[Mailman-Users] defining topics

[Christopher Adams]

Thanks for your reply. I guess my confusion comes when the documentation 
says

"To post on a given topic, you need to make sure that the Keywords: or 
Subject: headers in a message match the regular expression for that topic."

It sounds like it is referring to the actual header portion of the 
message.There obviously isn't a Keywords: header in the actual header of 
the message. However, it goes on to say:

"By default, you can put a Keywords: section in the beginning of the 
body of your message, but this can be configured by your list 
admiinistrator."

I take that to mean that if  I define the topic with the Regular 
Expression "Keywords: Licensing", that all I have to do to match the 
topic is to compose my message body like this:

Keywords: Licensing

blah blah blah.


However, I don't receive the message. It is true that any address not 
subscribed to any topic will receive all messages, so the message is 
being delivered, just not to the address subscribed to the topic. I have 
tried defining the regular expression as just "Licensing" and composing 
my message with Licensing on the first line, but that doesn't work either.

As with other Mailman "features", the documentation on this is pretty 
cryptic. A simple regular expression should not be hard to match. I just 
don't know what header labels to use when trying to match the topic in 
the body of the message. Using the Subject line works, but some of my 
lists mail to multiple topics and using the Subject field is not practical.

Can someone who uses Topics please post some basic information about how 
this is used?

Christopher Adams

Mark Sapiro wrote:

>Christopher Adams wrote:
>
>  
>
>>I would like to set up some topics and allow subscribers to subscribe to 
>>topics of their choice. So, I have set up one called 'Licensing'. The 
>>Regular Expression is simply Licensing. I have 2 current subscribers. 
>>One (me) is subscribed to the Licensing topic. The other is not. When I 
>>send out the message, the body looks like this:
>>
>>Licensing
>>
>>Blah blah..blah..blah..blah
>>
>>########################################
>>
>>
>>From the documentation, I assume that all that has to happen is that if 
>>in the first 5 lines (the default) of the message body, the string 
>>Licensing is found, the message will be sent to me since I am subscribed 
>>to Licensing
>>    
>>
>
>according to the VARHELP,
>
>topics_bodylines_limit (topics): How many body lines should the topic
>matcher scan?
>
>The topic matcher will scan this many lines of the message body looking
>for topic keyword matches. Body scanning stops when either this many
>lines have been looked at, or a non-header-like body line is
>encountered. By setting this value to zero, no body lines will be
>scanned (i.e. only the Keywords: and Subject: headers will be
>scanned). By setting this value to a negative number, then all body
>lines will be scanned until a non-header-like line is encountered.
>
>Apparently the line
>  Licensing
>
>in the body of the message is not a "header-like" line. try
> Topic: Licensing
>or
> Keywords: Licensing
>
>  
>
>>but not to the subscriber that is not subscribed to the 
>>topic. Both of us have the option to receive message without topics 
>>turned off.
>>    
>>
>
>If a user is not subscribed to any topics, the option to not receive
>messages with no topic is ignored. Thus the other user should receive
>the post until s/he subscribes to at least one topic.
>
>  
>
>>The result is the opposite of what I would expect. I don't get the 
>>message, but the address not subscribed to the topic does. I have done 
>>this consistently and can't figure out what might be the problem.
>>    
>>
>
>I think the result is correct - you don't receive the post because it
>doesn't match the Licensing topic because the "Licensing" line is not
>"keyword-like", and the other user receives all posts because s/he
>isn't subscribed to any topics.
>
>--
>Mark Sapiro <msapiro at value.net>       The highway is for gamblers,
>San Francisco Bay Area, California    better use your sense - B. Dylan
>
>  
>