[Mailman-Users] list aliases

[Richard Barrett]

At 15:57 26/06/2003, Bruce Embrey wrote:
>Mailman Users List:
>
>I am running Mailman 2.1.1
>
>When I generate a new list it wants me to add 7 aliases per list to my 
>aliases file. Since I want my users to maintain their list enrollments 
>through the webpage, what are the minimum aliases needed to keep the list 
>functional?

Depending on what MTA you are running you may be able to dispense entirely 
with manipulating the aliases file.

For Sendmail there is:

1. a Perl implementation of a Sendmail mailer called mm-handler for 
delivering to Mailman. This is in the source distributions contrib 
directory. But beware there some weaknsesses in exception handling and 
circumstances where mail can be lost using this mailer. I used this mailer 
for a period and had those circumstances arise.

2. a Python implementation of a Sendmail mailer which is more intimately 
integrated with Mailman is available at sourceforge. I wrote and use this 
myself precisely to get away from having to manage the aliases database for 
the MTA when we create and remove lists.

http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=644810&group_id=103&atid=300103

Both of these mailers work off the existence of Mailman's list-specific 
structure to determine if incoming mail can be delivered to a list. But 
they do impose constraints on the other aliases the MTA on the Mailman 
server can handle which you may find more on less acceptable.

I believe that similar approaches can be adopted with other MTAs but I 
haven't investigated this to avoid a religious war breaking out over which 
MTA we should use here.

>Bruce Embrey
>
>Bruce Edward Embrey : VMS Systems Manager
>Campus Email Admin : UNIX / Linux Administrator
>Hood College : embrey at hood.edu : Phone (301)696-3927
>

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Richard Barrett                                      http://www.openinfo.co.uk