by surprise again - though
> >this is the first time I've ever heard of this particular problem.
> 
> Thanks John.... but that is beyond my capabilities, I think.
> 
> Regards
> Rod

Well this one liner will print out any lists that doesn't have an admin:
  /var/mailman/bin/list_admins -a |grep "Owners: $"

Here is a general script for it:
  #! /bin/bash
  # mm_list_admin_chk - This script checks all local Mailman
  #   mailing lists and reports any without admins
  #
  j=""
  for i in `/var/mailman/bin/list_admins -a |grep "Owners: $"| \
            cut -f2 "-d "`
  do
    j=$j$i
  done
  #
  # If $j has anything in it, then there is a list without admins
  # Mail that fact to me!
  #
  if [ ! "" = "$j" ]; then
    echo The following lists have no admins: $j | \
      mail -s "Mailman Alert: lists missing Admins" myemail at mydomain.com
  fi

Stick that in a daily cronjob run via mailman or root and you are done
 0 4 * * *   /usr/local/sbin/mm_list_admin_chk

Note: I haven't tested the script

Jon Carnes