[Mailman-Users] list management via email

[Leigh Silvester]

Okay I have spent about 5 hours going through archives but not found anything that addresses my scenario.

In a nutshell I wish to be able to manage the membership of a list via emails sent by a PHP script, emails to a list admin which would probably include admin password to authorise the action to automate administration.

Background.
The lists are to be closed ones that are distribution lists for various societies/organisations.
Have previously done this with ColdFusion/Lyris, where the Coldfusion scripts send an email containing a password and "subscribe listname joe.bloggs at bloggs.com joe bloggs [quiet]" to a lyris list admin address that automatically adds that address to the relevant list.
Similarly a passworded message containing "unsubscribe listname joe.bloggs at bloggs.com [quiet]" would remove that address.

The intention is to update details on the list as users update their details on a database conatining information in addition to their email address. This means users have a single point of maintaining their details while the owners of these lists gain the advantage of suing the efficiecny of using a mail list for mass emailing, rather than doing PHP mail which can put a bit of a strain on the server when sending tens of thousands of emails.

Is such a thing possible with Mailman?

I have done a few experiments sending emails with "subscribe" to a small closed list I manage but it hits the "posting by a non-member" issue.
Obviously I could send it with the listmanager email address but then it would try to subscribe the listmanager - which is already subscribed...

Ideally I am hoping to be flamed with "... it's all here [link] in black and white if you bother to look for it".

This will be on a hosted server to which I will not have shell access.

Regards

Leigh

==========
convolution - because you're worth it!
==========