[Mailman-Users] Mailmanctl probelm

Sat Mar 22 06:46:44 CET 2003

On Thu, 2003-03-20 at 14:12, Bob Franklin wrote:

> What I'm unsure about is what should be done with this list - should it be
> configured in a certain way or whatever?  I guess it's just required so
> Mailman can have a valid sending address and can capture bounces, etc. in
> the usual way.

Right, and Mailman knows what the site list is (well, you tell it in
MAILMAN_SITE_LIST -- defaulting to "mailman") so it knows to handle
bounces to the list in a special way.

As for how to configure the list, nothing special is necessary, but may
be desired.  In particular, you want to subscribe yourself to the list,
and set a few privacy options.  You don't want others to subscribe to
your list, etc.

I've put together a suggested configuration template which I'll
distribute with Mailman 2.1.2.  I'll attach it below so you can take a
look at it.  Install it with config_list.

-Barry

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## "mailman" mailing list configuration settings -*- python -*-
## captured on Sat Mar 22 00:21:06 2003

## Mailman - The GNU Mailing List Management System
## Copyright (C) 2003 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
## 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA

## General options
#
# Fundamental list characteristics, including descriptive info and basic
# behaviors.

# The capitalization of this name can be changed to make it presentable
# in polite company as a proper noun, or to make an acronym part all
# upper case, etc.  However, the name will be advertised as the email
# address (e.g., in subscribe confirmation notices), so it should not be
# otherwise altered.  (Email addresses are not case sensitive, but they
# are sensitive to almost everything else :-)
real_name = 'Mailman'

# This description is used when the mailing list is listed with other
# mailing lists, or in headers, and so forth.  It should be as succinct
# as you can get it, while still identifying what the list is.
description = 'Mailman site list'

# This text will be prepended to subject lines of messages posted to the
# list, to distinguish mailing list messages in in mailbox summaries.
# Brevity is premium here, it's ok to shorten long mailing list names to
# something more concise, as long as it still identifies the mailing
# list.
subject_prefix = '[Mailman Site List] '

# List moderators (and list administrators) are sent daily reminders of
# requests pending approval, like subscriptions to a moderated list, or
# postings that are being held for one reason or another.  Setting this
# option causes notices to be sent immediately on the arrival of new
# requests as well.
#
# legal values are:
#    0 = "No"
#    1 = "Yes"
admin_immed_notify = 1

# Should administrator get notices of subscribes and unsubscribes?
#
# legal values are:
#    0 = "No"
#    1 = "Yes"
admin_notify_mchanges = 1

# Approval notices are sent when mail triggers certain of the limits
# except routine list moderation and spam filters, for which notices are
# not sent.  This option overrides ever sending the notice.
#
# legal values are:
#    0 = "No"
#    1 = "Yes"
respond_to_post_requests = 1

## Nondigest options
#
# Policies concerning immediately delivered list traffic.

# Can subscribers choose to receive mail immediately, rather than in
# batched digests?
#
# legal values are:
#    0 = "No"
#    1 = "Yes"
nondigestable = 1

# Normally, Mailman sends the regular delivery messages to the mail
# server in batches. This is much more efficent because it reduces the
# amount of traffic between Mailman and the mail server.
# 
# However, some lists can benefit from a more personalized approach. In
# this case, Mailman crafts a new message for each member on the regular
# delivery list. Turning this feature on may degrade the performance of
# your site, so you need to carefully consider whether the trade-off is
# worth it, or whether there are other ways to accomplish what you want.
# You should also carefully monitor your system load to make sure it is
# acceptable.
# 
# Select No to disable personalization and send messages to the members
# in batches. Select Yes to personalize deliveries and allow additional
# substitution variables in message headers and footers (see below). In
# addition, by selecting Full Personalization, the To header of posted
# messages will be modified to include the member's address instead of
# the list's posting address.
# 
# When personalization is enabled, a few more expansion variables that
# can be included in the <a href="?VARHELP=nondigest/msg_header">message
# header and message footer.
# 
# These additional substitution variables will be available for your
# headers and footers, when this feature is enabled:
# 
# user_address - The address of the user, coerced to lower case.
# user_delivered_to - The case-preserved address that the user is
# subscribed with. user_password - The user's password. user_name - The
# user's full name. user_optionsurl - The url to the user's option page.
# 
# 
#
# legal values are:
# 0 = "No"
# 1 = "Yes"
# 2 = "Full Personalization"
personalize = 1

# Text appended to the bottom of every immediately-delivery message.
# This text can include Python format strings which are resolved against
# list attributes.  The list of substitutions allowed are:
# 
# 
# real_name - The `pretty' name of the list; usually the list name with
# capitalization.
# 
# list_name - The name by which the list is identified in URLs, where
# case is significant.  (For backwards compability, _internal_name is
# equivalent.)
# 
# host_name - The fully qualified domain name that the list server runs
# on.
# 
# web_page_url - The base URL for Mailman.  This can be appended with,
# e.g. listinfo/%(internal_name)s to yield the listinfo page for the
# mailing list.
# 
# description - The brief description of the mailing list.
# 
# info - The full description of the mailing list.
# 
# cgiext - The extension added to CGI scripts.
# 
# 
msg_footer = """_______________________________________________
%(real_name)s site list
%(real_name)s@%(host_name)s
%(web_page_url)slistinfo%(cgiext)s/%(_internal_name)s"""

## Digest options
#
# Batched-delivery digest characteristics.

# Can list members choose to receive list traffic bunched in digests?
#
# legal values are:
#    0 = "No"
#    1 = "Yes"
digestable = 0

## Privacy options
#
# This section allows you to configure subscription and membership
# exposure policy. You can also control whether this list is public or
# not. See also the <a
# href="http://www.wooz.org/mailman/admin/mailman/archive">Archival
# Options</a> section for separate archive-related privacy settings.

# Advertise this list when people ask what lists are on this machine?
#
# legal values are:
#    0 = "No"
#    1 = "Yes"
advertised = 0

# Confirm (*) - email confirmation required Require approval - require
# list administrator approval for subscriptions Confirm and approve -
# both confirm and approve
# 
# (*) when someone requests a subscription, Mailman sends them a notice
# with a unique subscription request number that they must reply to in
# order to subscribe. This prevents mischievous (or malicious) people
# from creating subscriptions for others without their consent.
#
# legal values are:
#    1 = "Confirm"
#    2 = "Require approval"
#    3 = "Confirm and approve"
subscribe_policy = 2

# When members want to leave a list, they will make an unsubscription
# request, either via the web or via email. Normally it is best for you
# to allow open unsubscriptions so that users can easily remove
# themselves from mailing lists (they get really upset if they can't get
# off lists!).
# 
# For some lists though, you may want to impose moderator approval
# before an unsubscription request is processed.  Examples of such lists
# include a corporate mailing list that all employees are required to be
# members of.
#
# legal values are:
#    0 = "No"
#    1 = "Yes"
unsubscribe_policy = 0

# Addresses in this list are banned outright from subscribing to this
# mailing list, with no further moderation required.  Add addresses one
# per line; start the line with a ^ character to designate a regular
# expression match.
ban_list = []

# When set, the list of subscribers is protected by member or admin
# password authentication.
#
# legal values are:
#    0 = "Anyone"
#    1 = "List members"
#    2 = "List admin only"
private_roster = 2

# Setting this option causes member email addresses to be transformed
# when they are presented on list web pages (both in text and as links),
# so they're not trivially recognizable as email addresses.  The
# intention is to prevent the addresses from being snarfed up by
# automated web scanners for use by spammers.
#
# legal values are:
#    0 = "No"
#    1 = "Yes"
obscure_addresses = 1

## Privacy options
#
# When a message is posted to the list, a series of moderation steps are
# take to decide whether the a moderator must first approve the message
# or not. This section contains the controls for moderation of both
# member and non-member postings.
# 
# Member postings are held for moderation if their moderation
# flag is turned on. You can control whether member postings are
# moderated by default or not.
# 
# Non-member postings can be automatically <a
# href="?VARHELP=privacy/sender/accept_these_nonmembers" >accepted</a>,
# <a href="?VARHELP=privacy/sender/hold_these_nonmembers">held for
# moderation</a>, <a
# href="?VARHELP=privacy/sender/reject_these_nonmembers" >rejected</a>
# (bounced), or <a
# href="?VARHELP=privacy/sender/discard_these_nonmembers"
# >discarded</a>, either individually or as a group. Any posting from a
# non-member who is not explicitly accepted, rejected, or discarded,
# will have their posting filtered by the <a
# href="?VARHELP=privacy/sender/generic_nonmember_action">general
# non-member rules</a>.
# 
# In the text boxes below, add one address per line; start the line
# with a ^ character to designate a <a href=
# "http://www.python.org/doc/current/lib/module-re.html" >Python regular
# expression</a>. When entering backslashes, do so as if you were using
# Python raw strings (i.e. you generally just use a single backslash).
# 
# Note that non-regexp matches are always done first.

# Each list member has a moderation flag which says whether messages
# from the list member can be posted directly to the list, or must first
# be approved by the list moderator.  When the moderation flag is turned
# on, list member postings must be approved first.  You, the list
# administrator can decide whether a specific individual's postings will
# be moderated or not.
# 
# When a new member is subscribed, their initial moderation flag takes
# its value from this option.  Turn this option off to accept member
# postings by default.  Turn this option on to, by default, moderate
# member postings first.  You can always manually set an individual
# member's moderation bit by using the membership management screens.
#
# legal values are:
#    0 = "No"
#    1 = "Yes"
default_member_moderation = 0

# Hold -- this holds the message for approval by the list moderators.
# 
# Reject -- this automatically rejects the message by sending a bounce
# notice to the post's author.  The text of the bounce notice can be <a
# href="?VARHELP=privacy/sender/member_moderation_notice" >configured by
# you.
# 
# Discard -- this simply discards the message, with no notice sent to
# the post's author.
# 
#
# legal values are:
#    0 = "Hold"
#    1 = "Reject"
#    2 = "Discard"
member_moderation_action = 1

# When a post from a non-member is received, the message's sender is
# matched against the list of explicitly <a
# href="?VARHELP=privacy/sender/accept_these_nonmembers" >accepted,
# held, <a href="?VARHELP=privacy/sender/reject_these_nonmembers"
# >rejected (bounced), and <a
# href="?VARHELP=privacy/sender/discard_these_nonmembers" >discarded
# addresses.  If no match is found, then this action is taken.
#
# legal values are:
#    0 = "Accept"
#    1 = "Hold"
#    2 = "Reject"
#    3 = "Discard"
generic_nonmember_action = 2

# Should messages from non-members, which are automatically discarded,
# be forwarded to the list moderator?
#
# legal values are:
#    0 = "No"
#    1 = "Yes"
forward_auto_discards = 1

## Bounce options
#
# These policies control the automatic bounce processing system in
# Mailman. Here's an overview of how it works.
# 
# When a bounce is received, Mailman tries to extract two pieces of
# information from the message: the address of the member the message
# was intended for, and the severity of the problem causing the bounce.
# The severity can be either hard or soft meaning
# either a fatal error occurred, or a transient error occurred. When in
# doubt, a hard severity is used.
# 
# If no member address can be extracted from the bounce, then the
# bounce is usually discarded. Otherwise, each member is assigned a
# bounce score and every time we encounter a bounce from this
# member we increment the score. Hard bounces increment by 1 while soft
# bounces increment by 0.5. We only increment the bounce score once per
# day, so even if we receive ten hard bounces from a member per day,
# their score will increase by only 1 for that day.
# 
# When a member's bounce score is greater than the <a
# href="?VARHELP=bounce/bounce_score_threshold">bounce score
# threshold</a>, the subscription is disabled. Once disabled, the
# member will not receive any postings from the list until their
# membership is explicitly re-enabled (either by the list administrator
# or the user). However, they will receive occasional reminders that
# their membership has been disabled, and these reminders will include
# information about how to re-enable their membership.
# 
# You can control both the <a
# href="?VARHELP=bounce/bounce_you_are_disabled_warnings">number of
# reminders</a> the member will receive and the <a
# href="?VARHELP=bounce/bounce_you_are_disabled_warnings_interval"
# >frequency</a> with which these reminders are sent.
# 
# There is one other important configuration variable; after a
# certain period of time -- during which no bounces from the member are
# received -- the bounce information is <a
# href="?VARHELP=bounce/bounce_info_stale_after">considered stale</a>
# and discarded. Thus by adjusting this value, and the score threshold,
# you can control how quickly bouncing members are disabled. You should
# tune both of these to the frequency and traffic volume of your list.

# By setting this value to No, you disable all automatic bounce
# processing for this list, however bounce messages will still be
# discarded so that the list administrator isn't inundated with them.
#
# legal values are:
#    0 = "No"
#    1 = "Yes"
bounce_processing = 1

## Archive options
#
# List traffic archival policies.

# Is archive file source for public or private archival?
#
# legal values are:
#    0 = "public"
#    1 = "private"
archive_private = 1