[Mailman-Users] cloning subscriber list to another list

[Mark Sapiro]

martin f krafft wrote:
>
>I am faced with the situation of forking a list of several hundred
>subscribers in such a way that the result is two lists with exactly
>the same subscriber set, but with different settings.

<snip>

>Or should I just duplicate the list
>(/var/lib/mailman/{archives,lists}) and then proceed to reconfigure
>the new one? In that case, does it matter that the old one will be
>on a 2.1.5 instance while the new one is 2.1.9?


Unless you want to write your own Python script to populate the new
list from the old, I think duplication is your easiest choice. Here's
an outline of what I suggest you can do.

1) Create the new list on the 2.1.9 installation. This step is not
necessary, but it simplifies archive considerations. Do not configure
anything on the new list until after step 2.

2) remove the lists/newlistname/config.pck and
lists/newlistname/config.pck.last files from the 2.1.9 server and then
copy the lists/oldlistname/config.pck from the 2.1.5 server to
lists/newlistname/config.pck on the 2.1.9 server.

3) Now configure the new list. It will have all the old list's
membership with member options and all the old list settings including
things like real_name and subject_prefix which you will probably want
to change (real_name will initially be 'oldlistname' except for case -
you will only be able to change it to 'newlistname' except for case).

4) You will probably need to run fix_url on the new list assuming the
host names are different.

The first time the list is accessed after copying the old config.pck,
Mailman will upgrade the config.pck automatically and you will then
have a 2.1.9 format config.pck and config.pck.last.

-- 
Mark Sapiro <msapiro at value.net>       The highway is for gamblers,
San Francisco Bay Area, California    better use your sense - B. Dylan