[Mailman-Users] Problem with 2.1.9 acceptable_aliases

[Barry Finkel]

Barry Finkel wrote:

>>> There was a posting to a number of lists here yesterday 
>>> 
>>>      To: comp_info+cats+noc at example.com
>>> 
>>> all of the lists are linked; some of the lists are subscribed to others.
>>> I took that address and added it to
>>> 
>>>      acceptable_aliases


And Mark Sapiro replied:

>>What did you add to acceptable_aliases? And for which list(s)?
>>
>>A post addressed to comp_info+cats+noc at example.com will presumably be 
>>delivered to the comp_info list. In order for it not to be held by that 
>>list, you need either
>>
>>comp_info+cats+noc at example.com
>>
>>or a regexp like
>>
>>^comp_info(\+[^@]*)?@example.com
>>
>>in the acceptable_aliases of the comp_info list. Then if other lists are 
>>members of the comp_info list, you need the same thing in 
>>acceptabale_aliases of those other lists to prevent the post from being 
>>held there.

and I replied:

>For each of the five lists for which there was a posting held for
>moderation I entered
>
>     comp_info+cats+noc at example.com
>
>in the acceptable_aliases box on the admin web page via cut-and-paste.
>
>The mailling list that, I assume, is part of the distribution list for
>this comp_info_cats+noc list is
>
>     out at example.com
>
>That address is an accceptable_alias for the Mailman list
>
>     out at lists.example.com
>
>and to that list is subscribed
>
>     itad at example.com
>     opstr at lists.example.com
>
>In addition
>
>     itad at example.com
>
>is an accceptable_alias for the Mailman list
>
>     itad at lists.example.com
>
>and to that itad list is subscribed three other Mailman lists:
>
>     ad at lists.anl.gov
>     cs at lists.anl.gov
>     us at lists.anl.gov
>
>For each of these six lists (out, itad, opstr, ad, cs, us) I had added
>
>     comp_info+cats+noc at example.com
>
>to accceptable_aliases.
>
>The only thing "strange" about the string I added to acceptable_aliases
>is the two "+" characters.  I did not know if the plus characters were
>causing problems.

I ran another test:

1) I set up an e-mail alias

        a+b at anl.gov

   that points to an existing test list on my test Mailman 2.1.9
   system.

2) Via that test list admin web page, I added

        a+b at anl.gov

   to the acceptable_aliases list.  This address is the only entry in
   the list.

3) I sent test mail to

        a+b at anl.gov

   and the mail was sent to the moderator (i.e., me) due to
   "implicit destination"

I have not looked at the code, and I am not an expert in regular
expressions.  I surmise that Mailman is treating the address as a
regular expression, which matches

     ab at anl.gov
     aab at anl.gov
     aaab at anl.gov
     aaaab at anl.gov
     ...

but does not match

     a+b at anl.gov

I then changed the acceptable_aliases to

     a\+b at anl.gov

and test mail was distributed.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Barry S. Finkel
Computing and Information Systems Division
Argonne National Laboratory          Phone:    +1 (630) 252-7277
9700 South Cass Avenue               Facsimile:+1 (630) 252-4601
Building 222, Room D209              Internet: BSFinkel at anl.gov
Argonne, IL   60439-4828             IBMMAIL:  I1004994